1) Search Engines: Google may be the most common means for searching the Web.  Their approach is to search the entire text of certain Web pages.  A good approach is to utilize the “Advanced Search” page to ensure the most relevant search results.  Remember though that each search engine has different search options and features; it is also recommended that users review the Help section of the search site they’re using.  For a comparison of major search engines, visit Infopeople.org

2) Subject Search Sites: These are directory sites focused on specific subjects.  Examples of these are www.business.com, www.fedstats.gov, www.ceoexpress.com

3) Searches Within Specific Sites: This is a useful approach if you want to focus your research on the information posted on very broad/comprehensive website such as www.census.gov

4) Links: A classic example of using links on a site to expand your research is when users refer to the bibliography of Wikipedia articles.

5) Wikipedia: Almost everyone has used Wikipedia at one point or another.  Wikipedia is an online collaborative encyclopedia that can offer excellent means for research sources.  A bold caveat about using Wiki is that it should not be used as a standalone source since it may be difficult to assess the validity of the article’s authors.  A tip offered by the author of the HBS article recommends users to look at the “discussion” and “history” tabs of Wiki entries to learn about consensus or disagreements among authors.

6) Meta Search Engines: These websites allow users to search multiple search engines at once.  Examples include www.metacrawler.com, www.dogpile.com, www.clusty.com

7) Directories/indexes: These are webguides compiled by other people.  Sites are listed by categories.  Some examples include www.completeplanet.com, www.searchenginecolosus.com, and www.libraryspot.com

Lastly, I would argue for one other information search/sharing platform is social media sites and forums.  Medical and Dental students have long used Student Doctor Network as a primary source for learning about topics such as application process, interview tips, etc.  Other valuable forums include our very own OneVietnam Network.

Let us know how your search experience has been and if you’ve discovered other “best practices”!

Arguably, the quickest route these days to obtaining information for a research query is via a search engine such as Google or through an online encyclopedia such as Wikipedia.

This is particularly important for many of us who are business majors and/or are looking for business opportunities abroad.  For business information seekers, the internet offers vast content for a fee or for free.  A Harvard Business School article briefly outlines some questions to consider when evaluating free content on the web, especially paying particular notice to where the information came from and why it is available for free.

Here are the questions to consider in determining the validity of free internet contents (Jan W. Rivkin & Ann Cullen, “Finding Information for Industry Analysis,” HBS No. 708-481):

1) What type of individual or organization produced the site?

2) Is an author listed? If so, what are the credentials of the author?

3) Is there a bias or a commercial interest?

4) Who is the website’s target audience?

5) How current is the information?

6) Are references, citations, or links to other resources included?

President Obama will deliver the State of the Union address tonight at 9pm EST.   While some may discount such speech as political propaganda (2012 elections are coming up), many are intently waiting to see Obama’s legislative agenda for the year.

Having recently returned from Vietnam, I am particularly interested in the business growth potential in America.   Vietnam today (2011) is unlike anything I can recall from my 2008 visit.  Saigon is more beautifully adorned with skyscrapers (eg. Bitexco Financial towers) and many new businesses have spurted, particularly those in techmedia (eg. Vietnam’s version of groupon).  It’s hard to deny the level of high energy flowing through the city.  Chatting with college students and young professionals, I could feel a renewed passion for entrepreneurship that I may perhaps have missed in 2008.

Returning to Boston, I wondered about the business environment in America.  Unemployment remains high and many college graduates are struggling to find jobs.  America stands today as the biggest economy in the world; however, competitors are slowly creeping up the rankings.  What policies/legislations/cultural changes need to be in place to foster innovation in order for the US to command its dominance in the world.

An interesting editorial piece written by Fareed Zakaria, a foreign affairs analyst for CNN, urged Obama to be “bold with Congress” in tonight’s State of the Union.  The original article can be read here.

In the article, Zakaria suggests bold ways in which Obama could outline a plan to invest in America’s future.  This is a particularly important issue because for some time now, scientists and innovators have slowly gone abroad for more attractive funding opportunities.  Zakaria suggests a bipartisanship strategy, one which draws upon the best Republican and Democratic ideas.

What this boils down to is the creation of policies which promotes innovation through cutting edge technology while creating new jobs.  Specifically, Democrats want more done through government research and technology infrastructure while Republicans want more done through regulatory and tax reforms that stimulate the private sector.   Basically, Zakaria argues that Obama should combine both approach (because they’re both right) and create a compromised plan that will receive buy-in from both parties.  Zakaria goes even deeper to provide specific analysis of these policies, which can be read from the link provided above.

