Tieng Viet lovers club

[jackbl]

It’s a national disaster
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Sometimes, disasters are not so in-your-face, like a tsunami or an earthquake.

They could happen in bits and pieces, in trickles instead of a deluge, and we are not likely to see them as a full-scale disaster.

Last month, a national conference on traffic safety in Hanoi reported that 11,449 people were killed in 14,442 traffic accidents in the country last year. 10,663 others were injured.

Compared to the previous year, the number of cases increased by 1,788.

While the death toll went down by 47, the number of injuries went up by 2,500.

The figures get scarier if we look at them closely, and make a few calculations and comparisons.

The latest death toll means 31 people die every day, 217 a week - the casualty rate of a plane crash. At the current rate of traffic fatalities, the equivalent of the entire population of a mountainous district of 30,000 people would be wiped out in less than three years.

The consequences of these accidents don’t stop at the loss of life and the injuries sustained.

A report by the World Health Organization says that road accidents cost between 1-2 percent of GDP in developing countries. That kind of money, which can be used to help thousands of poor people, is spent on treating victims of traffic accidents.

The government set up a National Traffic Safety Committee, and several agencies to enforce traffic laws. Traffic safety news is aired every day on national television, and thousands of community activities are held to promote traffic safety.

But traffic accidents have not decreased. Why?

More than a month ago, I caught a bus from the central province of Quang Tri to Nghe An Province. Like most other buses running from the north to the south, this one was also old, and very crowded.

When it rained, the whole windshield became opaque, as wipers broke down. But, the driver was still speeding and almost crashed into vehicles running in the opposite direction many times.

It’s unbelievable that the lives of people on the bus were at risk because of broken windshield wipers and an irresponsible driver.

If traffic officials agree to take a trip from north to south by motorbike or an old bus like millions of ordinary people, instead of by plane or car, they will understand better the risks involved, and come up with more effective policies.

We are lucky to live in a peaceful country. But how peaceful is it when we face the threat of traffic accidents whenever we go out.

We have talked so much about the causes of traffic accidents – increasing urban population density, increasing number of vehicles, poor awareness of traffic regulations, infrastructural deficiencies and so on.

But, as long as we aren’t fully aware of the reasons behind and consequences of traffic accidents, we are doomed to revisit these figures every year. We have to recognize the scale of this problem: it is truly a national disaster.

By Le Duc Duc (Tuoi Tre)

[jackbl]

I think traffic accidents could caused higher fatality than sickness or natural disaster in vn as time goes by....

1,340 traffic accidents reported during Tet
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The Ministry of Health reported that hospitals nationwide had received more than 1,340 traffic accident cases from January 31 till February 4.

The number of accidents has dropped drastically since the previous years. Amongst the reported accidents, 128 cases involved people driving without helmets and almost 9,330 people received medical treatment in hospitals, of which 4,689 cases were emergency injury cases.

During the first days of the Lunar New Year, more than 560 cases of childbirth were reported. However, Hanoi admitted some suspected cases of A/H1N1 flu virus.

As the Tet season lasts for eight days, the Ministry of Health has instructed medical centers to work around the clock to tackle with emergency cases as they occur.


By K.Nguyen – Translated by Son Ha

[jackbl]

Youth violence grows in fast-changing Vietnam
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Tran Huy Hoang stares in shock at the images of four Vietnamese teenagers slapping and kicking a girl whose hands try to shield the blows.

“How could schoolgirls act so much like gangsters?” asks Hoang, the father of a 14-year-old girl, as he watches the video clip -- apparently filmed by another teenager -- posted on the YouTube website.

The girls pulled off their victim’s T-shirt and bra, leaving her half-naked.

It was one of several clips showing violence among Vietnamese youth that have circulated on the Internet over the past year, sparking concern about the media’s role and a breakdown of family-centered social values in the rapidly modernizing society.

“The traditional values are vanishing while new values are not enough to replace them,” said education expert Pham Toan, 80.

Sociologists say there is no data to capture trends in the violence but it appears to be increasing as social mores change, although the problem is not confined to Vietnam.

