Tieng Viet lovers club

[jackbl]

Very few foreign visitors return to Vietnam: travel association

Very few first-time foreign visitors to Vietnam choose to come back, according to a travel association, with multiple causes attributed to the low return rate.
The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has said that of the 90 percent of foreign visitors to the Southeast Asian country who are first-timers, only six percent visit again.
The Vietnamese tourist industry seems to focus mainly on ways to boost profit, leaving operational processes cumbersome, while at the same time, marketing campaigns remain limited.
It is estimated that the annual marketing budget of Vietnamese tourism is around US$2 million.
The primary focus remains on getting as many tourists as possible, without attending to the need to provide better services.
According to a government resolution, Vietnam has extended its visa-waving initiative for citizens of the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy until June 30, 2017.
Since July 1, 2015, when it was initiated, the visa-free program has attracted more visitors from these countries, and it is expected that the program will continue to boost the local tourist industry.
According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, there were 4.7 million foreign visitors during the first six months of 2016.
Notably, the percentage of tourists from the five countries granted visa wavers increased from 13.8 percent to 30.1 percent year on year.
During the first six months of this year, the number of visitors from those five countries rose by 62,000 against the same period last year.
In addition to granting visa waivers, the Vietnamese government is also implementing methods to streamline the immigration process for foreigners.
According to many Vietnamese travel agencies, the 15-day visa-free duration for people coming from those five countries is quite short, luring only small groups of tourists to enjoy short vacations.
Unfortunately, most visitors from Western Europe prefer tours lasting between three and four weeks.
Streamlining immigration procedures for foreigners will make the Vietnamese tourist industry competitive on the world stage and especially amongst neighboring ASEAN countries.
Free visas for the five Western countries is a great initiative, but it needs to be more carefully planned in order to better suit the situation and make Vietnamese tourism more competitive.

[jackbl]

Did you, expats, know of this regulation on marriage certificates when marrying Vietnamese?

Did you, expats, know that you and your Vietnamese husband- or wife-to-be have the right to receive your marriage certificate at a formal ceremony, along with flowers, champagne, and congratulations from authorities?
This is what the administration of Ba Dinh District in Hanoi gave local supermodel Vu Ha Anh and her British spouse Oliver Dowden, who got their marriage certificate on July 12.
At the ceremony, as updated on the supermodel’s Facebook page the same day, the couple, who will tie the knot during a wedding reception later this month, were congratulated and granted the marriage certification by a top official.
There were also a pair of champagne glasses for the couple to toast their marriage, now formally recognized by the law.

In her Facebook post, accompanied by a series of photos capturing the formalities, Anh expressed how proud she felt to see officials handle her marriage registration procedures with great respect.
However, the Facebook post and photos of the ceremony have attracted not only congratulatory comments, but also hatred feedback.
Some people said that was simply Anh’s publicity stunt and such a ceremony was unnecessary. The district administration has also been criticized for giving such alleged favorable treatment to the couple.
Many Vietnamese people have indeed received their marriage certificates in a less formal way, usually at the working counter of the local administration office.
An official will ask them to both sign the document, which is all for the formality.
There will be no ceremony, no congratulatory messages, no flowers nor champagne, such as what Anh and Dowden were treated to.
However, as the supermodel pointed out on her Facebook a few days later, such a formality is totally normal and stipulated in the law.
The supermodel cited the Vietnamese law on civil status, ratified by the lawmaking National Assembly in November 2014, saying that “a marriage certificate ceremony is a required formality in the marriage between a local and a foreigner.”

Many of Anh’s fans also commented on her Facebook, saying they had got their marriage certificates at similar ceremonies when marrying foreign spouses.
It turns out that few know of such a regulation, and Anh has just made it known to the wider public.
So if you are going to tie the knot with a local, do not forget to request such a ceremony be held when you receive your marriage certificate.

[dandan69]

Originally Posted by jackbl

Did you, expats, know of this regulation on marriage certificates when marrying Vietnamese?

Did you, expats, know that you and your Vietnamese husband- or wife-to-be have the right to receive your marriage certificate at a formal ceremony, along with flowers, champagne, and congratulations from authorities?
This is what the administration of Ba Dinh District in Hanoi gave local supermodel Vu Ha Anh and her British spouse Oliver Dowden, who got their marriage certificate on July 12.
At the ceremony, as updated on the supermodel’s Facebook page the same day, the couple, who will tie the knot during a wedding reception later this month, were congratulated and granted the marriage certification by a top official.
There were also a pair of champagne glasses for the couple to toast their marriage, now formally recognized by the law.

