A: This week, a series of New Year’s greeting cards from our listeners came to our office, confirming the arrived of the New Year’s greetings and gifts we sent. Otto Schwartz of the US wrote:
“Thank you for the interesting, informative, educational, insightful, entertaining, and helpful programs during last year. Thank you also for being so responsive to my letters, questions, and comments, and for the always beautiful QSL cards and lovely souvenirs.”
B: Thank you so much for your generous comments and being with us over the years. We’ll try to continue improving our programs to meet your expectation. Here I have lovely postcards from Christopher Stacey, Howard Barnett, and Edwin Southwell of England, Hans Verner Lollike of Denmark, and Carlo Prazzoli of Italy. They thanked us for sending them wall calendars. Reiner Peuthert of Germany sent us a photo of Branitz Park, which is a shadowy forest.
A: I always love the beautiful postcards with hand-written wishes. They give me a warm feeling.
B: Yes, me too. In recent years, I’ve been sending more e-cards because they are quick and come in many designs. Almost all of our listeners in India use e-mail and e-cards. Siddhartha Bhattachajee, Prith Purkayastha, Salim Ansari, and Khokan Naskar hope that the new year brings lots of happiness and joy to our lives. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to you, dear listeners, for being faithful to VOV over the years and for your sincere wishes for the New Year.
A: We have interesting news from Adeel Mahmood Butt, one of our listeners in Pakistan. He visited VOV’s station in Hanoi while he was attending the Esperanto summit here last year. Adeel informed us: “I established a forum called “Intercultural Dialogue”. Its main purpose is to establish contact and provide information to local people about countries, people, and news. In the first steps, we’ll cover Vietnam, Russia, and Turkey. In another move, I’ll create a Radio the Voice of Vietnam Facebook page to introduce broadcasts of VOV5 English to all the people in my country as well as listeners from other countries. I’ll edit news on the page taken from the VOV website.”
B: It’s a great idea, Adeel. We’ll inform our boss of your plan and maybe we can help to some extent. I’m reading a letter from Ian Anderson of the UK. It has been a long time since he last contacted us. Ian wrote: “Tonight I heard your 18:00 UTC broadcast on 5955 khz of your Sunday Show pretty clearly. I found the report on the 1972 bombing of Hanoi interesting, especially on how the Voice of Vietnam stayed on air despite what was happening. It is good to hear a country’s story in the words of its own people. It’s so easy to look at information on the internet, but there’s something about radio that I like and I hope it continues. Thank you for letting the world know more about your country.”
B: Thank you Ian Anderson for attentive listening to our program. We’re always glad to read listeners’ feedback, which is the best compliment for us. We’ll verify your report soon and we’re looking forward to receiving regular feedback from you. Now we’ll talk briefly about Vietnam’s national flower to answer a question from Indian listener Kanchan Chatterjee.
A: A proposal to declare the lotus Vietnam's national flower has been submitted to the Prime Minister for approval. Since 2011, the lotus has always out on top over other candidates such as apricot, peach or bamboo in contests held by the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism. A Vietnamese cultural image for generations, the lotus flower has been portrayed in many art works, symbolizing vitality, nobility, purity, and hospitality. Growing in mud, the lotus has an evanescent beauty and a strong enticing scent.
B: There is a poem about the lotus flower that almost every Vietnamese person knows. In the poem, the lotus embodies a philosophy of living a noble life.
“In the pond, what flower can be more beautiful than lotus flowers
“Green leaves, white petals, and yellow pistil
“Yellow pistil, white petals and green leaves
“Living close to the mud but not stinking with the mud’s odour.”
A: Kanchan Chatterjee also wants to know about Vietnam’s famous rivers. In Vietnam, there are two great rivers, the Red River in the north and the Mekong River in the south. The Red River rises in China’s Yunnan province flowing nearly 1,200 km southeast through deep, narrow gorges to enter Vietnam and discharge into the Gulf of Tonkin via a great delta. The silt it carries is rich in iron oxide, making its water red and giving it its name.
B: The Red River delta is about 120 km long and 140km wide. It contacts eight provinces and two large cities, the capital Hanoi and Hai Phong port. Most of the land is for rice cultivation.
A: The Mekong River, which derives from the Tibetan Plateau, runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia, and enters Vietnam’s southern part to form the largest delta in Vietnam. It is the world's 12th longest river and the 7th longest in Asia.
B: Since the river flows through many countries, it has many different names in local languages. The Vietnamese people call it the Nine Dragons River. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam - 39,000 square kilometers. The size of the area covered by water depends on the season. The fertile alluvial soil of the Red River and Mekong River deltas make tem Vietnam’s biggest producers of rice, fruit, and vegetables.
A: You’re listening to VOV’s Letter Box, acknowledging listeners’ comments and questions. We’ve been talking about Vietnam’s national flower and biggest rivers. Now it’s time to say goodbye. We promise we’ll confirm all the reception reports we got this week. 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. If you miss any of our programs, you can always catch up by visiting our website at www.vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs. Good bye until next time.