Tieng Viet lovers club

[jackbl]

TS, Bro Adguy, this is for you

Hoi An at night
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VietNamNet Bridge - Much has been written about the peaceful, ancient town of Hoi An. For those wanting to learn about it, they can easily find a sea of relevant information and images on the web.

However, local and international tourists have kept flocking to the town in droves since UNESCO recognized it as a world cultural heritage site in 2000. Hoi An is a completely different world for both local and international visitors.

motorcycles on the Vietnamese road will certainly feel at peace and relaxed when they step into the streets of central Hoi An at night. The town turns busier and livelier in the nighttime as visitors go for a stroll around town.

What’s most striking at night is the bright light beamed out by the silk lanterns of diverse colors hung on the façades or doorways of the wooden houses, stores or restaurants topped with moss-covered roof tiles.

Tourists on the bicycle or cyclo wheels are common sights at night as motorcycles are off-limits to the center of the culturally rich town.

Hungry souls can look for some cozy restaurants where they should taste some tasty local delicacies like Cao Lau and Wonton in addition to Western foods. Cao Lau is a spicy rice noodle soup served with pork, fresh herbs and veggies while Wonton originating in China is a delicacy made from rice flour and filled with pork, shrimp, egg and spices. Or they should have a round of drinks there, looking at people going up and down the street.

Hoi An is also particular in a sense that it is home to numerous tailors who offer made-to-measure suits and dresses.

The country has undergone a lot of changes in the past decade but Hoi An has remained untouched and successfully preserved its traditional features as a harbor town that used to be an important trading center of the nation where merchant ships from Japan, China, the Netherlands, India and Spain visited in the 16th and 17th centuries.

[jackbl]

XNN is their culture

Poisoned fruits, consumers’ woes
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Tuoi Tre reporters followed a durian trader named Lan when she was transporting her fruits along the highway 56 in Cam My District, Dong Nai Province. Asked about what she would do with the immature durians, Lan at first gave us an evasive answer.


But after knowing that we had a large order for durians, Lan held nothing back.

“We usually need tons of durians and can’t wait for the fruit to mature naturally. We just use chemicals [to make them ripen faster].”

In normal conditions, it takes 100 to 110 days for the durians to ripen naturally on the tree. Yet the fruits Lan had collected were only in their 70th or 80th day.

Fruits soaked with fruit-ripening chemicals

At noon, Lan’s fruit barn was full of hundreds of unripe durians. Pointing at some 20-liter plastic barrels nearby, she carefully explained to us the “soaking” techniques.

“We pour two or three caps of ethephon into this barrel, stir the liquid and dip the durians in it. All of the fruits will become ripe after just one night.”

Looking at the bottle of chemicals bearing the name HPC-97HXN “Trai Chin” and produced by a manufacturer in district 12 in Ho Chi Minh City, Lan spoke to us frankly: “We use it, too. Some traders also use it for thin-skinned fruits like papayas or jackfruits.”

When the fruits go on sale, few consumers would know that they have been soaked in chemicals because the chemicals show no color and emit a very soft smell.

Dung, a jackfruit farmers in Cam My District said: “I just sold the fruits to the middlemen. They bought all, both young and old fruits. I don’t know what kind of fruit ripener they’re using but they seem to be doing a good business.”

It is not difficult to purchase fruit ripeners at fertilizer and pesticide shops along the highway 1A or 56 in Dong Nai. Tam, a grocer at Nhan Nghia Market, said: “These stuffs are very hot on the market, since they cause no health problem to the fruit eaters. The price is VND32,000 (US$1.6) per 500 ml.


Through one contact, we were introduced to Khanh, a jackfruit farmer in Thong Nhat District of Dong Nai. When we told him of our need to buy jackfruits, he refused, saying that it was close to the end of the harvest season and he could not sell his fruits to new middlemen.

When we went back the following day, Mai, Khanh’s wife, thought that we were some old traders who had done business with her husband before. She showed us some of the instruments -- some chemical bottles, a plastic syringe and a sharpened screwdriver.

“After puncturing the stem of the fruit, we pump 2 or 5 cc into it. If you want to get the fruit to ripen faster, just increase the dosage. I’m sure that after two days the fruit will ripen inside out,” she explained the techniques.

She revealed that the daily demand for jackfruits could hit around 1 ton, most of the need comes from Hanoi and the central area.

“The fruit will be all ripe when they reach the consumers,” she said firmly.

Extending the fruits’ shell life

Because we were introduced to him by one of his long-time business contacts, Thuan, a fruit trader in To Ky Street (District 12), had no reservation about disclosing his tips.

