Cherry Huong

My supernatural power

HuongPR — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:37:01 +0000

I have been wishing that I had an ability to fly since I was still a small child. I am wishing that I could fly right now when I am sitting in front of my laptop writing this essay. Ability to fly is the first thing and also the only supernatural power that I really want to have. I know that human beings have not known how to fly on their own without the support of modern sophisticated machines; however, it does not mean that we can never be able to fly by ourselves.

In 1800s, Orville and Wilbur Wright dreamt to fly in the sky. Many people told that was such a crazy idea yet they made it happen at last with the first simply “Flying Machine” (airplane nowadays) in 1903. Therefore, it is likely that human beings can find a way to fly freely like birds in the future though this idea sounds unrealistic now.

Come back to the question, what would I do if I had the supernatural ability to FLY? If you could fly, I would fly to different places across Vietnam as well as other countries without passports nor visas. The advantage of flying is obviously seen – saving time and money (for a student like me, money is such a big problem); nonetheless, if concerning about the society, this may be a loss and misery for the nation if anyone had the same idea as mine. In this essay, I just suppose I were the only one who owned that supernatural power fly like a superwoman.

I would use my supernatural power to travel around the world to satisfy my own interest; significantly, I would like to observe people around the world, live with them and write about them at the same time. It may become useful materials later on for the next generations – a book may be titled “The world through the eyes of a flying woman”.

I do not wish to be able to see the future because I do believe that the future is in our hands – we create it and there is no fate at all. I do not wish to read people’s minds because it would be more exciting to learn how to gradually explore people by their behaviors than understand all about them at the first time. And so on. Thus, I wish I could fly to be able to see the whole world on my own.

A new interesting friend from Hawaii

HuongPR — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 07:18:37 +0000

I met an interesting guy today when taking my friends journalists to the guesthouse for some interviews. He introduced himself that: “Tôi sinh ra ở Bỉ, nhưng tôi sống ở Mỹ, tôi ở Honolulu thủ đô của Hawaii”. It made sense to me!

My friends planned to make a radio program about the Vietnamese traditional Tet holiday through foreign students’ eyes, so I was FORCED (absolutely) to be the tourguide (and interpreter) for that good purpose. After some trivial interviews with Russian and Mongolian youngsters that terribly let us down as none of them knew anything about Vietnam, we saw a tall sporty man gossiping enthusiastically with a Vietnamese boy in English and … Vietnamese. We interrupted him right away for the quick interview, but it turned out to be a long exciting conversation about Vietnam – America relation, politics and culture which I hardly have any idea about except for very basic background knowledge.

I found that American guys quite concerned about politics or diplomatics. I had met another American man last day at Salsa class who was going to get a master degree on “International Relations” at London University. He talked to me endlessly about American politics, his intention to become a lecturer on International Relations at Longdon University and a book named “After Bush” which he cheerfully presented it to me afterwards (I don’t know if I can read it all but at least, I hope to understand it a little after the International Relation class of Ms.Loic next semester).

Return to the man I met yesterday. What a curious and weird guy! He asked me tons of questions about Vietnam and complained a lot about American people: “Americans don’t know much about Vietnam-most of them think Vietnam is totally backward without electricity, TV or sth like that…” – said he with fury. “Absolutely” – I just grinned. In fact, Americans know Vietnam through documentary films about Vietnam wars and photos taken by veterans or photographers about the Vietnamese countryside traditional beauty with fields and peasants … Little do they know that Vietnam has been westernizing fast reflected by the young generations nowadays. Well, some people criticize on it yet I like it truthfully. I prefer modern metropolises (ironically, Hanoi and Sai Gon cannot be regarded as metropoleis at all with dense population congested in small areas). Although I appreciate the cultural and historical merits, I dislike the traditional habits of Vietnamese people to some extent – let’s talk about it later, we’re going to talk beside the point now). Generally speaking, I found this man really hardworking. He seems to be hunger for learning Vietnamese and gaining knowledge about Vietnamese culture. He asked everywhere, everytime and under any circumstances that impressed me strikingly. Vietnamese students had better learn from him in this respect.

The fun was that he asked me again and again how old I was. He told me he couldn’t believe that I was only 20 to be so impressively smart (once again, he made complaints about the American young generation that they cared nothing about the society but entertainment channels on TV). I get the word “smart” sometimes from people I communicate with for the first time, but I also get another opposite “cute” word: “Chicken” (“Gà” in Vietnamese). Oh dear! I know that I have to cultivate much more to deserve that praise (in every aspect of life as I’ve known it)! Anyway, it’s awesome!

