Vacation
My long vacation began last weekend. I spend three day for staying home because it is
raining. It makes me sad and miss my city where has rain six months in the year. That is a
big city in Vietnam with many big building and traffic jam but I love HCM city too much. I
like to go around downtown every evening with my friends under the rain. It is very
romantic and funny in my memories. It is like a special thing that I cannot forget it. Now
Christmas is coming soon, I feel alone in here when I listening to the rain outside my house
in the dark night. I still remember raining night in my country that the time we eat
something hot such as mushroom soup, baked sweet potato, and banana cake. They are
very delicious food in the night rain. It also makes the rain in my country to become a
lovely season. However, in here – the US I don’t have anything in rain night and the only
thing I have that is lonely feeling. I miss my mom’s food and the smile of my family. Some
people said that they love rain because CA doesn’t have rain in the year. I compare with
my country it is very difficult we have 6 months for rain and 6 months for sun. We don’t
have winter and autumn because I live in southern of Vietnam. All in all, I hate rain in CA
and I hate the feeling of homesick. My vacation has just begun 4 days and I still have more
than one month. What I need to do on the next day. Don’t say with me study – It is not
interesting with my on this time. I think I will go to cinema and watch love movie for
Christmas season. I hope every people don’t feel sad when it is raining like me. Happy
Christmas and nice vacation to everyone!
English and Vietnamese
I began to study English when I was in junior high. I feel that it is very difficult to learn
a second language because it is nothing like my mother language. Therefore, I have a good
determination to find the similarity and the difference in English and Vietnamese. There
are many similar and different points between English and Vietnamese like pronunciation,
communication syntax, and grammar.
First of all, pronunciation of English and Vietnamese are different but very similar.
They have the same alphabet in pronouncing sounds. For example, the English sound
/b/, /d/, /m/, /n/ is the same sound in Vietnamese. However, Vietnamese does not have
/f/, /w/, /z/, / θ/ sound in the alphabet. So the Vietnamese find it very difficult to pronounce
these sounds. In addition, English sound enunciates the ending sound while Vietnamese

lover in English where as “em yeu” means the same in Vietnamese. During daily
conversation, Vietnamese and English use simple and short sentences. Slangs are heavily
use in both languages. Consequently, it can be very difficult to distinguish these two
languages from one another just by the way they use syntax.
In conclusion, languages all over the world have the same basic rule and purpose. I
think you will find many interesting, differences, and similarities things among each
language. All languages are related to one another one way or the other. English and
Vietnamese are similar but they both have many of the same and different points in
pronunciation, communication syntax, and grammar.
Disadvantage in Tourism
Nowadays, oversea travel is very popular in the world. There are many people want to
discover about other countries. It helps to develop of the economics for many countries.
Besides that, it also brings many problems for them. Vietnam is becoming increasingly
important as a source of revenues to many countries but its disadvantages should not be
overlooked. These disadvantages of tourism are culture and custom, and natural landscape.
The disadvantage of tourism is many influences to Vietnamese culture and custom. The
Vietnamese were very simple in the traditional fashion. For example; from a long time ago,
women wore “ao dai” or “ao ba ba”. It was very be careful in their clothes. However,
Vietnam opened door with many countries therefore many people came to Vietnam. They
brought so much new things coming to Vietnam. The Vietnamese culture and custom
changed too. The young person begin wear short with low cut décolleté. It has never seen
before life. They like to outside more than stay at home. They begin to try club and bar like
foreigners. There are many hotels, restaurants and public services. I can see many children
don’t go to school but they become street vendor for the traveler. I saw many people in
country side changed their life because they want to copy the tourists’ custom. The life
style has influenced by the traveler. Many vices appear in live such as drug, prostitution,
and robber from city to country. Thus, it is very difficult controlling disadvantage and
keeping culture and custom in public.
Another disadvantage from tourism is natural landscape. Vietnam has many natural
landscapes with long coast running follow the length of country. Some of them have

the way. Beside that you also have romantic trip on the river with sailing ship Columbia. It
adventures with strong feeling games like Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, and Haunted
Mansion. Some games are very funny and lovely like Mad tea party, Peter Pan’s Flight,
and One Man’s Dream II. Disneyland is a happiest place in the world.
On the other hand, SeaWorld is also most famous place in the United States. It locates
in San Diego, California. It was born on March 21, 1964. SeaWorld San Diego is different
with Disneyland because it is a chain of marine mammal park. It doesn’t have characters in
the cartoon movies or stories but it has famous Orca, sea lion, and dolphin shows. The
ticket in SeaWorld is cheaper than Disneyland. An annual pass to this place costs around
50 dollars. First on the list are SeaWorld’s aquatic shows with Shamu’s adventure. It looks
like you coming to the oceanic wild life. Next, you will enjoy with dolphin discovery and
Ignight. You can also hear dolphin’s song and dance. They are very nice and lovely too.
Dolphin’s circus is very intelligent. However, you don’t want to miss sea lion shows for
example; Sea Lion Tonite, and Clyde and Seamore’s Risky Rescue. There are comedy
shows with hilarious episodes. The most important thing is you can come to training areas
and you can touch your favorite animals. SeaWorld has a lot of animals such as red stork,
white whale, and penguin. Therefore, SeaWorld San Diego becomes one of the places to
visit in California.
All in all, SeaWorld San Diego and Disneyland are two interesting and beautiful parks
to visit when you come to California. There are my most favorite places here in the United
States. I will visit SeaWorld again on this autumn. I want to play with penguin and watch
killer whales show. SeaWorld San Diego and Disneyland are not only fun place but also
places to relax and enjoy with families and friends.
Saturday Morning
Every weekend I like to wake up late in the morning. So I felt very hungry and I went to
around kitchen finding something to eat breakfast. It was about 10:30 to 11am but nothing
to eat. I decided to cook Vietnamese food that it was Cha Gio (crispy spring roll). It is also
famous Vietnamese food as Pho. Cha Gio looks like Chinese roll but it is different taste.
The raw material includes; ½ lb. lean pork, ½ lb raw shrimp, 1 medium carrot, and 1 large
taro. I was minced both of them and mixed together in a big bow. Next, I put 2 eggs, 3

careful mark a smut on baby’s forehead as a way to drive ghost away from the little one.
According to the old custom, after checking the family annals, avoiding the profanation
of taboo names (name of a child is same as the name of ancestors); the newborn child is
officially given a name. In case of the name of the child is similar the name of ancestors, it
has to be changed. The ceremony to announce the name of the newly child is very simple.
The needed equipments are incense, betel and a glass of wine. Normally this ceremony is
organized annual during ancestor death anniversary. All children who are born in that year
are invited to announce their names during the ceremony. The order of each name in family
annals is sorted by year. There are number of forms which are used to record the name but
all of them contain the following information: name, parent, generations, branch of family,
first-born child or not, date of birth and the date of recording this information.
In short, Vietnamese culture has many customs and tradition from a long time ago. They
are special and interesting to foreigners when they visit Vietnam. Vietnamese culture also
is a part of its people life. It always is kept and developed by Vietnamese from thousands
years. I want to introduce my culture to all of my friends in and around the world. I’m very