“We have to accept the fact that youth violence seems to become more popular,” said Hoang Ba Thinh, a professor of social work at Vietnam National University.

Influenced by Confucian values, Vietnam’s young people traditionally had respect for teachers, parents and the elderly. Rich and poor alike were taught the value of labor rather than of money itself, said Toan.

“If a piece of rice fell from the bowl to the floor, the elderly in the family would remind them that a grain of rice was a seed of gold,” he said.

Parents now have less time for the family as they pursue material wealth, he said.

“In the society now, people only pay attention to earning money and spending it rampantly,” said Toan.

Now, even though traditional moral principles are taught at school, those virtues are not reinforced at home because parents are focused more on improving their lifestyle, and this leaves youngsters confused, he added.

After years of poverty following the country’s reunification in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War, Vietnam in 1986 began to embrace the free market under economic reforms known as “doi moi”.

The move eventually led to a growth rate among the highest in Asia, and a per capita income that is now about 1,200 dollars.

During wartime and the period of economic hardship that followed, “people were more humane, more passionate and ready to share with each other both sweetness and bitterness,” said Trinh Hoa Binh, from the Institute of Sociology.

People are now so burdened with worries over covering their cost of living, “just a minor car accident or a bad glance can easily result in violence,” he said.

While foreigners still see Vietnam as one of the safest countries in Asia, locals are increasingly concerned. Youth violence became a hot topic in online news sites over the past year in Vietnam, where nearly 20 percent of the 86 million people are between 15 and 24 years old.

In one of the more serious cases, a 15-year-old boy in southern Da Lat city was stabbed to death by two other grade nine students, VnExpress news site reported. The motive for the killing was unclear.

There were nearly 1,600 cases of violence in and outside schools in the 2009-2010 academic year, according to Ministry of Education and Training figures cited by Lao Dong newspaper.

More than 2,400 students had been reprimanded for their acts while hundreds were temporarily suspended from school, it said.

The unrest stemmed from the students’ lack of “life skills, self-restraint and appropriate behaviour to solve minor and simple quarrels” the report said, citing the ministry.

Along with weaker parental supervision, young people are subjected to “rampant violent images” in the mass media, online games and films, Binh said.

But Vietnam lacks effective social organizations for helping to improve the situation, Toan said.

“I think we are now living in an irresponsible society, with people tending to stay away from community and public activities,” he said.

For 36-year-old mother Luu Thi Mai, proper parental care is the answer.

“I give her my best care, teaching her right from wrong, sending her to a good school with well-behaved students,” the office worker said while waiting for her daughter outside a public school in Hanoi.

But just in case of trouble, Mai said she still sends her 11-year-old girl to karate classes -- “not to attack others, but to know how to defend herself”.

Source: AFP

[jackbl]

Tattooing, the new teen thing
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While adults consider tattoo an art and self-beautification, teenagers mostly get their body tattooed to imitate their peers, says Truong Nghiem, the owner of a tattoo shop on Hoang Van Thu Street in Ho Chi Minh City.

Many school students come to his shop because it is discreetly located and big shops may not serve them, he says.

Most youngsters get tattooed without informing their parents until the deed is done. Huong, a girl studying in a high school in District 3, says: “I thought about it very carefully for almost a year before I decided to get a tattoo. My mom didn’t like it, but since it was already done, there was no point in scolding me.”

There are exceptions, though. Nghiem was once surprised when a father brought his 14-year-old son for a tattoo. The man himself had a tattoo on his arm and thought it was no great deal for his son to have a small star on his arm too.

Sang of a high school in the city says: “Not all those who have tattoos are thugs or drug addicts. It’s different now. I want to have a tattoo just because it looks beautiful.”

The little sparrow tattoo on his shoulder is a sign not of rebellion but of his appreciation for a form of art, he says. He hopes to become a tattoo artist himself.


Pride vs prejudice

Nghiem, an experienced tattoo artist, says teenagers should consider carefully before getting a tattoo. Most teenagers choose simple images like words, stars, flowers, and zodiac symbols, but as soon as they get something a bit fancy, people will immediately switch to “judgment mode,” he warns.

