Ttntag red river delta

My father taught me how to swim when I was five. He took two coconuts and secured them together with a cloth to make a makeshift buoy. I used it to keep afloat as I flailed at the water in the middle of a flooded field. When I figured out how to stay afloat, my father took away the coconuts and planted two poles, two meters apart, in the water. I had to swim from one to the other. With each passing day the poles got further apart. One day I was able to swim all the way to the furthest part and make it back to land safely. It was how I and my siblings learned to swim. It was how all the kids in the Mekong Delta did. Our parents were not professional coaches, and merely passed down their experience to their children. Yet I rarely heard of anyone drowning in my hometown. My father said parents started thinking about teaching their children how to swim as soon as they were able to walk. It only takes a small mistake to lose one's life in the waters of the delta. We used to get … [Read more...] about Who is to blame when kids drown?

Singaporean players Jin Yujia and Wong Jia Ying Crystal  (red) play against  Albo Airah Mae Nicole and Pomar Thea Marie of the Philippines in the women's doubles on May 16 at the Bắc Giang Sports Competition Hall. —  VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam By Việt Thắng HÀ NỘI – Việt Nam and Singaporean players are heading to the semi-finals in the women's team badminton after successful matches on May 16. The women's team badminton quarter-finals were between Việt Nam and Malaysia, and Singapore and the Philippines at the Bắc Giang Sports Competition Hall. Việt Nam’s players put on a dominant show right from the start, defeating Malaysia’s team in three matches, and losing one match. In the opening game, Nguyễn Thùy Linh, the top seed in Việt Nam’s women's team, used her home advantage and the enthusiastic cheers of local audiences to prevail over her opponent Nurshuhaini Siti (Malaysia). Nurshuhaini was blown away 21-9 and 21-8. Linh said she recognised that her … [Read more...] about S’pore, VN women cruise to badminton semis

Two Vietnamese university professors were honoured with the Kovalevskaya Award 2021 for their outstanding achievements in applied sciences at a May 16 ceremony with Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan in attendance. Awardees of the Kovalevskaya Award 2021. (Photo: VNA) The event was held by the Vietnam Women’s Union Central Committee in Hanoi. The awardees were Prof., Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai, Vice Rector of the University of Science at the Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM); and Prof., Dr. and Meritorious Teacher Nguyen Minh Thuy, a senior lecturer in food technology at the Faculty of Agriculture, the Can Tho University. In her opening remarks, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Women’s Union’s Central Committee Ha Thi Nga said the award, named after Russian mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya, is the first international award for women in recognition for their exceptional contributions to scientific and technological research and … [Read more...] about Kovalevskaya Award 2021 presented to two university professors

As the high school entrance and graduation exams are starting in a few weeks, final-year students at middle and high schools are as busy as a bee at back-to-back extra classes. Some students leave their extra classes and return home at 9:30 pm every day. Like her fellow students, N., a ninth grader of Tang Nhon Phu B Middle School in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City, is in crunch time. She has a very busy studying schedule. After school, she has to attend after-hours classes at a cultural fostering center and an English center. Additionally, she takes private lessons in literature and math. Her daily extra classes often end at 9:00 pm. She confessed that she felt under pressure but she had to try to get into a good high school. She encourages herself by thinking about relaxing after the exam. T., a student of Vinh Kim High School in Tien Giang Province, is also nervous about the upcoming national high school graduation examination. T. told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that … [Read more...] about In Vietnam, students rush to private classes as high school entrance, graduation exams near

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has asked the Vietnamese Embassy in the U.S. to call on the U.S. government to recognize Vietnamese communities in the country as one of its ethnic minorities. PM Chinh visited the embassy in Washington, D.C. on Saturday as part of his trip to the U.S. to attend the U.S. - ASEAN Special Summit from May 11 to 17, at the invitation of U.S. President Joe Biden. The PM praised the embassy’s efforts in realizing the external policy of the Party and the state, promoting the image of the nation and people of Vietnam, and contributing to fostering the Vietnam – U.S. comprehensive partnership. The embassy should maintain its good performance in overseas Vietnamese affairs, including citizen protection, and request the U.S. government to recognize Vietnamese communities in the U.S. as an ethnic minority of the country, the Vietnam Government Portal cited the PM as saying. He also requested the embassy to take prompt actions in implementing relevant … [Read more...] about Vietnam seeks US recognition of local Vietnamese communities as ethnic minority group

