🍺 "Have a drink, do you respect me?": This phrase can get you a fine in Vietnam.
You're sitting at a plastic table with some Vietnamese. Empty bottles already take up half the tabletop, and someone across the table is reaching for your glass.
- Give me another one.
- No, I don’t want to, thank you.
– Don't you respect company? Come on, drink.
In Vietnam, this is not just bad manners, but an administrative violation.
Law 44/2019/QH14 on the harm of alcohol expressly prohibits inciting, drawing, provoking and forcing another person to drink against their will.
For persuasion and persistent involvement in drinking, the fine is from five hundred thousand to one million dong , and if you pressure someone by force, threats or through your official position, the amount increases to three million.
The Vietnamese press claims the regulation was conceived for corporate events and drinks with management. A manager would tell a non-drinking employee, "That's how it's done here; everyone drinks with their partners ." For a Vietnamese inspector, this is a situation where the employee physically cannot say no to their manager without risking their job.
Of course, a patrol isn't standing over every table, recording every toast. But if a get-together ends in a fight, a call to the police, or a showdown with neighbors, a report might be filed not only against the person who overindulged, but also against the person who persistently kept refilling the glass all evening.
