Thursday, November 3, 2011

Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh - Quỳnh Tâm, Quang Đạt và Quang Thắng

Chào các cô và chào các bạn!

Mình tên là Rachel, tên tiếng Việt là Qùynh Tâm. Mình là sinh viên nam thứ nhầt, đình học ngành xã hội học.
I have never had any genuinely experienced Vietnamese culture, other than one Vietnamese friend I have, especially since I have never travelled to Vietnam before. This Vietnamese class has been my first real encounter with Vietnamese culture.  I have come to appreciate many more aspects of Vietnam through learning this beautiful language. Also, the various topics we have covered gave me a glimpse of some cultural norms in Vietnam, that I otherwise would not know. I have yet to try any of the delicious looking food we learnt about in the last food chapter, but would love to someday! My desire to travel to Vietnam has increased in priority on my must-do list after taking this enjoyable module, I do wish I visit all three regions in the near future!

Mình tên là Josiah, tên tiếng Việt là Quang Thắng. Năm nay mình đang học ngành luật, là sinh viên năm thứ tư.
I’ve never been to Vietnam, but I have had exposure to Vietnamese culture from staying in hostels/halls ever since JC, since I am a foreign student. Right now I am a volunteer staff in the boarding school where I stayed during my JC years. One of the reasons I took up the language was to make communicate in Vietnamese with my Vietnamese friends. Our boarding school has an annual event called Celebration of Culture where boarders from every country get to show off their culture - food, dance, travel facts etc. It’s really exciting.

Mình tên là Pon Heng Wai, tên tiếng Việt là Quang Đạt. Mình là người Malaysia, và quê của mình là Ipoh, Perak. Mình là sinh viên năm thứ tư và mình đang học tin học.
Being a School of Computing student, I often meet with some of the Vietnamese friends in classes and projects. Most Vietnamese are very polite and they try to speak english when they are around with students from other nationalities. I always wonder what would it be like if I’m able to converse with them in Vietnamese. Also, one close friend of mine is a vietnamese. She exposes me to some of the Vietnamese food and culture when she’s in NUS as an exchange student. Together with her friends, I learnt how to make some of the vietnamese food, especially spring rolls. This December, I might go to Vietnam(Hanoi) to visit them, as they told me the winter is quite beautiful there.

Our group chose Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) because it’s the largest city area in Vietnam. HCMC also has a lot of history behind it. One might think that HCMC, being a city, might be boring. But not so. Due to its size and historical background there are actually a lot of different places to visit!!

For historical sites, there are many pagodas, each built by different groups of people - Chinese or Vietnamese, Buddhist or Taoist and so on. There is also the famous Notre-Dame Basilica built by the French. The Reunification Palace was built in 1962 on the site of the former palace built by French colonists in 1868. The Hotel Majestic also dates back to the colonial era. Also of interest are the Cu Chi Tunnels from the Vietnam War, which lie on the outskirts of HCMC. There are also many museums, for example the War Remnants Museum, Ho Chi Minh City Museum, and the Museum of Southern Women.

Some other interesting places are the cultural parks which are like theme parks, only that these focus on the cultural aspects of Vietnam rather than, for example, cartoon characters in Disneyland.

We can shop at many places including Ben Thanh market, Cho Lon market and many other less prominent but interesting markets, one of which sells memorabilia from the Vietnam War. HCMC also is home to restaurants boasting many Vietnamese specialties. We found that since HCMC is the economic hub of Vietnam, we can find delicacies, clothes and other things from all three regions and not just southern Vietnam!


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