A: Starting this week’s Letter Box on Radio the Voice of Vietnam, we welcome Marcos Cox Aguilera from Vicuna, Chile. Marcos who tuned into the English program for the first time expressed his pleasure to hear VOV.
B: On behalf of the English section, we would like to say welcome to the VOV family. As this is the first time for newcomer Marcos to be among us, we will briefly introduce our program’s structure. For every 27-minute broadcast on short wave, a news bulletin comes first, followed by Current Affairs, and two features specifically designed for that day. The broadcast closes with a traditional song. Music lovers should tune in Saturdays.
A: Dear Marcos, our first transmission was in September 1945 and since January 2012 we put up a website providing listeners with news and information in Vietnamese and 11 foreign languages. In addition to archiving the contents of VOV Overseas Service radio programs in 12 languages for a week, the site has the transcription of its radio programs. Features, songs and images of listeners’ interests enliven the website.
B: In the email, you wrote ‘I heard a woman saying the name of a program Sunday Show’. It’s our biggest feature of the week in which we showcase Vietnam’s landscapes, scenery, people, and the current hot issues in the country. For each edition of a Sunday Show, you will hear officials, experts, and people talk about an issue that we either introduce or raise.
A: Of course, you can contribute your opinions to us by either sending letters or email. For more details of English programs, please log onto our website at www.vovworld.vn, where you can not only listen to live or recorded programs but also find detailed information about VOV. We hope you’ll continue to enjoy our broadcasts.
B: From Alberta of Canada, Richard Lemke reported tuning in to the two consecutive broadcasts on June 6th and 7th at 03.30 to 03.55 UTC on 6175 kHz with relatively good transmission quality. In great detail noted for us the programs he listened to each day.
A: Richard is a truly loyal listener to VOV as it seems he spends a certain amount of time every day listening to VOV. In his 3-page mail, he provides us with proof that he has continuously listened to us since May 24th. He even correctly named the daily features he heard as well as their content.
B: Richard, it gives us immense pleasure knowing that our programs have attracted your attention and are useful to you. He also confirmed that he received QSLs, calendars, and website cards. Sadly, however it took 38 days to receive our package. Sorry for the delay! Anyway, we hope that you will continue to listen to our programs.
B: This week we received a quite attractive letter from Ratan Kumar Giri of India. He is the President of the Evergreen Radio Monitors Club and had requests that we participate in his club archive.
A: Dear Ratan, for broadcasters like us, nothing is as welcome as receiving emails or letters from DXers. Established since 1997, Rattan’s club undoubtedly gathers many people who love short wave broadcasts. We hope from next email or letter, you will tell us more about your club so that we will understand each other better.
B: We do hope that you have learned something about Radio the Voice of Vietnam and the English program in particular. In the beginning of today’s show, we had briefly introduced our program’s structure. We will not repeat it, but Rattan, don’t worry as we have a website at www.vovworld.vn where you can find lots of useful information about VOV to add to your archive first.
A: Regarding your requests to have materials, books, booklets, photographs or postcards with images of our broadcasting stations, stickers, pennant and so forth, we will try our best to send you as many as possible.
B: If in the first batch you get from us, you don’t find the items from your wish-list, please be patient. We might simply have run out of them at the time of delivery. We will keep in touch regularly, won’t we?
A: Yah, right now, let’s take a short break with some traditional Vietnamese music.
A: That was a piece of traditional music. Let’s continue our show with a letter from Avinash Premraj of Kerala, India. Apart from reporting the reception of the English program broadcast on June 6th at 19h00 to 19h30 on 9730 kHz, Avinash wants to know more about Vietnamese cuisine, more specifically about ducks. Whether or not ducks are an important part of Vietnamese cuisine and if they are expensive
B: Chickens and ducks in Vietnam are usually tougher, hardier and tastier birds than those many are used to. They wander around all day, eating whatever they can find. Poultry, like other types of meat, is quite dear for the average Vietnamese purse, and the quantities eaten are small in comparison to what many have come to expect in the West.
A: From ducks, you can make numerous kinds of delicious dishes with rich and excellent flavor. Dishes like duck soup, duck salad … to dishes that can be replaced steamed rice dishes like sticky duck, pork sandwiches, duck braised, duck with noodles, duck fried rice noodle. The appetizers are dummy duck, duck with soya etc. and the best dish is Peking duck.
B: ……..please don’t list more dishes made with duck otherwise all of us, including Avinash, may die for craving them.
A: Hang on, one more thing; we would like to mention to Avinash that summer is the best season of ducks. During this time of year, Vietnamese people prefer the so-called ‘vit co’ which means the small-sized ducks are fed with straw and unhusked rice after harvests. Its meat is often soft and sweet-smelling.
B: If you have a chance to come to Vietnam, don’t miss duck dishes. Believe me, they are worth a try! One more …for many Vietnamese people, especially those who are a bit superstitious, they don’t eat ducks on the first day of every lunar month. They believe ducks may bring them bad luck.
B: With all this information about ducks in Vietnamese cuisine, time is up for today’s letter box. If your names haven’t been mentioned this week, don’t be sad, we promise to acknowledge you next time. Please keep in touch with us and we look forward to receiving more comments and suggestions from you. Our contact address is:
The English program,
Overseas Service, Radio Voice of Vietnam,
45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam
B: Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn. And in case you miss any of our program, you can always catch up with by logging onto our website at: www.vovworld.vn, where you can either listen live or listen to recorded programs.
A&B: Bye!!!!!!