Time to celebrate a mother’s love again! Mother’s Day falls on May 10 this year and it is basically a Western tradition, but Vietnam has also celebrated it in one way or another in recent years. Around Mother’s Day, you are likely to see lots of youngsters whizzing around on motorbikes with red or white roses for placing on altars at the local pagodas or temples along with prayers for good health and thanks. The red roses are for parents still living and white for the departed, and there is always lots of food for the ancestors. Heaven has a great buffet! The modern Vietnamese woman is a wonder, which is made up of a businessperson, manager, teacher, cook, secretary, taxi driver, and wife, all rolled into one. More than half the small business operators in Vietnam are women with men working in more structured roles in government or companies. By small business, I mean selling, buying, and making as a home business. She’s running the local banh mi … [Read more...] about Say ‘I love you’ to your mom on this Mother’s Day in Vietnam
Make your mom happy
Swallow your pride and say you’re sorry
Talk Around Town (30-10-2005) Swallow your pride and say you're sorry by Vu Thu Ha Last week, I was sitting in a cafe waiting for a cup of tea. When I said thank you to the waiter as I usually do, I suddenly thought of my mother. "What a paradox!" I thought to myself, "I have never thanked her for a glass of water." But it turns out that many people are just like me. "I always say 'thank you' when receiving help from others but hardly say it to my own parents," said Thu, a 22 year-old girl. While thank you seems to be the most common expression in social communication, it is not being used that often in family life. Many people think that saying "thank you" sounds so formal, that it is sometimes not suitable to be used at home where people behave with familiarity. "I don't think it's neccessary. It makes me feel like I'm distant from my parents. Parents and children are so close to each other that saying thank you is not comfortable. We express our gratitude in many other ways, not … [Read more...] about Swallow your pride and say you’re sorry
Fairy tale ending for widow with HIV
At the funeral of her husband, she cried for her son who had just lost a father, for her widowed life without a husband, and for all her bitterness at the man whose life of self-indulgence had got himself infected with HIV/AIDS and then gave it to her. Tran Thi Hue, 27, said she could never forget the moment she left a laboratory in Hanoi five years ago, knowing she was HIV positive. Enraged at her husband, who later admitted that he had sex with street girls during the time he spent working away from home, Hue decided upon knowing the test result to leave him there and then and never come back. “But after riding my bike for a while, I felt I couldn’t do such a thing to him and came back to the hospital to pick him up and ride home with him,” she explained. She wept a lot during the road home and the more love and worry she felt for the newborn child, the angrier she became at the husband. Rising above circumstances She met her husband in Hanoi, where they had … [Read more...] about Fairy tale ending for widow with HIV
A heart-rending letter to mom: I hate money
A heart-rending essay able to bring tears to anyone is circulating fast online. Its writer is a high school student who gradually learns that money can make the world go round or even stop. Nguyen Trung Hieu wrote the essay in only one night for a literature subject assignment "State your opinions on the role of money in life" at the Hanoi Amsterdam High School. Hieu, who is an 11th grader majoring in physics, received 9 marks out of 10 for the essay. Below is the literal translation by Tuoitrenews: My beloved mother, "My god! You must eat for my benefits, don't skip breakfast. Don't be such a screwball in saving a few pennies, you think a shortage of small money can kill me?". Those are the "refrain" mom sings everyday recently because of my decision to not to eat breakfast before going to school to save some money for mom, for family. There are times when mother scolds me "why are you so miserable thinking over money?" Mother, those are the times when you are angry and I … [Read more...] about A heart-rending letter to mom: I hate money
Avocadoes
Perhaps it was because she was getting tired of having to re-read whatever she had typed earlier, since she couldn’t remember all the lies she’d told, and if she accidentally said something inconsistent, she would have to come up with explanations. And perhaps because it rained. On sunny days she felt like evaporating inside the ten sq.m room that she rented, and on rainy days, the spattering sound directly pierced her ears. She couldn’t sleep so she stared at the chink under the door to see if the rainwater had overflowed into the room. “I apologise,” she typed. “I’m not a college student. I’m a tailor but not a good one either. I work in a factory, just assembling parts.” She paused, then continued, thinking that since she had started confessing, she should make a clean breast of it: “Actually I did study in college for one year. Then, stupidly, got knocked up. My son is already four years old. Luckily my landlady is kind. … [Read more...] about Avocadoes