He arranged to meet me another time for an interview and photo taking. He said he wanted to talk about me in front of his class this Thursday. The topic might be: “A lovely smart lady from Hanoi University”. Haha. Just kidding! That’s my honor! I will wait to see what he’ll tell his class about me. How eager I am!

Media Course reflection

HuongPR — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 07:08:26 +0000

I was afraid that Salsa music would make my prior strong inspiration to write some reflections on the Media Course go down, and I was true, to some extent, after four hours turning inside and outside my with partners at the Salsa class. However, the truth is that nothing can stop me from loving, appreciating and being proud of what I have experienced and archived during the short 3 week of the Media Course; thus, needless to force, I am sitting right here in front of my laptop at 11: 00 PM to tell you how I in particular (and my classmates in general) feel about the course.

Today is our graduation day of the Media Course. We invited our teachers and friends to the Screening to show our four short documentary films made for three weeks. I could not imagine how wonderful this day was at the time when we had still got congested with ideas, editing and recording tasks. The audience loved our films, the teachers recognized our effort and we ourselves had good achievements. Each of us got a certificate attached carefully in a professional looking folder of the Media Department from the New School US, a lovely USB on which printed “Media Studies – New School” and really lovely “I love New York” bags. I will never forget the moment when Ms.Carol hang the USB with a red ribbon on my neck as if it was a gold medal for the champion. I will also never lost this invaluable certificate of the Media Class ( by the way, I am so happy to say that I got two certificates in two consecutive weeks – one at karROX for Leadership Skill Course and the other at New School for Media Course – I have to keep all of them very carefully, I lost 2 valuable certificates within a year – huhu).

Certificate receiving :X

Discussing a bit about our work progress to finish the film “Long Bien Story” (just of my group, the other three groups had their own stories), I have so many things to share with you. I told to the audience that this might be the most challenging but interesting task for us during this semester. That’s the truth! Prior to this day, our group including three little girls had to “visit” the Long Bien bridge lots of times to shoot and interview. It was not easy because we lived too far from the bridge to be able to carry heavy equipments; and it was harder to approach reserved sellers as well as find a veteran to carry out the interview (at last, we just interviewed a couple yet it turned out fun!). Despite this fact, we learned a lot from these trips about the bridge’s values and people. Importantly, we learned how to cooperate effectively with members in a team. Most of us were nearly flooded with work and personal stuff at first – Linh’s father was hospitalized so she had to take care of him; Hang got busy dealing with both her part-time work and study; I was swamped with lots of extra classes and activities at. But later on, we shared, helped and interacted well during the project. We all worked so diligently with empathy and collaboration. So did other groups!

My team

To be honest, I was absolutely stressed several days before the screening because we had too little time to finish the project while there were still lots of things to do. I was shocked when receiving an e-mail from Ms.Maria one day; That said, she was really worried about our project (Long Bien Bridge) as no one came to the Media Lap that morning and the limited time was getting closer (I told her that I had not been able to come as I would have an extra class the whole weekend, so Hang and Linh would come to make the rough cuts of the clip). I was not only shocked but depressed as well since my teammates had told me the lie that they would come. Fortunately, Hang did appear at the last minute to finish the rough cuts. I thought that she did a good job for choosing marvelous shots out of a cluster of random ones that I had made (anyway, I was proud to be able to shoot such stunning shots – a minute of self-satisfaction!). Moreover, Hang successfully fulfilled her responsibility as a narrator thanks to her inspirational voice (I had thought that my voice would turn the documentary film into a comedy film – so did Linh’s chirm voice). Linh, who was in charge of the narrative script, did her best to give new ideas for the film that made it more organized and fresh. I appreciated her for doing her utmost to stand by us most of the time while her farther was in hospital. For me, I was responsible for the camera recording, music and clip editing. I found it interesting to wander around to record fascinating even funny moments – the hard thing was how to choose right angles to make the point understood right. Music was much more difficult than I had expected. It took me a great amount of time to decide which piece of music was suitable for this scene, then cut and edit to make it fit with the voice-over. I thought I did good work as the audience praised that much (owning to the combination of Hang’s voice and Linh’s words). In fact, I got stressed when editing music and adding subtitles for the clip, I shouted as crazy on the Lap and cursed at my stupidity – maybe my brain had some mental problems that day to be able to finish the task alertly so I had to leave it the next day later. Actually, I was easy to be irritated during the last days of this project due to the great pressure I created under myself. I wanted to make it best and put so much expectation on me and my team as well. Finally, we did not regret for what we achieved.

