Tieng Viet lovers club

[jackbl]

Vietnamese surgeon earns kudos abroad
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VietNamNet Bridge – In the last days of last year, two Vietnamese surgeons including Dr. Tran Ngoc Luong, deputy head of the National Hospital of Endocrinology and his colleague, were invited to Malaysia, but not to attend a conference or a training course.


They were invited to perform endoscopic surgeries for women suffering from thyroid gland enlargement.

This is evidence that the skills of Vietnamese doctors are being acknowledged outside the nation’s borders, a distinctly new development, as the usual tendency has been for them to travel abroad for receiving training in advanced techniques or learn of new advances in their field of study.

Malaysian surgeons and experts arrived in Vietnam four months ago to study the endoscopic surgical method for thyroid gland enlargement patients utilized by Dr. Tran Ngoc Luong, deputy head of the National Hospital of Endocrinology.

Highly impressed by the surgical skills of their Vietnamese counterparts, they decided to invite Dr. Luong to perform the technique in Malaysia. Dr. Luong accepted the invitation as an opportunity to put Vietnam’s medical skills on the international map.

At first, he was a bit anxious, as he was asked to perform surgeries on six successive days in Malaysia. However, they went without a hitch and his Malaysian counterparts were surprised at the simple technique that he used with some adjustments. A leading Malaysian leading expert in endoscopic surgery had high praise for Dr. Luong’s skills.

For years, Malaysian experts had learned the technique for treating thyroid gland enlargement from partners in Japan and Thailand, but they did not have much success. Through some international medical seminars, they discovered Dr. Luong’s technique.

The Malaysian expert admitted to initial skepticism about the Vietnamese doctor’s skills, because the country is not known to have a well developed medical sector. After witnessing Dr. Luong’s performance, he was not only convinced, but full of admiration because the Vietnamese surgeon was able to do it in an operation theatre without the latest technology.

Motivation

Dr. Luong says he was saddened by the sight of young women having to bear long, ugly scars on their necks after the operation, said this made him determined to find some way to avoid it.

In 2003, he started to research medical documents and found out the strengths of various endoscopic surgery techniques. He then invented a unique technique that is now named after him.

To achieve the perfection that he has today, he says he spent six years with many sleepless nights to find out a way to get to the thyroid gland. At first, he tried to put tools through the cervical tube to the thyroid gland, but this still left patients with small scars on their necks.

He completed 100 operations at the gland through breasts but was not still satisfied because after the operation although successful young woman had been left with some nasty looking keloid scars on breasts on the back of her neck.

Later, Dr. Luong decided to operate through their armpits. The method proved ideal as it was easier to control post surgical complications and left no scars. Gradually, over 1,500 surgeries, he honed the technique.

Dr. Luong continues still conducts surgeries at his hospital in a small operation room without the most modern facilities, changing the lives of young women. His international exposure and fame, though, is not only a singular individual achievement, it is also one that gives Vietnamese healthcare a higher profile.

VietNamNet/SGGP

[jackbl]

IT giants gain firm foothold in foreign markets
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VietNamNet Bridge – It seemed that FPT’s plan to expand its business in the US was scuttled when Vietnam’s leading IT firm entered the market in mid 2008 — a time when the world’s largest economy fell into a deep crisis. However, the firm held on to its foothold in the market.


Shortly after entering the US market, the company’s revenue quickly increased and reached 5.5 million USD in 2009. From being a largely unknown player, FPT has become familiar to US partners, such as Free Scale and Omgeo, who have set up business ties with the company.

Apart from the US, FPT also expanded its market to Japan and Singapore where the company reaped gains as well.

According to Deputy General Director of FPT Software Nguyen Lam Phuong, the Japanese market brought in 56 percent of the company’s total revenue, while Singapore brought 21 percent.

The army-run telecom group Viettel kicked off its market expansion plan by cornering the markets in Cambodia and Laos.

