While most colleagues who travel to Vietnam to recruit students are passionate about their work and always put their best foot forward, there are some whose heart is not in it. You can see it in their body language and hear it in their spoken language, or lack thereof. This is a point my staff and I touch on in every country briefing.

From a cultural standpoint, Vietnam is a high-context culture in which communication relies heavily on non-verbal cues and indirect signals. This means Vietnamese are generally more sensitive to non-verbal communication than Westerners.

For most colleagues, this common-sense advice is preaching to the choir. While they are few and far between, some recruiters let their student volunteer do most of the work, take more breaks than they should, and/or don’t smile and welcome attendees to their table. Maybe they are navigating a personal crisis. Or maybe they belong in another profession. The end result is often fewer student and parent visitors and fewer leads.

MAA