In her Facebook post, accompanied by a series of photos capturing the formalities, Anh expressed how proud she felt to see officials handle her marriage registration procedures with great respect.
However, the Facebook post and photos of the ceremony have attracted not only congratulatory comments, but also hatred feedback.
Some people said that was simply Anh’s publicity stunt and such a ceremony was unnecessary. The district administration has also been criticized for giving such alleged favorable treatment to the couple.
Many Vietnamese people have indeed received their marriage certificates in a less formal way, usually at the working counter of the local administration office.
An official will ask them to both sign the document, which is all for the formality.
There will be no ceremony, no congratulatory messages, no flowers nor champagne, such as what Anh and Dowden were treated to.
However, as the supermodel pointed out on her Facebook a few days later, such a formality is totally normal and stipulated in the law.
The supermodel cited the Vietnamese law on civil status, ratified by the lawmaking National Assembly in November 2014, saying that “a marriage certificate ceremony is a required formality in the marriage between a local and a foreigner.”

Many of Anh’s fans also commented on her Facebook, saying they had got their marriage certificates at similar ceremonies when marrying foreign spouses.
It turns out that few know of such a regulation, and Anh has just made it known to the wider public.
So if you are going to tie the knot with a local, do not forget to request such a ceremony be held when you receive your marriage certificate.

upped you bro!

[jackbl]

Teacher parodies Vietnamese pop song to teach English idioms

A millennial English teacher in Vietnam has turned a popular Vietnamese song into a parody music video to teach English idioms “for a world without English illiteracy.”

Nguyen Thai Duong, a 25-year-old English teacher in Ho Chi Minh City, became popular on the Internet after his parody music video surfaced on Sunday.

Incorporating 19 everyday English idioms into an eye-catching dance routine and the popular tune of Vietnamese hit ‘That Bat Ngo’ (What A Surprise), Duong’s video was quickly shared by tens of thousands of viewers on social media.

Idioms like ‘a piece of cake’, ‘under the weather’, and ‘go the extra mile’ were cleverly mixed into Vietnamese lyrics explaining their meaning while encouraging the young to start learning English “for a world without English illiteracy.”

The dance steps featured in the video were performed by Duong and a student dance troupe from Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted, which is the teacher’s alma mater, in Ho Chi Minh City.

“The video captivates viewers who are all eyes and ears right from the first watch, making the lessons easier to remember for a longer time,” Le Thanh Nhan, 32, commented on the video.

“I’ve remembered the lyrics already,” 19-year-old Tran Tuan Anh said. “It’s just as catchy as any other song that I like.”

Duong has a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology, but he has decided to devote his time to his passion for teaching English at a local English center.

The teacher said he had written the lyrics for the song in only a day, though finding a song with a matching and suitable melody took him over a week.

Duong’s group spent another two weeks filming the music video at iconic venues in Ho Chi Minh City.

The passionate teacher also disclosed his intention to produce more similar videos to introduce a more captivating way of learning English to young people.

[makka111]

Long time didn't log on... I have always like viet girls. I know some of you may think this should belong to Int'l Field Report or some other thread 😊

Technology has really made things easier. So i booked a short time with a FL in my 3-star hotel in HCM city center booked via wechat. Seems that some hotels aren't strict about girls making housecalls anymore.

Girl did not look same as wechat profile but still pretty in makeup anyway and she smelt nice. Paid her price b4 SOP: rub my cock during shower, lick here & there etc.

Jenny was a very fair girl with nice B tits, soft to touch so should be natural. Pussy shaved so my didi reacted. Gave me a hardworking BBBJ for about 10mins while I play her wet pussy. 1 finger... 2 fingers... 3 fingers... the more fingers I insert the harder she sacked. Her boobs were outstanding due to her petite 150cm+ frame. Sucked my balls in a gentle way, not too hard.

When she decided it was hard enough, she put on a rubber for me n did cowgirl as my cock easily penetrated her pussy. She enjoy it more than I did. Her Pussy felt very small and tight, my cock went in n out as she went up n down. My groin was all wet when I push her off to change position.

Her butt was small. I rammed her in doggy. I get horny when I see my cock giving her pussy so much pleasure. She almost screamed but the TV was louder anyway. It felt good grabbing her boobs from behind as I continue to pump her.

When I was about to cum, I pulled out and moved her around. She seem surprised when I removed my rubber and shoved my cock into her mouth. I grabbed her hair to prevent her head moving away as I released my load into her throat. She submitted by grabbing my butt as she swallowed my sperm. It felt good cumming like this.

I laid down on bed to catch my breath as she washed up. Gave her a tip to cover transport as it was late. I slept very well that night as her perfume lingered on the bed😊

[makka111]

Long time didn't log on... I have always like viet girls. I know some of you may think this should belong to Int'l Field Report or some other thread ��

Technology has really made things easier. So i booked a short time with a FL in my 3-star hotel in HCM city center booked via wechat. Seems that hotels aren't strict about girls making housecalls anymore.