In September 2009, Viettel officially launched Metfone service in Cambodia becoming the largest telecom provider in the country with 60 percent of the ADSL service provision market and 50 percent of fixed telephone market. With 2 million mobile phone subscribers, Viettel ranks second among nine mobile phone service suppliers in Cambodia.

The group developed the Unitel network in Laos which offers third generation (3G) service and high-speed wireless Internet for mobile phones and computers. At present, Unitel owns the largest number of base transceiver stations (BTS) - more than 900 - in Laos , accounting 35 percent of the country’s total BTS.

Apart from Laos and Cambodia, Viettel plans to open a representative office in Myanmar.

To date, Viettel and FPT are Vietnam’s first two telecom enterprises investing in foreign countries.

In 2010, FPT targets a growth rate of 20 percent in software processing in foreign markets overall, and seeks to make that figure 100 percent in the US market alone, compared to last year. The company also plans to open a second branch in Europe.

Meanwhile, Viettel expects that Metfone will be a network providing the best cable services in terms of cable network coverage, quality, price and customer care.

Additionally, the group wishes to enter the US and Bangladesh markets to expand its operation.

VietNamNet/VNA

[jackbl]

Phone subscriptions up 140% on last January
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VietNamNet Bridge – The number of telephone subscribers nationwide rose by 4.9 million in January, an increase of 145.3 per cent over the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office.


Mobile subscribers accounted for 4.3 million of the total, a surge of 168.6 per cent over the same period last year.

The January increases brought the total number of fixed-line and mobile subscriptions to 135.3 million, including 115.7 million mobile subcribers, an astonishing total for a nation with a population of just 86 million.

VNPT, the State-owned telecommunications group that operates the nation's number-two and number-three mobile service providers, Mobifone and Vina-phone, has 59.7 million mobile subcribers while the market leader, military-run Viettel, has 45 million.

The strong increase in subcriber numbers in January was fueled by promotion programmes, said Viettel director Hoang Son, who admitted that network operators had dangled rate cuts to attract customers.

Both Viettel and the VNPT were also developing 3G services and had requested the Ministry of Information and Communications add an additional digit to existing numbers with the 09X prefix in order to meet rising demand for new system capacity.

The number of internet subcribers also surged in January by some 49 per cent over the same month a year ago, the GSO reported.

Net profit of the telecommunications sector reached VND9.9 trillion (US$521million) in 2009, a surge of 69.8 per cent over the previous year, according to the GSO, while total earnings reached 143.3 trillion ($7.1 billion), an increase of 61 per cent.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

[jackbl]

Home not so sweet for workers returning from abroad
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VietNamNet Bridge - Le Xuan Lai has returned to his village in the northern province of Thai Binh to work the fields, dispirited after over a year of fruitlessly looking for a job in Hanoi.

His limited experience and smattering of Chinese, which he obtained during his three years as a welder in Malaysia, were not enough to help him land a suitable job in the capital.

“It is not easy for manual workers like me to find jobs in the city. All firms require laborers with good experience,” Lai said.

He also could not manage to scrounge up the over US$1,000 to buy a motorbike to work as a motorbike taxi driver. He spent all of the nearly VND200 million ($10,526) he earned in Malaysia paying debts and building a house.

Finding work at home after working abroad has become a major problem for Vietnamese laborers. None of the eight others sent to work with Lai in 2005 got jobs upon their returns.

Each year, Vietnam sends some 60,000-70,000 laborers to work abroad. However, after rising from poverty thanks to the programs, many of them risk slipping back into destitution once they return home.

Welcome home

Nguyen Thi Mai has just come back home from Taiwan, where she worked as a nurse in a rest-home. But in Vietnam, the 30-year old woman has not been able to find a single job at a hospital or rest-home, so she has to work as a maid for a family in Hanoi.

“I have to do it, I don’t want my children to die of starvation. The income of VND1-2 million ($54.2- 108.3) I could make in the paddy fields would be enough for only a Spartan life,” said the woman from Nam Dinh Province.

The VND100 million ($5,263) she made in Taiwan has been spent on food and an education for her children, as well as debts and a new motorbike, which helps her husband carry their farm products to a wholesale market in the city.

