A: This week, we were very happy to receive season’s greetings from our listeners. We would like to thank David Beynon of England, W.C. van Hoolwerff of the Netherlands, Christer Brunstrom of Sweden, Abdulkarim Ahmed Ali of Libya, Bablor Rashid of Bangladesh, and Fumito Hokamura of Japan, for your warm sentiments for the VOV staff. We also wish you and your families a merry Christmas and happy New Year. We hope to have your continuing support and feedback to help us improve our program.
B: Christer Brunstrom of Halmstad, Sweden, said that after a week of very cold and snowy weather, they’ve had some slight rain which has somewhat diminished the snow cover. In Vietnam, we rarely have snow because we are much closer to the equator than Sweden is. But we can understand your feelings about having warmer days in the freezing cold winter. Here in northern Vietnam, winter arrived and we, too, are experiencing rains and colder days, with temperatures fluctuating around 20DC. Between gloomy winter days, we have intervals of sunny days, which excites a bit of spring fever.
A: The temperature in Vietnam’s northern mountains is sometimes below 0 DC and there is frost and ice. Here in the capital city of Hanoi, the lowest temperature in winter is less than 10 DC. We’re hoping to have nice weather on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve so people can enjoy some outdoor activities. Here’s an email from Ming Li of China, who listened to a VOV program in English and Vietnamese. Li wrote that the program was very helpful to him and he was able to learn something. He listens to VOV both on shortwave and on the internet.
B: We’re glad to know that the frequency of 12020 khz isquite good in Xiamen, Fujian, China. We’ve checked your reports and will send you a QSL card soon. We’re going to talk briefly about Vietnam’s first university to answer a question from Taslim Uddin, a computer teacher at Morchhula Girls High School in Bangladesh. Uddin said he, his colleagues, and his students regularly listen to VOV via the internet.
A: Vietnam’s first university - Quoc Tu Giam - is located in the Temple of Literature (Van Mieu), which was built in 1070 in honour of Confucius, his followers and Chu Van An, a profound Vietnamese educator. Quoc Tu Giam was built 6 years later. During hundreds of years of feudal regimes, thousands of Vietnamese scholars graduated from this university. In 1483, Quoc Tu Giam was renamed Thai Hoc Vien - Higher Educational Institute.
B: After decades of war and natural disasters, the original construction was completely destroyed. In 2010, another construction was built, imitating the model of the previous Thai Hoc Vien on the same ground. The work includes a front hall, a rear sanctuary, a courtyard, and subsidiary structures. This site preserves historical vestiges of a 1,000-year-old civilization - statues of Confucius and his disciples, and ancient constructions such as Khue Van Cac, Pavilion of the Constellation of Literature.
A: The Pavilion of the Constellation of Literature was acknowledged as the symbol of Hanoi in the Law on the Capital City. Khue Van Cac was built in 1805 during the reign of the Nguyen dynasty as a place for reciting poems. The pavilion is a two-storey complex with a layered structure, eight sloping roofs, and a square basement. The upper floor, made of wooden frames, has a banister engraved with eight sacred objects. Four round windows facing four directions, admit abundant sun lights suggesting a shining constellation.
B: That’s a brief review of the first university in Vietnam and its pavilion honoring education and talent. Now let’s take a short break before reading letters from other listeners.
A: We’d like to say Happy Birthday to Rana Dewan Rafiqul, President of the Friends Radio Club in Bangladesh.
B: Happy birthday Mr. Rafiqul. You said you’re going to arrange a small birthday party on December 30 and you invited us to join. It’s a pity that we cannot come. But we’ll cheer your 39th birthday party with a present from Vietnam. We hope it will arrive on time.
A: Another listener from Bangladesh, Bablor Rashid, asks us if we have any competitions for listeners. VOV holds a competition for its listeners worldwide called “What do you know about Vietnam?” every 5 years. The last one was in 2010 to celebrate Vietnam’s 65th national day, and Radio the Voice of Vietnam’s 65th anniversary. The next competition will be in 2015. Since many of our listeners think we should organize more frequent competitions for Dxers’, we’re considering some options. We’ll definitely inform the public about new competition and forward the information to all the listeners on our contact list.
B: I’m reading an email from Mr. Hazarika of India’s SW-Dxer’s Club. He tuned in to our program on December 13 on a frequency of 7280 khz, using a Phillips RL 452 receiver. Mr. Hazarika wrote: “I listened to the Discovery Vietnam program and I enjoyed it very much. You talked about Moc Chau plateau, 200 km west of Hanoi. I think this place is one of the most famous tourist attractions. The program was very helpful and I came to know more about Vietnam’s culture, people, and lots more.”
B: On December 17th he tuned in to our channel again on a frequency of 9550 khz and rated SINPO at all 4s. Mr. Hazarika mentioned our stories about the tragic shooting in Connecticut, North Korea’s satellite launch, and Japanese voters casting their ballot for the new House of Representatives this week. He wrote: “This program is really a source of information. As usual, I found your programs to be informative and clearly presented.”
A: Thank you very much for tuning in to our channel and sending us prompt feedback. Your reception has sufficient information for us to verify and you’ll soon receive our confirmation card. 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. 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.