Showing posts with label international. Show all posts
Showing posts with label international. Show all posts

Friday, February 18, 2011

Vietnamese students get support in Melbourne

U.S. education career orientation seminar

Around 5,000 new international students, including Vietnamese students, will receive assistance when first arriving in Melbourne until February 26.

On landing at Tullamarine International Airport in the Australian city, overseas students can visit the welcome desk and receive an information kit.

“There are 30,000 international students either studying or living in Melbourne, and we want to support them as they embark on their Melbourne education and ensure they enjoy their time while they’re here,” Robert Doyle, Melbourne’s Lord Mayor said.

Vietnamese student, Bui Hoang Trung, who is doing a Bachelor of Computing at Swinburne University said, “Arriving in a new city as a new student can be tough… The welcome desk at the airport is designed to put new students and their parents at ease.”

The info kit was the brainchild of Swinburne University of Technology and the Victorian State government. About 100 volunteers, including Swinburne teachers and international students, help out with the program to assist international students to get to know their new city. Many of the volunteers are multilingual and there are pamphlets printed in different languages.

The Student Welcome Desk has been operating at the Australia-based airport since 2009 during the two major arrival periods of international students in February and July. This month, the desk will hand out 13,000 welcome kits.

According to Australian Education International (AEI), the international arm of the Australian Government Department of Education, over 24,000 Vietnamese students have studied in Australia so far.

*The U.S. Consulate General will hold the U.S. Education and Career Orientation Seminar  at Rex Hotel, 141 Nguyen Hue Boulevard, HCMC’s District 1 on Monday Feb. 28.

The orientation is designed to guide Vietnamese students through the decision making process of studying in the U.S. The event include informing students about job demand trends in Vietnam, equipping students with the tools to choose the right U.S. schools that meet their individual needs, empowering students to ask key questions when making this decision, assisting students with the application process, educating the public about accreditation and the concept of due diligence, and informing students about the student visa application process.

The free event is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 5p.m. and includes the sessions How to Use the Internet to Search for the Right School and Accreditation; Vietnam Workforce: Projected Career Trends in Vietnam; Application Process; Student Visa and SEVIS; and Student’s Life in the U.S.

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Saturday, February 12, 2011

Vietnam set for 1st international chorus contest

The first ever Vietnam International Chorus Festival and Competition to be held in Hoi An next month will provide Vietnamese choirs the opportunity to meet their international counterparts and take part in a festival of this size for the first time.

It will be hosted by renowned choir organizer, Interkultur of Germany.

For its six categories of competition, 34 choirs from eight countries have signed up so far. The compulsory categories include mixed, male, female, and children choirs.

Indonesia will send 12 choirs, followed by the Philippines with 10. Vietnam will be represented by five choirs from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Quang Nam province.

The event will also feature advisory circles, rehearsals with choir experts, and encounter concerts.

A highlight will be the big opening show on March 15 on a giant floating stage by the Hoai River square.

Besides the competition, the choirs will also perform for locals and tourists at eight venues across Hoi An.

The event, scheduled to be held from March 15 to 18, is among 12 international competitions for amateur choirs held by Interkultur.

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Monday, December 6, 2010

NPO youths celebrate Int’l Volunteer Day

Volunteers play one of the many games organized at the event for International Volunteer Day in HCMC - Photo: Annalise Richter
Over 200 young volunteers from NPOs around HCMC joined a party for International Volunteer Day on Sunday morning at Saigon Pearl International School in Binh Thanh District.

The atmosphere in the packed room in the school basement was ecstatic, as hundreds of youths played games and cheered on their peers, in between presentations and talks on stage.

A DRD volunteer at the event, Nguyen Thi Phuong Nhung is a social work student at HCMC University for Social Sciences and Humanities.

She said she joined DRD as a
volunteer to help with her confidence; improve her social-work skills and help others. DRD works with people with disabilities and is connected with many centers. One of the centers had a stall beside the DRD stall selling paper animal toys made by residents to raise money.

A Volunteers for Peace Vietnam volunteer, who is a visiting university student from Wales, Annalise Richter, said the event was great because young people in Vietnam had fun in such a different way to in the UK.

She said 18 year olds here are so playful, uninhibited, enthusiastic and very much group orientated, but in the U.K. they only get excited about things like drinking.

About 13 NPOs organized on Sunday’s activities. They included Blue Dreams Volunteer Group, DRD Volunteer Club, Habitat for Humanity Vietnam, Health Volunteers Organization, IVC (International Volunteer Club) and LIN Center for Community Development.

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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

AusCham flood appeal for Central

AusCham in conjunction with Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Crown Relocations have started a collection appeal to help rebuild the lives of flood victims in the central region.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia has offered to process the transmission of all funds donated, free of charge, to the Red Cross in order to distribute the funds to those in need in the affected areas.

