Homestay Friendship Exchange - Warm Vietnamese Family Love

(Baonghean) - The Homestay Friendship Exchange Program - receiving international students for friendship exchanges at Vietnamese families has created opportunities for international students in Nghe An to interact, get acquainted with the customs, practices and traditional cultural life of Vietnamese families. Thereby, creating an environment for them to improve their communication skills in Vietnamese. At the same time, connecting the solidarity and friendship between Nghe An province in particular, Vietnam in general and international friends.

Vietnamese family home

The warm, happy, and united family atmosphere is what we felt when we attended the year-end meeting of Laotian students at the family of Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thanh and Mrs. Phan Thi Lan (Middle East block, Hung Dung ward, Vinh city).

The children and their families went into the kitchen together to prepare dishes from Laos and Vietnam. The intimate New Year's Eve meal included Lao-Vietnamese dishes, simple and rustic like everyday Lao-Vietnamese dishes, but in the warm atmosphere of the family, it was a meal full of meaningful flavors.

After the intimate meal, the cultural exchange program between Nghe Tinh folk songs and Lam Vong dances further created a sense of connection.

Mrs. Phan Thi Lan said: “The children have been living with the family for more than 3 years now, my husband and I consider them as our own children. We often guide them from Vietnamese cultural customs to the special tradition of solidarity and friendship between the two peoples of Vietnam and Laos.”

Let's listen to stories about the special tradition of solidarity and friendship between Vietnam and Laos.

The most difficult thing for international students when studying in Vietnam is the foreign language to communicate in Vietnamese and missing their families. Therefore, the Homestay program - bringing international students to exchange friendship with Vietnamese families, organized by the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations in coordination with schools and residential areas, with the desire to create an environment for foreign students to integrate, participate in cultural and social activities, improve their communication skills in Vietnamese. At the same time, it connects the solidarity and friendship between Nghe An province in particular, Vietnam in general and international friends.

“When I first came to study at Vinh Medical University, because I had not had much interaction and contact, there were still many sentences and Vietnamese words that I could not pronounce clearly. At times like that, my parents and everyone in the family reminded me over and over again, each sentence and each word so that I could speak correctly. After nearly 3 years of being able to exchange and have friendly relations with a Vietnamese family after stressful days of studying, when I had happy or sad stories or when I was sick, everyone in the family shared and encouraged me, making me feel like I was living in a family in my homeland Laos and forgetting the nostalgia of a child far away from home,” Thi Phu Thon, a student of class CD4, Vinh Medical University, shared.

The Vietnamese people's customs and spiritual culture such as incense burning ceremony at the ancestral altar on the first and fifteenth day of every month, Lunar New Year and major holidays in Vietnam such as: April 30th, National Reunification Day, September 2nd National Day,... are all guided to participate and the traditional New Year Bunpimay of the Lao people is also solemnly organized by the school and family in Vietnam so that the children can feel the close and emotional life as in their homeland.

The Homestay Friendship Exchange Program has truly helped and encouraged international students, giving them a warm home. This not only helps Lao students have more joy in studying, encourages them to overcome difficulties while away from home, but also makes the youth of the host country understand more deeply and appreciate the friendship and solidarity between the two peoples of Vietnam and Laos.

Innovation in people's foreign affairs

The Homestay Friendship Exchange Program, receiving international students for friendship exchanges in Vietnamese families, is one of the programs launched by the Nghe An Union of Friendship Organizations since 2012. This is a concrete work of people-to-people diplomacy. International students live and work in the home of Vietnamese families, are welcomed with warmth, love, and care from their parents and siblings in the new family. From there, connecting people of the two countries "backing on the Truong Son mountain range, listening to the same rooster crowing" to love and share. Not only that, the program also creates a connection and connection between Lao parents and adoptive parents in Vietnam.

Stories about the care and affection of foster parents in Vietnam have created affection and trust for parents in Laos during the days when their children were away from home to study and were loved by Vietnamese families like their own children.

For example, the touching story between Laotian father Vankham and his son Chitavanh - a student at Vinh Technical Pedagogical University who suffered a torn ligament injury and had to undergo surgery at Nghe An Orthopedic Trauma Hospital. During his time in the hospital, Chitavanh was often visited, encouraged and cared for like a son in the family by teachers and Mr. and Mrs. Vinh Lieu in Dong Lam block, Hung Dung ward (Vinh city).

The love of Mr. and Mrs. Vinh Lieu for their son made Chitavanh's parents deeply moved. Mr. Vankham brought this touching story back to Laos to tell to the people of Vang Vieng district (Vientiane - Laos) with all gratitude and trust. That shows that the program not only creates a bond between people of the two nations but also leaves a good image of the Vietnamese people in the hearts of the Lao people.

It is worth noting that the Homestay program has been warmly welcomed and responded to by cadres and people of the blocks and hamlets, and more and more households in Nghe An have welcomed international students for friendly exchanges. The success of the program has had a significant contribution from Party cells, executive committees, and organizations of blocks with schools located in the area. Among them, the Trung Dong and Dong Lam blocks of Hung Dung ward (Vinh city) must be mentioned.

Mr. Do Duc Phong - Head of the Middle East Block, Hung Dung Ward said: "I think this is a policy with practical significance. The Party Committee, Executive Committee, Front and mass organizations of the block have done a good job of propagating and mobilizing people to implement the foreign policy of the Party and State, and registering to receive Lao students to exchange friendship with their families."

Laotian students learn to cook traditional Vietnamese dishes.

After nearly 2 years of implementing the Homestay program, according to the feedback from Lao families and students, there have been many contacts and exchanges, creating a close bond between Lao students and Vietnamese families. More happily, most of the Lao students participating in the program speak Vietnamese better, receive thanks from their parents from Laos and connect solidarity between Lao and Vietnamese families.

Mr. Do Dang Muoi - General Secretary of the Nghe An Provincial Union of Friendship Organizations said: “The Homestay program - bringing international students to exchange with Vietnamese families is a meaningful work, positively impacting training activities in schools. It concretizes the foreign policy of our Party and State. The Provincial Union of Friendship Organizations is continuing to replicate this model to expand the scope and participants, making the program increasingly spread strongly to the grassroots level”.

Thanh Le