Vietnamese and German Culture Help?

Hi there! NaNoWriMo is over, but I do need help in information for a new novel I am planning:

Title: Swiss Chocolates and Rice Hats (Subject to change)

Summary: Ever since her father died in an unfortunate accident, Hoang Mai-Ly's family has been struggling to make ends meet in their poor mountainous village. Determined and desperate to feed her family, Mai's mother Kim Lien decides to take an unexpected offer to go with her sister and live abroad in Switzerland. Mai, the eldest of three other siblings, dutifully takes up an occupation as a simple dish-washer. But soon, she is given the chance to serve as a maid in the home of one of the oldest, richest families in the area. When Mai meets Hartwin Eichelberger, the prodigious heir to the international family business and fortune, she discovers a new world full of hope, wonder, and quite possibly.... love.

So! I need a boatload of information. If you can answer any of the questions I have, or have some advice, I would be very grateful. Thanks!

1.) Are there Vietnamese terms for the family members? If so, what are they?
2.) Do Vietnamese girls living in rural areas still get arranged marriages?
3.) Do landslides occur in northern Vietnam? If not, what other natural disasters occur?
4.) Name a few Vietnamese superstitions on courtship, love, romance, etc.?
5.) Name a few GERMAN customs on courtship, love, romance, etc.?

Also, if you have any ideas on how I can write about the progression from Vietnam to Switzerland, or name any books/novels that incorporate the same idea of an Asian immigrating to a foreign country, please name them.

Thank you, once again!

If you're hoping to write a plausible story, you might want to rethink. Setting aside the extreme cliche of the love story, the reality is that Switzerland isn't going to be interested in giving a work visa to an unskilled non-EU woman.

What year are you setting this in? for some reason i'm getting the impression this is early 1900s or thereabouts.

also, I'm not sure why you say you want "GERMAN" customs - Switzerland is a different country from Germany and my guess is that the culture of German-speaking Swiss is going to be different from that which you would encounter in Germany. similar perhaps, but it is a different country with different cultural influences/attitudes.
Or was your wealthy heir born and raised in Germany but now lives in Switzerland?

Vietnam wasn't called that in the early 1900s.

Good point about the differences between Germans and German-speaking Swiss.

I dare say that in the early 1900s a poor girl from Vietnam would not get to meet the rich heir with prospects of love...

Close to that time Chinese girls were bottom rung ware in American brothels. I have my doubts, unless she can pass herself off as princess of some sort (Princess Caribu) she will have a very sad life. The timeframe was very class and race conscious...

As I remember it there were over 54 different tirbes or ethnic groups in Viet Nam when I was there. which group are you asking about?

I have to admit that my novel has a lot of holes, but I am still determined to write it. To those who gave advice and criticism, thank you very much for your time.
-
D.D.

I'm actually born and bred in Vietnam, so I might be able to assist.
One thing, Vietnamese names don't have hyphens, dear :) I'd write her name like this: Hoàng Mai Ly.

1.) Are there Vietnamese terms for the family members? If so, what are they?
I'm going by the Kinh (the main ethnicity group in Vietnam) terms, since you haven't specified a tribe yet: Also, all terms listed here are standard Vietnamese, which means the language spoken in Hà Nôi.
- Bố: Father
- Mẹ: Mother
- Chị: Older sister/cousin
- Em: Younger sister/brother/cousin
- Anh: Older brother/cousin
- Chú: Uncle (younger than your father/mother or married someone who is). His wife is called cô.
- Bác: Uncle (older than your father/mother or married someone who is). His wife is either called bác or bác gái.
- Ông: Either grandfather or a form of "mister"
- Bà: Either grandmother or a form of "madam"

Addressing people in Vietnamese is a horribly cumbersome process. We often go by age - if a man looks older than your father, then call him bác. Using familial terms for everyone we meet on the streets, ex. "Can you show me the way, uncle?" is a standard.

2.) Do Vietnamese girls living in rural areas still get arranged marriages?
Unfortunately, yes. Underage and arranged marriages are rife despite the government working hard. There are also "marriage by capture" rites in mountainous regions, in which a guy simply abducts a girl and carts her off to be his wife. Living standards and education level is horribly low.

3.) Do landslides occur in northern Vietnam? If not, what other natural disasters occur?
The most damaging and frequent disasters in northern parts are, I would say, hurricanes and the winter. Many people & animals are drowned and frozen to death every year. Google said yes to landslides, but hurricanes are so far the most destructive. Hà Nội, however, is impervious to all these things.

4.) Name a few Vietnamese superstitions on courtship, love, romance, etc.?
Oh god, where to begin. Couples and families alike consult fortune tellers/psychic to see whether they're compatible based on their horoscope, called tử vi. The majority of those psychics are frauds. (Some, however, really are capable of seeing the future. I've witnessed them in action firsthand. And they've proven to be correct.) A lot of people have been broken up or prevented from ever seeing each other again because of these charlatans.

If you need marriage-related info, I'll write it up for you later (my brain is shutting down on me since it's 12pm Hanoi time already...)

But anyways, I'd be happy to provide you with anything from Vietnam! You can also send your novel to me when you've finished to be Viet-picked - assuming that you want to, of course.

If you would like some gorgeous visuals of life in Viet Nam a couple generations ago, rent or download The Scent of Green Papaya. It's about a poor girl (7 or 8, i think) who comes to live with a wealthier family as their maid. She is treated well, but it's clear that this child is doing lots and lots of housework!