Interviewer instructions
Question 1 to Question 7: Ask about all household's usual residents
Question 4: In what solar calendar month and year was [the respondent] born?
Month and year of birth are recorded in the solar calendar; they are the actual month and year of birth in the solar calendar and are not following any kind of document (identification card, population registration book, etc.).
If the respondent knows the month and year of birth in the solar calendar, then the enumerator records that month and year on the printed boxes. If he/she only remembers the month and year of birth in the lunar calendar, then the enumerator must use the "Conversion between lunar and solar calendar years" (Appendix 7) to convert the lunar calendar month and year to the solar calendar month and year.
Note: The solar calendar year often comes more than 1 month before the lunar calendar year; when converting month of birth in the lunar calendar to the solar calendar, the enumerator should add 1 to the month of birth in the lunar calendar. Thus, persons born from month 1 (thang gieng) to month 11 (thang mot) in the lunar calendar month will become the months of February to December of the same year. If they were born in month 12 (thang chap) in the lunar calendar, their month of birth in the solar calendar will be January of the next year.
If the respondent does not remember the month of birth, the enumerator must use a prompt: In what season was [the respondent] born? Born before or after the lunar calendar Tet, mid-lunar calendar month 7, mid-month 8, born before or after the date of the victory of Dien Bien Phu battle (7 May in the solar calendar), liberation of the South (30 April in the solar calendar), National Day 2 September, Uncle Ho's birthday (19 May in solar calendar), etc. to help the respondent remember the month of birth.
As the Census day is 1 April, those who have the same year of birth and month of birth from January to March will have the same way of calculating completed age, and those who have the same year of birth and month of birth from April to December will have the same way of calculating completed age. Therefore, in case the prompt was used but not successful, try to ask whether the respondent was born in the first three months or in the last nine months of the solar calendar year to select randomly one of the first three months, or of the last nine months to put into the corresponding two boxes.
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If after taking such an effort, the respondent is still unable to remember the month of birth, enumerator will put "98" into the corresponding two boxes and continue to ask about the year of birth.
If the respondent remembers the birth year in the lunar calendar, the enumerator will record that year into four printed boxes. For example, if the birth year is 1954, record "1954" into four boxes, 1 digit per 1 box.
If the respondent does not remember the birth year in the solar calendar, but remembers the birth year in the lunar calendar (for example Binh Ty, At Suu, etc., or even only remembering the animal age: Tiger, Cat, etc.), use the "Conversion between lunar calendar and solar calendar years" (Appendix 7) to choose a corresponding solar calendar year to fill in the corresponding four boxes, then move to ask Question 6, not Question 5.
Note, in using the "Conversion between lunar calendar and solar calendar years" to choose a solar calendar year for the respondent, there would be a difference of 12 years (if the respondent can only remember the age in the animal year: "chi") or 60 years (if the respondent can remember both "can" and "chi"), so it is necessary to ask an additional question "By this year, how old was [the respondent]?" in combination with looking at the face of the respondent to determine the true age to avoid confusion.
In case the respondent is unable to remember the year of birth, the enumerator marks (x) in the small box next to the code number "9999", then asks about Question 5 and leaves the boxes used to record the year of birth in the solar calendar blank.
