[Vnbiz] English website for college students

[Hai Tran]

Dear anh Hoanh and CACC,

As a lecturer, I must say the idea to create an English website for our students is an excellent start to make the dream come true. Yes, all of us always long for a day when Vietnamese possibly use English as fluently as Singaporeans and since then Vietnam economy and culture could be much more integrated into this flat world. 

As I've observed, many, many Vietnamese students have been looking forward a quality website/forum to practice English through exchanging ideas on socio-economic topics. Thus, I completely agree with your suggestion and promise to be a volunteer from the very beginning to make this idea reach its destination.
 Once the web established,
 I'll try my best to encourage my students to join in to improve their English as well as enhance their knowledge which
 covered by topics on the forum.

However, to make the project become feasible, I think we need to overcome these foreseeable barriers:

1. The subjects/topics and format of the website: To attract students and encourage them to come up to the website, the first thing we need to consider is developing the contents in terms of depth and breadth. Until now, in Vietnam, we have a large variety of websites for younger, however, there exists no English websites for academic and formal discussion. Here, in marketing term, we have to create a differentiation to compete with other existing rivals :). Therefore, we don't have to cover up all the topics in this life, however, emphasise on topics which are academic but need to be practical and helpful for students is a must. (For instance, I think many economic students, these days, want to deeply comprehend how the
 inflation rate in Vietnam has skyrocketed recently and the affect of it on USD/VND exchange rate and the stock market?)

Regarding the format of the page, I imagine the website will be an open and virtual place where Vietnamese students can show up and discuss with each other their ideas and thoughts on every aspects of socio-economic conditions in Vietnam. Thus, looks like we will have another VNBiz forum
 after all?

2. Financial and Technical supports: Like other professional forums, we need financial resources to build up and maintain the website as well as organise off-line meetings, events and activities in the future. If we succeed in creating an English portal for students, certainly the website will gain supports/sponsorships from companies/organisations whom want to headhunt excellent/qualified students for their staffing later. In this aspect, no need to worries about once the website is well run and developed. 

3. Human resources: We need the voluntary cooperation from gurus in all socio-economic aspects. They should be responsible for positions such as advisors/moderators of specific sub-forums. With working experiences and knowledge, these experts can assist students to answer their questions and therefore, make the website more and more attractive.
 Could we easily find experts who have time and are willing to do that?

4. The hardest barrier - no political issues should be mentioned if we want the website could be widely spread among students. We all know in Vietnam, there are lots of things which can't be mentioned publicly since the government considers they're sensitive. Look at what the government has just done with two journalists whom bravely fought against corruption recently and well, we need to be always self-censored first and then step away from many hot topics? Surely we could hardly overcome it, since we all know that there's a strong relationship between socio-economic, cultural issues with politics in our real life. And if we can not mention all the aspects of one problem/issue in our discussion, it's not valued for a penny at all.

Have a good weekend,

Hai
 Tran.

--- On Wed, 6/25/08, Tran Dinh Hoanh
 <tdhoanh at gmail.com> wrote:
From: Tran Dinh Hoanh <tdhoanh at gmail.com>
Subject: [Vnbiz] English website for college students
To: vnbiz at vietlinks.net
Date: Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 2:31 AM

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