Public display of affection

National Economics University Faculty of National Education Public display of affection Group: Lavender Cao Thu Hiền Trần Ngọc Khánh Vương Thu Trâm Nguyễn Minh Quân Acknowledgement First, we want to thank our teacher, Miss Thu Mai, who has always enthusiastically helped us, who is always ready to give us guidance and answers to our questions. Besides, without the help from the students and parents, who provided us the information, we wouldn't be able to collect these exact statistics and finish this report. Although our survey was carried out in a small area and the result we got might not be completely exact, we believe that this is the first step of later bigger and more professional surveys. Contents Chapter I: Background Rationale Purpose Methodology Objections Chapter II: General Argument Chapter III: Real situation Chapter IV: Attitude Chapter V: Reasons and consequences Chapter VI: Solutions Chapter VII: Conclusion Chapter I: Background Rationale: In Viet Nam nowadays, with the development of many aspect of life society, many things has been changed forever. For example the technology, the cultural traditional, the attitude of people… With the imported habits of the West and American culture, the youth people in Viet Nam now are very active, creative and stylish. On the other hand, many habits which not suitable for the Vietnamese youth has been imported, too. One of the most concerned issues is the public displays of affection. A boy with a girl in a public place and they are show their intensive sense, like hugging or even kissing each other. Is this a good scene or bad scene if their parents or their friends see that, or what about you if you see that scene? We want to find the opinions of all students and adults to find it, is this suitable for the Vietnamese young people or it is offensive and annoying the others. Purpose: According to the rationale which we mentioned above, PDA is a hot problem in society now although it has just appeared in Vietnam recently. Surely, most people have ever witnessed or thought about this problem. Noticeably, the matter often appears on web-site very popularly and is taken interest by many people, especially young people. When we decided to choose this matter, we thought carefully and defined our main purposes. First of all, we brought out the questionnaire and learned on Internet to know the real situation of PDA. Thence, we hope we may paint the most real picture as much as we can to show for IBD students. Besides, an integral purpose of us is about the attitude of people, especially young people and parents. In our point of view, their opinion is just the best answer for "is PDA right or wrong?" question. Finally, it is necessary for us to find out direct and indirect causes which lead to the population of PDA in society now. From that causes, we hope we will find out the best effective solutions to solve or at least, reduce this situation. Methodology To have a facilitate reseach, we have set some spcecific methods. Firstly, our group has decided to design questionnaire for studentds. We will go to the university to deliver the questionnaires in one class at the beginning of a period. Then we will collect them during breaktime. Secondly, we will interview face to face with some adults to see clearly their statements about this subject. Moreover, we will search for information on the Internet, in magazines, newspapers to make our research more various. Objections: Our group decided to choose the students in some university and the students in some high schools in Hanoi In addition, some adults in Hanoi Chapter II: General Argument PDA always seems to be a fresh problem in Vietnam in particular and Asia in general. Therefore, up to now, there are hardly ever any researches about PDA in Vietnam. In contrast to this, PDA is quite popular in abroad and become a feature of foreign lifestyle. In recent years, a substantial amount of research has been carried out in foreign countries. Typical of them is a research of Journal of Young Investigators on 10 October 2008 (www.jyi.org). Using two measures of self-report, they determined the prevalence of various displays of affection in public places on the campus of the University of the South (Sewanee). A questionnaire was administered to 260 Sewanee students living in dorms on campus. As a result, with 34.1% of questionnaire participants reporting are having engaged in prolonged kissing in public in the semester during which the study was conducted. 57.9% of interview participants reported having engaged in prolonged kissing in public at some point during their time at Sewanee. Their results show that PDAs are common on the Sewanee campus. A lot of other research also showed results like this. Question 7: Have you ever engaged in prolonged kissing (making out) in a public place at Sewanee this semester. Question 8: Have you ever engaged in more intimate acts than just prolonged kissing in a public place at Sewanee this semester Chapter III: Real situation When the society is developing day by day, the life and consciousness about many things of people is changing continuously. The attitude about love is also one of them. In the past, for the predecessors to express her love with his favorite is a failure to be natural and comfortable. They just said quietly express their feelings through smiles and timid eyes. Even when they love each other, they also felt difficult in showing their love. The cause of this is the customary practice of orthodoxy which controlled of people in a certain standard. And then social is developing, the unsound customs also metabolize to make life more comfortable, more enjoyable. Today the display of couples' love have been accepted and it is not stranger with people any more, especially youth. But any things also have advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages will be more and more serious if people go too limited to allow. One of our purposes is learning about the real situation, especially the main disadvantages of this problem (PDA). Using questionnaire on 100 objects (students at high school and university), we aimed to determine the percentage of various displays of affection in public places though youth's look. We have put a lot of questions and one of them is "Have you ever seen PDA?”