Each day he purchased a ton of fruit and, depending on the type of fruit, he would apply a different technique to each. For instance, he soaked durians in a yellow liquid made in China, while spraying that substance on the skin of apples and oranges to make them look more succulent. The fruits could last at least a month.

Thuan took out a jackfruit, cut a small hole on its stalk with a sharp screwdriver and pumped a colorless liquid into it.

“If you want it to ripen faster, you should do it this way. This jackfruit will be completely ripe for the next 24 hours,” he explained.

At the Kim Bien Market in district 5, Ho Chi Minh City, we recorded hundreds of plant growth accelerators bearing no brand, all imported from China.

A salesperson at the shop Loi Tin tried to get us to buy from his shop: “You shouldn’t worry because I have different kinds here and we’ve supplied many traders for many years. This concentrated liquid here costs just VND500,000 (US$25) per liter.”

Many different kinds of fruit preservatives are also openly bought and sold here. According to chemistry experts, these are actually antifungal and anti-mold substances (like carbendazim and benomyl), which can prevent fruits from decaying for a considerable period of time.

Phuong, a former fruit trader, said: “At Kim Bien Market there are different kinds of fruit-ripening and fruit-preservative substances.”

Many traders use these brandless chemicals on the fruits they sell in their shops. Huynh, a fruit seller in Linh Chieu Ward, Thu Duc District, admitted to using preservatives to keep the fruits fresh longer when consumption was low to avoid losses.

His justification: “What we do to our fruits here is nothing compared to what the Chinese do to preserve their grapes. Every time I open a package I find a small heavy-smelling bottle inside. The grapes can stay fresh for almost six months.”

[jackbl]

Why they always XAO????

Vinh Long police seize cannabis from farmer
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Police in Tam Binh District in the southern province of Vinh Long have discovered and seized 100 cannabis plants grown by a farmer.

Pham Thi Thu Ha, the farmer, told the police that she grew the plants – from which marijuana is made -- to feed her livestock since it fattens them faster.

Authorities have not penalized her though growing cannabis is illegal in Vietnam.

Earlier, the police also seized 18 cannabis plants from the garden of Duong Van Thong, another local.

They said they have seized hundreds of cannabis plants grown for feeding livestock since 2010.

[jackbl]

Any lounge for newbies to try singing in hcmc???

Englishman to sing Vietnamese songs in bar
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Englishman Lee Kirby, who has become famous in Vietnam for singing Vietnamese songs, especially those of Trinh Cong Son, will perform in Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow and the day after.

At “Dem Thay Ta La Thac Do” (also the name of a song by Son), he and singer Vu Tien Loi will sing the iconic composer’s “Diem Xua” and “Dem Thay Ta La Thac Do” as well as songs by other composers.

The duo will also belt out several popular English songs.

Lee first came to Vietnam in 2002 on vacation and was fascinated by the country’s music and language.

In 2009 he posted a video of himself on YouTube singing “Diem Xua” and became a sensation.

Since then he has appeared in many more videos singing Vietnamese songs and got a positive response.

The show at the ATB Lounge, 197/4 Nguyen Van Troi Street, will start at 8:30pm.

[V_vincentyeo]

Originally Posted by jackbl

XNN is their culture

Poisoned fruits, consumers’ woes
========================================

His justification: “What we do to our fruits here is nothing compared to what the Chinese do to preserve their grapes. Every time I open a package I find a small heavy-smelling bottle inside. The grapes can stay fresh for almost six months.”

Thank you sir. This is worrying for fruits imported from CVietnam. Wonder if our AVA is up to mark kin detecting such chemicals?

[jackbl]

What a big crop up!!!

Inaccurate diagnosis causes massive abortions
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Hanoi-based Central Maternity Hospital reports over a thousand pregnant women infected with Rubella have chosen abortion this year because doctors inaccurately thought their babies would suffer from birth defects.


T.T.H, a 30 year-old woman from Hai Duong who caught Rubella, had an abortion although she was pregnant for the first time after three years of infertility treatment because her doctor had told her that if she kept the child, it would suffer from serious and incurable birth defects.

As Rubella has spread quickly in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City recently, Central Maternity Hospital said H. was among more than 1,000 pregnant women who had followed doctors’ advice and decided to abort their babies.

Many chose abortion even though they were having their first babies after going through difficult infertility treatment.

But Le Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of the hospital, said only 16.5 percent of doctors’ suggestions was right.

In a study released by the hospital last month, only 17 out of 103 aborted babies would actually carry the Rubella virus if they had been born.

Tuan said having an accurate diagnosis of whether a fetus has contracted Rubella is a challenging task. Although a mother’s infection can be easily detected, it is hard to know if her child would be infected as well.

Tuan said his hospital had recently received an equipment using amniocentesis, a new molecular biology technique that can gain information about the status of fetal cells with an accuracy rate of at least 95% accuracy.

