Tieng Viet lovers club - Page 519

jackbl · #**7771** 28-05-2011, 02:13 AM

Where abandoned women become prostitutes
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A coastal hamlet in the central province of Binh Thuan has the dubious distinction of attracting abandoned women who do sex work for a living.

For 20 years now, many women in Buc Lo, Tuy Phong district, whose husbands have deserted them, have been offering sexual services to long-distance truck drivers.

Nguyen Thi Trang, the head of the hamlet, took Tuoi Tre journalists to the house of Hong, 27, who lives in a small shanty with her mother, eight-year-old son and three-year-old daughter.

Inside is just a small bed with a curtain.

Hong says her husband left two years ago since she could not earn enough from her work.

Danh, her mother, says many other women in the village share the same fate as Hong: “Their husbands abandoned them when their children were born.”

Since Danh moved to Buc Lo with her children 20 years ago, 30 others have come, all with children.

There are more than 70 children who have no idea who their fathers are, Danh says.

Hong’s daughter nods when asked if she misses her father, saying however that she does not know how to find him.

“But I’m not teased at school for this since many of my friends do not have fathers either,” she says.

Hong says she only works in the afternoon when the kids are at school.

“Since my kids love to study, I’ll continue sending them to school as long as I can afford it,” she says.

Pham Thien Thanh, 13, and his sister Pham Bich Ngoc, eight, have to walk five kilometers everyday to go to school.

Tran Thi Nhung, their mother, says her husband abandoned the family seven years ago.

“He visited the kids last year and promised to buy them a bicycle, but he has yet to come back,” she says.

Most of the kids usually drop out, she says.

The younger kids work as fish porters if they quit school, she says.

“But I am afraid the older girls will have nothing to do but to work like their mothers.”

jackbl · #**7772** 28-05-2011, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackbl

Vietnamese language won’t become extinct
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Language evolves as life goes on
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Last week, to mark the launch of our education page, we had several expats talking about the Vietnamese education system and received several feedbacks from Vietnamese readers.

This week, we continue with a topic on languages, especially the Vietnamese mother tongue, which seems to be corrupted by the creation and use of hybrid words by young people.

At the beginning of this week, Kittiworawuthi Pornkanok, a Thai who is studying Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh City, recalled her experience reading an online article of which she could not make any sense. When she showed the article to friends and teachers, none of them could figure out what the texts written by teenagers were about either.

“There are young people creating and using a special version of their mother tongue in every country. But it seems to me that the issue is becoming prominent in Vietnam as teen language not only exists in writing but also in everyday conversation. Speaking and writing in teen language distort the grammar and spelling standards. It is also a sign that young people show no respect to the beauty of their mother tongue,” commented Kittiworawuthi.

“I hope more people will realize the need to preserve Vietnamese and try to use the language correctly. It is a way to show your pride and respect for your own culture.”

Similar to Kittiworawuthi, Zach Safford, a Briton who is studying Vietnamese, feels irritated when he hears a group of young Vietnamese using foreign language in their conversation. Zach points out that there are some people who “pretend” to forget their mother tongue and try to use some English words to appear “cool.”

“It is a good thing to create an English-speaking environment for yourself. However, do not forget to pay attention to people around you. For example, if you sit in a café by the street surrounded by labors and try to speak English, you may make people around irritated and they will see you as a show-off,” noticed Zach.

Agreeing with Zach, a reader nicknamed yourviet who claimed to have learned 7 foreign languages, revealed his tips for not forgetting the mother tongue and foreign languages:
“I am learning my own mother tongue every day by keeping up with high value literature […] I think language learning is like practicing a martial art, you must practice it every day”, wrote yourviet.

While some expats fear that teen slangs and foreign language influence may destroy the purity of the Vietnamese language, Russian-Czech linguist Ivo Vasiljev assured us that Vietnamese, as any other languages, only evolves rather than being threatened with extinction by any of those factors.

“The choice of words depends on each person’s social position, whether they are young or old, students or businessmen. Hybrid words are only popular among a certain group of people in the society and we do not know whether those words are here to stay. As a result, we should not worry about changes in our mother tongue. What matters is that we should know which position we are in to select the appropriate words to use,” explained Czech professor Vasiljev, who also speaks German, English, French, Korean and Vietnamese.

“Globalization is an exchange of economic and cultural values rather than an invasion of the mother tongue. In a country where there are still people aware of preserving their language and culture, there is no need to fear the impact of globalization at all.”

Do you know that Shakespeare invented almost 1,700 words for his plays, sonnets and narrative poems which later became common English words? New words are born to satisfy people’s need to express themselves. In addition, as American author Martin H.

