The Khmer have managed to preserve their own language and writings. They usually live with the Kinh and Hoa in "soc" (villages), and "phum" or "ap" (hamlets). The houses are simply built with thatched or tiled roofs. Major Khmer festivals include "Chon Cho Nam Tho May" (New Year Festival), Buddha's Birthday, "Don Ta" (Forgive the Crimes of the Dead), and "Ooc Om Bok" (Moon Worship).

H’mong people are an important member in the community of ethnic minorities in Vietnam with about one million people, ranked 8th among 54 Vietnamese ethnics. They often occupy the upland areas, from 800-1500m above the sea level, mostly in the Northwest and a few in the central highland of Vietnam. You can easily spot them in Ha Giang, Lao Cai, Sa Pa, Lai Chau, Son La and several other provinces.

Their language family is Hmon-Mien, yet the language is a non-written one. Hmong people have a very extraordinary culture that is still vividly seen today. The best time to visit the Hmong is during the Lunar New Year in late January or early February - when they would celebrate the 3-day Tet festival. During the festival, they often cheerfully blow “khèn” (their special woodwind instrument), play swings and other traditional games and sing in the large yard around the village.

Stealing Wife is another special H’mong’s custom: when a man loves a woman, he must ‘steal’ her in the darkest night and imprison her without food for 2-3 days; if the woman accepts to marry him, he will come to her family to ask for her parents’ permission.

H’mong people believe that they have a common ancestor so they greatly value unity in their community. Several families gather into a cluster and has a leader responsible for common works. As for costumes, H’mong people usually wear their self-woven clothes made by linen, decorated with unique technique to express their strong ethnic characteristics. They drink corn, rice wine, smoking cigarettes using plow. Meanwhile, if you are a guest who is invited a self-loaded plow by a H’mong, you should take it as a friendly fondness.

Nhớ tick cho mk nha

thanks

The ugly duckling Once upon a time there was a little mother duck. She was excited. Her five eggs were finally going to hatch. She watched and counted as one by one the eggs hatched. "One duckling, two ducklings, three, four, five ducklings", she said happily. Suddenly she noticed that there was one more egg. It was bigger and whiter than the rest. "This cannot be my egg", she thought. Slowly the big egg began to crack and the strange looking duckling came up. Mother duck was surprised. The younger duckling was great and bigger than the rest. "How ugly the little one is", she thought. As the day went by, the ducklings began to grow, but the younger duckling looked different from the rest. Everybody looked at him and said, "There goes the ugly duckling". His brothers, sisters teased him all the time. The ugly duckling felt very bad. Whenever people laughed at him, he used to run away and hide behind the reeds near the lake. "Nobody loves me", he thought. One day, the duckling decided to run away from home. He swam and swam, and on his way he had many adventures.

There once was a speedy Hare who bragged about how fast he could run. Tired of hearing him boast, the Tortoise challenged him to a race. All the animals in the forest gathered to watch.

The Hare ran down the road for a while and then paused to rest. He looked back at the tortoise and cried out, "How do you expect to win this race when you are walking along at your slow, slow pace?"

The Hare stretched himself out alongside the road and fell asleep, thinking, "There is plenty of time to relax."

The Tortoise walked and walked, never ever stopping until he came to the finish line.

The animals who were watching cheered so loudly for Tortoise that they woke up the Hare. The Hare stretched, yawned and began to run again, but it was too late. Tortoise had already crossed the finish line.

Vietnamese engagement ceremony is an important ceremony before the wedding which involve both fiancé’s and fiancée’s families. In the past, engagement ceremony was considered very important even than the wedding ceremony because it was an official day to announce the wedding, the relationship between two families. Nowadays, it is less important and varied for each region. In the big city the engagement ceremony could be celebrated 1 day before (and 1 month in the countryside) the wedding ceremony.

