A: Here’s an email from Juan Carlos Gil Mongio of Spain. He said he was very happy because he received our answer to his recent letter and he can hear VOV’s programs in Europe quite well. He especially enjoys our programs about Vietnamese history, tradition, and culture. Mr. Mongio sent reports on programs from October 8 to 15 at 19UTC on a frequency of 7280 khz. The signal quality on these days was rather good with an overall rating of 3 or 4.
B: Given the good listening conditions, Mr. Mongio was able to jot down the major contents of the programs. He was most impressed by the story of a doctor who provides free medical treatment to poor patients, and our Discovery segment on a walking tour of Hanoi to experience local life and food as well as historic sites.
A: Thank you very much for your enthusiasm for our station and for spending time on our channel, Mr. Mongio. We’ll verify your reports with our QSL cards without delay and we hope to continue receiving your feedback. Now here’s an email from Siddhartha Bhattachajee of India who is interested in learning about Vietnam’s different dialects.
B: This is a complicated issue and would take a lot of time to explain. We’ll try to describe it briefly using some linguistics documents we’ve read and our own experience. Vietnam’s official language is Vietnamese, which is the mother tongue of the Kinh majority people. Vietnamese is spoken as a first or second language by ther other 53 ethnic minority groups in Vietnam.
A: People often mention the three major dialects of the Northern, Central and Southern regions, but there are many more dialects or accents throughout Vietnam: the Red River Delta, the North Central, South Central, South and Southwest accents, and so on. What people call standard Vietnamese is essentially the language of the Red River Delta in Northern Vietnam, best characterized by the accent of Hanoi. There is variability between the provinces of the delta, but for the most part, they conform to Standard Vietnamese.
B: Sometimes an accent is quite different from mainstream Vietnamese. People from some regions have dialects and accents that can cause unintelligibility. In Ha Tay province just west of Hanoi, people speak Hanoian at work or when communicating with people from other regions, but use their local dialect at home or with their neighbors.
A: It should be noted that the large movements of people between North and South beginning in the mid-20th century and continuing to this day have resulted in a significant number of Southern residents speaking in the Northern dialect, and to a lesser extent, Northern residents speaking in the Southern dialect. More recently, the growth of the free market system has led to businesspeople and tourists traveling to distant parts of Vietnam. These movements have resulted in some blending of the dialects but, mainly, have made the Northern dialect more easily understood in the South and vice versa.
A: Many foreigners have asked me which Vietnamese dialect is easiest to learn. We think if you learn our language, you should we learn the standard dialect. But it depends on where you will spend most of your time in Vietnam. That’s our short take on Vietnamese dialects in answer to a question by Siddhartha Bhattachajee of India. Now let’s continue with letters from other listeners. Here’s an email from one of our regulars in India, Prithwiraj Purkayastha. He loves to tune in to VOV’s programs and stays connected with Vietnam every evening through his radio.
B: Mr. Purkayastha monitored our program on October 3 at 7220 khz using his JRC NRD-91 receiver. He noted that the signal strength was good and there was no interference. But slight noise and fading was observed. In addition to a detailed content and signal report, he attached a recording of the program so we should have a better idea of the reception at his location in northeast India.
A: Thank you very much for your feedback and useful technical remarks. We’ll confirm it with our QSL. You informed us that for several months now you have been regularly sending reports on VOV’s English programs and requesting verification cards, but have had no reply. We’re sorry to hear that Mr. Purkayastha. We’ll resend the QSL cards.
B: From Germany, Dieter Sommer wrote to say he listens with great pleasure to our radio station. He included photos of himself in his Dx’ing corner with his bulldog. It’s nice to learn about the personal lives of our listeners. It makes us feel closer to our friends living in very distant parts of the world.
A: Christer Brunstrom of Sweden monitored the program on October 13 at 9625 khz and rated SINPO at all 4s. He said it was interesting to hear about the work of clearing bombs and mines in Vietnam’s central region left over from the war. People are still getting killed or maimed by all this ordnance. The Technology Center for Bomb and Mine Disposal under the Ministry of Defense says all 61 provinces are affected, as well as many cities. The most affected portions of the country are the central provinces from the former Demilitarized Zone southward, including Quang Tri, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai.
B: Bombs and landmines are strewn across 6.6 million hectares of land, about 20 percent of Vietnam’s total area. Ordnance-disarming efforts are carried out on just 20,000 hectares per year. At this rate it will take 300 years to clear all of Vietnam’s bombs and landmines.
A: Ratan Kumar Paul of India said last week he was interested in information about Vietnam’s attendance at the Francophone summit, Vietnam Entrepreneurs’ Day, and a photo exhibition in Hanoi on children at war. Ian Morrison of China tuned in to the October 5 program on the frequency of 9840 khz using a Tecsun R-911 receiver with a five-meter wire. And Jack Wachtershauser of Australia sent reports for programs from September 10 to September 27 at 12020 khz and 9840 khz.
B: That’s all the time we have on this week’s Letter Box, so we have to say goodbye. We promise we’ll confirm all the reception reports we got this week. We welcome your feedback at:
English section, Overseas Service, Radio Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam
A: Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn. And if you miss any of our programs, you can always catch up by visiting our website at www.vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs. Good bye until next time.