Wt 2nd Edition

O Mo n n w th w ly w A .w v at ai av la n. ble co m

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Many thanks to our contributors —----------------------

NOTE:

Ms. Christine Mr. Fanronaldo Mr. Hannibal Ms. Phuong Lan Ms. Poinsettian Ms. Que Ha —----------------------

Hello, Welcome back to Walkie Talkie. It has been a month since our first edition. And basing on the downloading statistic in our website, we’d like to thank you for your interest in us. Besides, to develop this project, we do look forward to the participation of you, English learners. If you think you can contribute your skills in writing, or editing, or designing; or simply if you have a suggestion, or a comment, please don’t hesitate to send a message to: Email: [email protected]. Your contribution is greatly appreciated. Regards,.

Ms. Bambie Ms. Minh Chau Ms. Thanh Thao Ms. Thanh Truc Ms. T. Ngoc —---------------------Ms. Jenny Lakshmie Ms. Raven Mr. Richard Bee —----------------------

WT Team

C. Photography 2

Cover by C. Photography

Page 1

Note & Credits

Page 2

Content

Page 3

What do you usually do on women’s day

Page 4-5

Shop around the corner

Page 6-7

Shutter speed

Page 8 -9

Hot news of September

Page 10-12

The hookers and the hooked

Page 13-15

Board of Honor

Page 15

A trip to Malaysia

Page 16-18

September Birthday Card

Page 19 ENJOY THE MAGAZINE!!!

Note:: all photos illustrated in the articles are either shot by writers or collected from the Internet.

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“

Accredited!

Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man. Margaret Mead

in these areas One time, after a tiring hard day, I picked up my phone, hoping to invite someone to go out for a coffee. " Hey it's me. What'r u doing?" I shouted at the phone " Working, you know. Exhausted" he replied " Wanna have a drink?" I said, excitedly " No, I'll be back home. I will watch TV with my mom tonight" " What?" " I've not watched TV with her for so long" I was wordlessly amazed, and I suddenly remembered my mother's birthday would be in the middle of October And as far as I know, there will be a special day in October, namely Vietnamese Women's Day on 20th. Another time, I’ve read somewhere a story as follows " Mommy, I will be back late tonight" " This morning I bought some crabs and fresh fish. I've been cooking your favorite soup...." " I am so busy, Mom. I may not be back home earlier. 4

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specialist area number three

Do not cook much. Maybe other time ok?" 5.30pm. Turning off the computer, taking the coat, he went out of his office. The street seemed to be more crowded today, October 20th. " What a day!!" He talked to himself, then approached a jewellery shop. On the way to her home, he bought a bunch of rose at a florist's. " She must have been making up and waiting for me. Let's celebrate a better evening than ever" He came back home late at night. Everyone's gone to sleep. His mother was sitting at the dining table. " Have you dined yet? Just a minute, I will put the food on the cooker. It will be warm soon" " It's ok, Mommy, I got dinner. So sleepy. I will come back to my room now. Goodnight, Mommy" The story is so common in our life, isn't it? I myself have hardly seen boys or men giving flowers or gifts to their beloved females (like grandmothers, mothers, even wives

and daughters) in their family · For those who have girlfriends and/or have on the special women's day. planned to get a girlSome of them even have no friend (most of them idea of the day of October 20th obtain a full meaning of That's the reason why I the day): a gift of girlwas so amazed at what my friend's favorites and a friend, the above-mentioned bunch of flowers are lovely man told me. no.1 choice. Only one I decided to carry out a answered me in a way survey on a number of people to which I most look in my surroundings. The main forward: "I will call my question is" What do you ofmother and my sister, ten do on Vietnamese womthen bring something en's day, October 20th, for home for them. For their sakes?" friends, I just need to According to the result of call and say" Congratuthe survey on a number of lations!!!"". white-collar people whose ag· For the rest: they keep es range from 20 to 40 involved in some · For the married: 40% groups, hold parties confirmed that they and enjoy the day with gave their wives some them kinds of gifts or flowers: clothes, jewellerAnd what are you going to ies, shoes, etc.; 30% do on such special meaningsaid they would help ful day, guys? their wives in the kitchen and other housework; 30% questioned me " What's the day again?"

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I wi ll b e ba stor ck t e o th noth again. is ing To me, can feel in b espe g of e eat the n c j expl ially th oying f e fo ore ood, by y o ours d you elf.