50 percent of the cases of Rubella-infected pregnant women is now being tested using the technique and the number of mothers who are advised to have abortion has gone down considerably.

“I wish we had this earlier,” Tuan said.

[jackbl]

Asian investors rush to hunt for properties in Vietnam
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VietNamNet Bridge – As developed markets in Asia have become no more attractive to investors because the prices have become overly high, investors are now eyeing developing markets, of which Vietnam is the top choice.


Cash flow moving to Vietnam

William Young, MIPIM ASIA high ranking project director, affirmed at the press conference introducing the annual Asia-Pacific real estate summit and the international real estate trade fair MIPIM ASIA 2011, that the capital is pouring to Vietnam instead of other developed markets in the region.

William Young, from Hong Kong, believes that one of the reasons which help Vietnam remain a good destination for real estate investors in 2011, is the liquidity.

“If looking at the Vietnamese market, one can see that there are still many opportunities for foreign investors which promise good profits for them,” he said.

“I think that after five years, or just two years, the market will clearly show its attractiveness in terms of liquidity,” he continued.

The real expert gives the comments in the context of the rising prices in other regional countries. Developed markets including Hong Kong, China mainland and Singapore have strongly recovered after the shock caused by the collapse of the US Lehman Brothers bank in the 2008 crisis.

The recovery has made real estate products in the markets become too expensive, which has prompted investors to pour their money to neighboring markets, or European and American countries. Especially, they can see positive opportunities in Vietnamese market.

“I believe that Asian investors are paying high interests in the Vietnamese market,” he said.

The games of marathon athletes

The latest report about Vietnamese market released by CBRE Vietnam, a real estate service provider, said that the black clouds shadowing nearly all the market segments now in Vietnam do not mean the losses to all the investors who join the market at this moment.

CBRE Vietnam believes that there are still many opportunities for investors in the market, which can be described as gems can be found in stones.

Richard Leech, Managing Director of CBRE, said that in Hanoi, a lot of real estate projects have to halt because of the lack of capital, but this is really the opportunity for other projects whose investors are more financial capable.

It is expected that more than 30,000 apartments would be launched into the market in 2011. However, in the long term, the supply would become short in the segments of high end apartments, high grade offices and hotels.

Also according to CBRE, the profitability level in Vietnam is very high, while the leasing fee is being paid in dollars. The current difficulties will weed out short term and small investors, while marathon athletes will survive and earn fat profits.

Commenting about foreign direct investment in Vietnam’s real estate, Marc Townsend, General Director of CBRE once said that the investors from South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia have begun to return to Vietnam since 2010. It is partially because the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong have become no more attractive.

The foreign investors, for example, had to spend 15,000 dollars per square meter to build a building on Robinson road in Singapore and they can earn the profits of three percent. Meanwhile, if investing in Vietnam, the profitability would be up to 20 percent.

It is true that Vietnam is tightening the monetary policies which have blocked the capital flow to the real estate sector. However, CBRE believes that the real estate market has still been supported by the government policy on making investment to develop infrastructure.

[jackbl]

They are old but they still have in interest to learn english... are u all interested to learn Tieng Viet? Put in your effort and you will succeed.

A farmers’ English class
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In Long My Village in Vinh Long Province, there is a special English class.

"Hello teacher, hello teacher. How are you?" a class of grey-haired farmers greeted their young teacher in English with apparent enthusiasm.

Since it was opened in May, this English class for farmers in the village has enrolled 30 students who are eager to master some conversational English to properly receive international tourists who have been visiting local orchards in increasing numbers.

“Foreign tourists will more likely return if they can communicate with the farmers,” said Tran Thu Ha, the village’s Party Secretary who opened the class.

Tran Thi Yen Nhi, a student, said only 15 farmers registered at first. Gradually, more farmers started to come as they got over their shyness and hesitation about learning a foreign language.

“I’m 60 so studying is an ordeal to me,” said farmer Do Van Dom. “But I’m determined to learn English now to talk with the tourists.”

Dom has also persuaded a relative, 53-year-old Mai Dac Thanh, to attend the class with him.

Bay Rau, another grey-haired student, said he is proud now that he can speak a little English after taking the class.

For his part, Lam Thai Quang, an English lecturer at a local university, said he loves his career more when he teaches English to these eager students.

“I tip my hat to them,” Quang said.

[jackbl]

Rx a SMS from a bro asking to translate. He din give any background on the SMS. Anyone (of intermediate level) want to try translate it? Learn as you practise

Anh noi way em hieu roi.em khong la gi of anh ,em co như the nao cung khong lien quan den anh.neu như ban anh tot chi ay biet em rat yeu anh chi ay se khong noi den chi thao de em buon em nghi la anh se hieu. Ngay a ve singabore roi em thay nhơ anh e rat buon gi khong biet khi nao moi gap a .

