Greetings from Vietnam, I am Lam Giang

English as a Second Language New ESL Forum Member?
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Hi everybody !

I’m very glad to be here with you. I am Vietnamese and I’m trying to find a chance to get an appropriate English level for my studying. I was spending a lot of time on looking for a teacher, who can help me to correct and assess my essays and I’ve finally found this website.

First word I must to present is my appreciation to Prof. Alan. I just suprise how he can find time to help us, learners English. The work he is doing is very valuable. (And it even will be more valuable if he give us marks for essays :D)

By the way, I hope to discuss with our friend in this forum about our essays. In think the more critics we get, the better our essays are.

Finally, I would be very glad to make friend with you, friends !

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Hi gianglt
There are a great many of tests with different levels of complication, so you can try your luck and even more improve your language skills.
It’d would be nice to read your essays. What are they about?

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Hi gianglt…

Hope you great time Here …

Herc

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Hi Palema !
It is very great that you have a reply to me.

I am taking different tests on this website. They are quite useful. Besides them, I’m posting essays (you can see them in english-test.net/forum/forum16.html ) and looking for teachers’ assessments.

Hi Hercules !
Thank you. Nice to meet you !

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Your essay is very good! It’s just my appreciation! :smiley:

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Hi, Palema !

I’ve returned here from Kate’s topic.

Я учился в московском университете имени Ломоносова и заколчил учебу 15 лет назад.

I still remember Russian but it is not convenient to press Russian characters by our QWERTY keyboard. I must use a Russian online keyboard :lol:

I’m preparing for an IELTS test and I intend to use this topic as my “English learning diary” as well as a place to make friend with forum’s members. Can you pay a part of your times to help me by correcting my errors and give me some advices. I know that you are an active communicator.

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Hi Tamara !

I am so glad to see people speaking Russian here, like you and Palema.

As far as I know, the majority of Vietnamese words is pure Vietnamese, but people’s names have Chinese meanings. For example, my firstname means RIVER and my surname means FOREST. It’s Chinese family name, not Vietnamese. There are many Chinese people with surname Lin, and it changes to Lam in Vietnam.

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My first atempt to write diary will be a thought about a plan of our government. Please be kind, my focus is learning English. So I hope to see your corrections.

Our government is having an effort to increase level in foreign languages for pupils in schools and students in universities. Ministry of Education and Training has just introduced its plan from now to 2020.
Please read:
english.vietnamnet.vn/education/2006/04/556889/

The main measures in this plan are the total volume of times in teaching foreign languages and changes in programs. Everything seems to be OK, but it raises a dispute between govenors, educators and normal people.

In my opinion, the situation will not be better. Only one thing will happen: schoolbags will be heavier, school-time will be longer. One thing we can do is establishment a new environment in society, where people can and need communicate by English, French, etc… It’ll be better than forcing pupils to have more foreign language lessons at school.

How do you think about this issue ?

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That was my humble amendment. :smiley: I’m able to do it better but, to my great dissapointment, I’m lack of time at the moment.

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What lovely names, Lam! My first surname means ‘castle’ – and my mother’s second one is ‘palace’ (we have two surnames in Spain). We could put them all together and make a fairy tale, the Old Castle by the River or something like that :lol: !

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Hi Conchita !
You have an interesting idea about the tale. I’ll have a try one time.

Thank you, Palema, for your amendment. I’ve received you message but I didn’t reply. I still read Russian well, but my speed in typing Russian is very low. So, we’ll continue our conversations here, OK ?

My second attempt is my willingness to encourage some one from old members in writing a biography about this forum. I am here about 3 weeks, and there are a lot of thing interesting and useful I haven’t found yet. Maybe, a story about passed days of the forum, about our moderators, such as Torsten, Alan, Conchita, Mister Micawber, … or about communicators like Tamara, Palema, … Besides them, Hercules and FangFang are active members of forum, they are very interesting to new comers like me.

One thing confuses me while I’m writing these phrases. I am just a learner. I don’t study on any Foreign language Falculty. But our heroes are people related to languages, literature, history. Maybe, everything I’m saying about exists somewhere in the forum.

J’ve joint forum because I want learn writting, and Alan is helping me a lot. But I see I can write about my opinions, about my feelings, I can make friend with many of you. It also help me a lot in speaking, writting, grammar, etc…

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Ok, gianglt. With pleasure

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FangFang gave me an interesting question about the difference between Vietnamese and Chinese. It’s a quite wide question, but I’ll try to write something like an essay.

China and Vietnam are countries with shared border. Throughout history, Vietnam underwent thousands of years under the domination of old Chinese Emperors. So we can easily see influences of China on Vietnam in many aspect of life: from culture, social behavior to economic issues. But, there are some differences between people of 2 nations.

The first mention is about the behavior in process of integration. When being abroad, Chinese people always have their own community. They prefer to build Chinese towns inside foreign cities. Sometimes, they feel that these Chinese towns are part of the mainland. Meanwhile, Vietnamese people are more isolated from each other. There are groups of Vietnamese, but they are smaller and weaker.

