Chiều Việt Nam (28/03/2012)

Welcome (back) to our Vietnamese Afternoon!

Khúc Giao Mùa - Chúc mừng năm mới

Wish you all the best and happy lunar new year! Let's welcome the new spring with this beautiful song :).

I love Vietnam

This video clip is really cool. Check this out!

Ngày Tết Quê Em

Sắp đến Tết rồi. Chúc mọi người năm mới an khang, thịnh vượng nhé! Chúc các em một năm học thành công và nhiều niềm vui!

New Year is coming. Wish you all a prosperous new year! Wish all students a new year of success and happiness!

This is an awesome Vietnamese song about spring and new year celebration. Enjoy!

Vietnamese Afternoon Video Clip

LAV@NUS presents to you a special video clip Chiều Việt Nam 19/10/2011. This special release was made possible by our dedicated alumnus Chi. Hope you will all enjoy watching it! 

Rojak (Mixed Group!)

Quỳnh Mai

Tôi tên là Svenja Đô Thới. Tên tiếng việt của tôi là Quỳnh Mai. Năm nay tôi hai mươi tuổi. Tôi là sinh viên năm thứ ba, học kinh doanh ở Đại học Quốc gia Singapo. Tôi là người Đức, nhưng bô mẹ tôi là người Việt. Tôi có một anh trai và một em trai. Tôi học tiếng Việt để tôi có thể nói chuyện với bà tôi. Khi rỗi, tôi thích đi chơi với bạn bè tôi. Tôi cũng rất thích đi du lịch, đặc biệt ở Việt Nam.

As mentioned before, my parents are both of Vietnamese origin. Both left Vietnam in their teenage years - my father to study and my mother fled from the war. They met in Germany, where I was born. I spent 5 years of my childhood living in Vietnam, but left when I was nine. I had not been back for 8 years before this year (I am currently on exchange in Singapore). I a lot of Vietnamese relatives and family friends in Germany and also Vietnam. Therefore, I do understand a lot of Vietnamese, but could never speak, which is why I decided to take Viet 1. This winter, I will be travelling Vietnam for a month. I love Vietnam, especially for its cuisine. My mother often cooks amazing pho bo. My favorite Vietnamese food though is com tam, especially with soda chanh. I really love being in Ho Chi Minh and can really see myself living and working there someday.

Quang Chiến

Chào các bạn ! Mình tên là Quang Chiến, sinh viên năm thứ tư, học ngành cơ khí. Mình học tiếng Việt vì mình thích các cô gái đẹp người Việt. Với lại mình thích ăn món ăn Việt ở căng-tin PGP và căng-tin khoa khinh doanh. Mình thích nghe nhạc pop tiếng Việt. Mình rất thích nghe bài hát “Anh yêu em nhiều lắm” của ca sĩ Sỹ Luân ! Mình chưa đến Việt Nam nhưng mình định đi du lịch ở Việt Nam vào tháng mười hai này.

Before coming to Singapore I have very little knowledge about Vietnam. One of my first few Vietnamese friends that I met in Singapore is my roommate during Junior College days and I guess I got to know a bit more about Vietnam from him… (yeah he claims he is the descendent of Lê Lợi….-.-)

Anyway I kind of jumped into Vietnamese class without thinking about it too much but I have not regretted it. The classes are so fun, and I look forward to every class with cô Bích, cô Quỳnh, and cô Le. The classes are such a good break from the stressful Engineering modules and I have made a lot of new bạn bè too. From these classes and other activities like Chiều Việt Nam and South East Asian Night, I have had the opportunity to learn more about Viet Nam, their people and their culture. I hope I can continue learning Vietnamese next semester and I hope to see you all there too :)

Quang Trung

Chào các cô và các bạn! Mình tên là Quang Trung và tên tiếng Malay của mình là Salman. Mình là người Singapo. Mình là sinh viên năm thứ ba, học ngành tâm lý học. Vào cuối năm nay, mình sẽ tốt nghiệp và bắt dầu làm việc năm sau. Năm việc mình mê nhất: chụp ảnh, đọc sách, xem phim hài va phim tình cảm với bạn gái, chơi bóng đá với bạn bè và đi du lịch với gia đình mình! Mình học tên tiếng Việt vì mình đình đi du lịch dể giúp các trẻ em mồ côi ở đó.