All the teams with teachers :X

Other groups made great impressions on me also. Each of the films bears its own meaning. I love “Floating Future” with the significant ending – the metaphor of a growing tree standing for the children’s future on the Red River. I love “Behind the corn field” for its friendly way of leading the story – a student holding her bright future but her mind occupied with the uncertain future of people raising corns under the Long Bien bridge. I love the “Living on rubbish” guys who devoted themselves to the project with terrible days shooting rubbish around the bridge.

We had good time cheering and gossiping about the course. Almost all of us had the same feelings at certain periods of time – excited at first, stressed at the middle and happy at last. We intended to open a media club where people can join to share their experience and make films together. It was said that Mr.Douglas would help us contact with some experienced filmmakers and photographers to carry the project out. Well, it sounds cool. I will update this news later as soon as possible.

Last but not least, I really want to say how thankful I am to Ms.Carol, Ms.Maria and Mr.Douglas who helped us so much in this course. You gave us a great chance to experience ourselves in the field of Media, to gain knowledge about the Long Bien bridge, to love our own country more and appreciate every single life of different people. I hope to meet Ms.Carol and Ms.Maria next year at HANU, or several years later in the US probably. We’re sure to meet Douglas again in this Spring semester for “History of Thoughts” subject. Therefore, I am happy to have you with us again, Mr.Douglas.

Mr.Douglas and I

It’s late at night , I am going to bed now. Some feelings about the course are still lingering in my mind but I think I should stop first, otherwise anyone else will fall asleep before me. Good night!

Enjoy the Red River Tour with the Media Class

HuongPR — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:28:54 +0000

I have been taking photos at the Red River and Long Bien bridge many times, yet this was the first time I went out with the purpose of … learning sth new. We a group including four professionals and fifteen students of the Media Class hung around the area this morning to explore about the history, culture as well as community of the Long Bien bridge.

Fieldtrip on Long Bien Bridge

Firstly, I want to tell u more about the Media Course.I was so EXCITED but NERVOUS at the same time when applying for the Media Course because only 15 suitable candidates were permitted to attend the course. I had been waiting for one month long – oh my god! Luckily, the proposal expressing my desire and ability for media met the course requirements (till now I haven’t figured out why there are so many of my classmates in the course:eyes:). We are lucky to have Ms.Carol from the New School and Ms.Maria with us during the course – they are all working in the Media Field, knowledgeable and friendly.

Especially, we continue working with Mr.Douglas – one of our favourite professionals – who has great passion with photography, media and Long Bien Bridge:D. The Media Course lasts for only one month, during that time, we are supposed to make a short documentary film about any topics related to the Long Bien bridge – Red River such as the floating community there, the environment, history or culture. It would be a great EXCITING challenge for all of us because the short video has to be concise, lively and attracting.

We spent the whole morning going along then downstair the bridge to explore the communities under it , historical reamains and even the great number of injection needles. The most expressive thing was that homeless children usually lived right beneath the bridge on narrow dangerous bridge’s pillars. In winter days, they had to leave for another places for survival. I was a bit shocked and moved when Douglas said about those children. Poor them! Not only homeless children but also the ones on floating boats, they earned their living by gathering rubbish, catching fish and planting corns. It was said that they had no education, no healthcare and nearly no childhood. Lately, a friend of mine told me that some exchange students from University of California University (UC)had raised funds to build safe place for the children to play soccer. How great it was! Really appreciate! It made me think about us Vietnamese students: “What can we do to help Long Bien’s children?”. Moreover, Douglas raised another question that I had thought about before: “If people restore the Long Bien bridge, whether they still remmember its historical values as well as structural merits?”

One minute thinking ……………….. Then …

Leave the question for more deeper thoughts later. Let’s turn the attention to the students. How fun ! We had time practicing how to use the camcorders, how to record one scene with different perspectives. In fact, I got more familiar with the ipod camera than the camcorder as I had been using it from the start of the tour (though I got desperate when finding that all of my recordings were in the reverse direction and bad quality later on ). I suddenly thought of a very humorous topic: “Vietnamese students would rather pose themselves with cameras than learn media” when I saw most of my classmates (and I) got so eager to pose themselves with the camcorder like professional camerawomen (yet we did know nothing about it ). Just kidding!