Laborers, mostly the poor from rural areas, usually spend their earnings from abroad on debts, home appliances and building or upgrading their homes, not on investing in production or businesses.

With 5 years of work experience in a restaurant in Malaysia, Tran Quang Huong from Ninh Binh Province said he had planned to open a small restaurant when he returned home.

However, his family had to use his remittances of over VND100 million to pay hospital fees for his father, a cancer patient hospitalized in Hanoi.

Unable to find a suitable job in the restaurant business, Huong now has to work as a mason for hire.

“I am attending a cooking class in the evening. I still want to open a restaurant when I save enough money,” he said as he waited for work at labor-for-hire market on the capital city’s dusty and crowded Giang Vo Street.

Temporary measure

Dao Cong Hai, vice head of the Department of Overseas Laborer Management at the Ministry of

Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, said his agency was working with commercial banks and financial institutions on requirements to give laborers who want to borrow money to work abroad. The requirements should ensure that the money they make abroad would be used more effectively and creates jobs, he said.

Nguyen Xuan Vui, chairman and general director of labor exporter Airseco, said workers returning home could use part of their earnings made working abroad to seek work again in other countries.

They could also ask the firms that send them abroad for more work, he added.

An official from the Vietnamese Association of Manpower Supply said many firms, especially Japanese and South Korean ones, wanted to employ local laborers that have worked in their countries, because they knew foreign languages and had appropriate experience.

Localities home to many foreign firms should establish websites to introduce jobs to laborers and encourage them to set aside part of the money they make overseas to develop production and business, contributing to the creation of jobs for themselves and others, he said.

“Laborers should think of working abroad as a way to bring them a temporary job. Long-term production and business development at home is the fundamental measure to improve life,” he said.

However, most people in poor villages that have a family member working abroad wait for their remittances to make any payments and rarely save, let alone make investments in production development.

VietNamNet/Thanh Nien

[SING_IN_HCMC]

Originally Posted by jackbl

IT giants gain firm foothold in foreign markets
================================================== =

VietNamNet Bridge – It seemed that FPT’s plan to expand its business in the US was scuttled when Vietnam’s leading IT firm entered the market in mid 2008 — a time when the world’s largest economy fell into a deep crisis. However, the firm held on to its foothold in the market.



VietNamNet/VNA

Bro JB,

please cont posting the news...they are interesting read esp for those of us who have biz interest in Vn. Keep them coming.....

[jackbl]

Free meals help poor children stay in school
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Thanks to the kind hearts and innovative ideas of community members in southern areas, underprivileged children are being given the chance at a better life and education.

Disadvantaged students receive free rice at Ham Giang B Elementary School in southern Tra Vinh Province thanks to a charitable school program. Reducing poverty has prevented many poverty-stricken students from dropping out of school.

At the remote Ham Giang B Elementary School in Ham Giang Commune, Tra Vinh Province, 100 percent of students are from the Khmer ethnic minority. Most come from families who are desperately poverty-stricken, and often can’t afford food. Many of the children are forced to drop out of school to help their families eke out a living at home.


Golden Seeds

Searching for a solution to the problem, school Vice-Principal Son Nhuong and other teachers came up with the idea of a “Golden Seeds” fund to help feed students so they could stay in school.

During harvest time, students would collect leftover paddy seeds from rice fields. Teachers also contributed rice and seeds for students in need and encouraged wealthier families to donate new clothes to poor students at the start of each school year.

After nine years of implementation, the Golden Seeds program continues to be a success. The school has accumulated more than 2.7 tons of rice, and has helped 132 disadvantaged students obtain new clothes, notebooks and pens.


Rice Jar of Friendship

Poor students at Ham Giang B School have also benefited from another charitable program organized by teachers. In May 2008, the school launched the “Rice Jar of Friendship” program, where every teacher was encouraged to contribute at least 5kg of rice and each student one or two cans of rice to help feed poor students.