China's withdrawal from hosting the 2023 Asian Cup could see the showpiece shift west to the Gulf, where new infrastructure and voracious demand for major events has made the region a magnet for international tournaments. Having planned to hold the Asian Cup across 10 cities in June-July next year, China dropped the 24-team tournament due to "exceptional circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic", the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said over the weekend. The AFC said it would name a new host in due course but provided no detail and declined to provide immediate comment to Reuters . AFC member nations were in the dark on Monday about the next steps. "This is quite an unusual situation and so there’s no specific process that we are aware of on how things could go," a spokesperson for the Korean Football Association (KFA) told Reuters . "We just know that China has given up." The AFC has little time to appraise candidates and may not have a diverse set to choose … [Read more...] about China withdrawal could see 2023 Asian Cup heading west

Your browser does not support the audio element. A Vietnamese-French academic was presented with the Maurice Audin mathematics prize in Paris on Wednesday for his great contribution to the field, after a two-year wait. According to the French website Images des mathématiques (or Images of Math), Prof. Ngo Bao Chau, 46, a Vietnamese-French mathematician at the University of Chicago, was announced the winner of the 2016 edition of the Maurice Audin prize. Images des mathématiques is published by the French National Center for Scientific Research (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – CNRS) and devoted to popularization in mathematics, with an aim to show the diversity of the science in an attractive way – words and pictures. Prof. Chau is best known for proving the fundamental lemma for automorphic forms proposed by American-Canadian mathematician Robert Langlands and Australian mathematician Diana Shelstad. He is the first Vietnamese national to have received the … [Read more...] about Vietnamese-French Fields Medalist receives Maurice Audin prize for math

Huynh Duc Linh, a Vietnamese physical education teacher, is pursuing his dream of teaching swimming to one million kids in Vietnam, spending the last six years teaching over 10,000 students. In 2019, Linh was informed of nine students from Nghia Ha Middle School in central Quang Ngai Province dying in a tragic drowning incident. Since then, Linh and his colleagues have tried to teach swimming skills to children, reaching their target of running courses for over 10,000 kids after six years. Recently, the government has called for far more actions to prevent drowning , making Linh and his team decide to pursue a bigger dream: teaching up to one million kids to swim. More than 2,000 under-16-year-old children drown a year in Vietnam, the World Health Organization cited an estimate in 2020. It’s not a rosy path Linh is the founder of Sapaga Company in Da Nang, a coastal city in central Vietnam, specializing in building swimming pools. Since he started the company, he … [Read more...] about Vietnamese PE teacher dreams of teaching 1 million kids to swim

Here are today’s leading news stories: Politics -- Vietnamese State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Greek counterpart Katerina Sakellaropoulou agreed on measures to promote the Vietnam-Greece relations during their talks in Hanoi on Monday, the Vietnam News Agency reported. -- Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received the CEO of Kohlberg Kravis Robert (KKR) investment company, president and CEO of Visa, as well as CEOs of Citigroup and Standard & Poor’s on Monday morning (local time), as part of his U.S. visit. COVID-19 Updates -- The Ministry of Health documented 1,550 COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the national tally to 10,698,180, with 9,359,763 recoveries and 43,067 deaths. Society -- Three children aged four to six drowned after falling into a pond while playing near their homes in southern Binh Phuoc Province on Monday morning, local authorities confirmed later the same day. -- Two men aged 33 and 34 were killed after their car crashed into … [Read more...] about Breakfast @ Tuoi Tre News – May 17

U.S. health regulators are expected to authorize a booster shot of Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 as soon as Tuesday, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. The companies submitted an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the authorization last month. They have cited data from a mid- to late-stage study showing a third dose of their shot increased protection against the original coronavirus version and the Omicron variant among children in the age group. It is unclear how much demand there is for the third dose in the age group. Just 28.8% of children aged 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A meeting of outside vaccine experts on an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been scheduled for Thursday, the report said. The FDA declined to comment, while Pfizer and BioNTech did not … [Read more...] about FDA to soon authorize Pfizer’s COVID booster shot for younger kids: NYT