Tieng Viet lovers club

[vietboy]

Originally Posted by tomcat007

I was taught thay giao, whereas co giao refers to female teacher. Am I right?

Same here. I thought thay giao is referring to teachers in general both male female. Co giao like u said is female teachers only.

[superhuman]

anywhere to recommend to learn TV?

Looked in Community Centres but no TV.

Used to take korean in CC and cost is only 120 for 10 lessons.

[tomcat007]

Bro,

Google for Cheng Hwang Feng or youyiguan. She's my teacher for TV spoken in the south. Now a lecturer in a Taiwan university after marrying there. She has a series of video that you can download for free off msn.

[jelioboy]

Originally Posted by superhuman

anywhere to recommend to learn TV?

Looked in Community Centres but no TV.

Used to take korean in CC and cost is only 120 for 10 lessons.

suggest you may want to try online find vietnamese undergrads studying in local tertiary institutions...they speak english well so effectively bilingual...

just when you found one, structure the lessons accordingly to what you want to know...write down all the phrases and sentences that you want to know and get her to translate...after that, every lesson she will practice the right pronunciation with you, which is more important than knowing the TV words...

[vietboy]

Originally Posted by kk99

Zhi Thong is from Pudu Kuala Lumpur, a PRC who is specializes in "LA GEN" and Massage. I had didi ED problem many years ago until I met her last year. She helps me to look young again and enjoy good sex relationship. Many bros have also tried and all feedback in FR is positive. Some bros even have regular session with her thru appointment in hotels and apartments. No play play one. you want ctc and pic pls email [email protected]

Sorry wrong topic here. Here is for Tieng Viet discussion. Shoo shoo!

[jf66312]

Originally Posted by KangTuo

did i heard this story sometimes back when we happen to talk about a particular vb?

yes bro..u are right...u know the vb...

recently went to the joint and saw her fren frm the north...

[RockViet]

Vietnamese comedy movie ... quite funny

... hay va co nhieu dep gai nha

Cô Dâu Đại Chiến 2011 (FULL)

[jackbl]

Helmets intentionally misused in Vietnam
==================================================
Wearing helmets while riding motorbikes on the streets, which is obligatory in Vietnam, is seemingly not meant for riders’ safety, but only as a formality to evade punishment by traffic police.

Thanks to the trend, helmet manufacturers dodge the law by producing low-quality products -- for a cheap price -- and stamp it as ‘used only for walking or playing sports’ such as kicking a shuttle cock or playing badminton.

Skipping through comments on the genuine need of walkers if they need such helmets, the manufacturers certainly target motorbike riders who wish to wear cheap products simply to evade punishment by police and not for personal safety.

Low quality products used far and wide

In Ho Chi Minh City, especially in suburbs of District 6, Go Vap, Binh Tan, Binh Chanh and Tan Binh, it’s easy to find low-quality helmets displayed for sale on the pavement along busy streets.

In appearance, a low-quality helmet looks much like the genuine product, with a hard plastic cover, a spongy layer inside to protect the wearer from collisions, and a strap. Besides quality control and checking stamps, another stamp saying ‘Used only for walking’ is posted at the back of the helmet.

They are sold for only VND25,000 a piece, or just over one US dollar while a genuine helmet costs at least four times that.

Mr. Luu, owner of a helmet distribution firm in Binh Hung Hoa B Ward in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Tan District, said he has over 30 models of helmets ranging from VND25,000 – VND75,000 and he can distribute 2,000 helmets within three days after having an order.

He said his products sell well in provinces as they are cheap and ‘meet quality standards for having enough of the three components required in a unit’.

For helmets ‘used for walking ’, its spongy layer -- which is designed to absorb force during a collision -- is so thin that it can easily be pierced with a finger. The plastic cover has a strong smell of recycled pitch.

An official from the Quality Control Unit in the city reported that a quality spongy layer from a genuine helmet weighs at least 120 grams while the one ‘for walking’ is 30-40g.

A vendor in Phu Lam Park in District 6 told a customer, “Before use, you should unglue the stamp ‘used for walking’. It is added there to meet legal requirements. . Don’t worry even when it is checked by traffic police.”

Helmets ‘for walking’ are also displayed along Truong Chinh and Ly Thuong Kiet streets, leading into the city.

Ly Ngoc Thang, chief of the Market Management Unit 3A in Ho Chi Minh City, said, “Everyone knows that these low quality products are a form of dodging the law as I see no people walking wearing these helmets on the street.

“I think there must be regulations made to adjust and control the kind of helmets used‘for walking ’. In my opinion, it should be applied with the current quality control regulation.”

Tran Viet Thanh, deputy Minister of Sciences and Technology, admitted that now Vietnam has quality control regulations on wearing helmets while riding motorbikes and electric bikes.