Before the engagement day, each family chooses a representative. This person is a member of the family which has a happy life and a high ranking position in the family. Both of representatives do representation, exchange gifts and controlling the flow of the ceremony. Besides choosing the representatives, both families sit together to negotiate the dowry and the good time for the ceremony. The time is chosen very carefully based on the propitious time and day of lunar calendar.

The gifts are prepared by the fiancé family several days before the engagement ceremony. Traditionally the gifts was placed a number of trays. The number must be an odd number 5, 7 or 9… trays depends on the condition of the fiancé family. The gifts are covered by the red color paper or cloth. In Vietnamese beliefs, the odd number and the red color will bring luck to the young couple. The gifts include betel leaves, areca nut fruits (trầu, cau), wine, tea, husband-wife cake (bánh phu thê) and sticky rice… one of the most important gift is the whole roasted pig which placed in a large tray. Both families also choose 5, 7 or 9 people who bring and receive the gifts. These people must be young and not marriage. Boys represent for fiancé bearing the gifts and girls represent for fiancée receiving the gifts.

On the engagement day, the fiancé family brings the gifts to the fiancée family with the warmly welcome. After receiving the gifts, the young couple prays in front of the fiancée’s family altar to ask for approval of fiancée ancestors. When this ritual finishes, the fiancé give the fiancée the engaged ring.

Following the engaged ring giving, the both representatives introduced the member of both families in an order. Then both family enjoy the party which prepared by the fiancée family. It is also expected that some of gifts are returned to the fiancé family for luck before the fiancé family leaves.

The days after the engagement ceremony to the wedding ceremony, the parents of fiancée family bring the wedding cards with gifts to their friends, family members… and neighbors to invite them to the wedding party of their young couple.

Vietnamese New Year

The Vietnamese New Year is also called the Tet. It is the most important traditional festival during Lunar New Year (usually around late January to early February), and people would celebrate it with different kinds of customs, such as ancestor worship, making special New Year food and writing couplet as well as other traditional activities.And people would go to visit friends or relatives' houses on the first day of Tet.

Making Banh Chung
Banh Chung is one of the special traditional foods that people would make during the Vietnamese New Year. It is usually made of sticky rice, along with pork meat and green bean, all wrapped in the shape of perfect square with a leaf of a certain local plant called Dong. And then Vietnamese would place the Banh Chung and other foods on the ancestors' altars (ancestor worship) till cook them on one or two days before the New Year.

Setting up New Year trees
At the end of the preparation for the Tet, a piece of bare bamboo (4-5 meters long) will be set up, with a little bunch of leaves on the tip, and a basket holding some fish and bells made of baked clay, acting as the marks that lead the ancestors' spirits their way home to reunion with the living.

Couplet
It's an indispensable tradition that every family would put up a couplet on the two sides of the main entrance door. The sentences are usually written in two parts. Words of one part must have the opposite meaning to the other part and obey some specific matching rules, which create an easy-pronounced effect. And you can find these traditional couplets written on red paper and being sold on both sides of the street, forming a happy atmosphere.

Water puppetry

If there's one way that combines culture learning and entertainment, the intriguing water puppetry would be an excellent choice. Dating back to the 11th century, this unique variation of ancient Asian puppet art features the skillful manipulation of the puppets, with the puppeteers controlling different varieties of puppet characters through large bamboo rods behind a screen, and not letting the audience see the puppeteers. The show is played on a waist-deep pool, so it would look like the puppets are moving on the water themselves.

The stories of the puppet show are usually about people's daily lives, legends, and some historical heroes. And the background music is played live with story-telling singing, drums, pipes and other traditional instruments. It's a great cultural learning time to share with families.

Where can you watch this show?
Located near the serene Hoan Kiem Lake, the Hanoi Water Puppet Theater is the place where you can admire this unique traditional Vietnamese art performance. The show will be put on every day at 15:30 – 17:00 – 18:30 – 20:00 – 21:15, and Sunday at 9:30

Tham khảo nha!

