A: We’re excited to be back with our audience after last week’s hiatus to free up time for special features celebrating our Tet festival. In our first Letter Box segment of the new lunar year, we’d like to extend our best wishes to all our listeners in every corner of the world. 2012 is the year of the Dragon, which in the Vietnamese belief system is a supernatural creature closely associated with Vietnamese people’s lives. The dragon symbolizes luck, intelligence, nobility, and power, leading the 12 zodiac animals. May the new year bring you good health, luck, success and prosperity.
B: Today’s edition will begin with our warmest congratulations to Harold Woering of Easthampton, Massachusetts, who wrote on January 17: “It was a pleasure to hear you again. For the past several years I have been attending University so I did not have time to listen to your broadcasts. I am happy to say that I now have time as I have graduated and have a job..... I heard your January 16 program on 6175kHz with a SINPO of 55555. A very impressive and educational program. I look forward to listening more and sending reports more often now that I have the time.”
A: We’re glad to hear from you again and that you’ve graduated and have a job. But it’s even more upbeat to learn that you’ll continue to spend time with us despite your busy work. You’ll definitely receive a QSL card and some VOV souvenirs for your reception of our transmission. By the way, we want to inform you that our broadcast has now gone online. If you miss any of our programs, please log on to www.vovworld.vn to hear the recording.
B: A verification card will also be issued to Australian listener Dennis Allen, who caught our transmission on 12020 kHz on January 4. Although the SINPO ratings were moderate, at 45333, Mr. Allen managed to note down all the detail of the program, including some specific listeners’ letters we read during the Letter Box segment. Another listener we should not neflect today is Valerian Masearanhas of India, who sent us a New Year Greeting card which says: “This card holds many wishes. And if all of them come true, you’re sure to have a year that’s simply wonderful, like you”. Thank you very much, Masearanhas. We wish you all the best and will send you the materials you requested.
A: From Bangladesh, regular listener Golapy reported listening to our recent shows but the quality was not good because of heavy interference and noise. Teacher Golapy said that on January 16, her students asked her how many languages are used in Vietnam.
B: We apologize for the inconvenience you experienced with our transmission signal. We’ve forwarded your remarks to our technical department for consideration. We hope that this was just a fluke because we seldom hear any complaints from listeners in your part of the world about our signal quality. Now back to your question.
A: Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups, which means that technically we have 54 languages. However, because some ethnic group have subgroups, who communicate in their own languages, the number of ethnic languages in Vietnam is estimated to be between 90 and 100. The Kinh language is the official language of Vietnam.
B: Thank you for your interesting question, Mrs. Golapy. We look forward to more such queries from you, which provide an opportunity for our audience to learn more about Vietnam.
A: American listener David Brock sent us a letter on January 4, in which he asked for some coins and banknotes to add to his collection. Well, it’s nice to hear from you and we’ll try to meet your request. However, let us first explain a bit more about the Vietnamese currency.
B: Our domestic currency, called Dong, is available in the form of coins and banknotes. The denominations of coins range from 200 Dong to 5000 Dong while banknotes range from 100 Dong to 500,000 Dong. The current exchange rate is roughly 21,000 Dong per USD. The use of coins in Vietnam seems to be unpopular because of the lack of vending machines and because it’s inconvenient to carry coins. Banknotes of 100 and 200 Dong are also hard to find because their value is insignificant. So we’re afraid we won’t be able to collect all the coins and banknotes you asked for, just the more readily available ones. But we believe what you’ll receive will be enough to enrich your collection.
We welcome your comments and suggestions at:
English program
Overseas Service
Radio Voice of Vietnam
45 Ba Trieu street-Hanoi-Vietnam
Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn