Shadowing Practice: Why McDonald’s Flopped In Vietnam - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Fast food restaurants dominate markets all over the world.
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Fast food restaurants dominate markets all over the world.
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Burger King has more than 16,000 locations in over 100 nations.
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And McDonald's has over 36,000.
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There's one in a decommissioned airplane in New Zealand,
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and there's even one in Vatican City.
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Fast food is a more than half a trillion a year business.
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But there's one place where these chains can't seem to take off,
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and that place is Vietnam.
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Here's why McDonald's and Burger King are failing to find a mass following in Vietnam.
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There was a lot of hype when McDonald's first opened its doors in Vietnam in 2014.
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The launch drew crowds of locals who waited hours to get their hands on a Big Mac.
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But fast forward to today and the hype has slowed way down.
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McDonald's, which launched in Vietnam in 2014,
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has only 17 stores there.
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And Burger King, which entered the market in 2011,
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has only 13 as of 2018.
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Failure to capture the attention of the Vietnamese market was odd,
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given that these burger chains had previously been met with success when expanding into Asian countries.
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McDonald's has seen tremendous growth in countries like China and Japan.
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where it has thousands of storefronts in both countries.
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And Burger King has grown its franchise in Japan from 12 restaurants in 2008 to 98 last year.
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McDonald's is ranked second out of all foreign fast food in mainland China behind KFC,
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and Burger King is ranked fourth.
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But Vietnam was a different story.
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When McDonald's finally entered the Vietnamese market in 2014,
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it planned to open 100 stores in Vietnam within 10 years.
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But so far today, it's only launched 17.
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The same thing happened to Burger King.
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The company invested $40 million in Vietnam in 2012,
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with the goal of opening 60 restaurants by 2016,
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according to Vietnam Business Review.
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And as of 2018, there are just 13 Burger Kings in Vietnam.
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Both McDonald's and Burger King did not respond to CNBC's questions about why they face such trouble breaking into the Vietnamese market.
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Fast food in the States is popular because you can get it now.
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Vietnamese food is the same thing.
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If you go to street vendors,
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you can get your bowl of pho or your banh mi also maybe even faster than McDonald's.
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So that kind of defeats the value proposition of fast food in Vietnam.
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But part of the problem seems to be that fast food giants underestimated their local rivals.
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Vietnamese diners are spoiled for choice in top tier cities like Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City,
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which has made it tough for international fast food chains to compete.
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For the Vietnamese, we have our banh mi sandwiches,
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and those sandwiches are sold on the streets at rock bottom prices compared to McDonald's and Burger King.
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According to the European Commission,
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Vietnamese consumers dedicate a sizable portion of their income to food.
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And of that money spent on food,
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78 percent of that cash went to local vendors, street stalls and kiosks.
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Just 1% went toward fast food restaurants in Vietnam.
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Vietnam's food service sector has over 540,000 outlets.
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Over 430,000 outlets are local vendors and food kiosks.
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There's nearly 80,000 full-service Vietnamese restaurants and almost 22,000 local bars and cafes.
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But as for fast food chains,
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they account for just over 7,000 outlets in Vietnam.
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Fast food chains are so outnumbered in Vietnam,
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partly because of the severed diplomatic ties between the U.S and Vietnam.
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After the United States withdrew forces from Vietnam following the war in 1973,
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all diplomatic relations were severed between the two countries in 1975.
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It wasn't until 1995 that the United States and Vietnam mended fences and opened the door for trade.
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If you know anything about the history of Vietnam,
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like the last 30 to 40 years,
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there was a lot of growth,
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but only really in the last 20.
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A lot of storefronts are literally just people's homes.
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They'll live upstairs and they'll just convert the downstairs into any sort of street-bending option.
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In 1997, KFC was one of the first American brands to open up shop in Vietnam,
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but it was entering an already crowded food market.
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It took seven years for KFC to open just 10 restaurants.
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So KFC changed course and updated its menu to better fit local tastes.
