Honest question: my wife and I are overweight and not thick-skinned. Are comments or jokes about body weight common in Vietnam? Just want to know what to expect and how to react.Thanks.Honest question: my wife and I are overweight and not thick-skinned. Are comments or jokes about body weight common in Vietnam? Just want to know what to expect and how to react.Thanks.
Share your experiences or just ask people a question? Click to see the community
Got a question or an idea you want to discuss? Start a discussion here to get opinions and connect with other members.
Have a story, valuable experience, or a detailed guide to share? Contribute a high-quality article to enrich our community.
To ensure quality, all new posts are not immediately visible on search engines like Google, Bing... Our team prioritizes reviewing high-value, insightful posts to feature publicly. You'll receive a notification when your contribution is selected!
Ha Giang
Hanoi
Ho Chi Minh City
Ha Long
Sapa
Mekong Delta
Da Nang
Hue
Hoi An
Ninh Binh
Da Lat
Nha Trang
Phan Thiet
Phu Quoc
Quang Binh
Quy Nhon
Vung Tau
Thai Nguyen
Tiếng Việt
한국어
中文 (中国)
日本語
ไทย
Deutsch
Español
Destinations
Instagram
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Threads
Tiktok
jokes at your expense? No, not common. Honest comments (such as “we don’t sell big/your size”)? Absolutely. That is mostly just the blunt nature of Vietnamese culture along with a limited grasp of English language nuance. I’m overweight and felt much less judged in Vietnam than when living in Thailand where moto taxis charged me double lol… but most view it as a symbol of wealth – that you can afford to eat whatever you want and life doesn’t require lots of manual labor that would burn off the calories.
I’m 265 lbs and 6ft. I lost 20 pounds walking and eating 🥣 healthier in Da Dang Vietnam 🇻🇳. I never had anyone make fun of me and everyone was always trying to feed me 😝 The Vietnamese people are AMAZING 😻 in general and my experience. Unfortunately, in the USA 🇺🇸 it’s just different people are more aggressive and rude or they completely ignore you. The culture in Merica is different and not family oriented and they don’t live by the golden rule in general.
In the eyes of Vietnamese, all Westerners are *** overweight *** because our body builds are genetically smaller size, so you should not feel uncomfortable even if some local people ask to take a picture with you.
When at markets you may be told “more expensive as more material” laugh it off. Its not meant to be rude.
who cares? Just go there, drink, eat and enjoy. Cant worry about what some stranger says or thinks
Vietnamese are Brutally Honest which can be mistaken as being rude, my partner greets me with “ You Fat” 😆
Yeah, they don’t exactly tip-toe around those of size. Not INTENDED to be insulting, but they don’t have the politically-correct verbal filters people in Europe, North America, and Oceania have. The Viets are a rather straight-forward bunch and will just say observations directly without thinking about it because to them it’s not insulting at all it’s just simply something they observe! Like – “Oh wow…..you might be over 100KG!!!! 😲“. “Such a big (man/woman)!” But, again, they don’t view that is insulting and they certainly don’t deliver it is insulting, so one just needs to be aware of that before losing your cool.
To be honest, I don’t care much about physical appearance of foreigners. But most Vietnamese are simply curious and socially ask some questions about it 😀 just their simple curiousity and wanting to have an opening for small talks, no judgment or prejudice here.
They will think you are American and will want to take pictures with you 😂
I didn’t get any direct comments, however I got the feeling that they were laughing and talking amongst themselves about me.