In a small corner of the school library, a jar was placed to collect the rice brought in by students and teachers. Wealthier teachers volunteered to donate 10-20kg of rice, while students would ask their parents each day for one handful of grains. Within a month, the Rice Jar of Friendship had amassed 250kg of rice. At the end of the school year, 36 poor students were given the grains.

The program proved successful not only in terms of providing food for needy children and keeping them in school, but it also lifted community spirit. Feeling that their friends and teachers cared about their wellbeing, the disadvantaged students said they felt encouraged to study harder.

Thach Thi Em Qui, a 5th grade student at the school, received a portion of the charitable rice last year. "After bringing my rice home, my grandmother was so happy! I promised to try my best not to betray teachers’ and friends’ good intention,” said Qui.

In the 2008-2009 school year, 9 students dropped out of Ham Giang B School, but after implementing the Rice Jar of Friendship program, there hasn’t been a single drop-out in the 2009-2010 academic year.

The school is now organizing a second phase of the program to help feed students during the upcoming Tet (lunar New Year) holiday in February and also at the end of the school year.


A café with heart

Since the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year, local café owner Ngo Nhat Dinh has also been doing his part to help provide food for poor children. Opposite the Phuong Thanh A Elementary School in What Province? Mr. Dinh’s small restaurant serves up free meals for 15 kids who would otherwise go hungry.

A former teacher at the school, Nguyen Thanh Chan, helped launch the program with VND6 million from his own teaching salary. School Principal Thach Thanh Long then asked teachers to make a list of the 15 most disadvantaged students likely to quit school and report to the managing board.

“Cooking for 15 small children is very hard but all of us are happy with this meaningful work. Seeing that poor students are eager to learn and learn well, we all participate in the movement to support them,” said Mr. Dinh.

Each day at around 11:00 am, a few 1st and 2nd graders always arrive early to help “Uncle Dinh” clean tables. They then wait patiently for their friends to join them for a meal. The free lunches are worth about VND9,000 each, considered a “luxury” to the young students.

Some of the disadvantaged children at Phuong Thanh A Elementary School have additional challenges such as physical disabilities. Lam Chi Nhan, a 5th grader with several siblings, lost the use of one of his legs. Nhan’s parents own a noodle stall and earn just a few hundred thousand dong a month.

”Only on the Tet holiday can I eat rice with fish and meat. On normal days I have very frugal meals. But now with the delicious [free] meals, I am becoming healthy. I try my best to learn in order to get a good job to help my parents and other poor students as my teachers and Mr. Dinh have done for us,” said Nhan.

Thach Truong Quy, a 2nd grader, has three siblings – all of whom are disabled. Quy’s parents are freelance laborers and don’t have stable jobs. The lunch provided by teachers and Mr. Dinh allows Quy to continue learning without the burden of hunger. Quy also spares some meat at each meal for his younger sister. Formerly, a very sick and thin child, Quy is now much healthier and hasn’t missed a day of school since the program began.

In the fall of 2008, a special ceremony was held at Mr. Dinh’s café to officially launch the free-lunch program. Commune leaders and program benefactors attended the event.

Watching the poor students eating slowly, some thought the children did not care for the food. But when asked why they ate the way they did, the students said they had not eaten a full meal in a very long time and were simply savoring the dishes. They were also trying to save some to bring home to their siblings, they added.

After listening to the children’s plights, many benefactors attending the event donated an extra VND1-2 million on the spot.

"At first, myself and Mr. Chan thought the program would last no longer than three months, but to our surprise, the benefactors showed enthusiastic support so the free lunches have continued until now," said Mr. Long.

"We will try to keep the program running until the end of this year. If funding from the benefactors continues, the school will continue to extend the program into next year to help poor students,” Mr. Long added.

VietNamNet/SGGP

[jackbl]

Teachers fight to keep kids in school
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VietNamNet Bridge - Educators in Ho Chi Minh City say it is an uphill battle to prevent weak and underprivileged students from quitting school. Fearing that students who drop out won’t just lose out on an education but will also fail to develop good values, many teachers strive to keep classes dynamic and engaging.