Last semester I met a friend named Matthew who came to NUS for an exchange program. He shared with me about an idea to create a charity system that would benefit orphans in Vietnam. Without hesitance, I jumped into the idea and the next thing we know, we were travelling to Đà Nẵng to begin our research in May earlier this year with the help of a few friends. This was how I first got involved with Vietnam in my entire life. After much research work like identifying an orphanage to help in the long term as well as acquiring some help from some organizations, we have decided to help the orphans at Đại Lọc Orphanage with their nutrition, particularly adding Calcium in Protein into their diet by supplying them with milk. I thought that picking up Vietnamese would help me in this project as well as be able to have a decent conversation with the orphans there in their native language. If you are interested to help us or just to follow us on our journey, you could visit www.projectkeo.posterous.com! We will be starting this long term project this December. Please pray for us that everything will go smoothly! =)

Why Hà Nội?

We decided to present about Hà Nội because we feel that it is a significant part of Vietnam because it is after all, its capital. Reading from travel books and having visited there once, it is a beautiful city that blends Vietnamese culture and urban living very well. We have also heard from family and friends that if you were to travel to Vietnam, Hà Nội is a place that you cannot miss! And we feel we have proven that in our presentation too! Hehe.

In the course of this project work, we definitely learned a lot about the places to visit in Hà Nội. Because we had to present the place as tour guides, it forces us to make decisions consensually about including and omitting places of interest so as to make the itinerary as attractive as possible. We also learned to be creative with our posters because we just love to entertain! Given the tight schedule that each of us had, we really appreciate one another's efforts to make this project an enjoyable one and we hope you liked our presentation too! Go visit Hà Nội!

pasa? papa? sasa? SAPA!!!

Chào các bạn! Mình tên là Quang Hải. Năm nay sinh viên năm thứ nhầt. Mình rất thích học tiếng Việt với các bạn! ♥

I have been to Vietnam once with my high school friends before I entered University. We travelled to Hanoi, Sapa, Ha Long Bay before taking an internal flight to Ho Chi Minh. I especially enjoyed my trip to Sapa because I got to interact with the locals and understood a bit more of the different ethic groups in Sapa. We believed in immersing in the culture so we did a lot of hiking like a true local and avoided well worn paths. In addition, taking the train to Lao Cai from Hanoi before reaching Sapa was one of the highlights of our trip. To save on accommodation, we did not book a hotel before leaving Hanoi because we will be sleeping on the train anyway and so we did not shower until we got to Sapa. The experience of showering at Sapa was indescribable! Most of the food we ate was mediocre based on recommendations of various guidebooks. I highly suggest friends who are going Vietnam to consult the teachers in the NUS Vietnamese Language Department before making your travel plans to Vietnam. They are friendly and highly approachable. Lastly, I would like to thank all my fellow Vietnamese classmates and Vietnamese language teachers for making this module so awesome! Cảm ơn các bạn và các cô!

Mình tên là Quang Hòa. Mình là sinh viên nam thứ nhầt, học ngành khoa học xã hội. I have been to Ho Chi Minh city once with some friends but we did not really visit any tourist attractions. Instead we went to village which was about 2 hours drive away from the city. The people were warm and hospitable and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there. We had the opportunity to interact with the people there to learn about their lifestyle and culture. It was a pity that i did not know any Vietnamese and so had to go through my Vietnamese friend to talk to them. Therefore i am glad that i can learn Vietnamese in NUS and hopefully next time, i can go back to Vietnam again.

Mình tên là Quang Dũng. Mình là sinh viên nam thứ nhầt, học ngành khoa học xã hội. Quang Hòa là em trai mình.Unlike my brother, I have never been to Vietnam. =( Hearing his experience in Vietnam makes me want to go Vietnam. Hence I want to learn Vietnamese and go Vietnam some day soon.

Why did we choose this place and what did we learn?

We chose to do Sapa because it is a place that we firmly believe that anyone travelling to Vietnam should go! Most of the places in Sapa are highly recommended to go other than Cat Cat village because personally, we feel that it is too touristy. For adrenaline junkies, Mount Fansipan is definitely the place to go. It is the highest peak of Indochina with a height of 3143m above sea level. Usually, people take 2-3 days to trek so once you have reached the peak, you will experience a great sense of satisfaction. For a reasonable fee, one can get a personal tour guide who can speak to you in English, which is especially helpful when you want to know more about the place you are in and to help you take group photos. Doing this project has broadened our horizons about Sapa and other places around Vietnam that were introduced to us during the group presentation. We hope to be given more opportunities as such, which we feel is a much more interesting form of assessment.