The question remains: How should America reform and invest in itself to remain the global economic leader?   Will Obama outline an economic strategy that focuses on education or tax reform to stimulate growth?  After watching the State of the Union, what were your thoughts and reflections?

Dear readers,

It has been an incredible year since we have started VTP.  The comments, discussions, and encouraging feedback we have received have kept us working hard to post new and exciting articles.

On this special day of giving thanks, we would like to give our deepest gratitude to all our fans – Thank You!  Hope you are having a joyous and filling day with friends, family, and loved ones whether you are eating turkey, chicken, or duck

-OneVietnam Family

Article was written by Yen Tran, a second year student at Tufts School of Dental Medicine.

This past summer, I had a valuable experience working with Project Vietnam Summer Camp to provide health and oral care to Vietnamese patients in rural area. Project Vietnam Foundation (PVNF) is a non-profit organization based in California and founded by Dr. Quynh Kieu. PVNF’s mission is to provide health services and improve current health standards in Vietnam. PVNF have year-round projects, mission trips, and summer camps throughout rural provinces of Vietnam.

Summer Camp 2010 is a two-week long program that took place in Central Vietnam: Hue, Da Nang, and Hoi An. Unlike the traditional mission trips, PVNF summer program is an opportunity for volunteers to explore Vietnam and its culture in addition to providing community services to Vietnamese who are in poverty. The team consisted of three physicians, two dentists, and sixty volunteers from various backgrounds. We had five days of clinic that consisted of four stations: medical, dental, pharmacy, and optometry. Each clinic was set-up at different provinces throughout Hue. These provinces lacked standard health care, usually located in rural farm areas with no health facility within a 50-mile radius.  Volunteers had opportunities to rotate around the stations in order to be exposed to different areas of health care services.  Because I am a dental student, I worked as a dental examiner. My job was to determine which teeth needed to be restored or extracted. This was the first time that I had examined so many children with baby bottle syndrome, a condition in which carbohydrates such as soda, sugary drinks, juice and milk remain in contact with the baby’s teeth for prolonged periods, and leads to tooth decay. Almost 98% of the children that I examined suffered from this condition due to lack of tooth brush, tooth paste, and oral health education. Some families did not know what a tooth brush was; therefore, we also educated the children on proper brushing techniques and proper oral hygiene.

In addition to working in health care clinics, we visited two orphanages. At the orphanages, we educated the children on oral health care, sang songs and played different games together, taught the children how to count in English, and gave out gifts. Being at the orphanages was my favorite part of the program because I had a chance to really bond with the children. Parting with the kids was definitely the most emotional part because the children kept asking if I was coming back. Although I knew that I was not coming back for a long time, I left them with a feeling of hope by assuring them that someone will soon come to play with them. As I left, I encouraged them to behave and be obedient to their caretaker and reminded them to pursue an education to better their lives.

PVNF Summer Camp is laborious especially in 110°F; however, it is so worth it to see the smiles in each patient’s face at the end of the day.  With the same goal and passion, our team provided health care services to 3,000 patients. Being a volunteer with PVNF has taken me from my comfort zone, and given me many memorable experiences. I immersed myself in Vietnamese culture for the first time and in the process I made many native Vietnamese friends, created bonds with many volunteers, and networked with doctors and dentists.  But most importantly, I worked with my fellow volunteers to reach a common goal:  providing quality healthcare to Vietnamese patients who were in dire need of assistance.

When we were not working, we went sightseeing at various tourist attractions and ate different traditional Vietnamese food at local street vendors. At night, we went to different bars to experience various Vietnamese breweries. It was my first time back to Vietnam since I immigrated to America; therefore, every experience was new and invaluable. I had such a wonderful time in Vietnam that I am inspired to go back when I become a dentist to volunteer for similar projects.

I recommend PVNF Summer Camp to high school students and undergraduates who are interested in health care careers, to Vietnamese-Americans who have never been back to Vietnam, and to physicians/dentists who want to give back to their homeland. To learn more about PVNF, you can visit the website at http://www.pvnf.org/.

The teacher who nurtured a young Vietnamese immigrant with empathy and kindness opened the way to a new culture, new possibilities, a new life.

The man who stood at the entrance to my New World was my first English teacher, Ernie Kaeselau. He passed away recently, and though I hadn’t seen him in decades, the news of his demise left me unexpectedly bereft.