Fischer once wrote: “Whenever ideas fail, men invent words,” implying that we need new words to put across new ideas to other people and make things happen.

What do you think about the evolvement of language and the effort to preserve one’s mother tongue? Send your thoughts to [email protected]

Have a nice weekend!

jackbl · #**7773** 29-05-2011, 04:25 PM

Can we teach mandarin/english to VNese who want to work in sgp?

The students who master “the art of getting rich”
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VietNamNet Bridge – They are all very young, because they were born in 1980s. However, they are all considered “high income earners”, because they can pocket millions of dong a month. The common thing of the students is that they all have made investment in the education sector.

The little girl with big aspiration

Mai Phuong, the girl from Thai Nguyen City, related that she began earning money since she was a 7th grader. At that time, Phuong worked as an English private tutor for the small children in the same residential quarter.

When she was at 11th and 12th grades, Phuong won the second and third prizes in the national English competitions, which then gave her a “widespread fame”. Her classes attracted more and more learners. Phuong always had busy summer holidays, because it was the time she focused on teaching English at the classes, from morning to the evening.

“I really love those days. The work of tutoring gave me money to purchase books which then helped me improve my English,” Phuong said.

Of course, the student with excellent English easily passed the university entrance exams and became a university student who cherished the hope of setting up a business of her own – a company which specializes in training foreign languages.

It did not take Phuong much time to come to the decision. “In August 2009, I graduated from the university and worked as the secretary at Kinh Do Group. During the working time, the aspiration of establishing a company has been growing in my mind,” she said.

AT first, the foreign language center of Phuong only had several tables and chairs made by her boyfriend – a skilled carpenter. However, with reasonable marketing method and the heavy investment in teaching quality, the company of the young owner now has 500 regular learners. The 20 officers and 50 foreign teachers of the company now get the monthly income of 5-10 million dong a month on average.

Phuong hopes that her company will become one of the three biggest foreign language centers in Hanoi.

The student who earn 1000 dollar from private tutoring

Phan Quang Diep, a student of FPT University, has become well known among university students, who call him a “big guy” because of the high monthly income of 1000 dollars, or 20 million dong (in Vietnam, the people with the income of 10 million dong a month are considered high income earners).

Diep was a student of the mathematics-informatics majoring class of the High School for the Gifted under the University for Natural Sciences. Therefore, he feels confident with the deep knowledge he has and he decided to give private tutoring lessons to the students who prepare to attend the exams of schools for the gifted in Hanoi.

At first, Diep was just the teacher of small classes, but later, when he became well known, he has been admitted to the teaching centers with big brands. By the end of the third year at university, Diep could earn 30-40 million dong, or 1500-2000 dollars a month, from regular tutoring.

“If I had not taken the job of tutoring, I would have still received money from parents, but I wanted to become independent,” he explained.

Now Diep is the Member of the Board of Directors and Deputy Director of a consultancy and training center in Hanoi, the job that many other people dream of.

The special class organized by special boys

This is really a “special class”, because the students here study under a special mode: they live, have meals and learn together with the teachers, who are the four special boys, Le Minh Thong, who came first at the 2009 entrance university exams to the Hanoi Foreign Trade University, Ha Khuong Duy and Nguyen Hoang Hai, who won the gold and silver medals at Mathematics Olympiads 2009, and Dinh Quang Cuong, who got 26.5 marks from the difficult university entrance exams 2009.

As the students can live, learn and play with the teachers, they can raise questions to the teachers at any time and receive answers. On average, a student has to pay 6 million dong a month, and the students will only have to pay the sum of money after they pass the exams.

The efforts by the special boys have brought initial results: four of the six students of the first training course are now studying at universities, while the other two at junior colleges.

Cuong, the head of the team, said that the initial success has prompted him and friends to expand the classes in a larger scale.

Van Chung

vagrant · #**7774** 29-05-2011, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackbl

Can we teach mandarin/english to VNese who want to work in sgp?

Ok thay giao jackbl teach mandarin/english, I offer to help grade and improve their other skills

AdGuy · #**7775** 29-05-2011, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackbl

Can we teach mandarin/english to VNese who want to work in sgp?

The students who master “the art of getting rich”
================================================== ===
VietNamNet Bridge – They are all very young, because they were born in 1980s. However, they are all considered “high income earners”, because they can pocket millions of dong a month. The common thing of the students is that they all have made investment in the education sector.

I'm planning to do something like this in Vietnam.

Wish me luck!

jackbl · #**7776** 30-05-2011, 02:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdGuy

I'm planning to do something like this in Vietnam.

Wish me luck!