The second advantage of Chinese is the discipline. When I was in the university, I used to admire Chinese students because of this quality. They always were in time attending different activities and followed strict rules. There is a saying: One a Chinese said about something, he is sure to do it. Maybe, it is necessary in such large country.

I would like stop with a small mention: Vietnamese tend to use origin goods, imported from other countries. At the same time, Chinese have many efforts to copy and make things with about equal quality. In the first time, there were noticeable difference, but production becomes better and better. Now many countries in the world worry about import Chinese goods.

The comparison given above is just a mention. I’m having a try writing an essay. Maybe something is wrong or too sensitive. Forgive me and please give the corrections.

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Let me write something about my City Danang.

There are 2 big cities in Vietnam. Hanoi, the capital, is in the North and Ho Chi Minh city, widely known as Sai gon, is in the South. Danang can be seen as the 3rd city. It is located in the Central part of Vietnam and now becomes a destination of tourists.

Danang is actracting by the Marble Mountains, 5 marble hills,
where you can explore caves used as Buddhist sanctuaries. It is just 15 minutes by car from the downtown.

A new exploited spot in Danang is Bana mountain. Located apart from Danang 40 kilometers to southwest, Ba Na is 1,487 meters high over the sea level. Here there are four seasons in a day: spring in the morning, summer at noon, autumn in the afternoon, winter in the evening. From the top of the mountain, one can have a vast view of sea, Danang city and rice fields spreading to the horizon.

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Thanks, gianglt, for your geografical excursion :smiley: My country is picturesque as well, one can contemplate the fantastic beauty of our nature. Soon I’ll place some of my photos. :lol:

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Wedding party in Vietnam

For couples, who love each other, wedding party is the beginning of a new life, a new family with new pleasures, new worries, and new interests. For their relatives and friends, wedding party is a festival and a chance to express relationship between people.

The first stage of the party is about delivering the invitation-cards. A long list of guest is prepared by the couple and then by their family. Some times, couples decide the list by themselves, but in most of cases, parents are in charge of these things. Wedding-party of their children is a place where they present their relationship with important guests; even poor parents try to invite some officials or rich relatives to the party.

Upon the conditions of families, there can be two separated parties: the bride’s family organizes a farewell party with relatives in the day before, and the main ceremony is organized by the family of the bridegroom. The parents announce about the love and make careful recommendations to the bride and bridegroom; the couple worships the ancestors, exchange their rings, and receive congratulations from the relatives. After this ceremony, all people go to restaurant for the wedding-party. In some cases, families can organize the party in groom’s house.

All the official ceremony is repeated at the party to make the beginning: the speaker invite the couple, and then their families on stage. The parents have a speech, the groom gives the thanks to the audience. The main part of party is serving of different of meals and songs of guests. Parties with songs are usually very crowded and noisy. Sometimes, I have chances to attend in parties with music in background and feel easier.

An important thing is must be done at the moment when guests come in the restaurant: they put envelopes with money within to a big basket or box. It’s the tradition. People consider that is the way guests share with the couple the expense for the party; poor couple can not afford their party without these money. But sometimes, children of important officials have big profit from their wedding-party. It is a controversial social phenomenon.

In the first night, the couple is too tired because of beer or wine, but they can look around the gifts, sum up the received money, and write down detail for each guest (names on envelopes). They must remember about this list to repay in other wedding-party.

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Hi,Lam Giang
We have similar wedding customs, :stuck_out_tongue:

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Hi my friend !

The more people have relations with foreigners, the more chances people in around the world have to exchange culture, customs of their nations. The ways a person behaves sometimes can affect the image of foreigners about his nation.

One my friend from US asked me about a situation she was being on. A Vietnamese made a picture of her, and then drew around her image with a heart. She doesn’t know about the meaning as want me to explain what it means for Vietnamese. I, indeed, don’t understand what happened, but I know exactly one thing: the picture has an active effect, it made my friend be more cheerful, and she has good imagination to Vietnamese people.

The meaning of drawn picture can be various. Maybe, the painter wanted to say that he liked my friend. Maybe, it was the expression of love. Or it simply followed a pattern from the painter’s library: a face with a rose in a heart. People from other nations express their attitude by the actions. For instance, strange people can hold each other in their arms, or kiss each other even in the first time they meet. Vietnamese tend to express their crush to somebody by saying beautiful words, draw some picture fulfilled with invisible meanings. Generally, they express their attitude spiritually. In any case, I consider it is private behavior, not the tradition of a nation.

Nonetheless, it was a conversation between people from different countries. My friend from US will think that Vietnamese people have a beautiful way to deal with her. And it is a good thing.

You can ask me what I would like to stress by these words. In my opinion, each person is responsible in conversation with people from other countries. He is expressing the image of a nation. He can make a contribution to his country simply by having a good performance.