Having fled Saigon and the Vietnam War in the spring of 1975 during finals in sixth grade, I landed in San Francisco a couple of months later and attended summer school down the peninsula at Colma Junior High in Daly City, preparing for seventh grade.

Never mind that I didn’t speak English, only Vietnamese and passable French. I was enrolled in Mr. K’s class for the summer and, as it turned out, for the next two years in junior high.

I never knew what Mr. Kaeselau’s politics were — liberal is my guess — and if I had any then, ours would have surely clashed when it came to Vietnam. But when it came to me, the first Vietnamese refugee in his classroom, his policy was plenary kindness.

His first question was my name and his second was how to properly pronounce it in Vietnamese. A day or two later, Mr. K asked again and practiced it until it was perfect, and soon, the Vietnamese refugee boy became the American teacher’s pet. It was my task to get his lunch, erase the blackboard and collect and distribute homework assignments. When I missed the bus — often, and sometimes deliberately — he’d drive me home, a privilege that was the envy of the other kids.

American kids: They wore colorful clothes, smoked in the bathroom and swore at each other and, sometimes, even at their teachers. But Mr. K’s classroom was a haven. At lunchtime the “good kids” made a beeline for it. Away from the schoolyard bullies, we ate, played games and did our homework. I remember laughter, arguments, even budding flirtations, and Mr. K reigning over the chaos with ease.

For a while, I was his echo. “Sailboat,” he would say while holding a card up in front of me with an image of a sailboat on it, and “sailboat” I would repeat after him, copying his inflection and facial gestures. “Hospital,” he would say, with another card held up. “Hospital” I would yell back. I listened to his diction. I listened when he read passages from a book. If he could say my Vietnamese name, surely I could bend my tongue to make myself sound more American.

He took our little group bowling, taught us how to keep score and bought us soft drinks. He took us on a field trip to a baseball game, my first. I remember crossing the Golden Gate Bridge with Mr. K narrating its history, how it was built, and I remember that I asked him afterward if it was made of real gold. The entire bus erupted in laughter.

Most memorable, however, were the books that came in a carton. We jostled each other to be up front at his desk as Mr. K. read each title, then matched the book with its new owner. Mine was “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, and I remember poring over its pristine pages in wonder. I didn’t yet know how to read in English, but oh, how impatient I was to learn!

That summer, I bought a typewriter for $1.25 and typed out Grahame’s famous tale about Mole, who left his underground home and went up for air and ended up sailing down the river toward adventure. I read many sentences from “The Wind in the Willows” out loud as I worked. By the fall, I was something of a typist and a reader of the English-language novel.

If I pushed myself, I had good reason. In Vietnam, I was a child of an upper-class family. In America, I was the son of impoverished refugees who lived with another refugee family in a ramshackle apartment near the end of Mission Street, where the promises of San Francisco ended and the working-class world of Daly City began. I knew I had best run far and fast if I were to leave all my losses behind.

Within a few months, I began to speak English freely, though haltingly, and outgrew Mr. K’s cards. I made friends. I wrote Valentine cards to giggly girls. I joined the school newspaper. I found my bearings. I was becoming, as my mother complained to my father, “an American brat.”

#

At Mr. K’s memorial service, retired teachers sat in the pews as somber organ music played. Wizened, gray-haired, they rose again, one by one, to speak with affection and humor of a man who was known as much for his aesthetic sensibilities and practical jokes and friendship as he was for his devotion to the art of teaching and to his student.

He was a talented organist … loved driving cross-country … Spanish architecture and colonial history of California … this thing where he mimicked people while walking behind them … created beautiful stained-glass objects … collected antique silver and botanical prints.

He was especially fond of orchids.

To all this I would say that his greatest talent was empathy: He intuited how one felt and, like a bodhisattva, performed his magic to assuage grief.

But if there’s a sad statement about the American scholastic experience, it is that the passing of a beloved teacher is often not mourned by his or her students. Father’s Day and Mother’s Day are remembered, but a good teacher, alas, rarely receives a card from his former students on National Teacher Day.

Drinking coffee and eating finger sandwiches after the service, I kept asking anyone younger than I whether he or she had been a student of Mr. K’s. And the answer was always no.

#

The last time I saw him was the day of eighth-grade graduation. Mr. K gave me the old cue cards to take home as mementos; he asked me to keep in touch. But I sailed on.

I went to Lowell High School, then to UC Berkeley and Stanford. I left the working-class world where Mission Street ended, and I didn’t bother to look back, didn’t bother to keep my mentor and friend abreast of my progress.