The military training course had beaten us up the whole morning. One PM with no lunch, we rode our bike around to find a food store to negotiate with our hunger stomach. No matter what it is, the cost is the most important thing we care about these days. The two of us with 40,000VND, less than 3 USD, obviously had to think hard to make ends meet. This problem wondered around my little mind till I saw a twinkling sign with the name marked Xi-Tin no.2. The store is located on Suong Nguyet Anh Street, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where shady trees are along the road to protect pedestrians from the hot weather despite day or night. Seeing the store’s name, we can easily recognize that, there must be another store named Xi-Tin no.1. In fact, there are two of the same owner in this city, one in Binh Thanh District, the other in District 1.

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Food ‘no. 1 Now it was our eyes’ turn to be twinkling. What could be better than the reasonable price, not more than 1.5USD/set? Reading the menu, we were impressed by various food types such as mi xao gion, nui xao thap cam, sup bap cua nam, bo luc lac, etc. for main meals; or ice cream, sinh to, che, etc. for dessert. The store was clean and tidy. The staff were friendly

p Su

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ua

and service-minded, and were always serving with a smile on their face. In general, our first impression was extremely positive. So, pay it a visit if you can. Following are the addresses of the two stores:

Mi xao gio n

XI TIN no.1: 28 Le Quang Dinh Street, Ward 14, Binh Thanh District. XI TIN no.2: 71 Suong Nguyet Anh Street, Ben Thanh Ward, District 1.

c uc la l o B

Che swee _ or t sou p

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elcome back to amateur photographers’ corner. Here comes the next guideline to boost the beauty of your images. First let’s get over the concept: SHUTTER SPEED which is defined as the time that the film is exposed to the light. Usually, as the duration lengthens, the brightness of your images increases. The value varies from 1/1000 to 20 seconds in different cameras. Take a look at the photos of the two candles illustrated in the next page. In the same dark environment, the picture on the left is taken with Shutter speed (SS) 1/3 second, while the right one’ SS is 5 seconds. Could you notify the difference? Basically, if you let the film expose more to light source, you could get a vividly bright beautiful picture. How simple it is J ! WHERE DOES THIS TECHNIQUE APPLY? It’s very useful when you need to capture still images in low-light, some in normal conditions. They may be fireworks, landscapes, lightings… It goes with your imagination and creativity: WHY DO I MENTION STILL IMAGES? The reason is that, as the SS increases, the steadiness of your images proportionally decreases. If you use SS greater than 1/10 seconds, normally you would want to put your camera in stable places like table, chair or camera tripod. HOW COULD I FIND THIS CONTROL ON MY CAMERA? a) Check your camera’s user manually if it allows you to maneuver SS. In most of situations: If you own a compact or professional DSLR camera, check out the MANUAL mode or SHUTTER mode. b) If your camera is embedded in a mobile phone, it’s automatically programmed in FIREWORKS mode, which means you cannot change the duration by yourself (it’s good enough, though). In some advanced mobile, it has MANUAL mode like digital cameras and you can use that function.

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title: Fusce id tell us to sit amet justo eleifend fringilla. Mauris volutpat neque ac pede. Sed varius metus. Quisque eu diam in tellus viverra auctor.

A shot at 2 candles in the dark environment Shutter Speed 5 seconds

Shutter Speed 1/3 second

High

way

Firew

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ne of the events attracting a lot of attentions in September is the scandal of Miss Vietnam 2008. Beating 29 contestants selected out of 2500 candidates nationwide, the 18- yearold Tran Thi Thuy Dung from the central city of Da Nang won the much coveted Miss Vietnam crown in the grand final held in Hoi An ancient town, central Quang Nam province on August 31. However, several hours after the final round, it was questioned that the newly crowned hadn’t graduated from high school, violating

conforming to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism regulations which clearly stipulate that the national beauty contest is only for high school graduates. Therefore, according to Mr. Duong Xuan Nam, chief organiser, Tran Thi Thuy Dung still retains the title of Miss Vietnam 2008. However, the winner of the pageant cannot represent Vietnam to compete in Miss World 2008 held in South Africa this year because she

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the rules of the beauty contest. The headmaster of Quang Trung private school in Da Nang city, where Dung studied, also confirmed that she dropped out of school at the end of the first semester in the 12th grade to prepare for overseas study. To clarify the case of the beauty queen, the organising board of the Miss Vietnam 2008 pageant hold a press conference on September 4 admitting that it made a mistake, implementing in advance of the draft amended regulations that omit the graduation requirement, instead of

hasn’t got a high school diploma. After mistakes made in the contest, many problems haven’t still been dealt with, for example, who will take the place of Thuy Dung to participate in the international pageant, should the draft regulations extend criteria for contestants. It is truly necessary to set up obvious conditions before holding the beauty contest at the national level.