Tien, a Vo Thi Sau High School alumnus, says: “Tattoos do look cool, but girls with tattoos are definitely ‘no’. Even if I happen to go out with a tattooed girl, I won’t take the relationship seriously.”

Despite the increasing popularity of tattooing, it is undeniable that most people still harbor a prejudice against tattooed teenage girls.

Whenever Nguyen Khuyen High School literature teacher Nguyen Thi Dan Thanh spots a student with a tattoo, she reminds them not to do anything they would regret later.

“Though I often tell my students to look at things from different perspectives, tattoos are just unacceptable. It’s inadvisable for boys to have tattoos, and it’s doubly so for girls.”

Some parents strongly disapprove of their children trying to assert themselves by tattooing.

“A perfectly plain body is most beautiful,” My, the owner of a fashion shop in District 1, says.

“I don’t see why people want to imprint these shapes on their body.” She recently took her child to a clinic on Nguyen Binh Khiem Street to get a tattoo removed.

A “second thoughts are best” tattoo like David Beckham’s costs around VND2 million


Infection risk

Dr Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh, a dermatologist at District 10’s Medical Center, says: “When it comes to tattooing, what concerns us most is the risk of infection. Whether it is done by machine or hand, if hygiene rules are not strictly observed, there is always a possibility of contracting HIV or hepatitis B, C.”

To ensure they do not transmit infections and diseases in the tattooing process, tattoo shops must follow strict sanitation and safety standards such as sterilizing tattooing equipment properly or using single-use needles, she says.

The tattoo ink should never be reused since there is a high risk of viruses finding their way into it, and the skin must be sterilized and cleaned before and after the process like for a surgery, she warns.

Dermatologists agree there are generally no side effects in tattooing but say since the ink is made of chemicals, precautions should be made to ensure it is safe and non-allergic.


Easy come, not easy go

Removing tattoos could be a tricky business. Oanh says: “If the ink does not go too deep, it will fade easily. But if it does, it is very difficult to be removed and will definitely leave scars.”

A complex tattoo may cost thousands of dollars and take days to complete

In the past common removal methods included cover-up, excision, dermabrasion, and the use of acid, heat (CO2 laser), and even salt. All of them cause great pain and leave ugly-looking scars on the skin.

A new method that promises scarless removal has been developed recently – Q-Switched lasers. However, it requires multiple sessions and the treatment process is painful.

Typically, the cost of removing a tattoo is much greater than creating it, and usually depends on size, color, and depth.

Tattoos are made with a small machine that has a needle in front and an ink cartridge in the back. The machine works just like a sewing machine, with the needle permeating ink beneath the skin. The tattooing process can last up to a few hours for a large tattoo, cause bleeding, and result in several days of pain.


How to make a tattoo:

- Locate and measure the tattoo area and draw a sample on paper or computer.

- Pick the desired ink color and prepare the ink.

- Sterilize tattoo equipment and the skin area to be tattooed.

- Start drawing the tattoo on the skin (for complicated ones, the drawing must be done many times, with the same sterilization process used each time)

- Apply medicine to prevent infection



Since tattooing involves injecting a needle through the skin, safety is still a great concern.


Source: Tuoi Tre

[jackbl]

Teenages hire luxuries for show-off
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VietNamNet Bridge – Many teens are not afraid to pay several dozens of USD a day to hire luxurious items to brag to the world that they are rich and connoisseurs.


They can hire everything from clothes to bags, shoes, jewelry, scooters or cars with world famous brands as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, Lacoste, Burberry, Moschino, etc, which usually only the rich can afford to buy.

With VND200,000 ($10), Phuong, a student, can hire a Chanel dress for a day. She said she is an addict of luxuries but she can’t afford to buy them. Her addiction is satisfied thanks to this special service. Sometimes she has to wait for a month to hire an item she likes.

Le, a new university graduate, said she often hires name brand dresses for important events. “I feel confident when I wear a name brand dress. I only have to pay several hundreds of thousands VND to get the looks of others. It is so cheap!”

