"O Sin" writes for overseas newspapers

(QBĐT) - Hearing me ask, is it okay to use this noun? She answered very confidently, it's okay, it's just a way of calling, in daily communication vocabulary, Vietnamese borrows a lot of foreign words! I was reassured, but still closed the book when "it" was not completely Vietnamized.

In 2004, her family was in difficult circumstances, so she registered to go to Taiwan to work as a housekeeper. After two months of studying Taiwanese in Ho Chi Minh City, she “didn’t dare” to take leave like others, but waited for the day to “fly” to Taiwan. “I was shy, I didn’t want to go back home after visiting. My hometown was getting more beautiful, my family was also very warm, I just didn’t have enough money to send my children to school,” she confided. That year, the province had been re-established for 15 years, and her hometown Quan Hau town was getting “more beautiful” every day.

In Taiwan, luckily, she met a kind family, the work was not easy but with her diligent and responsible nature, she completed it without much difficulty. When she had time, she took the opportunity to learn Taiwanese to facilitate communication. She said, strangely, I suddenly discovered that I had a talent for foreign languages. Taiwanese characters are similar to Chinese characters (Mainland) but Taiwanese is fundamentally different. I did not learn the characters because it was too difficult and I did not have time, I only learned the language. So, after just over a year, I could basically communicate quite normally. In the second year, the feeling of missing home, husband, children, and homeland began to torment me. “In my free time, I read Vietnamese newspapers overseas and suddenly thought, why don’t I write for the newspaper? Write to introduce my homeland to the Vietnamese community in Taiwan, to share my feelings and interact with the locals.”

Ms. Thuy Dung during her time working in Taiwan.

When she came to Taiwan, she was 40 years old and had a good understanding of the cultural region of her hometown, Quang Ninh and Le Thuy districts. “I know that there is a gap between “popular literature” and “journalistic literature”. When I was in high school, I was quite good at literature, but due to my family’s circumstances, I dropped out of school early to help my parents so that my younger siblings could continue their studies. However, after one or two attempts to write and send, my article was published. The first time I held a newspaper with an article and my name at the bottom, along with a royalty, I was so happy. Unfortunately, I had been in Taiwan for a long time and had written a lot, so I was subjective and could not keep the newspaper that published that first article.”

She said that when she was in high school, she read and absorbed the poem "Vietnamese" by the famous poet and playwright Luu Quang Vu, so when she saw her Vietnamese name on the title next to the Chinese name, she felt proud and moved. As time went by, writing for the newspaper also made her more confident with the host and closer relationships with the Vietnamese community. She connected more closely with her sisters in other provinces. Later, thanks to writing for the newspaper, she had many advantages in dealing with local authorities and was also able to help other sisters.

Then she showed me some newspapers that she said she had “hurriedly grabbed” and stuffed into her luggage to bring home as souvenirs. Skimming through the headlines, it was easy to see the love and feelings of people working far away from home for their homeland: “ Quang Binh in the song”, “Homeland in memories”, “Returning to Quang Binh with you”, “Homeland river”: “My hometown is a small town in the Central region with a gentle river carrying the sunset to the sea over the years. There, in the past, there was a ferry that was bustling with people and goods coming and going day and night” …

“Now, living and working in the midst of luxurious and magnificent Taiwan, I cannot help but feel nostalgic every time I think about my homeland. I am very proud that I was born there and was nurtured by the river of my hometown to grow up and mature. Nhat Le, see you soon”. Reading the above “newspaper” passage by a Vietnamese “maid” living abroad, everyone will be startled by the sentence about Nhat Le that sounds like poetry “… the gentle river of years carries the sunset to the sea”. Is it true that when people go away for a necessary and sufficient amount of space and time, amidst the lingering nostalgia, the homeland in their memories will appear with lines and colors that are sublimated with more romantic qualities than in everyday life?

Some old articles she brought back as souvenirs.

A little curious, I asked, is the royalties good?. "Not much, about a hundred "khoai" (Taiwanese money), which is about a few hundred Vietnamese dong, but I certainly don't write articles to make money." I asked again, so the Taiwanese she learned in Vietnam was a bit of a waste?. She said, she had been back in Vietnam for more than 10 years. With a little capital, she bought a small business location at Quan Hau market.

A few years ago, while I was selling, a group of Chinese tourists suddenly came to the market. They communicated with our people using “sign language” but spoke to each other in Taiwanese. When they approached her shop, asking questions and waving their arms and legs, she blurted out, “Di coong sà mi?” (What did you say?). The customer excitedly asked, “Di è heo koong tài ghi bo?” (Do you know Taiwanese?). She said, “Goa chai chỉn su a là.” (I know a little). So they cheered, asking her to be their interpreter to take them shopping around the market. Hearing that, I advised her to register with the Department of Tourism so that when a group of Taiwanese tourists comes, they can call her to be their interpreter?! She smiled and said nothing. Her garden on the outskirts of Quan Hau town is lush with green vegetables, chickens, and bananas. Her grandchildren, still in kindergarten, are waiting for her to be a “high-class maid”, so they probably don’t have much free time left…

Ordinary workers, no matter where they are or what their circumstances, can shine in some way to beautify themselves, their homeland and their country in the eyes of friends from all over the world.

She is Pham Thuy Dung.

Nguyen The Tuong

Source: https://www.baoquangbinh.vn/van-hoa/202501/o-sin-viet-bao-hai-ngoai-2223928/