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title: Fusce id tell us to sit amet justo eleifend fringilla. Mauris volutpat neque ac pede. Sed varius metus. Quisque eu diam in tellus viverra auctor.

he 2008-2009 academic year was officially started on September 5th with the participation of nearly 22 million students nationwide, of which 16.2 million attend primary, junior and senior secondary schools while nearly 1.7 million attend universities and colleges. There are many remarkable events happening in this new school year. The first is the increase of studying time. Secondary and high school students will study for 37 weeks, two weeks more than before. This extension will reduce the length of the summer holidays with an aim

with better conditions for the purpose of raising the quality of teaching and learning standards at tertiary schooling level. However, many policies to exempt students from tuition fees as well as student credit funds will be implemented this year to assist poor students with their studies. The Ministry of Education and Training decided to name

to help reduce the pressure for students and teachers from overloaded study programs as well as help local education authorities to manage the school year schedule if epidemic or severe weather conditions happen. Each local can decide the first day of study, earliest on August 1st and latest on August 25th, based on each specific situation but the opening ceremony to start a new academic year still stays the same everywhere, on September 5th. One more new thing is the increase in fees for universities, colleges and vocational schools to equip these educational establishments

this school year as “The year of Information and Technology Application” in an effort to strengthen the widespread usage of IT in education and administration management. The Ministry organised a contest for educators nationwide to make the lesson plan in the form of e-learning to encourage familiarisation with the new technology.

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n August 29th, Republican presidential nominee John Mc Cain chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. It is considered to be a huge risky choice as in comparison with the Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden who has extensive foreign affairs experience, Palin was relatively political unknown. Within a few days after that, there appeared heaps of headlines revealing about her unwed pregnant daughter and an ethics investigation in her home state. Questions about Palin’s abilities, experience and what

and the first for Republicans. The next debate in October against Democratic Senator Joe Biden will be a chance for Palin to prove her abilities to voters. One day after Palin’s official appearance, on September 4th, Senator John Mc Cain delivered his acceptance speech in St. Paul, Minnesota, formally being nominated for president by the

she can bring to the Republican ticket intensified the focus on her speech at the Republican national convention on September 3rd. However, with the impressive performance recounting her life as a devoted mother in a closely knit family, rising from a mayor of Alaska town to a governor, and deeply understanding about international issues, Sarah Palin successfully introduced herself to the nation and received arousing applause from delagates presented at the convention hall. The Alaska Governor has become the second woman ever selected to run for vice president of the United States

Republican party and he pledged to bring much change to economy, national security and politic. John Mc Cain and his running mate Sarah Palin are making every effort to win Democratic rival, Barack Obama, for the US presidency.

The hookerS and the hooked

Besides current economics problems, Vietnam has to face many social issues in which prostitution and human trafficking appear to be the most controversial. The hookers In 2007, according to an international non-government organization, the estimated number of prostitutes was about 80,000 nationwide. Prostitution occurs everywhere and apparently deals their business on the streets. Almost everyday at about 10 pm, a long line of women standing on the curbs to lure in customers on Giai Phong Street, Nguyen Trai Street, Tong Dan Street, to name a few …, . These women work individually and unorganized. Thus, statistics can barely provide the exact figure of prostitutes. Organized prostitutes do their business in venues such as bars, discotheques, karaoke bars, and so on. Places caught hosting prostitutes are forced to close down and fined by local local authorities. However they will

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all soon be opened again in other disguised forms or even simpler, under different business names. In addition, in order to avoid random inspections from the police, various discreet as well as convenient means are being used to get through customers, for instance the Internet and mobile phones. The concerned issue is that more and more of this business is set up everyday. Statistically, there were 165 discotheques nationwide in 2007 whereas there were only 104 in 2005. As a matter of fact, there could be fairly a few possible reasons to why the number of prostitutes rises steadily. Nevertheless, poverty is the main cause. In most undeveloped countries, traditional and local occupations cannot provide people a good living condition. Therefore, people flock into larger and more crowded cities with hopes of getting better jobs and opportunities. In reality, it is almost impossible for everyone to have jobs as they have always expected. Naive girls are therefore conned by triad member or gangsters and then forced into prostitution. Others who cannot keep up with the

