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Last week a reader wrote and asked me if there is a cultural respect issue to using Viet Nam as opposed to Vietnam. I’ve actually been asked this a few times before, and came up with enough material to warrant an entire post about it! As you know, I use Viet Nam in my writing, but it’s really just a matter of personal preference. Viet Nam and Vietnam are both widely recognized and accepted in western writing as being the name of the same country. As I did some digging online I realized that there are many who wondered which of the two spellings is the correct one. Here’s what I found.
Most people in the United States use the double syllabled, one word ‘Vietnam’ when referencing my daughter’s country of birth. In the country of Viet Nam, Vietnamese people write ‘Viet Nam’ with the proper diacritic marks that most Western keyboards are unable to replicate. Once we were fully into our adoption process I realized that the executive director of our adoption agency (Asian Children Services) regularly used the mono syllabic two word ‘Viet Nam’ and once our paperwork began coming back with ‘Viet Nam’ on it, I started writing Vietnam as Viet Nam as well.
Most of the chatter about this topic that I found online was from authors and education professionals (professors and the like.) It was confirmed that Vietnam is the Westernized way to write it, and Viet Nam is how it would be written by Vietnamese people. Most who weighed in on the subject agreed that both were accepted and acceptable in conversational and professional writing. I also learned that when the country is involved in international organizations, it is listed as Viet Nam.
So the bottom line is that neither is wrong. Viet Nam is more culturally correct, but it’s still not ‘right’ without the diacritic marks that accompany the letters in Vietnamese. So the choice is ultimately yours, and luckily, whichever form of Viet Nam you choose, you will be understood.
More Reading:
The State of Vietnamese Adoption
More on the State of Vietnamese Adoption
Thanks!!! That makes total sense. I like Viet Nam better, but in a hurry it is still habitual to write Vietnam.
great post and great research.
Thanks again.
I’ve often wondered the same thing…when I was in Vietnam just recently I noticed that a lot of English words were separated such as break fast for breakfast….not every time but occasionally I would see this with different words…interesting.
It is my understanding that in Vietnamese, all words are one syllable. Viet Nam would be pronounced “Vit Nam” – two words, one syllable each. That is also why all those American-ish words on signs in Viet Nam are separated more or less by syllable into different words.