. As can be seen the result from the pie chart below, the difference among responds was quite significant. Noticeably, the "often" response accounted for the highest proportion at 55%. The number of people who usually see PDA every day also took up a remarkable rate, about 13%. The "sometime" respond ranked second with 25%, approximate a half of the proportion of "often" respond… In general, most objects shared that they have ever witnessed PDA and the finger of people who have never witnessed only made up 7%, a too low number in comparison with other responds. We carried out a small interview with some students to exploit the level of PDA which they often see. In most cases, the gesture like holding, hug, especially kissing is witnessed the most in the deserted places (park, thicket...) and also the crowed places (library, cinema, even schools and universities...). Some people related that they had ever seen the unbelievable action of couples like cuddle, making love and more. Two pie charts below describes among of people who have ever had a lover and the frequent of PDA. According to the first chart, the people who have ever had a lover accounted for a very high proportion, 62%. Whereas of that, other people only had 38%. Continuing to exploit with the second chart, we have found that in 62% of people who have ever a lover, there was 90% of people have showed their love in public. Especially, the "sometime" respond ranked first with 60% and the "never" respond was lowest at 10%. According to the results we have assembled, it can be concluded that PDA is more and more popular and seem to be becoming routine in the majority of the youth. In fact, this problem is not also cared by adults who are able to control it. Because of not having the control, PDA is developing in several directions both positive and negative. Chapter IV: Attitude PDA seems not to be rare in the adolescent’s union in Vietnam. They don’t care criticism, they show their love but that doesn’t mean everybody totally agree with them, even themselves. Let’s try surf websites, especially the youth’s forums; we can easy see the waves of verdict don’t agree with PDA. Recently, citizen discuss about “hot” photographs of a couple in Thu Le zoo were up on blog. The story about excessive photographs in public became “hot” topic. The youth want to express their feelings in public, although adults are more complaisant, they can’t accept PDA. If someone go through grass-land, park…, we will meet generations of 8x, 9x are “talking” with many way to express feelings. As we can see the chart shows the proportion of actions which can't totally be accepted in the public It can be seen from the chart that terrible actions such as: make love , touch , ….ranks first with 65% . Likewise, kissing in the public is one of the actions criticized and less 16% more than the action which has the highest percentage. Moreover, the action has the third highest percentage is hugging, accounts for 25%. Finally, holding hand seems not to be protested seriously so it accounts for the lowest percentage, just only 12%. It can be seen from the chart that it is divided into 5 main group actions when you witness PDA. In fact, running away immediately and not concerned anymore have the highest percentage: 59%, 25% respectively. On the other hand, other action has the lowest percentage, account for 2%. There are 6% of people seeing it for fun and the percentage of people who will recommend is 8%. As we can see the chart shows the adult's attitude to these unconscious actions. The percentage of people who think that it is a unconscious action, should be recommended has the highest percentage (39%) whereas people considering it is normal as well as nothing should be prohibited has the lowest percentage (6%)…Moreover, the percentage of people felling a little uncomfortable is 21%. Another attitude is not concerned anymore which accounts for 10%. However, today our society has easy view about PDA. Hugging, kissing was discussed many times and PDA can be accepted, if they are not so excessive. In Joe Stephen- an English tourist opinion: “After 5 years, I returned to your country, I can see a huge change, especially the youth more beautiful and freer than before. PDA is not bad but they need to respect other people. Don’t make PDA become ridiculous. Because kiss is a beautiful and sweet action, make our love more holy. Chapter V: Reasons and consequences Reasons: In fact, there are many reasons lead to public displays of affection (PDA). We can divide it into 2 main groups: objective reasons and subjective reasons. Firstly, the influence of propaganda such as magazine, movie… is one of the objective reasons. According to the statistic people who think that propaganda is the reason for PDA is 58%. As you know, nowadays, propaganda more and more develop, it leads to magazine and movies which have contents as well as image are very provoking is more and more popular. Moreover, magazines, movies are the best choice for children and adults to entertain. With this, many people are very curious and want to imitate the actor in this movie then it gradually turns into their bad habit which plays a part in their life. What’s more, 31% of people who believe that PDA is due to influential oh foreigners’ living. It hard to deny that Vietnamese’s custom is very different from foreigners’ one, they can hug even kiss to express their love, besides, they don’t think seriously about PDA. In fact, we trend to adept foreign culture and many students study abroad so foreign culture is really impact on them. They say that it can be criticized because foreigner can do it, so they also can do. However, it is very unacceptable when many people express their love excessively instead of kissing or hugging. About subjective reasons, they can’t control their feelings as well as their actions and it is subjective reason which has the highest percentage: 21%. At that time, both their feeling and their actions are out of control so they can’t aware of where or when they should or shouldn’t do this. They hug; they kiss even if many actions are quite superficial in public to satisfy their passion. And the reason is want to affirm themselves with their friend through PDA. They consider that other people will very admire their action their love. In addition, love means that they must do it and only do it they can express their love all-sided. Consequences: Publish displays of affection cause many consequences which is excessive our imagines. In