English through the news

Viet Nam News Trần Thị Thúy’s world opened up after she read a magazine that was in both Vietnamese and English. It encouraged her to learn English. She then became an English teacher. Her classroom has often been on a computer screen because she wants her students to make friends all over the world. by Mai Khuyên HƯNG YÊN — Teacher Trần Thị Thúy, 32, from Đức Hợp High School in the northern province of Hưng Yên remembered how her dream started, when she got hold of a bilingual magazine in 1999. “That was really an unforgettable moment. A new world opened up and I was inspired, so I pledged to study English as a way to help myself realise my dream,” said Thúy. Her determination empowered her to study and become a teacher of English to help local students connect with thousands of friends around the world by joining MEC (the Microsoft Educator Community). At an English class … [Read more...] about Magazine opens up the world

Viet Nam News By Hồ Anh Thái It would be a waste to stay inside during a Northern European white night, the writers tell each other. They have come to attend the International Writers’ Conference being held in the old quarter of Stockholm. Alright. Gaggles of writers surge out of the hotel, cross Kungsgatan or King Street to Drottninggatan or Queen Street, then walk along the latter to get to the Royal Palace.  Ten in the evening and the sky is still as bright as midday, the sun shining radiantly. Midnight: the sky still blue, the clouds still white. As time moves towards morning, the air remains luminous, the leaves in the surrounding trees glowing incandescently as the sunlight shines through them. The writers sit on a bridge behind the Royal Palace, talking all night in reverent murmurs. Would the sun that has shone so brilliantly all night long ever stumble, relent even a little bit to allow a transition into a new dawn? She remembers her first white … [Read more...] about The Sun Never Sets

Viet Nam News by Dan Hambleton A mud-spattered Honda swished by me on the mountain pass. The young Vietnamese driver gripped the handlebars confidently, as if he knew every inch of the road. The bike disappeared around a curve. I turned to look out from the shoulder where I’d stopped. Below me, an immense chasm yawned. Beyond it, surreal and staggering in size,  jagged peaks piled on one another in a breathtaking march to the horizon. The sky above, wide as the sea, glowed with pale light amid dark clouds as big as the mountains. This was Quản Bạ Pass, the soaring approach to what is known in Việt Nam as Heaven’s Gate.  Hà Giang Province has high mountain ranges, as well as dazzling wildflowers that blanket its valleys in the fall.  A popular motorbike circuit known as The Northern Loop, which covers more than  300 kilometres, circles from the town of Hà Giang northeast to Đồng Văn, Việt … [Read more...] about Riding the Northern Loop