The Truth About Commas and Dots

Some snippets taken from the Vietnam News today:

Snippet 1
"Daily western buffet lunch available at X hotel. 320.000 VND only. Offer till 13 Apr 07. Come now!"

Snippet 2
"Growth of Y industry in Hanoi is expected to reach 24,6% this year, far exceeding the targets set by the government."

In case you are wondering whether there are any typo errors in the above statements, the answer is "No". The use of dots and commas in numbers here are very much reversed and it took me some time to get used to it. Dots are used as separators for "thousands" while commas refer to an end of a number, and followed by decimal places.

I remember the first time I tried to paid my maid $ for the food expenses (she helps me with the marketing sometimes), I made a little boo-boo. She handed me a book detailing the list of items purchased and final amount which came up to 245.500 VND (equivalent to SGD 25). I handed 500 VND (SGD 0.50) to her and casually said "You can keep the change." before walking away. She was shocked and kept saying "No enough, no enough!" while frantically gesturing. In the end, she had to take out the various dollar notes from her wallet to show me the correct amount that should be paid. That was my first lesson on the dots and commas in Vietnam. We had quite a huge laugh after that. Boy, was I glad that I didn't have to learn this in the market, where I will probably be shouted at by the shopkeepers for under-cutting!

Isn't it amazing that you can actually learn something new from dots and commas in another country? :)