He said he would pass the ‘newly-emerging walking helmets to the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Industry and Trade for consideration.

[jackbl]

Confessions Of An English Coffee Eater
================================================== =
I hate coffee. I mean, I can tolerate it, if I can’t taste it. But a curious thing has happened to me since I moved to Vietnam. I need it now. If I don’t drink it I am asleep. And now that I need it to be awake, and can disguise the taste with sweet condensed milk, I am discovering that I kind of like it. I like coffee, a lot.

One of the best ways to pass the time in Hanoi is, I believe, to sit in one of its many traditional cafés, a drip coffee percolating slowly by one’s side, a book in hand or — if one has drunk too much coffee — just stare at the world and its people as they pass, imagine absurd things and, as slowly and softly as the coffee drips into the cup, lose one’s mind.

In a city full to the brim with great cafés, it’s hard to pick favourites. There are still so many I haven’t been to. But let me introduce you to ten I consider to be among the best. After a bit of research on the internet I now know that it would take 78.86 cups of drip coffee to kill someone of my body weight, which means that I, and probably you (unless you’re one thousandth my size), can visit them all in one day. Come with me.


On the Drip

I start at Cong Caphe (152D Trieu Viet Vuong, Hai Ba Trung) as it’s near my house and is purported to sell a coffee that sounds a bit like it could be breakfast. The café probably needs no introduction, but anyway it’s a cool place, high-ceilinged and decorated with baby propaganda and thimbles of coloured thread. The coffee, which comes from Buon Me Thuot, is normally excellent. I drink a coffee with yoghurt and sticky rice (VND50,000). It’s bitty and tastes fermented, like Christmas cardboard. Filling, but not my thing, maybe it’s yours.

Next I wheel myself up the road to Café 61 (61 Trieu Viet Vuong, Hai Ba Trung). The best thing about this place is its prices — almost as cheap as in the past. I order a ca phe sua da (VND15,000). It seems to be a place where men come to sleep. A couple of them are passed out in window seats. I sit at the stone table out the back. It’s slightly Narnian in aspect, although coloured as if the Aslan to be slain was a giant Dalmatian rather than a lion. The caffeine is kicking in nicely now. I’m awake.

A brisk, slightly nervy drive takes me to Café Duy Tri (43 Yen Phu, Tay Ho). I’m told this is one of the best cafes in the city. A narrow entrance framed with square jars of coffee beans leads to the ground floor seating area. On the walls are pictures of sharp-toothed rodents, some gnawing something pink and fleshy. A human face? The inside of a knee? Upstairs are two more levels, with slightly less alarming mosaics adorning the walls, and framed photos of a sword and an old tennis racquet (I think). Some of the seats are made from upturned beer crates. I take a seat on the balcony overlooking the bustle of the street. Their speciality, sua chua ca phe (VND20,000), is excellent, and tastes vaguely of chocolate. I’m not sure, but I think I can hear the electricity in the wires buzzing. Yes. Yes I can. They’re right next to me. Can you hear them? You can’t?

Heading back into the centre of town, I visit Café Pho Co (11 Hang Gai, Hoan Kiem — enter through the silk shop) for a cup of their famous egg coffee (VND40,000). It’s a load of froth through which the coffee glides downwards. It tastes a little bit eggy, a lot like roasted marshmallows. Spooning it into my mouth I lock my quivering eyes on the view of Hoan Kiem Lake. This used to be the ‘secret café’ — a slice of Hanoi passed down from person to person, until some winky put it in the Lonely Planet and it became another stop on the trail. Apparently, there’s a new ‘secret café’, and I know where it is. No way I’m telling you, though. No way. It’s a bit of a suffocating walk out through the tunnel, which is dark and narrow and dark, and turns purple at the end like being born into the light. It’s too bright out here.

Fully Wired

Time for lunch, so I drive to Café Cat (2 Chau Long, Ba Dinh). Here you can get some very tasty pho ordered in from across the street. I get a bowl of pho bo chin with an egg in it (VND40,000) and a ca phe sua da (VND25,000). I clutch chopsticks between my violently shaking fingers and eat, watched over by wooden cats. Good. I don’t like cats. The café is quiet and the Wi-Fi is strong. I get my computer out. I write emails until a loud tapping sound begins to annoy me. It’s disturbing the peace and quiet I’ve found. Eventually, I realise it’s my own fingers hammering away at the keys. This is some good coffee here. Good.