whirlwind lifestyle, on the other hand, become succumbed in the dark side of life. Furthermore, the lack of education in rural areas also unfolds another reason. Students from rural schools do not have proper sex education. A majority of female students do not know about safe sex and how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. On top of that, even the proper education to help divert these prostitutes sometimes does not work. Some turn back to old habits immediately after fined or released from rehabilitations. Ineffectiveness in finding and rehabilitating prostitutes leads to difficulties in addressing the scourge of prostitution. Lack of control in types of services at hotels, bars, clubs, and discotheques contributes to the rapid growth of prostitution. Prostitution is the serious crime that alerts urgent actions in both locality and nation. Creating jobs and raising consciousness for poor people are the two most vital actions to prevent prostitution. Local authorities should contact legislators to financially support local citizens to improve working standard

and associate with urban authorities to find out and help prostitutes to start a new and better life. Additionally, national government should enforce stricter laws to control prostitution as well as highlight the issue in public. The hooked Yet prostitution is not the only issue that concerns Vietnam. Among others, human trafficking has considerably increased nowadays, especially with the victims being young women. “Averagely, 500 Vietnamese women and children are sold every year to other countries”, said the General Department for People’s Police.Daily. Newspapers as well as online news have never stopped writing about tragic stories of unfortunate women who were cruelly sold to neighboring countries. They are hoodwinked to believing in promises of good-paying jobs, job training, education, and of course, better lives. Once overseas, these destitute females are forced into prostitution, arranged marriages, or slave labor. Even worse, they are also warned of consequences if they attempt to escape including being beaten, being raped and killed. Few lucky women can escape from the owners but the unlucky ones become sex slaves and forced wives for ethnic minorities’ men. Noticeably, several women participate in prostitutebuying system and end up being the owners. Similar reasons with prostitution, poverty and limited education are the main causes for the considerable increase of human trafficking. Traffickers usually deceive young women and children with untrue promises of better lives. Moreover, lack of updated information makes these victims more vulnerable to human traffickers. The lax borders between countries also give advantages for human traffickers to transport

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r o n o H r f o o n o d of H r a o B oard B victims into neighboring countries. The fact that there are none effective effort in finding victims and giving the accurate number of victims makes it almost impossible to rescue them. By all means, human trafficking obviously insults human dignity and spiritually destroys social structure and morality. Vietnamese authorities should co-operate with neighboring countries especially China to tighten borders between the two countries. “Prevention is better than cure”, raising awareness to local citizens about human trafficking is even more important. Only then can they protect themselves from the traffickers. Victims are usually tricked by false promises of better jobs and lives; hence, creating jobs and enhancing living condition for the whole population especially for rural people are significant missions. Besides, government should also improve protection and supporting system for the escaped and rescued victims.

Walkie Talkie Team -----------------Website: www.watavn.com Email: [email protected]

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Ku ala L umpu r-t he ci t y of tower s

I headed to Kuala Lumpur from Malacca where the first leg of the journey ended. Idealistically, coach is the most recommended transport to travel between least remember the names of the Malacca and KL. Tickets to KL suburbs you are interested in. can be bought at Malacca Central Getting around in KL can be done but prices vary among travel by either buses or trains which agencies. Basically, the more fre- fares cost RM1-2 and RM2.50, quency and comfort the bus of- respectively. fers, the more expensive the Besides, there are numerticket is. Just for reference, you ous places you can go “inside should expect to pay approxi- and outside” KL. To support the mately RM70 for this trip. As for headline of this article, KL certainmyself, I experienced a funny sto- ly is a city of towers. Malaysians ry with the bus ticket. Since the take pride in two must-see tower travel agency I chose only issued architectures which have become tickets in Malay, not until had we tourist attractions of the city: Twin travelled halfway, did I find out Tower and Single Tower. The that the tickets were numbered Twin Tower has been the pride of and I had been sitting in the KL residents since it was completwrong seat. So here is a tip for ed in 1997. It was once the tallest you: look for Malay words such as building in the world before the A welcome board in KL “bilangan”, which means “number” Financial Centre in Taipei (Taipei in English, or “mendudukkan”, 101) broke the record in 2003. which means “seat”, on your tick- However, with such historic backets and save yourself from embar- ground, the tower stays attractive rassment. enough for 1,300 people to conKL is relatively similar to quer the highest storeys everymany other vibrant cities of the day and thousands of others to South-East Asian countries and admire from a distance or inside by “vibrant”; I mean big, crowded, the building. busy and noisy, especially during The Twin Tower is also the peak-hours. Roaming around called PETRONAS Tower, after KL could sometimes be a night- the Malaysian petrol corporation A bus station in KL mare if you do not know your way that significantly invested in its and the people whom you ask for construction. There are 88 stodirections do not speak fluent reys stacking on an eight-pointed English. The key here is to at star foundation. The building was 16

