Hello and welcome to VOV’s Letter Box, our weekly feature dedicated to our listeners throughout the world. We are Mai Phuong and Phuong Khanh.
A: Since we changed the frequency of our summer broadcasts, we have received a lot of feedback from our listeners.
B: In his email to VOV on April 7th, Richard Nowak of the US wrote: Thank you for sending the frequency updates. I heard the show clearly tonight on 12005 khz. Reception was the best I’ve heard on the new frequency lately. SINPO was all 4s.
April flowers- Vietnamese lily flowers |
A: But in his email on April 11, he wrote: “I tried tuning in at 12005 during the 1:30 hour. The show started audible but then noise quickly overtook the voices. Tried again at 2:30 and it’s still all noise. I’m staying in a hotel in Brooklyn using a Sony ICF SW07 and matching active loop antenna”.
B: Reporting from New York City in the US, Mark Penkower listened to our broadcast on 12005 khz on April 7 and said the signal strength was 100%, sometimes 100% clear, a little static at times, probably due to local interference.
B: Also reporting on our frequency change, Gerry Neumann of the UK wrote: “I have been very disappointed with the reception of VOV English on 9625 at 17UTC since the changeover from 5955. The transmitter opens at the correct time but then the broadcast usually breaks several times for a few seconds at a time before resuming. ON April 5th, this happened during the domestic and world news but on April 7th it occurred throughout the whole 27 minutes of the program, so I was unable to hear most items completely without some breaks”.
A: Thank you, Richard, Mark, and Gerry, for your informative reports. We’ll forward them to our technicians. Gerry, if you visit Vietnam, please call at our studio in Hanoi. Our phone number is 0438254482.
B: Many other listeners like Bill Ball of the US, Kp Muneer of the United Arab Emirates, and Mohammad Aslam of India have mentioned VOV’s frequency changes.
A: Tjang Pak Ning of Indonesia reported listening to VOV broadcasts on March 31 and April 1 from 10:00 to 10:30 on 9840 khz. In his email, he asked about a Vietnamese football player who now plays for a Japanese team.
B: That would be Nguyen Cong Phuong, who was born in 1995. He now plays as a forward for Japanese club Mito Hollyhock, on loan from Vietnam’s Hoang Anh Gia Lai club and the Vietnamese national football team.
A: Nicknamed "Vietnamese Messi" by fans and media due to his playing style and technique, Công Phượng is one of the most promising football talents in Vietnam. In 2007, he was one of just fourteen out of seven thousand applicants from all over the country accepted to the Hoang Anh Gia Lai-Arsenal JMG Academy in the first selection. He was recruited to Hoang Anh Gia Lai FC Club’s first team in 2015. Công Phượng was voted as Young Player of the Year in 2015.
A: Born in Nghe An province, Công Phượng has been interested in football since his childhood. Around the age of five he started playing football with his brother using a ball made of straw.
B: Công Phượng began his football training at the age of ten when he was introduced to the Đô Lương district sport center by Truong Quang Vinh, a local football coach. In 2006, he played for the Đô Lương District youth team at Nghệ An province's football competition.
A: There he impressed scouts for the Song Lam Nghe An FC and was invited for the club’s youth team. After a trail month, he was dropped because he didn't meet the weight requirement. He was only 25.4 kg then. The minimum requirement was 30 kg - 27 kg for special cases.
B: In November 2012, Công Phượng along with other three other players from the academy received an invitation to train with Arsenal FC’s U–17 team. In October 2014, the Hoang Anh Gia Lai – Arsenal JMG Academy team defeated Thailand U-21 3–0 in the International U-21 Youth Newspaper Cup final. A double by Cong Phuong secured the win for his team.
A: Công Phượng made his 2015 V League 1 debut in January 2015. In the opening game of the season he scored two out of 4 goals. He finished the 2015 season with six goals in twenty five appearances and was the club's leading scorer.
B: In 2015, he was loaned to Mito HollyHock for 100,000 USD. He is expected to continue playing for the Japanese club in 2016 J.League Division 2 season.
A: That’s all we know about footballer Nguyen Cong Phuong. We’ll send Tjang Pak Ning QSL cards to confirm his reception reports.
B: In an email to VOV this week, SB Sharma of India asked about some special food made with green bananas, so we’ll tell you about snails cooked with green banana and tofu, a delicious dish popular in northern Vietnam. This dish requires a lot of steps in processing, so it’s often cooked at weekends when the whole family gathers.
A: To make the dish, you need to prepare snails, tofu, pork, green banana, onion, garlic, turmeric, and perilla. First you need to boil the snails and then cut them into thin slices. After that, chop some garlic and onion and fry it quickly with the snails.
B: Cut tofu into square pieces and fry them quickly. Sprinkle turmeric powder on the pork and marinate in seasoned, salted fish sauce. Grill or fry the pork.
A: To prepare the banana, you need to peel some bananas, slice them horizontally and chop them into pieces. Soak them in vinegar to prevent them from turning black. Boil them quickly with turmeric and then fry them with more garlic and onion.
B: Next you fry the mixture of snails, bananas, pork and tofu with salt, seasoning, and turmeric juice. Finally, you add some chopped perilla and green onion before serving.
A: Remember to enjoy this dish when it is still hot with rice or rice noodles.
B: Before we go, we’d like to acknowledge letters and emails from Mattias Wedin of Sweden, Fumito Hokamura of Japan, Klaus Huber of Germany. Risto Happonen of Finland, and Abdur Razak of Bangladesh. We’ll send you all QSL cards to confirm your reports.
B: We welcome your feedback at: English section, Overseas Service, Radio Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. 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.