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The brand introduced the KFC chicken rice and the KFC shrimp burger for Vietnamese customers.
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And today, the company has 130 KFC stores in 21 Vietnamese cities.
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But the hefty price tag for KFC meals seemed to be worth it for customers.
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But comparatively high prices weren't unique to KFC.
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McDonald's and Burger King's prices are also considered to be at a premium compared to local vendors.
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Local vendors can feed twice as many people as a single meal does at Burger King and McDonald's at half the cost.
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But these high prices are only part of the problem for McDonald's and Burger King.
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The way food is served in Vietnam has a lot to do with it.
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When Americans go to a restaurant,
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they normally find something on the menu that they like and order it for themselves.
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In Vietnam, it's more of a family-style serving experience.
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Burgers have a tough sell in Vietnam because they're not really a food you want to share.
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There are basically two rules.
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I mean, first rule is you need to be able to share the food.
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Second rule is it needs to be chicken.
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When you then look at the burgers,
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it's not chicken, it's not terrible.
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And I think it's just not a cuisine that is exciting to the Vietnamese.
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And it doesn't look like things will be getting better for fast food chains anytime soon.
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More Vietnamese customers are retreating from fast food chains each year.
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Traffic to fast food chains dropped 31% from 2016 to 2018,
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while visits to street food vendors were up 70% during that two-year span.
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But not all fast food chains have failed to appeal to locals.
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Just take KFC and Pizza Hut.
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McDonald's and Burger King make up 2.8% of the total share of foreign fast food chains in Vietnam.
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But KFC makes up 11.4% and Pizza Hut makes up 21.3%.
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McDonald's and Burger King aren't giving up just yet.
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The companies have made efforts to adapt their menus to reflect the cultural influences of Vietnamese cuisines,
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like the grilled pork rice with egg from McDonald's and the fish-rice combo from Burger King.
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Experts say that it's going to take a lot more than revamping a menu to compete with
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so many local foods crowding the market space.
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With the popularity of fast food in Vietnam on the decline,
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McDonald's and Burger King have a hard future ahead when it comes to satisfying the Vietnamese tastes.
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Why practice speaking with this video?
This video explores why major fast food chains like McDonald's and Burger King struggled to gain traction in Vietnam despite their global success. By engaging with this content, you can practice discussing cultural differences in the food industry and understand the nuances of market entry strategies. Utilizing the shadowing technique while watching this video allows you to mimic the speaker's tone, pace, and intonation, enhancing your English speaking practice. This technique not only improves your pronunciation but also boosts your confidence in discussing complex topics in English.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
Analyzing the language used in the video reveals several key structures that can enhance your conversational skills:
- Comparative Structures: The video frequently compares the success of fast food chains in other Asian countries to their struggles in Vietnam. For example, phrases like "more than" and "less than" help illustrate differences effectively.
- Passive Voice: The use of passive constructions, such as "was opened" or "were underestimated," is common in business contexts. Understanding how to use the passive voice will allow you to discuss actions without focusing on the subject, which is vital in formal speaking.
- Expressing Cause and Effect: Look out for phrases like "because of" or "resulting in" that demonstrate causality. These expressions are particularly helpful for explaining reasons behind certain phenomena in discussions.
Common Pronunciation Traps
While listening to the video, pay attention to certain words and phrases that learners often find challenging:
- Flopped: The word "flopped" can be tricky; make sure to stress the single syllable and pronounce the 'o' sound correctly.
- Banh Mi: This Vietnamese sandwich name can be distorted in pronunciation. Practice saying "bahn mee" with a focus on the nasal sounds.
- Vendor: The word "vendor" can often sound muddied; practice articulating the 'v' sound clearly to avoid confusion with similar words.
As you shadow the speaker, focus on these pronunciation aspects. The shadowspeak technique will help you refine your accent and speaking fluency in real-world contexts. Use this shadowing site to deepen your understanding and practice effectively!
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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