Twin towers

constructed mainly from steel and glass. As part of the Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) project, it represents strength and wealth as well as religious beliefs, beauty and sophistication of the capital city. At the moment, Tower 1 houses the corporate headquarters of PETRONAS and Tower 2 is used for the affiliated organisations of this company. There is also a six-floor podium between the two towers, which is a complex of a shopping centre, a concert hall and an art-education-science gallery. The most striking feature of the Twin Tower is the sky bridge joining two towers at the 41st and 42nd floor. The architecture and construction process of this skywalk are simply legendary and you need to listen to the story yourself. In a nutshell, it is not rigidly built but is hung and supported by numerous cables and two major hoists. Hence, you will be able to feel the sky bridge slightly but clearly swinging in the air when the wind is strong enough. How can we go up there and step on the bridge? You may be surprised of the fact that not many people know they can do it 17

without paying a cent. Everyday, a limited number of tickets (do you still remember the figure 1,300 mentioned above?) are given away for the “early birds” who are patient enough to queue up. The tickets are given out at 8.30 am for the 9.00 am admission. However, from my experience, you should come between 7.30 am and 8.00 am to secure a place. The good news is that one person can get tickets for a group, so you can work out the task among your friends. You can stay on the sky bridge for at most 10 minutes and I assure you that every second of it is worth dying for. The view over KL city is spectacular, the feeling is incomparable and the pride of being there is just as good as being on the top of the world (I still keep the ticket as a memorabilia). Though not as famous as Twin Tower, the Kuala Lumpur Tower is another destination I strongly recommend. It is also known as Menara Kuala Lumpur, Menara, or simply Single Tower to distinguish from the twin one. It is not as tall as the other but the height is still enough to give you a breathtaking panorama of KL city. Menara is the tallest structure in the South East Asia, the world’s tallest single standing concrete structure and the world’s fourth tallest communication tower. You need to buy a ticket to experience this building which costs only RM8 and allows you to stay as long as you want. You will also be given a personal portable television and headphones to privately discover the view from the top level. Besides those two symbolic towers, there are many other tourist attractions in KL such as museums, mosques, temples, gardens and markets, to name a few. China Town is always a good place to find affordable souvenirs. You will find small scale models of Twin Tower and Single Tower at very attractive prices. Furthermore, if the Malay cuisine is too spicy for you, the

China town in KL

A cheap restaurant opposite a market

Chinese dishes are always good substitution without compromising your budget. Batu Caves is also one of the most recommended destinations. Located just thirteen kilometres north of KL, Batu Caves is perfect for a one-day trip. It consists of three main caves and numerous smaller ones. They are made of limestone and considered sacred to the Hindu in Malaysia. Before getting to the main caves, you need to climb up exactly 272 steps (theoretically to prove your faith and worthiness). It does sound appealing, does it not? If you want to get away from crowded and busy KL, Cameron Highlands is a great hideaway option. Situated about 300 km north of KL, Cameron Highlands is similar to Da Lat of Vietnam in terms of weather, and atmosphere. It is the country’s largest hill resort. There are also vegetables and fruit farms as well as a flower and butterfly garden for tourism. However, it may be a little costly to stay and enjoy this magnificent plateau. So, that is my entire trip to Malaysia, specifically to Malacca and Kuala Lumpur. Although I have tried my best to capture the best image of the country, it is almost impossible to cover the whole country in words. There are still many other places I was suggested to visit but could not make it due to certain limitations, not to mention countless hidden charms here and there around Malaysia. Nevertheless, I hope this will help you in planning your trip if you are interested in exploring “Truly Asia”. I will see you again in another tourist journal entry where Uniquely Singapore awaits.

Inside a coffee shop in the China Town

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“I f there' s somethin g that you're dreamin g of then may it al come tr ue, because you deserve it al . . . H A PPY BI RTH DA Y. ”

Best wishes to you!!!

Wa l k Birthda y

- Ta l k Card

“The sec r et honestly to staying youn g is to , ea t s l o live wly, and age. lie abou t your

—----Lucille B -------a ll HAPPY B ------IRTHDAY TO ANYO WAS BO NE WHO RN IN SEPTEM WHATEV B ER OF ER YEA R IT I ALL GR S!!! YOU EAT!! ARE Best wis hes from M r . HE A RT!

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