Task 1:

I like living in the countryside because of some reasons. Environmentally speaking, it is a peaceful place. The air is fresh. The space is quiet. We can enjoy healthy natural conditions without worrying much about environmental pollution.

As for social security, the countryside is a safer place than a city. While urban security situation is always complicated with all kinds of crimes, rural areas are much more secure because most of countrymen are friendly and ready to help one another.

Moreover, rural life is also easier that in cities. People in cities are easy to get stressed because of pollution, job pressures, competitions, etc ... On the contrary, those bad things are very rare in the countryside. To sum up, except income matters, the countryside is a better residence than cities.

Task 2:

The village has always been known to be a place of peace and quiet. The scattered houses among hundreds of plants and trees at once indicate the lack of activity in the village.

The workers in the village leave their homes early in the morning to work in the plantations or towns nearby. Some have their own plantations, and some make certain articles in their homes to sell them in the towns. A few of the villagers, including women, go out to catch fish in the streams and rivers found in the village. Though the people of the village do not usually earn much, yet they seem to be contented.

In the afternoon, most of the villagers are at home. Some of them take a nap after lunch; some work in their small gardens, and some visit the small shops in the village. In various parts of the village children may be seen playing the popular games of the village. Occasionally, a cyclist passes by.

Then, in the evening, the villagers meet one another. Some play cards and other types of games peculiar to the village. Some talk about the day's incidents in the village, and those whose minds go beyond the village discuss world events.

In almost every village there is a headman whose duty is to settle quarrels among the villagers and maintain peace in the village. Whenever there is a dispute, the villagers go to the headman who is held in such esteem that his word has the force or law. In this way the villagers have developed their own simple laws, and the crimes of cities are almost unknown to the people of the village.

During a festival, the whole village is alive with activities. Everyone is in a happy mood and plays his part to make the festival a success. This is the time for the men, women and children of the village to wear their best clothes and the village is full of colour. These simple ways of life in the village, however, must soon change. Progress in science and education has already begun to affect the outlook of the people in the village, and hundreds are leaving the village to seek their fortunes in the towns and cities.

Life in the countryside is quite different from that in the city. First, it is the atmosphere that differentiates the two living environments. In the countryside, the air and water are much fresher and safer, thus living there is totally comfortable and beneficial for our health. In contrast, people who live in big cities suffer from health problems and diseases related to poor air quality and sources of polluted water. Second, prices and costs of living are cheaper in the countryside than in big cities. Vegetables, fruits and meats are home-grown and home-produced. However, in cities, people have to go shopping for them. Third, the interpersional relationships are more harmonious and friendlier. Those who live in the same village, especially neighbours, for example, know each other very well. There is a close-knit cooperation between people in working and many other daily activities. On the contrary, negatively speaking, city people only live and know their own business. They hardly care about who their neighbours are and what they do. Sending a helping hand, as a result, is never seen among city people. In conclusion, although the city life holds many advantages that make life more convenient, I always prefer living in the countryside where the environment is nice, the costs of living is affordable, and the intimate relationships among people are really meaningful. Personally, If I had a choice between a villa in the city and a small house with garden surrounding, the latter would seem better to me.

Tick mk nha

I really like using computers. I started this activity when I was seven. I often use computers an hour per day. Firstly, it is a means of communication. It's so convenient to communicate with each other. Secondly, it helps us expand the relationship. Also, using computers makes us relax after study or work hard. However , every coin has two sides. Using computers can be harmful to both your health and your social life. In sum, I like using computers very much.

The Hung Kings' Temple Festival has become one of the greatest national festivals in Viet Nam for a long time. It is held annually from the 8th to the 11th of the third lunar month. The main festival day is on the 10th day. Every year, when the third lunar month comes, all Vietnamese citizens head for Nghia Linh Mountain, Hy Cuong Commune, Lam Thao District, Phu Tho Province in commemoration of Hung kings