A: I’m tired of this rapidly changing weather with alternating sunny and rainy days due to tropical storms.

B: After three scorching summer months, we need some rainy months to water the crops, fill the hydropower plant reservoirs, and reduce the heat.

A: Why don’t you mention the destruction caused by the tropical storms when they hit the mainland?

B: Alright, everything has two sides. Because of Vietnam’s geographical position, we have to accept and co-exist with tropical storms. Listener Ashik Eqbal Tokon of Bangladesh has asked us to talk about Vietnam’s climate. He said his country has six seasons: summer, winter, autumn, spring, rainy and late-autumn. Fumito Hokamura of Japan wants to know how long the rainy season is in Vietnam.

Hanoi is flooded after tropical storm Mangkhut hit the mainland

A: Vietnam experiences a fair degree of climate diversity. The northern region has 4 seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Winter and spring last from around November to April, quite cold and wet. February and March are marked by a persistent drizzling rain. The hot summer and autumn run from May to October, very high humidity. This is also the season of tropical typhoons.

B: For coastal areas and the parts of the central highlands facing northeast, the season of maximum rainfall is from September to January. These regions receive torrential rain from typhoons which move in from the East Sea at this time of the year. The weather at this time is cloudy with frequent drizzle.

A: The South has two main seasons: wet and dry. The wet season lasts from May to November with the average temperature 36 to 37 DC. There are heavy but short-lived downpours almost daily, in the afternoon. The dry season runs from December to April.

B: Temperatures are high all year round for southern and central Vietnam, but northern Vietnam has a cooler season as the north monsoon occasionally brings cold air in from China. Frost and snow may occur in the high northern mountains a few days a year.

A: That’s a brief look at Vietnam’s climate. Anyone planning to visit Vietnam should carefully check the weather forecast and arrange his itinerary accordingly. Some of our listeners from Japan and India are interested in old Vietnamese stories and poems. We’d like to introduce you to The tale of Kiều, the great epic poem of Vietnam.

B: It consists of 3,254 lines in a couplet form popular in the native, oral, folk tradition for narrating a prose romances written in Chinese. The work remains resonant with Vietnamese concepts of individual responsibility to self, to society, and to conflicting spiritual codes. The Tale of Kieu was written in Nom ideographs, not in the modern roman script writing system known as quốc-ngữ, which replaced Nom in the early 20th century. No single, definitive text of the Tale of Kiều exists and, historically, the work was never printed except in woodblock editions.

A: There have been at least five English translations of the work in the last half century. One of these, a bilingual edition called simply Kiều, published by Thế Giới Publishing House in Hanoi with a translation by Michael Counsell, is currently the English version most widely available in Vietnam. An English-only version, called “Kieu, The Tale of a Beautiful and Talented Girl, by Nguyen Du,” is now available worldwide through Amazon.

B: A new translation by Timothy Allen of the opening section of the poem was awarded a Stephen Spender prize for Poetry Translation in 2008; excerpts from Allen's translation have appeared in Cosmopolis - Summer 2009 edition of Poetry Review - and in Transplants - the Spring 2010 edition of Modern Poetry in Translation.

A: Prithwiraj Purkayastha of India reported listening to VOV’s program on July 31 at 9730 khz. He remarked that the reception quality was not at all satisfactory. There was lots of noise and fading though there was no interference and signal strength was also good. Because of the fading, the program content was not very clear. We’ve listened to the recording you made and sent us to show the reception quality at your location. Thank you very much for your technical comments, Prithwiraj. We’ll send you a QSL card to confirm your report.

B: Prithwiraj told us: “I’m a shortwave radio enthusiast and presently I’m involved in producing and presenting a DX News report entitled “Indian DX Report” which is aired by Adventist World Radio’s Weekly DX Magazine Wavescan. From January this year, KBS World Radio’s English section is also airing my DX show in their mailbag program “KBS listeners’ Lounge” every month. In my reports, I’m especially giving the latest developments and happenings among international shortwave radio broadcasters, particularly in Asia. In many of my reports, I have mentioned VOV’s English programs and these are highly appreciated by listeners all around the world.”

A: Thank you very much Prithwiraj for your interest in our program and for helping us introduce VOV to the world DX’ing community. You said you saw VOV’s Facebook fan page and the pictures of our staff. I hope you will friend us and urge other DX hobbyists to listen to VOV.

B: This week, we want to acknowledge a letter from Gough Lui, a shortwave and HF radio enthusiast from Chester Hill, on the East Coast of Australia near Sydney. He tuned to the frequency of 9840khz and listened to VOV’s program with a fair signal. His SINPO rating was 33533. 

A: Due to our limited time for the Letter Box, we’re unable to read all letters we receive, but we acknowledge reception reports from Miss Karobi Hazarika, Bhaikan Hazarika, and Mohammad Shamim of India, Edward Taylor, Sarah Gath, and Peter Rozewski of the US, Richard Lemke of Canada, Toshiya Nishimura of Japan, Peter Ng of Malaysia. Thank you all for spending time with us and for your detailed feedback. We’ll confirm your reports with QSL cards soon. Before we go, let us remind you once again of our address:

English section, Overseas Service, Radio Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn. You’re invited to visit us at www.vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs. And join us on Facebook at VOV5 English Section.Goodbye.