Hello and welcome to VOV’s Letter Box, our weekly feature dedicated to listeners throughout the world. I’m Mai Phuong.
And I’m Ngoc Huyen. It’s great to be back again on VOV’s Letter Box.
A: First on our show today, we’d like to welcome Kanwar Sandhu of Canada to English Program of Radio the Voice of Vietnam. Kanwar first listened to our broadcast on September 8 on the frequency of 12005 khz from 1:30 to 2:00 UTC with SINPO rated at 35343.
B: The 61-year old listener wrote: “I heard your station today and it was nice to hear it for the first time. It was really nice and interesting. I hope to hear more of your programs in the future”.
A: Thank you Kanwar for tuning in to VOV. We’ll send you our QSL card to confirm your report along with some VOV souvenirs.
B: Today we’d like to say hello to Alan Roe of the UK. Alan wrote: “I continue to enjoy your program each week. My favorite programs continue to be “Letter Box”, “Colorful Vietnam-Vietnam’s 54 Ethnic Groups”, “Weekend Music” and “Sunday Show”. If I had to choose a favorite, then I guess the Sunday Show would win. I enjoyed the Saturday Report about the strawberry fields of Da Lat and especially the very nice music that you played on Weekend Music”.
B: Alan told us about the weather in the UK now and mentioned the expression “Raining Cats and Dogs”. That’s an interesting expression and one I remember from studying English. According to Alan, it’s one of those expressions whose origin is not known, but one likely theory is that during heavy rains in 17th-century England, some city streets became raging rivers of filth carrying many dead cats and dogs.
A: That’s a plausible explanation. In Vietnam, we have similar expressions that could be translated as “Rain spoils soil and sand” and “Rain darkens faces” which refer to non-stop rains lasting for days. Anyway, thank you, Alan for a very interesting explanation of the expression “Raining cats and dogs”.
B: From Guangzhou, China, John Rutledge sent us a letter and reception reports of our broadcasts on August 19, 20, and 21, 2014 on the frequency of 12020 khz. John wrote: “Thank you for broadcasts. I continue to enjoy them whenever I can hear them. Reception in northeast China now still is good, but in Guangzhou it seems to be better”.
A: John said he didn’t receive our replies to the reception reports he sent us earlier this year though we mentioned him in our Letter Box program.
B: Thank you, John, for tuning in to our programs. We will resend our QSL cards using the sticker you sent us with your exact Chinese mailing address. Hopefully you will receive them soon.
A: Alex Toberni of Indonesia reported listening to our program on September 7 from 15:00 to 15:30 UTC on the frequency of 12020 Khz and rated SIPO at 44333.
B: Alex wrote: “In my country there is not a single song written and dedicated to a national hero like the ones in Vietnam. The song I heard on VOV that was written especially for Uncle Ho shows a great appreciation of his dedication to his country”.
A: Alex, in Vietnam, we have a great number of songs about our beloved President Ho Chi Minh. The songs praise Uncle Ho’s love for children, soldiers, the Vietnamese people and the nation. Many songs praise his great personality, his simple life and his contributions to the nation. Others recount stories of his revolutionary life. These songs are very beautiful and familiar to every Vietnamese person. Here’s one of those songs. It’s called “Uncle Ho, a great love” and is performed by People’s Artist Thanh Hoa.
B: This week, SB Sharma of India sent us congratulations on Vietnam’s National Day and also a question about civil defense in Vietnam.
A: In Vietnam, civil defense or the Militia and Self-Defence Force is an armed force of the masses that is not separated from production activities and work. As a component of the People’s Armed Forces of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, it is under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the management of the Government and people’s committees at various levels, the unified guidance and command of the Minister of National Defense, and the direct guidance and command of local military headquarters. Its responsibility is to protect administrative authorities, the lives and property of the people, and State property at the commune level.
Vietnamese civil defense |
B: In peacetime, the militia is the core force tasked with performing both work and production. It plays the vanguard role in protecting production activities, responding to natural disasters, enemy-inflicted destruction, and other serious incidents. At the same time, it co-ordinates with grassroots-level security forces to maintain political security, and public order and safety in localities, and participates in building grassroots-level establishments into strong local defence zones. In border and sea areas, the militia co-ordinates with the Border Guard Force to protect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and border security of the homeland.
A: In wartime, the militia become a strategic force in carrying out the people’s war, acting as the core force in the movement of fighting the enemy by the whole people, taking part in combat and combat service, coordinating with other forces to protect the locality and unit pursuant to the operational plan of the defence zone. The Militia and Self-Defence Force carries out civil defence work both in peacetime and wartime as regulated by law.
B: That’s a brief description on civil defense in Vietnam. Our time is running out. In the final minutes of our show today, we’d like to confirm reception reports from Shahinur Alam of Bangladesh, Debakamal Hazarika, Siddahartha Bhattachajee, and Bala Murali of India, Junichi Chiba of Japan, David Ansell of the UK, Samuel Carlos De Santana of Brazil, Eddy Setiawan of Indonesia, and Simon Capone of Australia. We’ll send you the QSL cards and souvenirs you requested as soon as we can.
A: We welcome your feedback at: 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 online at www.vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs. Good bye until next time.