fact, it only has negative effects on people around them but it also has bad impact on them. Firstly, 55% of people supposed that PDA is dramatically influential on psychology as well as awareness of children. As you know, children who are too small and don have enough ability to distinguish what things should do or shouldn’t. Moreover, at this age they are really curious about news things around them and they always try to do these. What is more, after doing it even if seeing it, they can be haunted what leads to their study is decadent seriously? As a result of this, PDA is the main factor in causing unbalance of children's psychology Another consequence is mentioned here is PDA which makes the bad view at public when they kiss, hug even do something terribly so all of this will have bad impact on beauty of city. Besides, visitors can undervalue our country because of these unconscious actions. Finally, PDA will be both extremely despised and criticized. As I told above, their actions bring a lot of bad influence on other people so everybody will protest as well as give them frigid looking. It is true that they are supposed to be very unconscious and educated. According to questionnaire, there are 30% of people who believe that PDA bring disadvantage to people who do this. Chapter VI: Solutions Government: Should have harsh punishments with the excessive actions in the public places. Besides, government should invest of build private places for couples, so that they can express their feelings, no need to think about other people. Moreover, magazines, newspaper and internet are the factors which affect popularity of PDA, so they need to have measures prevent, limit website about sexual spreading all over today. Beyond, the government should establish activities on propaganda about PDA to raise people’s consciousness. Schools: Besides the right and standard education, schools need to have program to teach for students about the actions in public which are suitable to Vietnamese. In addition, schools need to increase sex education for students, help them aware of PDA and have suitable action in public. Moreover, school should design outdoor activities, and propose some rules if they have PDA in school. Family: In Asians, PDA always is sensitive issue, so everyone doesn’t talk about that, especially adults, parents. They don’t dare cope with this issue. They usually try to hide and prevent their children finding information about sex. Therefore, children are curious and find the way to search for information on the Internet, in newspaper and magazines but don’t let their parents know. Information which they acquire is not really well for their mind and they have the strong effects on their awareness. Because of that, they have wrong thoughts about sex and the same things, such as PDA. Thus, parents need to go through the shy, find the way approach their children and teach them what they need to know, depends on their age. Parents should to search exactly things they are going to teach their children, help them have right thoughts about PDA. The young people: They need to control their feelings in the public, to have the suitable actions to Vietnamese and make the best for themselves in privacy and their peers in general. The more modern the society is, the more deeply the foreign lifestyle affects on the young people. It is crucial that we should know the best way to choose and combine the new and strange from abroad culture with the beauty of our own traditional culture. Chapter VII: Conclusion In summary, even though Vietnam has been imported many modern habits from the West and the America culture, one of the most concerned now is the public displays of affection. However, public display of affection is a really delicate ground to confront because it is not only legal or illegal. It is about the behavior and the insight of each people. Sometimes is suitable and comfortable for someone but may unpleasant and insufferable the others. The most important thing is to act in a correspondent way and do not rasp anyone. The youth people should be educated by the family, the school and society to have the right view about the public displays of affection. Where, when, how is good and when is not good. Last but not least, even Vietnam has imported many modern habits but the more important is the youth should know to conserve and maintain the traditional culture. Hello everybody, we are the first year students in National Economics University. We are doing a research about “Public displays of affection of young people in Hanoi”. We hope you could help us to complete this research. Questionnaire You are pupil or student? What school do you go to? Have you ever seen public display of affection (PDA) such as hug, kiss, ? Never Rarely ( about 2-3 times per month) A lot ( about 7-10 times per month ) Almost everyday In your opinion, what are the unacceptable actions in public? Holding hand Hugging Kissing Other actions…….. In your opinion, how are the effects of PDA in people around? No effect A little bit annoying Very annoying, unacceptable What will you do if you see PDA? Watch for fun I don’t care Go away Tell them not to do that Other opinion… In your opinion, what are consequences of PDA? ( you can choose more than one answer) Don’t have Affect kid’s mind Influence the beauty of city They are disdain and condemned themselves Other opinion In your opinion, what is the attitude of adults about PDA? They think normal They don’t care A little bit annoying They think PDA is an uncultured action which need to be warned In your opinion, what factors cause PDA? Subjective: The effect of magazines, newspapers, movies The effect of foreign lifestyle Other subjective Objective They want to show off themselves and don’t want to lose their friends They can’t control their feelings Other objective… In your opinion, what are the solutions to limit PDA? ( you can choose more than one answer) Have harsh punishments (fine money, community service....) Build the private place for couples Teach sex education for pupils Propaganda on media Other solution… Do you have girlfriend ( if you are a boy) or boyfriend ( if you are a girl) Yes No Have you ever express your feelings in public places? Never Sometimes Usually Thank you for your help!!! Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 Q11 A 7 12 10 5 9 6 B 25 25 63 25 55 10 C 55 49 27 60 50 21 D 13 65 8 31 39 E 2 12 24