But due to intense curriculums, this is no easy task, they say. Children leave school early for many reasons but above all, most quit because they simply can’t keep up.

HCMC junior high schools have a drop-out rate of around 20 percent while high schools have a drop-out rate of around 11 percent.

At the end of second semester of 2009-2010 academic year, the city’s Nguyen Huu Tho high school reported 13 students quit their studies; Binh Phu reported 15 drop-outs; Nguyen An Ninh reported 38; and Han Thuyen reported 46.

Research shows that most students who abandon school come from poor immigrant families. They are often forced to quit studying to help their families eke out a living doing odd jobs like selling lottery tickets or balloons, or collecting garbage. Others leave school due to illness or because their parents can’t afford to pay rent and the family has to move. But most students, however, give up on their education because they find school too difficult.

If teachers don’t strive to make lessons more interesting, students can become easily bored and are more likely to drop out.

Some parents also contribute to the problem by showing an indifference to their children’s education. Officials at the Bong Sao A junior high school in District 8 said some students are chronically late for class and struggle with their studies, but their parents fail to address the problem and ignore requests to speak to teachers.

Many students with behavioral issues or who bully others also cause headaches for teachers, but schools say they can’t expel them for fear they will never continue their education and take to a life on the streets.

If a school reports a particularly high number of drop-outs, the Department of Education and Training will put pressure on school officials to curb the problem, but teachers say that despite offering incentives like scholarships, many students continue to leave.

VietNamNet/SGGP

[dingding75]

Originally Posted by ballack99

Hi bros, my girl has 3 Viet numbers that she uses to sms and call me.
Is this common with your con gai? Probably my target has to service 3 bros?

Some VN gals likes to go internet cafe to call or text their BF in SG coz it is much much cheaper than using their cell phone.

[VietnamLover]

Originally Posted by miua55555

De lam gi bx hoi that ox phai cha loi that

To do what wife is asking truly husband must answer truly.

[Hurricane88]

Originally Posted by haha_123

My bx have alot of sim cards too. So when I touched down in HCMC, I don't even have to buy 1.

Originally Posted by haha_123

Anyway if she is servicing 3 bros, most likely she will use 3 different numbers for the 3 bros. Correct?

Oops...you just answer yourself in the 2 posts above...

[haha_123]

Originally Posted by Hurricane88

Oops...you just answer yourself in the 2 posts above...

Bro, u just broke my heart!!! Haha...

Next time I will confiscate all her sim cards!!! Bwahaha!!!!

[SureScore]

Originally Posted by VietnamLover

To do what wife is asking truly husband must answer truly.

Nowadays your Tieng Viet is powerful.

[AdGuy]

Originally Posted by SureScore

Nowadays your Tieng Viet is powerful.

Must be the power of the juice

[jackbl]

Fording rivers and crossing forests in the pursuit of knowledge
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VietNamNet Bridge - In spite of poverty and hunger, thousands of students in remote Son Ha District, Quang Ngai Province still cross rivers and mountains every day to attend school.

On paths muddy from floods, Tuoi tre reporters crossed Toong River to visit Son Nham Primary & High School in the mountainous Son Ha District. On almost every desk was a flashlight – a reminder that the long trip to school often means leaving home and arriving back in darkness.

According to the Quang Ngai Education and Training Department, some 10,000 students in six mountainous districts of Son Ha, Son Tay, Tay Tra, Tra Bong, Ba To and Minh Long have to walk between 10 and 30 kilometers a day, crossing rivers and mountains to go to school.

School hours finish at 5 p.m but students won’t reach home till eight. Despite all these hardships, the daily turnout remains good.

When the drum beat resounded, a lot of students gather in groups at Cham Rao and Xa Nay Thuong boat station (Son Nham Commune), waiting to take boats home. The students from Son Nham Commune not only have to go to school by ferry but also walk 7 kilometers.

Similarly, hundreds of students of Son Bao High School in Son Ha District had to cross a 7-to-10-kilometer distance armed only with flashlights to go to school.