The AusCham appeal also invites people to donate food (rice, instant noodles, canned food and drinking water etc) and non-food (household items, toys, firstaid kits etc) by putting them in collection bins provided at seven specified locations – The Australian International School, ACG International School, British International School, Commonwealth Bank of Australia HCMC branch, ERC Institute Vietnam and The International School.

Crown Relocations distributed all the collection bins on Tuesday. They will also be responsible for shipping all the collected goods to the devastated areas.

For more information about donations contact AusCham at (08) 3911 0212 or visit www.auschamvn.org.

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AusCham flood appeal for Central

AusCham in conjunction with Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Crown Relocations have started a collection appeal to help rebuild the lives of flood victims in the central region.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia has offered to process the transmission of all funds donated, free of charge, to the Red Cross in order to distribute the funds to those in need in the affected areas.

The AusCham appeal also invites people to donate food (rice, instant noodles, canned food and drinking water etc) and non-food (household items, toys, firstaid kits etc) by putting them in collection bins provided at seven specified locations – The Australian International School, ACG International School, British International School, Commonwealth Bank of Australia HCMC branch, ERC Institute Vietnam and The International School.

Crown Relocations distributed all the collection bins on Tuesday. They will also be responsible for shipping all the collected goods to the devastated areas.

For more information about donations contact AusCham at (08) 3911 0212 or visit www.auschamvn.org.

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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Culture Vulture

The First Ha Noi International Piano Competition with 63 participants from South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Canada, Russia, Taiwan and host-country, Viet Nam, ended on Sunday. The event was organised by the Viet Nam National Academy of Music (VNAM). Director of VNAM Ngo Van Thanh discusses the event with Culture Vulture.

This is the first time Viet Nam launched an international piano competition. Was it a success?

The First Ha Noi International Piano Competition was created to mark Polish composer Frederik Chopin's 200th birthday and one of the events to celebrate the capital Ha Noi's 1,000th birthday. It was a festival for pianists and piano lovers. This was an opportunity for the VNAM to host a music event that met international standards. It was also a chance for talented pianists to shine, and for Vietnamese music academics to meet international people in the profession.

It's great we were supported strongly by the international community. The event was successful for two reasons. First, we had qualified piano teachers who did a great job organising the event. Second, is the increased role of the private sector in the development of the arts in Viet Nam.

The event was sponsored by individuals and organisations like Techcombank, Vietnam Airlines and many overseas Vietnamese.

The competition was launched 30 years after Vietnamese pianist Dang Thai Son became the first Asian to win the prestigious International Frederik Chopin Piano Competition in Poland in 1980. How can Vietnamese artists win more prizes at the international competition in the coming years?

The competition itself aims to improve Vietnamese classical music teaching and performance skills. During the years, we have had many talents like accordionist Nguyen Quynh Trang who won the Hong Kong Competition for Young Asian Musicians in 2001 or soprano Bich Thuy, the first prize winner in the International Opera Contest in Thailand in 2008.

Pianists include Luu Hong Quang, who won a special prize at the Asia Chopin International Piano Competition in Tokyo in 2006 and a second prize at the Valtidone International Piano Competition in Italy in 2008, Do Hoang Linh Chi, who won the first prize for his piano performance at the 3rd ASEAN International Concerto Competition in Indonesia in 2009, and Luu Duc Anh, who won the first prize at the piano competition known as "Classical Sonata" held in Sydney, Australia in 2009.

International competitions are good opportunities for artists and teachers to study and stay up-to-date with the international music standards.

Is it true that Vietnamese music teachers are highly appreciated by the international community?

We have a powerful set of young talents who have been trained in a strong music environment. Many countries in the region wish they had a training institution like the Viet Nam Academy of Music, which boasts a generation of teachers who were trained in Russia before creating a professional training curriculum.

Some regional countries lack intermediate level training. In contrast, Viet Nam seeks and encourages potential talents from a very early age and trains them over a long period time.

The Government has supplied about 80 pianos to the academy, worth hundreds of billions of dong.

With more than 270 piano students and many international prizes, would you say the piano is a particular strength for Vietnamese musicians?

Piano has always drawn the most students because the piano is regarded as one of the most prestigious musical instrument, and that is true in many countries. Thus, the piano is certainly popular in Viet Nam.

At present, drawing foreign talents, both teachers and students, is currently a trend in the region. Is Viet Nam following this trend?

Actually, Singapore and Thailand now have Western teachers and even invite international managers. It is a fast-growing trend and it draws many foreign talents. There are many Vietnamese, Chinese, Thais and Indonesians who now train in Singapore.

In addition, Russian-trained Vietnamese teachers are always updating modern music knowledge. — VNS

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