Girl did not look same as wechat profile but still pretty in makeup and smelt nice anyway. Paid her price b4 SOP: rub my cock during shower, lick here & there etc.

Jenny was a very fair girl with nice B tits, soft to touch so should be natural. Pussy shaved so my didi reacted. Gave me a hardworking BBBJ for about 10mins while I play her wet pussy. 1 finger... 2 fingers... 3 fingers... the more fingers I insert the harder she sacked. Her boobs were outstanding due to her petite 150cm+ frame. Sucked my balls in a gentle way, not too hard.

When she decided it was hard enough, she put on a rubber for me n did cowgirl as my cock easily penetrated her pussy. She enjoy it more than I did. Her Pussy felt very small and tight, my cock went in n out as she went up n down. My groin was all wet when I push her off to change position.

Her butt was small. I rammed her in doggy. I get horny when I see my cock giving her pussy so much pleasure. She almost screamed but the TV was louder anyway. It felt good grabbing her boobs from behind as I continue to pump her.

When I was about to cum, I pulled out and moved her around. She seem surprised when I removed my rubber and shoved my cock into her mouth. I grabbed her hair to prevent her head moving away as I released my load into her throat. She submitted by grabbing my butt as she swallowed my sperm. It felt good cumming like this.

I laid down on bed to catch my breath as she washed up. Gave her a tip to cover transport as it was late. I slept very well that night as her perfume lingered on the bed ��

[jackbl]

Hanoi youths practice foreign languages with ‘Ask Me Anything’ project

A group of youths in Hanoi have been setting up a free multilingual information spot to answer tourists’ queries while grabbing the chance to practice their foreign language skills.

‘Ask Me Anything’ (AMA) is the name of a project launched last April by a 30-year-old coffee shop owner in the Vietnamese capital to provide tourists with information on anything they want to know about Hanoi and Vietnam.

The ‘guides’ of the project are young Vietnamese who would like to practice speaking foreign languages and are interested in introducing their country to foreign visitors.

The group gathers every weekend in front of the Ly Thai To Monument opposite Hoan Kiem Lake, dressed in white uniform T-shirts having the invitation ‘Ask Me Anything’ printed on them.

Handwritten on a large sheet of paper that the group always brings along with them is their description, which reads, “We are here to help [for] free… Ask me anything. Direction, cuisine, culture, history, things to do…We speak Vietnamese, English, German…”

Tourists who have questions about what to do or where to visit in Hanoi or who would like to learn more about Vietnamese culture are welcome to ask for the group’s assistance.


Tran Van Tien, the brains behind the idea, also owns a coffee shop just opposite Hoan Kiem Lake that has been popular among ‘backpackers’ for being awarded the certificate of excellence by U.S.-based travel review website TripAdvisor.

Tien said that he came up with his idea of establishing an information spot for tourists after seeing many independent tourists struggle to look for multilingual authentic information on eateries, landscapes, and historical sites worth visiting in the capital.

Meanwhile, he said, many youths in Vietnam are learning ‘mute’ foreign languages that focus heavily on grammatical points without enough exposure to real-life communication, so he has integrated the two needs into one project that was launched last April.

The working principle of Tien’s group is not to proactively approach tourists as it would violate their personal space, but instead to gather at one place and help those who ask for assistance.

“At first only a handful of volunteers answered my call [on Facebook],” Tien said. “But gradually more people knew about the project and now we have over 1,000 registered members.”

Transformation from AMA

Khanh Ly, mother of ten-year-old Nguyen Quang Minh, the youngest ‘guide’ in the group, said her son had applied to be a member after observing the group answering tourists’ questions.

“After a while, Minh became more confident when communicating with foreigners,” Ly said.

Tran Kim Oanh, an English undergraduate at Phuong Dong University in Hanoi, was excitedly talking to a tourist on Saturday afternoon.

Oanh said her shyness had kept her from communicating with foreigners for the first two years of her college life despite having aced all English exams in high school.

“Listening to the radio and watching movies in English did not help much either,” Oanh said.

After a year working for the AMA project, Oanh is now a confident ‘guide’ that can introduce in fluent English most popular tourist destinations in Hanoi.

Oanh said the nature of the work had pushed her to learn more each day, as tourists could ask the most unimaginable questions, such as “How many fish are there in Hoan Kiem Lake?” or “Who is Ly Thai To?”

According to Oanh, oftentimes the group has to deny tips from tourists since their service is free, though she said they sometimes receive small gifts or souvenirs such as a pen or some photos.

“The biggest plus of AMA is that it trains your response skills and helps improve background knowledge,” said Tran Lan Phuong, an undergraduate at the Hanoi University of Education. “Foreign visitors tend to listen attentively and want to understand a piece of information in depth, which pushes me to read and do research in order to provide them with satisfactory answers.”

Phuong said her part-time job as a private English tutor had also seen great improvements after joining AMA.