While girls are interested in clothes and jewelry, boys are attracted by latest models of cell phones. For VND20,000-200,000 ($1-20) a day, they can hire a cell phone of all brands.

To have an expensive scooter as SH, Dylan, LX for a day, they have to pay VND300,000-500,000 ($15-25) and from VND400,000-900,000 ($20-45) for a normal car. If they want to have a Mercedes, they have to pay at least VND2 million ($200) a day.

This service was very hot during the lunar New Year holiday. Shops on Nghia Tan, Chua Boc, Giai Phong roads in Hanoi were out of products this Tet.

It is very easy to hire luxuries that cost thousands of US dollars by paying a deposit or giving the shop keeper an ID card. Customers have to compensate double or triple the value of the product if the hired items are damaged.

According to service providers, addicts of luxuries are diverse but most of them are teens. Hiring luxurious items has become the fashion but it is a worry for girls because sharing clothes may bring about infectious diseases.


VL

[jackbl]

State employees look for means of subsistence
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VietNamNet Bridge – They can’t use their expertise or their positions to earn extra money, many state employees have to lean on their families or do extra jobs to sustain their livelihood.


Manual labor

Mrs. H, a state employee at a statistic agency, has worked for over 20 years and earned nearly VND3 million of salary a month. Her husband has retired for five years due to poor health. With VND4 million ($200) a month (including VND1 million of retirement pension of Mrs. H’s husband), the four-member family faces deprivation when their two children entered secondary school.

Everyday, after leaving the office, Mrs. H hurriedly prepared dinner for her family and then made votive paper products at home, the job that her husband has done since he retired.

This extra job is not very hard. Mrs. H often worked until 11 pm to earn VND50,000-60,000 ($2-3) a day, which is sufficient to pay part of the expenditure for foods. The salary of VND4 million is paid for school fees and potential problems.

“Sometimes I questioned myself whether I can continue like this when my children enter high school and university. If they can enter university, we would be very happy but we would also worry because the price is on the rise. Salaries also increase but price increases are higher,” Mrs. H said. Mrs. H said that her family has never gone to a restaurant.

To sustain her family, Mrs. T from the National Center for Hydrometeorology has an extra job on the weekend: selling plastic bags to shops and markets. She earned from VND3.5-4 million a month from this job, equivalent to her and her husband’s salary.

T often bought rice, spices, detergent, etc. from the early of the month by her earning from selling plastic bags and salary was reserved for other tasks like weddings, funerals, drugs, bills, etc.

T recently did another extra job, transcribing interviews for researchers, at the price of VND30,000 ($1.5) for five A4 pages.

“This job is low paid but it is not hard and I can do it whenever I have free time,” T said.

However, whenever her family faced unexpected problems, especially when a family member is sick and has to go to hospital, Mrs. T has to ask for assistance from her parents and brothers and sisters.


Mistletoe

There are state employees who have worked for nearly ten years but they still have to live on their parents’ support. This is not surprising because VND2 million ($100) of salary is not enough to cover basic needs.

Ms. L, has worked at the Map Publishing House under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for several years. “My parents paid for my four years at the university and until now they have to still support me. If my salary doesn’t increase, they may have to support me until I get married,” she complained.

There are families in which both the wife and husband are state employees their children are entirely supported by grandparents.

A state employee wrote on an online forum: “I and my husband work for state agencies and my family (with two children) can still sustain ourselves thanks to the assistance of my parents”.

“My salary (she has worked for 12 years) is enough to take my children to the bookstore several times a month and to buy some milk for them. My parents paid school fees for my children. The whole spending in my family is covered by my parents (they live with her parents-in-law). My younger brothers and sisters, who work for foreign-invested firms, sometime help us. It is shameful! I’m trying to find a solution because my parents can’t live forever to help us but I have not found a feasible way!”

On a popular online forum for parents, many members told their own stories when they have to live with modest salary of state employees. Most of them said that part of state employees who earn low salary and they don’t do extra jobs but they can survive because their wives or their husbands work for the private or foreign-owned sectors with high salaries or their parents are wealthy.

It is a tragedy if both the wife and the husband are state employees and their families are not well-off.

