10 year trea

When his roommates turn the lights off to go to bed at 10 p.m., Hoang Minh is just starting his eight-hour shift at work. Sitting with a laptop on his bunk bed, the 21-year-old enters information about overseas orders his company has received into the system. "This job just needs hands and eyes," he says. Because of the Covid-19 outbreak, Minh was allowed to work from his room in Hanoi's Cau Giay District. But within two days the company required him to return to office since his output had been lower than normal. His salary has remained at VND6 million ($260) a month since he began working here since 2019. Hoang Minh doing his data entry work in his room in Hanoi's Cau Giay District. Photo courtesy of Minh. After dropping out of college, the young man from central Vietnam had been dreaming of working in the technology field, a job he perceived as "computer-related." But instead he ended up with a data entry job. After two months of working through the night and going home to sleep in the morning, he quit just after the 2020 Lunar New Year ( Tet ) just as Covid-19 first appeared in Vietnam. He began to apply for all sorts of jobs. However, the pandemic was causing a huge number of layoffs. According to the General Statistics Office, the employment rate in the first quarter of 2020 was the lowest in 10 years. Minh got a job as a bank credit officer, who had to persuade individuals and businesses to borrow. But there was no salary and instead employees got paid based on performance. This time he quit after just one month. He then worked as a real estate agent and quit again when he could not find a single client in three months. During that time he had to borrow money just to eat. Around this time a former colleague and friend also wanted to quit his data entry job, and Minh texted him saying: "Don't be foolish to quit your job at this critical time. I really regret my action now." Luckily for him, his old company again …

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The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has issued a pilot Korean language curriculum to be applied at general schools that have a 10-year teaching system. Under the decision which took effect on February 9, Korean and German are defined as "first foreign languages". The Ministry said Korean language would be taught from the third to 12th grades. The pilot teaching will be implemented in areas with high demand which have necessary conditions in terms of teachers and material facilities. Nguyen Xuan Thanh from MOET on March 4 stressed that under the decision, Korean has become one of the first foreign languages on a trial basis. The curriculum for teaching Korean as a second foreign language has already been released. Thanh said this doesn’t mean that Korean will be a compulsory subject for all students. The phrase here is just used to modify the phrase ‘first foreign language’. This means that each student has to study one first foreign language and can choose among the first foreign languages listed by MOET. According to an education expert, there are three categories related to subjects – compulsory subjects, selective subjects and elective/optional subjects. With ‘selective subjects’, there are many choices for students. Optional subjects are not mandatory and students can register to study the subjects if they want. In the case of the Korean language, it should be referred to as a selective subject. He said integrating Korean and German into the national education syllabus is a normal occurence and this will benefit students. The subject will help develop the ability of communicating in Korean language. It will also help students with skills in studying foreign languages in general, thus satisfying requirements for labor force quality. Under the decision, students will reach the first level when finishing the sixth grade, the second level when finishing the 9th grade and third level when finishing the 12th grade after having …

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Vietnamese Ambassador to Italy Nguyen Thi Bich Hue (left) speaks at a virtual gathering for adopted Vietnamese children in Italy on March 7. (Photo: VNA) Rome (VNA) – A virtual gathering was hosted by the Embassy of Vietnam in Italy on March 7 for adopted Vietnamese children on the occasion of the Lunar New Year . The event was attended by Director General of the Ministry of Justice’s Department of Adoption Nguyen Thi Hao and adoptive families of Vietnamese children from more than 70 locations across the European country. Speaking at the gathering, Vietnamese Ambassador to Italy Nguyen Thi Bich Hue said with over 2,000 Vietnamese children adopted by Italian couples so far, and these adoptive families have become a major part of the Vietnamese community in Italy. They have contributed to strengthening the relations between the two countries, she said. Many adoptive families in Italy want their Vietnamese children to know more about their roots, she continued, many Italian parents have also encouraged the kids to learn and speak their mother tongue. This has motivated the Vietnamese Embassy in Italy to host the gathering, she added. Hue also took the occasion to thank the adoptive families for not only taking care of the Vietnamese children and providing them with a real home, but also giving an opportunity to preserve their traditional culture. Representing the adoptive Italian families of Vietnamese children, Cinzia Fabrocini said the gathering offers a good chance for the children to have a better understanding of their fatherland’s culture and for the families to meet and talk about their shared interest in helping the children experience their birth culture. Hao, for her part, said she hopes the Embassy of Vietnam and adoptive families in Italy will come up with more initiatives and activities to bring the children closer to their homeland. Vietnam always welcomes the children and their adoptive parents to return to the country …

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