Next stop is Café Xe Co (11-13 Hang Bun, Ba Dinh). My fingers smell of apples. I haven’t eaten apples. Here is filled with old bikes and motorbikes. Very funky place. Coffee here (VND20,000). I can’t stop smelling my fingers. It’ll be ok. Good. I like it here. But it’s time to leave. I can’t find my motorbike key. Is that it, up there in the wires? What the…? It’s massive. I’m shrinking, so small. How on earth did that happen? Pat my body to make sure. Wait. I don’t own a Vespa. That’s not mine. My key is small. Here it is, by my foot. I am still big. Good.



At Café Lam (60 Nguyen Huu Huan, Hoan Kiem), small wooden tables and chairs line the walls, which are covered in paintings. The coffee (VND17,000) is very strong here. I once scared a man, I think, by gibbering at him under the influence of the beans in this place. This time I’m here alone and will scare no one. In one of the propaganda-style paintings, a baby is suckling at its mother’s breast — which is nice. In another, a tiny, grey-skinned woman in a blue ao dai is holding aloft, or being crushed by, a wooden tobacco bong three times the size of her. In yet another picture there is a pot and six cups. I’ve had six cups of coffee today. Who told them? And why are they looking at me? I down my seventh and leave. I’m frightened.

Skipping a Beat

At the end of Ngo 12 Dang Thai Mai, past the Hoang An Pagoda in Tay Ho is a little café on the water with stone tables, a view of the lake, the murmur of hidden frogs, the splash of men fishing, and coffee (VND20,000). You can sit here very still, close your eyes, and breathe. But you may begin to think you’re a frog, or inside a frog, or inside the water being fished for. And then you won’t be able to breathe and you’ll gasp for air. And people will stare at you, and you’ll have to go.

This traffic is intense. Back in town at Café Junghans (64 Hoa Ma, Hai Ba Trung) I am now surrounded by old clocks. The proprietor tells me there may be up to 800 of them. They are beautiful, these clocks, set to different times. I am drinking coffee (VND20,000). It’s impossible to live at all these different times. The clocks are German. A punctual people I’m told. Never met one. Proprietor neither. Clocks chime. They’re all ticking. Tick-tock. Put my ear to some of them. Absolute silence. Put my fingers to my neck. Feel my galloping heart. Hear it banging in my ears. It is I who tick, I who tock. Would be tiring to live all these parallel lives at once. Would need a lot of coffee. Outside is a tree, gnarled with time. At its base sits a key-cutter, a cutter of keys. To unlock time? No. That’s a stupid thing to say. Stupid. To unlock the tree. Still trying.

The sun, though I can’t see it, is setting. I’m drinking coffee (VND20,000) on Ho Xa Dan. A kingfisher lives here, and terrapins bask on a log. I would tell you where I drink but the lake is ringed with places so you can just pick one. Anyway, I come here to read and don’t want to meet you here. If you turn up you’ll ask me if you can join me and I’ll want to say ‘no’ but I’ll say ‘yes’ so as not to offend you and then resent you as you sit down. Or I’ll say ‘no’ and then feel horrible and be unable to concentrate on my book anyway. Or perhaps you’d only asked to be polite, and when I say ‘yes’ you’ll feel like you have to sit with me and will resent me when you do. Better you just choose your own café. Anyway, I can’t talk to you now or look you in the eye. My heart, it beats like a little bird’s.

* This article was published in The Word Hanoi

[casannova03]

Originally Posted by jackbl

Give u chance here.... Remember to take note of ALL words u learnt and make it into a small notepad or anything u like, easy to carry around and if u need help u can refer to it....

Haha...bro Jack machiam like principal's tone...lol! Had a good laugh!

Must listen to principal ok people....if not ask principal carry out "public caning "hor...

[ilovedoggie]

Originally Posted by casannova03

Haha...bro Jack machiam like principal's tone...lol! Had a good laugh!

Must listen to principal ok people....if not ask principal carry out "public caning "hor...

i dont want to listen to him at all. can he please order his co giao to cane me butt in a private room?

[jackbl]

Odd fact in Hanoi
===========================

VietNamNet Bridge – If they seek a place to visit, Hanoians will never mention museums. Parents who are always eager to seek useful addresses to enrich their children’s knowledge never think of taking their kids to museums, though nearly 20 museums of Hanoi are situated at the best locations.

VietNamNet randomly asked some people the same question: “Do you take your children to museums?” The common answer was “no.” They said they never thought about taking their kids to museum and they did not remember the last time they had visited a museum.

Instead of going to a museum, they took kids to shopping malls during weekends, where kids could play at an amusement site for kids while their parents could drink coffee, go shopping and then they enjoyed a movie together.

Why are museums not favored by Hanoians?

With around seven million people, Hanoi has less than 20 museums. Worse, most of museums are unattractive to visitors.

Hanoi’s museums cannot compete with other forms of entertainment and are losing visitors since they lack methodological marketing and development strategies. They also lack amazing products and lag behind the development of Vietnamese society.