In March, the project established its first ‘branch’ in the central city of Hue with 30 volunteers who assemble every weekend after 5:00 pm at 49 Le Loi Street to help tourists.

Tien said he has no plan to drop the project despite his running the coffee shop, adding he does not want to lose a helpful playground for youths to sharpen their communication skills, a dream he has clung onto since his high school years.

[vietboy]

Nowadays all very good in TV. Nobody ask for translation anymore.

[casannova03]

Originally Posted by vietboy

Nowadays all very good in TV. Nobody ask for translation anymore.

now all use apps for translation already..

[jackbl]

Originally Posted by vietboy

Nowadays all very good in TV. Nobody ask for translation anymore.

All of them like u. MIA for 2 years to go up "mountain" to learn tv.
So what level are u now?

[vietboy]

Originally Posted by jackbl

All of them like u. MIA for 2 years to go up "mountain" to learn tv.
So what level are u now?

Level 0.

[vietboy]

Originally Posted by casannova03

now all use apps for translation already..

Apps buay zhun de.
Dun have the exact meaning.

[jackbl]

Originally Posted by vietboy

Level 0.

Cannot be la... You are with a Vietnamese everyday for 2 years. How can still be at level 0?

[vietboy]

Originally Posted by jackbl

Cannot be la... You are with a Vietnamese everyday for 2 years. How can still be at level 0?

Precisely, everyday together end up reversed learning so end up level 0.
Lol.

[jackbl]

Expat revenge in Vietnam: The overcharge

Ten thousand dong is not a lot of money to some people, or an outrageous sum to others. To convert into U.S. currency, it’s about 45 cents. It took me months to get my head around this bizarre idea. Confused? Join the club!
A recent Facebook post has chronicled the Machiavellian scheme of one expat in Da Nang who sought revenge for being overcharged 4,000 dong for a 6,000 dong sugarcane juice, or nuoc mia. I had to read it four times to make sure it wasn’t a joke, but the expat apparently ‘had a bone to pick’ with the shopkeeper (there was something he wanted to talk about) and had his Vietnamese wife buy the juice again, at the regular price. Lurking anonymously while she made the purchase, he confronted the shopkeeper afterwards, but the shopkeeper remained unrepentant.
It’s called quibbling in English, arguing about something so trivial that it only becomes important because one person in the argument believes it so.
I used the example above in my class that night to express the English idiom, ‘Storm in a teacup’ - a problem that is so small that it has virtually no impact, outside of the argument itself. Another great idiom that sprang out of this lesson was ‘The lights are on but nobody’s home’ (I’m sure you understand that one!) and then finally, ‘A pain in the neck’; someone who causes a lot of unnecessary trouble.
The notion that we should all be charged fairly and equally exists in most Western countries, although anyone who has travelled understands the concepts of ‘buyer beware’ and ‘charge as much as the market will bear’. Most people would argue that this particular shopkeeper doesn’t make a lot of money, and the price difference is very silly. Secondly, why didn’t the buyer just go to another shop if the juice was that important to him? And finally, getting that upset over such a small sum might indicate some underlying anger issues.
But he’s not alone in his opinion. Even 1,000 dong is outrageous when you look at it from a local perspective. For example, I often buy small bottles of water during school from the lady down the road. She charges me 5,000 dong per bottle. My students were horrified by this knowledge, and told me that I should have buy in bulk, a large box of water from another shop, equaling about 3,000 dong per bottle. For locals, 7,000 to 10,000 dong buys breakfast depending on quality, quantity and how fancy the food is – street stalls or eat-in cafés. 10,000 to 20,000 can buy you a huge lunch or dinner on the street.
People in poor countries are brought up with the idea that spending is a sin. When shopping, they are always challenged to find a cheaper alternative, or get the best deal they possibly can. So it’s strange that we foreigners can lavish huge sums of money on the simplest things without even thinking about it – no wonder some locals want to charge us more! We’re crazy with our money!
Five years ago I recall having to pay the difference to a local xe om after a backpacker complained about the 50,000 price tag for a 3 kilometer ride from Hoi An to the beach nearby. A local would get the same ride for around 10,000 dong, but the metered taxis are slightly more expensive. However, the real problem wasn’t the price, it was the attitude of the traveler, abusing the 50 something year-old man who does this job because he can’t get something better – plus he’s got a family to support...
I paid up because I know what things cost to a local, and am aware of their daily struggle to make a living. While we see many in Vietnam now with new cars and great houses – a lot of that is just debt to the bank, and still represents only a tiny proportion of people here, especially when you think about the vast rural population, who have yet to reach the middle class. My neighbors are an example of those who get up well before dawn and often work late, just to make salaries that would turn a Westerner pale.
So don’t quibble, folks – be generous and enjoy the local juice... you never know, you might just make someone’s day, even if it cost you 10 cents more!