Women issue

25 October Club Meeting

Hi everyone! This is late but still I hope all the beautiful girls in my club have a happy and memorable 20th October and that you have received lots of gifts etc. While the excitement for Women's day might have left you as everyone geared up for the preparations of the mid term exams,(I know that exams is coming soon in 2 weeks time and everyone is busy preparing for it) I would like to call the club together this Saturday in my room at 9.30 am!

We will be discussing about issues related to women.
As there will be no one in charge of presenting this session, I encourage everyone to think of a 10 min "speech" that is related to any issues on women. For eg you can talk about education for women, job opportunities
for women, or what you think about being women in a patriarchal society etc, even prostitution (controversial topic!) or maybe the lack of women representation in different organizations in Vietnam, and the possible developments in the future.
Hopefully we will have a fruitful discussion and hope to see some new faces around!

Cheers shi lei


Daniel prepared a very good presentation on “mail order brides”.

Singapore – the role of women has been changing throughout the years by varying degrees. These days, I feel that women really carry a heavier burden in the past. The roles that women do have now include :

1)Taking care of the household , being a caregiver in the family
2)Working in a duel – income family.

Also, as the standard of education among women rises in Singapore, this has led to a decrease in the marriage rate among Singaporeans, as it is harder for an educated women to find a husband as he more or less needs to be of the same equal standing as him.

Vietnam – Vietnamese brides
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FScBxMqC9cI

My personal opinion of this phenomenon of the increasing roles and demands of women is because of this, the men has to step up and be counted. Ultimately, women do need to feel a sense of security and in a family, they do want to let the guys take the lead in the household. Thus, this has led to varying degrees of definition in marriage. One such example is Vietnamese brides, as can be seen in the video, the men cant provide or take care of them, hence, they have to look for other alternatives for themselves.

Is marriage
1)a commodity – to attain certain privilages not attainable by marriage to a poor Vietnamese.
2)A sacred entity formed out of love
This really get the class into a heated discussion. Linh shared with the class how one of her relatives married a korean and she is very happy after her marriage. She also talked about her friend who have an American boyfriend, but out of love too. However, some of the class disagreed with her and said that her friends were just some of the luckier ones. Indeed there were some who married for money and there were many who were abused in their marriages. Many agreed that it is impossible to fall in love at first sight and agree to marry. But not because they are greedy, they just want a better chance for the future. Somehow the conversations drifted into the direction of the recent murder case that shook Hanoi. A korean student killed and burnt the corpse of his Vietnamese girl friend who was two timing him. I was surprised that everyone in the class do not sympathize with the victim, saying that she deserved it for being “too loose” and bringing it onto herself. I was a bit shock by the words of them, but it really reveals something about their mindset. The students from this club are all younger than us, around the age of 18.


The role of women in Vietnam – chronological order
1)heroic, indomitable, loyal and resourceful - Anh hung, bat khuat, trung hau, dam dang
2)trung hau, diu dang, thanh lich, te nhi, dam dang” or loyal, gentle, elegant, tactful yet resourceful
3)Tac phong cong nhiep va hien dai” is defined as the rise of the modern and industrial women, spending more time outside homes, beyond parental supervision, having more freedom and able to express individualism



According to the values of Dnaiel's Church, the role of women is to be a helper, and a caregiver. And the role of the men is to be a leader in the family. Women can work and have a duel income family as well , as long as, the men are responsible for the family, and are the head of the household, this is how the family progresses.


And to end the session off, daniel decided to tell a joke : )

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
''House'' for instance, is feminine: ''la casa.'' ''Pencil,'' however, is masculine: "el lapiz.''

A student asked, ''What gender is 'computer'?'' Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether ''computer'' should be a masculine or a feminine noun.

Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that "computer" should definitely be of the feminine gender (''la computadora''), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine (''el computador''), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;

2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

It took me really long to explain to the English club before they finally understood the joke. It was funny for they started asking me the gender of the different objects in my room!

shi lei and daniel>.<