In the past, people would dress simply, especially at school, following the difficult war and the post-war period. Those from earlier generations were embarrassed to wear a new shirt when their mates had none. Girls kept their hair long or twisted it in braids, while boys stuck to simple short hair styles. Very seldom was a student seen sporting a distinctive style.
The recent death of Trần Minh Hoàng, a nine-year-old boy whose neck was slashed by a long, sharp roofing steel plate loaded onto a makeshift behicle has sparked sorrow and anger - not only from the victims’ relatives but also from many residents of the capital.
With Vietnam integrating more deeply into the world, English has become increasingly important, perhaps even a decisive factor in one’s successful future.
Disasters like fires and drownings emphasise the need to educate with survival skills.
Foreigners can easily hire motorbikes to travel in Việt Nam but many of them did not know clearly the country’s traffic laws, whereas traffic police find it difficult to punish them because of uncommon languages.
Everything is different. Life in Hà Nội is wonderful, frustrating, chaotic, noisy, challenging, intriguing, welcoming, friendly, crowded.
Overparenting is nothing new around the world, but it is increasingly popular in a modernising Việt Nam. With smaller family sizes and different standards of living, some Vietnamese parents regard their one or two children as 'treasures' that demand extreme care.
Commonly revered as the Roof of Indochina, the 3,143m Fansipan is located in the northern Vietnamese province of Lào Cai. Since the opening of the Fansipan Legend cable car system in February 2016, the peak is now within anyone's reach. But not everyone is happy.
For thousands of years, Viet Nam’s culture and history was recorded in the Han-Nom scripts, which combine Chinese and Chinese-based Vietnamese characters.
Ever since I was young, I studied in the American education system, and consequently, have an American-centric perspective of history. Also, unfortunately, my history classes contributed little to my knowledge of the spirit of September 2nd.
Despite the tremendous benefits of breastfeeding, the rate is still dramatically low in Việt Nam.
For foreign tourists and expatriates living in Việt Nam, the chaotic scenes of local traffic are quite peculiar and undoubtedly dangerous if they are stuck in the middle of it.
There is a lack of readiness to protect people’s safety, given that the weather forecasting has repeatedly failed to do its job accurately.
On a quiet Tuesday morning, a strong current of wind swept a baby stroller into Xuân Hương lake, carrying with its force a one-year-old child. The boy’s mother had been busy playing Pokémon Go.
It’s the first time the Health Ministry has proposed a draft on management regulations of privatised services in both State-owned and individual hospitals.
Long before the invasion of the internet that has brought along social networks and online forums to Việt Nam, many people used to write diaries as a way of expressing thoughts and emotions.
Have dates changed over time?
In 1968, the Beatles came out with a song called Can’t Buy Me Love. The idea that money, or material goods, doesn’t equal happiness has since become somewhat clichéd. But just because it’s a cliché, doesn’t make it less true.
An official of a district-level office in central Hà Tĩnh Province has stirred a wave of outrage from public after his photo was posted on Facebook last Thursday.