Several decades later, I decided to write an article about learning English, and Mr. K was featured prominently. Did I know that Mr. K read and treasured that article? Did I know that, in retirement, he kept coming back to it, to my writing — to me? No. Not until his best friend, another teacher, sent me this note to inform me of his passing:

Most of us know what pleasure Ernie got from your article…. He was deeply honored. What no one knows is he was a bit unhappy that there was no retirement recognition. He told me many times he didn’t want any big deal, but as the years passed, he would speak somewhat wistfully of the lack of acknowledgement. You gave him acknowledgement.

By then I had traveled to distant lands, to war zones, and even back to Vietnam to say a proper goodbye to my interrupted childhood, but I didn’t go back to where Mission Street ended. I felt, unreasonably, that Mr. K would always be there, making other needy kids feel special. And in dreams and reveries, hadn’t I revisited him countless times?

But that’s the trouble, isn’t it? Happy children don’t question their contentment any more than fish wonder about the river’s current; they sail on. My childhood, interrupted by war, was rekindled by kindness. And because I felt blessed and happy, I went on blessedly with the business of growing up.

A charmed life is one that goes downriver, not knowing what’s beyond the bend but confident nevertheless that gracious strangers will be there. Charmed was how I felt when I first came here, and more than three decades later, charmed is how I feel today — and much of that, I will acknowledge, has to do with Ernie Kaeselau. Mr. K opened America’s gate and ushered me in, and I, so hungry for all its possibilities, rushed through it.

APNEWS, Flood in Ha Tinh Province

Summary: Since Oct 6th, 2010, the monsoon season brought heavy flood to Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces and caused 112 deaths and 150,000 displaced families. With $30, you can provide a family with mosquito net, blankets, and warm clothings to survive the winter.

By The Numbers

$30
To help a family survive the winter.

More Information

The flood in early October, 2010 caused 112 dead and 150,000 displaced families in Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces in Vietnam. All infrastructures connecting to the region including roads, highway, and railroads are completely submerged making it very difficult to bring emergency supplies to the flood victims. There are many relief groups working to bring rice, fish sauce, and water to the victims. However, as the winter approaching, many of these families whose homes are severely damaged will be in need of blankets and warm clothings to survive the cold. Also, they will need mosquito nets as mosquitos grow rapidly in wet areas.

OneVietnam Network is hosting a Flood Relief Week to spread the message and connect Vietnamese around the world to help the flood victims.

---

Here is our action plan and how you can help

Donate through PayPal

Current Donation Progress

Flood Relief Week

Goal

Provide mosquito nets, blankets, and warm clothes to help the victims survive the winter.

Fundraising Target

$10,000

Gift to the Victims

$30 per families to provide 1 mosquito net, blankets, and warm clothes.

Timeline

Fundraising ends at 3:00AM on 10/27/10.

How you can help

• We need 333 donations of $30 each. So please share the video message above to your network and ask them to give a helping hand. The PayPal donate button will appear at the end of the video.
• 100% of the donated funds will go to gifts and transporting costs.

How funds will be used

• $9,000 for 300 gift packages to the families
• $1,000 for money transferring and transporting costs:
• Money wiring companies usually charge 2-5%
• Trucks are needed to transport gifts from Hanoi to Ha Tinh provice (350km)
• For certain village, gifts must be transpored via boats.

Reports

• Fund raised amount will be updated daily
• All relief expenses will be available publicly.
• Photo of families receiving gifts will be posted publicly and with their letters.

pho-recipe.com

I’m traveling right now in Asia, tasting and talking to lots of locals about street food, ingredients, and culture. Back in the States, my old friend Simon B. gave me a heads up on a recipe from this week’s Rachel Ray’s TV show: Phunky BBQ Pho with Pork.

Many of us on this site try to parse good food from bad, authentic food from inauthentic stuff. Standing in our way toward better informing one another are poor media productions such as this segment of the Rachel Ray.

Did you see it? Rachel Ray’s pho recipe is described with this sell: “This Thai-inspired soup is loaded with exotic flavors!” She says on the show that it’s Vietnamese but the recipe says otherwise.

With all the money that backs up the Rachel Ray Show, can’t anyone get the ethnicity right? Or, do all Asians look and cook the same?! Fact checkers, personal and research assistants to Rachel Ray should do their homework.

Pho is not Thai. It’s Vietnamese. Pho is in dictionary so it’s not hard to get the low-down.

