Hello and welcome to VOV’s Letter Box, a weekly feature dedicated to our listeners throughout the world. We are Ngoc Huyen and Phuong Khanh.
A: This week, we continue to receive congratulations on VOV’s 71st anniversary from our dear listeners throughout the world.
B: We’d like to thank Amir Jameel of Pakistan for calling us and sending us congratulations on our 71st anniversary. In an email to VOV, he wrote: “Congratulations and best wishes. Happy 71 years Voice of Vietnam, English Service. I and my fellow club members paid homage to Voice of Vietnam’s English Service on the eve of your 71st anniversary. VOV presents excellent, informative, and impressive programs about Vietnam’s history, culture, political system, music, sports, and many other issues”.
A: Thank you, Amir Jameel, for your wishes. This week, David Ansell of England sent us a postcard showing West Sussex and Horeham, the place where he lives. He wrote: “Listening to VOV in English at 20:30 UTC on 7280. Thank you for a good program. Please continue on shortwave. Greetings from England”.
B: Bhaikan Hazarika of India sent us an email this week: “First of all, I want to say thank you for your amazing fantastic program. I really appreciate your program and your cooperation. In today’s Letter Box program, listeners worldwide sent wishes on VOV’s 71st anniversary. Happy Anniversary VOV. I very much enjoyed today’s program. Letter Box is one of my favorite program. This program is really very helpful to me. Keep up the great work”.
A: Thank you, Mr. Bhaikan Hazarika, and many other listeners around the world, who always support our broadcasts.
Celebration of Mid-Autumn festival at school |
B: We also received a postcard showing Kuopio, a city of outstanding natural beauty in Finland from Risto Happonen. Kuopio is one of the most popular tourist cities in Finland.
A: After listening to our broadcast on August 17 on the frequency of 9730 from 16:00 to 16:28, Risto Happonen rated the reception all 5s. He wrote: “Letter Box is an interesting program. Thank you very much for your fine QSL cards, stamps, and book marks. Special greetings to the English Section ladies”.
B: Thank you very much Risto for your special greetings to us. We’ll send you a QSL card to confirm your report. Next time, could you please tell us more about Kuopio city. It looks like a very nice city.
A: Sending us beautiful stickers of New York Comic Convention event from October 6th to 9th, Richard Nowak of the US, a regular VOV listener, reported receiving our show on August 27 on the frequency of 12005 from 01:00 to 01:27 UTC.
B: We like Richard’s postcard of New Orleans with a recipe for Shrimp Scampi on it. Thank you, Richard, for being a regular VOV listener and for sending us such beautiful things. We’ll try to make shrimp scampi using the recipe you gave us.
A: Here’s is a letter from Masaru Sekimoto of Japan. Masaru listened to our program on September 5 from 13:30 to 13:58 UTC on the frequency of 9840 kz. He wrote: “I’m glad to catch your program. I can study English through VOV’s English program. I think your English speaking is good. I want to know the culture of Vietnam. I want to understand the people of Vietnam”.
B: Thank you, Masaru, for your compliments. We hope you will continue listening to our English broadcasts to learn more about Vietnam, its land and people. We’ll use your stamp to send you a verification card and souvenirs from VOV.
A: This week, Paul Walker of the US sent us detailed reports and recordings of several programs in September. He wrote: “I hope you don’t mind the regular reception reports and comments on the signal quality along with the programming. I don’t want to be a bother but I do enjoy your programming and figure if I take the time to listen, even if I don’t have much to say, I should send you a note on what I heard and a short recording. I especially enjoy when you play a Vietnamese song. Even if I don’t understand the language, I can still enjoy the tunes. Music knows no language barriers”.
B: We greatly appreciate your reports, Paul. They are very useful to us and let us know that you, our dear listeners, are still there supporting our shortwave broadcasts. Once again, thank you very much and we hope to hear more from you.
A: Now, let’s listen to a Vietnamese song called.. .. This is our special dedication to you and our other listeners. As you said music knows no language barriers. I hope you like this song.
A display of decorated fruits at the Mid-Autumn festival at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology |
A: That was a song about the Mid-Autumn festival, one of Vietnam’s major festivals of the year. Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month to celebrate biggest full moon of the year. In Vietnam, this festival is especially for children and children are the center of all activities on that day.
B: On the occasion of the Mid-autumn Festival, moon cakes are given as gifts, especially to parents and grandparents. Vietnamese also place moon cakes and a variety of fruits on their family altar as an offering to their ancestors.
A: In the evening, the whole family gathers around a lavish tray of fruits and of course, moon cakes, and the adults will tell their kids the legendary stories about the festival.
B: Kids enjoy art performances that include singing, skits, lion dances, drumming, and a procession of colorful lanterns. The procession winds through the streets and lights up the night.
A: The Mid-autumn Festival emerged very early in Vietnam and has many unique features, but Vietnam’s festival shares features like moon cakes, lion dances, and lanterns with the festival of other countries.
B: That’s a short take on Vietnam’s Mid Autumn festival, which will be celebrated on September 15th this year. Malik Allah Bachaya Khokhar, the President of the Sungat Radio Listeners’ Club in Pakistan sent us an email requesting literature and a program guide. He wrote: “I’m a listener to the English Service. I and my fellow club members are listening to your English program. We want to request that you post the literature and program guides on your English service so we can share our comments”.
A: Thank you Malik, for listening to VOV. For more features about Vietnam, and to listen to our recorded program, check out our website at www.vovworld.vn. There you can also listen to our 30-minute programs and VOV’s English 24/7 programs which are live streamed.
B: On today’s show, we’d like to acknowledge letters and emails from Peter Ng of Malaysia, Toshiya Nishimura of Japan, and Kallol Nath and Muralidhar of India. Thank you for listening to VOV on shortwave and online and for visiting our website. We’ll verify your reception reports and hope you’ll receive our QSL cards soon.
B: We welcome your feedback at our station: English Section, VOVworld, Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Our email address is englishsection@vov.org.vn. Good bye until next time.