Though their salary is low, some state employees still have money to trade securities and real estate and with just one successful affair, they can ear as much as their salary in a dozen years. The capital for securities and estate trading comes from their rich families, not from their jobs.

VietNamNet asked a state employee why he doesn’t quit his job to do private business, he said that he needed an official position at a state agency because this position could help him a lot when he does other jobs.


Cam Quyen

[v.killers]

Originally Posted by evoking88

and i think what the book is teaching is more of a formal speaking type of viet, as compared to the more casual viet used by the girls.

Most CD conversation are from Hanoi, is different sound/tones compare to Hcmc and other provinces.

[情感王子]

Originally Posted by v.killers

Most CD conversation are from Hanoi, is different sound/tones compare to Hcmc and other provinces

where is a good school to learn TV with the southern tome?

[v.killers]

Originally Posted by 情感王子

where is a good school to learn TV with the southern tome?

GL/JC/HCMC and lastly Ktv with vbssss.....

Em ranh wa ah....

[情感王子]

Originally Posted by v.killers

GL/JC/HCMC and lastly Ktv with vbssss.....

Em ranh wa ah....

e ngay nao cung ranh. tai vi e mat di choi roi ma

[evoking88]

Originally Posted by v.killers

GL/JC/HCMC and lastly Ktv with vbssss.....

Em ranh wa ah....

nice one hahaha

[KETAMINE_ANDY]

yo to all the sifu here i recently found a escort and tour packages in the web for vietnam www.tour69.net have a look at it. the gals is pretty but price very steep. intenting to go in april this year any one care to join or can i look for anyone if u are working there. i been there a number of times already but because everytime i go i have a gal waiting for me. so not able to choing but this time i intent to go on a lone mission to explore the ktv there.

[jackbl]

Own house a mirage for most employees
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Ministry mulls national housing fund to assist low-income earners


Live a very strict, austere life. Save everything you can after working very, very hard. Do this for 25 years, and maybe, just maybe you will be able to buy your first home.

This is the reality for millions of people in the country.

For people whose monthly income is just several million dong, the largest sum they can put aside is roughly VND1 million per month, said Deputy Construction Minister Nguyen Tran Nam said. This kind of savings does not mean anything considering that the cheapest apartment in Hanoi and other large cities costs VND400 million (US$20,500).

“Nobody can buy a home in large cities if they only rely on salary income,” Nam said.

Vietnam ranks 100th in the world in terms of wealth, but 20th in terms of house prices, he added, highlighting a disparity that makes a dream home, just that, a dream, for many citizens.

Nguyen Manh Ha, director of the Construction Ministry’s Housing and Real Estate Market Management Department, said Vietnam has a house price to household income ratio of 24.5-26.6.

“This means it takes between 24.5 and 26.6 years for a Vietnamese to be able to buy a house providing they save all of their money for this,” Ha said. The ratio is too high compared to the world average of 3-4 years.

Vietnam ended its housing allocation system two decades ago, when it stopped granting apartments and small houses to state employees and workers and started making housing allowance a part of their salary package. The problem is that this portion is too small to be of any real use.

In 1993, for instance, the allowance was equal to 7.5 percent of the minimum monthly wage, or VND9,000. As the minimum wage has been raised to VND730,000 a month, the housing budget has also expanded, but to a mere VND54,750 per month ($2.80).

Nguyen Thanh Hai has been putting aside more than that. Hai and his wife, both working for government agencies in Hanoi, earn around VND8 million a month together. Out of this income they save VND2 million every month for a house.

But the rate at which their savings increases cannot keep pace with the increase in real estate prices. “The chance to own a home is now out of my reach,” Hai said. “Two years ago, we were only VND600 million short of a house, but now we need another VND1 billion.”

Thinking about what the future may hold for him, Hai said there is one thing he can be sure of – that he and his wife will have to keep living in a rented house.

Opaque market

Total housing area in Vietnam has expanded steadily, by around 86.8 million square meters last year, and many projects to develop housing for low-income urban residents have been launched. However, the Ministry of Construction has conceded that providing housing for low income citizens is a stiff challenge.