“Our school has about 140 students who want to be boarders, but there are only enough rooms for 20 of them, so the rest still has to travel the very long distance to go to school”, said Mr. Vo Van Tung-the Headmaster of Son Bao High School.

Ms. Huynh Thi Phuong Thuy, a Math-Physics teacher of Son Nham School said: “The enthusiasm of these students is a great encouragement to all teachers here”.


Pitching tents for knowledge

Alongside the path leading to Nuoc Bung Hamlet, Di Lang Town, Son Ha District, reporters counted at least 20 tents around Son Ha High School. Each tent had up to four students inside despite being just 10 meters square.

Many other students who couldn’t pitch tents asked villagers to stay at their houses which are nearer to the school.

In a run-down tent, Dinh Thi Thanh, a student of class 12C2 and Dinh Thi K’Reg from class 11B4 were seen diligently doing homework. Thanh and K’Reg lived in Ta Bang Hamlet, Son Thuy Commune-17 kilometers away from Son Ha High school.

“I have to go home once a week to bring 3kilogrammes of rice back to school for meals. Sometimes, when there is no rice left, my parents have to borrow some from other villagers for me to bring it to school. In rainy seasons, the mountain roads are muddy, Once I accidently slipped and fell and the rice fell into the mud. I could do nothing but cry and ask for some rice of my friends from the tents near mine…” – Thanh related with eyes wet with tears.

In Thanh and K’Reg’s small tent there are only a handful of unrefined salt, a few stems of vegetables next to a cold cooking fire and an empty pot.


“Our school has 688 students, nearly two third of them live very far from school, about 10-30 kilometers. Some of them can luckily go to school by bike, but the rest have to cross many rivers and slopes which are full of obstacles to school. So we asked the residents around here to allow students to stay with them. We have also created the best conditions for students to pitch tents to stay”, said Mr. Nguyen Huu Thinh, the Headmaster of Son Ha High school, adding that the path to knowledge can be very bumpy.

VietNamNet/TT

[bonbonbebe]

Originally Posted by tomcat007

Last time I got this HCM gal... Always bring me to her friend's house (her friend got a GF here) and there they always play the .

Hi bro,
Vietnamese chinese play mahjong (mat chuoc) n (tu sac). But the most prefered n most common is tien len (sorry I dunno how to say that name in english), which means "go straight forward". This game card is for 4 people, 13 cards per person. The most powerful card is 2, n followed by A, K, Q,... The smallest is 3. U can sort ur cards in many forms of flush, tripple, couple,... n play one form is a circle. The one running out all of cards first is the winner.

There is many differences between playing tien len in northern n southern. The southern accept the flush with increasing order in many kinds of sign, such as 3-4-5 (3 heart, 4 diamond, 5 heart still ok), when the northern often accept only the same kind (flush of 3-4-5 only in heart for example). That rule is called as dong chat dong mau (same kind same color).

In a large group of people which can not play tien len, we play black jack n bai cao (i dunno how to say this name in english too. Bai cao is the quickest kind of cards. Each person get 3 cards, n he just needs to sum the points of those 3 cards. For example, u get 2-3-4, then ur points r 9, it is the biggest point. If u get 8-9-10, then ur points r 27, but it is counted as 7. The bigger, the winner.
There r many other rules I do not introduce to u above, if u need to practice I will tell it clearly later. N there r also many kinds of cards game we play in tet, such as binh xap xam ( ???), to, phom... We also play horse racing chess, lotto, bau cua ca cop...

Everyone plays card in tet, not to make money. They just want to test their luck. Losing money dun need to sad or angry. We play cards in group of family or friends, our money just transfer to those close one's pocket. N it is their good luck. So we r happy more n the most important that we dun hard up for danh bai (card playing). The smallest bet is maybe only 1k vnd just for fun, while the biggest is unlimited. For my own case, I only join the game which bet under 100k. I'm not billionaire :-D playing all the day, I can win or lose up to vai trieu (some mil), not much. Some arrogant people could bet up to vai trieu per game, they r so rich :O