Bo jio me, huhuhu

jackbl · #**7777** 30-05-2011, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vagrant

Ok thay giao jackbl teach mandarin/english, I offer to help grade and improve their other skills

Did you do any grading tonite at JC??? How they fare??

jackbl · #**7778** 31-05-2011, 12:26 AM

Today I talked to 1, but I talk to "her" in a normal way, not looking down or despise "her"...

Abuse traumatizes gay community
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Researchers call for greater public awareness about the consequences of homophobic discrimination

Gays and trans-genders at a beauty contest in Ho Chi Minh City. The gay community is looking for more tolerance from the society.

A 20-year-old homosexual in Hanoi told researchers that discrimination from his classmates and parents had driven him to attempt suicide three times since the age of 14.

“The only thing I could think of doing was to die,” he said.

He made his first attempt in the 8th grade, after his classmates mocked him and his parents beat him.

The young man told researchers that he ingested rat poison but recovered from the effects the following morning.

“I did not know anyone like me and was so lonely and hurt because of what my family and classmates did to me,” he said.

Next time, he tried sleeping pills, he said, — only to vomit them all up.

In his third and final attempt to take his own life, the young man went to a quiet spot near the Nga Tu So underground tunnel. He took sleeping pills again and hoped to die alone.

But someone discovered him and took him to the police who later transferred him to hospital assuming he was a drug addict who had overdosed.

Cases like his are not rare in Vietnam.

On Tuesday (May 17), experts called for renewed action against sexual discrimination at a forum in Hanoi. The event coincided with the International Day Against Homophobia and Trans-phobia.

“A significant proportion of homosexuals suffer violence in their family because of limited awareness and social prejudices,” said Huynh Minh Thao, communication and service manager of ICS – a volunteer group working to foster a positive image of homosexuality in Vietnam. “If everyone was better informed, we could help avoid some of the anger and confusion that occurs when parents discover their child is homosexual.”

“Changing such perceptions is a big job but it is possible if it’s done step-by-step at the familial and community levels,” she added.

In 2008, the Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and Environment (ISEE) surveyed 3,000 gay, lesbian and transgender Vietnamese.

Twenty percent of the respondents said they had been beaten by their family members.

Nguyen Thi Thu Nam, a senior researcher at ISEE, said that administrative prejudices have hindered international organizations from providing assistance to Vietnamese homosexuals.

“There have been major barriers from medical workers—not just doctors but administrators and other officials working at medical facilities,” she said.

Nam said 25 medical workers in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi were trained by Family Health International (FHI) about how to detect and diffuse discrimination against homosexuals.

However, the trainees have reported that the practice continues to exist in their hospitals and clinics.

According to a joint report by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), ISEE and FHI, discrimination against men who have sex with men (MSM) persists among medical workers.

The findings, entitled “How stigma and discrimination drive HIV: A review of the regional and global evidence" were presented at the forum by authors Chris Fontaine of the UN’s AIDS-fighting agency UNAIDS and Caroline Francis of FHI.

Francis explained that such stigmas go beyond medical facilities.

“It doesn’t matter where you go, this stigma exists in different forms,” she told the forum.

The qualitative research was collected with help from eight participants in HCMC and nine in Hanoi.

Their findings indicate that homosexual discrimination has pushed some gays to drug use, pickpocketing, unsafe sex, fighting, suicide, stress, depression and dropping out of school.

The report also presented ample evidence that homophobic attitudes continue to exist in Vietnam’s healthcare system.

“Sex between a man and a woman is normal but sex between two men or two women is not normal… I think it’s something sick. Many people in society think it’s not healthy; I do too,” a 22-year-old officer at Hanoi Community Health Care told the researchers.

The report quotes one homosexual as saying: “My friend sought treatment for a sore anus and the doctor yelled at him: ‘the anus is for bowel movements, not for having sex.’”

Vietnam is the second country in the world and the first in Asia to ratify the Convention on Child Rights, but the recent study found that 13 out of 17 participants in the research reported suffering violence from family, teachers and friends during their formative years.

Vietnam’s HIV epidemic is concentrated among people who inject drugs, sex workers and the MSM. The Vietnamese Health Ministry estimates there will be around 280,000 people living with HIV by 2012, including 5,670 children.

The researchers urged Vietnamese leaders to develop and implement comprehensive communications programs that target police, education practitioners and the intimates of homosexuals to help them better understand the consequences of violence and discrimination.

They also called for the creation of psychological, health, employment, education and legal counseling services for MSM.

“Action should be taken to create a positive image of homosexuals,” Buu, a gay man in HCMC, told researchers. “Society shouldn’t think of a gay couple as being any different from a straight one. We wish society would recognize that true love exists between homosexuals.”

Reported by Huong Le – Khanh An