We had lunch together after the tour. A gang of teachers and students went straight to a restaurant nearby for “Mì Xào” – Vietnamese Speciality. I wondered why we could enter the restaurant where most of the clients there were drunkards drinking or … “nhậu nhẹt” in Vietnamese -_-! Anyway, the dishes were good, I admit that I could eat one more … – I will try to cook it at home in this new year. Well, on behalf of all students in the Media Course, I would like to say thank-you to Ms.Carol, Mr.Douglas, Mr.John and Ms.Maria who paid the terribly expensive bill for us (nearly 1mil VND – unbelivable!!). We promise to finish our project successfully and work hard not to let you down. Oh man!!

The tour endding at 1:20PM left us with fun memories, lots of cute pics, knowledge, thoughts, full stomaches and a bit tiring. Generally, we want to say thank-you to all of you teachers who have been devoting to the Media Education and Development of Vietnam, though this is the beginning, I believe it is a good beginning (as I said earlier with Ms.Maria) because we are all potential students .

KICK OFF PARTY for FIS

HuongPR — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:52:23 +0000

I have been in charge of the event KICK OFF PARTY for my faculty – International Studies (FIS). This is the first event to show off FIS and help new FISers gain more knowledge about the faculty. The scale is rather large, so I have lots of stuff to deal with – managing different groups to prepare for the event, leading a group called “TALKING” (with guests) that I have no experience at all. It brings me chances to practice my leadership and management skills; however, trouble comes also.

Firstly, it is hard to gather groups together; sometimes I don’t know what they are doing as I get no reports from them at all. I worry that they will not finish the work in deadline. What should I do now? I write check-list for groups so that they know what they have to do and give them the exact deadline. Besides, I had better make myself a list to assure that I am managing all groups in the right way and not forcing them always.

Secondly, I have difficulty in leading my own group named “TALKING”. Our work will be to invite guests (FIS’s potential employers like NGOs, Bussinessman, Government) to have an intimate chatting with students at the party (like TalkVN). Mr.Tung, who is working for VTV now, is responsible for contacting with guests (do you think I should go with him also or closely involve this task?). I think it is better to transfer some pp in my group to Logistic or Marketing group since we don’t need as much personel as the others. Our main tasks now are: 1 – Inviting guests (Mr.Tung invites employers and Mr.Cuong invites FIS graduates), the rest is to sit back and write the full script (I will write with the support from Mr.Tung, Mr.Cuong – both of them are working in the Media field) and practice MC with Mr.Tung (2 persons will be better than 1 only; especially this part lasts for 1 hour).

This Tuesday, I’m arranging a meeting amongst all leaders and members of groups to tell them about some issues about process and budget (see nothing till now). Marketing is the 1st problematic group – the leader is too busy with other work to lead her group, so I have to pick another person to take charge, then gather members (don’t know the exact number of members in that group). Then, Logistic gets too much work – decoration, buffet, clubs showcase corners… (headache!). Art performance (singing and role play) is still in silence – dont know whether they practice with one another, hire clothes and sth like that.

To sum up, so much work will kill me. I have to learn how to handle my life with all of these staff because I will not meet them only once yet many other times (even always) during my whole life. Good luck to me! Come on!

P.S: I am standing in front of the DEADLINE for Arena Project, which will happens on Friday night. I am sure that I will be the person to be in charge of the group to make a presentation – another chance, I hope someone will replace me as I don’t like to talk about what I don’t know much. Hic.

Taking photos at Lotus Swamp

HuongPR — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:38:02 +0000

Lotus - my photo taken by Mr.Thinh

Fortunately, today was a very nice day so we, a group of 3 girls and 5 guys, had good time taking photos at the Lotus Swamp in the morning. We had planned to meet each other at 6:00 AM early in order to shot the best pictures and avoid the harmful sun rays. The destination or sight today is the Lotus Swamp next to the West Lake Water Park in Hanoi. It is said that lotus blossoms beautifully during June; even July now, many photographers (both amateur and professional ones) come there to keep the most wonderful moments of the nature. We are not apart from those people.