The trend of consistently soaring house prices has not eased in years, and Dang Hung Vo, former deputy minister of Natural Resources and Environment, said it was because the market was driven by speculators.

“The market is not transparent,” he said. “There is a group of people standing between developers and people with real housing demand and this group earns a lot of money from inflated house prices.”

When prices spiral out of control and far from the real value, the housing pressure grows exponentially, he said, stressing the need for more transparency in the real estate market.

In a bid to ease the problem, the Construction Ministry is mapping a 10-year plan that envisions, among other things, the launch of a national housing fund to which all employees in the country will contribute.

Contributors to the fund for 10- 15 years will be eligible to make purchases from social housing projects. If they choose not to, they will receive their money, with interest, at their retirement, just like a usual pension fund.

Deputy Construction Minister Nguyen Tran Nam said there are around nine million employees on official payroll records and a 1 percent contribution from them every month would amount to a fund large enough to finance more housing projects in the country.

Reported by Quang Duan

[pak qi ko]

Originally Posted by pak qi ko

Hi BROS, if you go tru (+ alot of practice) all the lesson in the following link, you should be able to pronounce a,b,c in Vietnamese like nguoi viet.
http://wwwner.ner.gov.tw/digital_arc...php?serial=104

WOW!
cam on nhieu nhieu

[jackbl]

Vn is the top 3 countries that singaporean went to during our Lunar new year

Tourism flourishes during Tet 2011 holiday
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VietNamNet Bridge – More local and foreign tourists have taken inbound and outbound tours during the Tet (Lunar New Year) 2011 holiday compared to previous years.

The number of foreign visitors arriving in the central province of Thua Thien Hue reached 50,000, mostly from Europe, Japan and Thailand, an increase of about 20,000 over previous years.

Local officials said that numerous cultural festivals held in Hue during Tet have attracted a large number of visitors. They said the festival was a harbinger for many other cultural events to be held in the province this year in order to welcome the National Tourism Year set to be celebrated in 2012.

All historical relics in Hue remained open to visitors free of charge from February 3-5 (Jan 1 - 3 on the lunar calendar).

Da Lat welcomed roughly 75,000 tourists during this Tet holiday, with most hotels and guesthouses in the Central Highlands city reporting 80 per cent occupancy.

In Ha Noi, about 1,027 passengers on 109 international flights arrived at the Noi Bai International Airport from February 3 - 5, mostly European tourists and Viet kieu (Vietnamese overseas) from many countries, according to the airport's Customs Department.

Besides, about 8,000 passengers on 82 flights departed from Noi Bai Airport to other countries during the holiday.

The first international flight carrying 184 tourist passengers from Hong Kong arrived at the Da Nang International Airport on the second day of Tet.

They came on a 5-day tour offering relaxing stays at high-end resorts and hotels, as well as visits to many tourist sites like the Son Tra peninsula, Ngu Hanh Son Mountain and many world heritage sites in Hue and Hoi An towns.

The Sebourn Pride carrying 200 passengers from UK, France, Germany, America also arrived at the Tien Sa Port in Da Nang on the second day of Tet.

Meanwhile, thousands of tourists flocked to the Kim Lien historical site in the eponymous commune, Nam Dan District, in the central province of Nghe An.

The site's management board mobilised more staff to offer better services during Tet to deal with the increase in number of visitors during the festive season.

The site, which has normal working hours of 7:30am till 5pm, was opened even earlier until late in the night to serve a large number of visitors on the first and second days of Tet, the board said.


Travel firms do well

The surge in Tet festival tourism saw HCM City-based Viettravel company serve 18,000 - 20,000 customers, a soar of 40 per cent over the same period last year.

Viettravel mobilised an unprecedented 300 tourist guides to serve customers during this Tet holiday.

Meanwhile, the Saigontourist company in HCM City attracted 10,000 customers to join 130 domestic tours, an increase of 40 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Saigontourist also welcomed and served 9,000 tourists from America, Germany, UK, Russia, France, Japan and China on this occasion.


VietNamNet/Viet Nam News