[ngropy]

Hi Bros..

Translation Help needed.

i sms: when want to meet.
she reply : thu 7 luc 8:00 ok.

What is "Thu 7"? i know "luc" is time.

[deptrai4u]

Originally Posted by ngropy

Hi Bros..

Translation Help needed.

i sms: when want to meet.
she reply : thu 7 luc 8:00 ok.

What is "Thu 7"? i know "luc" is time.

Thu 2 - Monday
Thu 3 - Tuesday..
..
..
Thu 7 - Saturday
Chu nhat - Sunday


No Thu 1, ok?

[ngropy]

ok... Thanks alot bro! i was thinking that "Thu" is Thursday..

[ngropy]

hi bro!

Sorry for the spamming post..

Able to help with this as well??

mot nguoi ban dan toi qua day lam lay toi 1000 nhung toi tra 500 con thieu lai 500 ban co the giup toi duoc khong, miss ban

thanks in advanced..

[jackbl]

Originally Posted by ngropy

mot nguoi ban dan toi qua day lam lay toi 1000 nhung toi tra 500 con thieu lai 500 ban co the giup toi duoc khong, miss ban

U dun know better, after u know it, it will make u loss money

[jackbl]

The absurdities that only exist on Vietnamese telecom market
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VietNamNet Bridge – A foreign expert has commented that Vietnam’s mobile telecom industry has been developing very rapidly, but it does not have a firm foundation, while there exists abnormal and funny things.


Pre-paid subscribers “pampered” more than post-paid

While loyal clients who have been using services for the last many years have been ignored, pre-paid subscribers have been always welcomed soliciting by telecom service providers. The problem is that the service providers fear that pre-paid subscribers, accounting for 90 percent of their clients, would leave the networks one day for other networks, while post-paid subscribers prove to be faithful to the networks.

A post-paid subscriber complains that he has not enjoyed any considerable preferences from the telco over the last five years, since he began using its services. “The service provider only offered charge reductions sometimes, while the reductions were small and insignificant,” he said.

Meanwhile, mobile service providers have been trying to retain pre-paid subscribers by offering continuous sale promotion campaigns.


Burning all the number repository and crying for help

Vietnam has approximately 87 million people in population and over 100 million mobile subscribers, according to the Ministry of Information and Telecommunication. However, in the last three years, mobile network operators repeatedly complained that the number repository has been running out.

Meanwhile, they continue selling simcards in masses on the market with huge offered bonuses on accounts, which has encourage people to continuously purchase new simcards. The people would rather purchase new simcards to enjoy preferences rather than using old simcards with the old mobile phone numbers.

Therefore, experts have warned about the “rubbish simcards”, i.e the simcards which are used only once before they are thrown away.

Director of the Telecommunication Department, Pham Hong Hai, under the Ministry of Information and Communication also said that it is unreasonable to say that the number repository is running out, requesting telcos to give explanations.


Pre-paid subscribers are “virtual”

The watchdog agency has discovered a lot of problems in personal information declaration of pre-paid subscribers.

In the past, people could purchase as many simcards as they wanted, while they did not have to give personal information. However, in an effort to tighten the control over pre-paid subscribers, the watchdog agency has decided that all the pre-paid subscribers must provide necessary information.

It seems that the new regulation still cannot settle the problem of “rubbish simcards”. Hundreds of thousands of “virtual subscribers” have been found as registered with vague names, while a lot of subscribers’ owners have been found as having the same identity card numbers.


One network operator uses two technologies

EVN Telecom is considered a “brave” network operator when it has developed two different mobile network infrastructure systems.

With the two networks, EVN Telecom’s clients stay in the junction and they have to choose either to use CDMA 450MHz or 3G UMTS. If they want to shift to use 3G services, EVN Telecom’s clients will have to change the simcards and change mobile phones, because the two technologies are quite different.

This is really a headache to EVN Telecom, when CDMA subscribers are now accounting for the big proportion of clients of the company, while the revenue from 3G subscribers is not high enough to cover expenses.


Telcos cannibalize content providers

An expert from Japanese Dentsu said that in Japan, the profit sharing ratio between network operator and content service providers (CP) is 10-90, which means that CP can earn the biggest proportion in revenue. Meanwhile, the situation is quite different in Vietnam.

For the last many years, Vietnamese CPs have been at a disadvantage, because they have been hampered by network operators. It is because network operators have clients, while CPs are just considered partners. The unfair profit sharing has led to the loss of hundreds of billions of dong for CPs, while it does not encourage creating high quality content services.

Vuong Long