The lotus swamp is one of the most famous natural landscapes of Hanoi. I had never been to such a large lotus swamp like that; though when we came, there are a few blossoms as they were ‘harvested’ so early at 4:00AM, I loved the swamp a lot. We took many pictures that will be shown in my photo site – Picasa. There are two main ‘photographers’ (I want to call them like that although they may not be real photographers ) and two … model girls (I want to call that even though no one is model). I acted as a model and, sometimes, a photographer. I found it really interesting either when you stand in front of the camera or when you yourself take photos – you have to be artistic and confident always.

Two photographers are Mr.Tung and Mr.Thinh. They are not professional ones yet I can find they are so good at taking photos – all the photos are evidence of their talent.

Two models are Ms. Linh and me. Ms.Linh is a designer working at the same company with me, that’s the reason why she is sensitive with art and become a potential model (really I love her face and her charm also). I would rather take photos than be a model but I prefer to be a model when I go out with my talented friends photographers (every girl wants her beauty respected and praised by other people). All the pics look good. Do you think so?

You can see all of our today’s pictures at HuongPR’s Picasa (photos will be updated soon).

Hope you will enjoy it!

I am not wasting my time at KOTO

HuongPR — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:36:54 +0000

Life Skill class 11 at KOTO center, Hanoi, Vietnam

I know that for sure even when my friends do not stop repeating the same “rhythm” that: “Huong, why are you wasting your time volunteering at KOTO? No incomes! Nothing! It’s crazy!”. Do you think it is crazy while I am doing the work I like so much? Not at all, right?

Maybe you have never heard of KOTO. The name stands for “Know One – Teach One” or a philosophy of the founder Jimmy Pham – an Vietnamese Australian: “The greatest accomplishment for the person who has helped you, is to see you stand on your own two feet and then in turn help someone else that reminds you of yourself, because if you Know One, then you should Teach One”.

KOTO is an NGO founded to help disadvantaged Vietnamese children change their life, literary speaking. Specifically, KOTO trains their children hospitality skills like cookery, front-of-house, beverage and other essential things such as English and Life Skills so that they can get good jobs on hospitality industry after 2-year studying at KOTO. 100 percent of the KOTO’s graduates work on great hotels and restaurants like Hilton, Intercontinental and Seraton. Is it such a miracle?

I have been volunteering for KOTO for nearly two years – since I was a freshman. I started to be an attendant in Life Skills class – I was so shy and timid then. At KOTO, I feel myself so small in the huge ocean. Only when I join KOTO, do I have this type of feelings. KOTO makes me a real me and encourages me to be more and more positive. Gradually, I became more confident to take over some other work – organizing Monday Night activities, working with Macquarie University’s volunteers (this summer I am working with the second group of Macquarie’s students) and taking part in many activities. Is it a waste of time volunteering for KOTO?

I do not gain money or allowances from them; yet I gain a more important thing – a better me. That’s what I appreciate the most. I don’t know if I will work for KOTO in the future; perhaps the future will bring me many other opputunities for my self-development besides KOTO. Anyway, I will still devote myself to KOTO whenever I can. Good luck to me!

The first working day

HuongPR — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:24:38 +0000

I won the post as a copywriter at XIPAT Flexible Solution and started working yesterday. I was excited to see the company so nice, at least I felt the professional yet friendly environment there. As I just worked part-time, I had to put all my effort to fulfill the task assigned in the morning. Really … it made me shocked at the first time…

It was not as easy as I thought. In fact, I had to consider whether this word or that word more suitable; importantly, to avoid misunderstanding and bad impression.

When I finished the first article about Introducing the company in English, I went on translating it into Vietnamese. This is the most difficult task, to me, because the two languages are totally different in expression; thus, if translating word by word, the meaning is still the same but the whole article will sound ridiculous. I have not found out the way of making it appear more attracting.

I need time to train myself as a copywriter – this job requires me much more than expected. Anyway, I will practice more to keep me moving forward though how challenging it is.

Learn Basketball

HuongPR — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:28:51 +0000

From now on, I will get up early at 5 o’clock to play Basketball at school. I have been in love with it since I was a freshman, yet I just get a chance to practice it regularly now.

In order to wake up at 5 AM in the morning, I have to sleep early at 10 PM previous nights. A 7-hour-sleeping at night is enough for me to be energetic the next day.

Sports lead us a more healthy life. It is also said to make us more intelligent and active, so keep it in mind. Be Active! Be Positive!