I’ve got no qualms about people coming up with authentic and inauthentic renditions of food as long as they stay true to the original to some extent. Rachel Ray’s Phunky BBQ Pho with Pork calls for garlic, angel hair pasta, and plum and hoisin sauce, among other ingredients such as canned chicken broth and ginger.

The pork is seared and then cooked in the oven with broth. Is that the BBQ part? No, she puts hoisin on it at the end in the bowl.

No fish sauce, though the garnishes of red onion, mint, cilantro, bean sprouts, and Sriracha brings the pho a tiny closer to being pho.

Angel hair pasta? What decade do we live in? At least try a flat noodle like linguine to get the shape closer to banh pho rice noodles!

It’s a funky recipe all right and I’m rather appalled that the producers of the Rachel Ray show would such an injustice to pho noodle soup.

Ray touts the magic of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) to making food extra good. I wish that her show producers would go the extra mile for Asian food. It doesn’t have to be super authentic Asian cooking but at least teach people something valuable, not funky.

Rachel Ray’s fans deserve better. So does America.

Trends in Vietnam presented by OVN’s very own – Jennie Le.

If you have any suggestions or recommendations, please correspond by sending emails to director/writer: Amanda Owyoung (amanda.owyoung@onevietnam.org)

Hold the Future is a Hanoi, Vietnam based charitable organisation that offers vocational training and handicraft production to young people with disabilities. The Centre accepts young disabled people between the ages of 18 and 30 irrespective of their disability. Hold the Future aims to provide its members with the necessary life skills and support in order for them to achieve independent livelihoods.

Young people often arrive at the Centre desperate in their search for a meaningful life. They lack confidence and skills to make their way in society. Hold the Future provides them with an initial safe haven to repair their self-esteem. At the same time the young person is entered into the vocational training programme to prepare them for handicraft work. Besides the vocational training Hold the Future also offers several soft skills courses to build confidence. The current vocational training students are already working on producing handicraft items and they are soon able to earn a small living while still learning their new craft. During 2011 courses on basic business skills will also be introduced to assist this process.

Nguyen Thi Thu Thuong is one of Hold the Future’s success stories. Thuong was born with OI or Brittle Bone Disease of Type III. This means her bones fracture easily, she suffers from bone deformity, short stature, spinal curvature and barrel-shaped rib cage. These are just some of the symptoms of this disease.

(Thuong is laying in the middle)

At birth her parents did not understand her disability and it took a while before the doctors and they realised the extend of her disability. But she grew up nevertheless in a loving environment but with no skills and very little education. While watching TV she came across a documentary on Hold the Future. With great determination she tracked down Mrs Hien the Centre Director’s contact number and contacted her. This was in 2003.

During her phone call she cried and told Mrs Hien how sad she was that she could do nothing with her life. She was desperate to bring some meaning to her days and wanted to be a useful and self-sufficient person. Thuong was invited to visit the Centre and talk about her future. After viewing several handicraft items, Thuong saw the lamp shades made with buttons and she fell in love with them. From then onwards Thuong became a star pupil learning everything she could about this craft work. This was only the beginning.

Now Thuong has her own craft making business. She makes many items herself and has expanded her product range to  include hand knitted scarves and other knitted fashion items. She also acts as an agent for Hold the Future and is Hold the Future’s biggest customer for custom designed decorative pillow cases targeted at the youth market. Thuong has a business website http://www.thuongthuong.net/. She also talks to her customers via a video camera positioned on her monitor, runs stands at exhibitions and promotes her product line herself.

Besides her colourful website, Thuong has worked hard at marketing herself. This picture of her beautiful poster that she uses at exhibitions shows her professionalism that she brings to her business.

And one needs to remember that this tiny person has to depend on a modified pram for her mode of transport and rest. And yet there is always a smile on her face and a happiness to meet new people and tell them her story of success and especially what Hold the Future has done for her..

It’s not only in the area of work and making a living that Mrs Hien and Hold the Future have helped Thuong. Mrs Hien also encouraged Thuong to take up singing. Singing and music is a passion for Vietnamese people. With the help of this encouragement Thuong has found the courage and at the same time has discovered her voice to sing at major events. She’s as happy behind a microphone as she is behind her video camera talking to customers. It is wonderful success stories such as Thuong’s that make Mrs Hien and her team continue their work at Hold the Future regardless of all the difficulties they may experiences and the hard work facing them daily.

For people interested in contributing their time or resources please contact Quyen on phamutquyen@gmail.com