Only the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology regularly designs new programs to draw visitors, the remaining museums are always quiet because they do not have interesting events. This museum earns VND12.5 billion (over $600,000) last year compared with VND780 million (over $40,000) of the Vietnam Fine-art Museum and VND1.46 billion (over $70,000) of the Vietnam History Museum.

The number of visitors to the Vietnam Museum of History, a big museum in Hanoi and Vietnam, felt from 167,000 in 2008 to 73,000 in 2011. The museum’s managers explained that the number of visitors dropped because tourism firms did not cooperate with the museum anymore.

Annually, this museum receives VND13 billion ($600,000) from the State budget to maintain its operation. It is assigned to earn yearly revenue of VND2 billion ($100,000) but the museum can earn over VND1 billion, mainly from hiring its space to organize weddings and restaurants. Last year, investment in this museum was VND43 billion ($2.1 million).

“I think that we need to have a contemporary art museum. Though it is late, we should build such a museum. We should not increase the number of museums but we should better develop the existing museums. The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology is a good example for other museums,” said Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thanh, who holds a culture master degree from the Paris 9 University.

According to a comprehensive plan on developing Vietnam’s museum system to 2020, more museums will be built, including the National History Museum. This will be one of the biggest museums in Vietnam, covering 9,000sq.m near Hanoi’s West Lake. The work will be completed in the next five years.

Hoang Vy

[jackbl]

Originally Posted by superhuman

Used to take korean in CC and cost is only 120 for 10 lessons.

Used to have the same lesson in Tieng Viet, that was 5 years ago....

[KangTuo]

Originally Posted by jackbl

Used to have the same lesson in Tieng Viet, that was 5 years ago....

it was soooo long agi liao huh???... OMG i am getting younger just like ss08

[jackbl]

A new way of earning money in Vietnam: leasing space
================================================== ======

VietNamNet Bridge – Billboards have been hung on every space in big cities, on the roads to the airports, above buildings and houses, at schools and in parks. Urbanites now can live well with the new job of leasing space to billboards.

Countless images of numberless products and services, from dish washing liquid luxurious cars, from cosmetics to cakes, now can be seen everywhere in big cities.

Billboards mushrooming everywhere

A beautiful and fashionable girl is seen standing next to an Attilta scooter on the crossroads of Hang Xanh in Binh Thanh district of HCM City. Next to the scooter and the fashionable girl are a lot of nutrition sausages for the youth. Commercial banks, namely Dai A Bank and Bao Viet Bank also occupy their positions at the busy crossroads.

On the other side of the road, people can see a lot of billboards showing the images of foreign language centers or brewery products. Each house bears on its shoulders at least one or a lot of billboards. The boards have been surrounding the houses, leaving the entrance doors only.

Pham Minh Phuoc, a local resident said that the billboards can turn landlords into billionaires. They would pocket hundreds of millions of dong a year from every billboard set up on the space around their houses.

The space leasing fee for billboards has always been very high because of the high demand. Manufacturers and service providers believe that it would be better to install billboards to advertise their products than posting ad shots on TVs, printing or online newspapers. Though they have to spend big money to lease space, their products would be more easily catch the eyes of the public.

Not only arising on commercial hub areas, billboards have also been set up at schools, from nursery schools to high schools. At the entrance door to the Hong Ha primary school in Binh Thanh district, one can see the words “Our school is green, clean and beautiful” and the image of Cream-O biscuit.

A wide range of products and services have been introduced to students and their parents with such the billboards. The products could be sweets, dairy products, while the services could be live skill training courses or foreign language centers. There are a lot of centers for parents’ choice, including Dong Du, Tan Van, Hoa Van, Thuong Mai, EMG Education (Your Bridge To International success).

Le Ngoc Diep, Head of the Primary Education Division of the HCM City Education and Training Department, said that enterprises now can enter schools through different ways. Some of them donate schools the boards, which can be used as notice boards. Of course, on the boards, one would see the names, the logos and the images of products on the boards, which proves to be a very effective advertisement method.

“I cannot understand why schools accept this, if this badly affects the schooling environment,” he said.

Enterprises ignore regulations

According to the HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the department has granted 22,500 licenses on implementing outdoors advertisement projects to enterprises and organizations over the last five years.

However, the number of billboards seen in the city is really much higher than the above mentioned figure. This means that a lot of billboards have still been installed without the permission of competent agencies. Even lamp posts, electricity poles, telephone boxes and trees could be used as the places for advertisement boards.

Under the current regulations, the billboards on highways must be installed on vacant area and 20 meters far from people’s houses, while a billboard must not be larger than 1.2x8m. However, in fact, no standard and no regulation has been followed by enterprises.

Source: Gia Dinh