All of the below events are open free of charge to the public. We would like you to plan carefully before registering with us so that we have enough seats for participants. If you register for our events but change your plan, kindly notify us by email. If you would like to be an American Center member, please register.
***REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED FOR ALL EVENTS EXCEPT THOSE NOTED OTHERWISE. Register here. You can also check out our Facebook page to see event schedule and click “Join” to register with us.***
All events take place at 1st Floor of the Rose Garden Tower at 170 Ngoc Khanh Street, Hanoi, except those noted otherwise. Remember to bring your ID with you. Members of the media are welcome to attend public events at the American Center. However, if you intend to being in still or video cameras, please contact the Media Team at least 24 hours in advance so we can determine whether the speaker is comfortable and, if so, request security access for your equipment. Please note that not all speakers will want to be filmed and interviewed. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation.
Please Note: In the American Center (AC), we usually record, film and photograph our programs and activities to promote the AC and the work the U.S. Embassy does in Vietnam. We regularly use and post these images on our social media platforms. When participating in American Center programs, you provide your tacit consent for your image to be used in this way. If you prefer that your image not be used for non-commercial publicity reasons, please provide your request in writing to a staff member at the Help Desk. Thank you!
Time |
Program |
Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| Jan. 3, 2:00 – 3:00 | A Comparison of LGBTQIA Community in Vietnam and Other Countries | David W. Tushaus, Missouri Western State University |
| Jan. 4, 4:30 – 6:00 | English for Career Development (PDF-279KB) – MOOC Facilitated Discussion #5 | Trần Thị Thùy Trang |
| Jan. 5, 5:00 – 6:00 | Metamorphosis of a Storyteller | Arki B. Carino |
| Jan. 10, 3:00 – 4:30 | AC Student News | American Center Interns |
| Jan. 11, 4:00 – 6:00 | English for Media Literacy (PDF-426KB) – MOOC Facilitated Discussion #1 | Trần Thị Thùy Trang |
| Jan. 12, 10:00 – 11:00 | Conversation Hour | Holly Calkins |
| Jan. 12, 1:00 – 2:00 | One-hour Small Group Discussion with 30 Columbia Business School MBA Students | MBA Students from Columbia Business School |
| Jan. 16, 11:00 – 12:00 | Dispatches from Vietnam: Stories of War and Peace | Mary Beth Marklein and George Mason Univ. students |
| Jan. 16, 4:00 – 5:30 | Debate Club | American Center Interns |
| Jan. 17, 3:00 – 4:30 | American English Club | American Center Interns |
| Jan. 18, 4:00 – 6:00 | English for Media Literacy (PDF-426KB) – MOOC Facilitated Discussion #2 | Trần Thị Thùy Trang |
| Jan. 23, 3:00 – 4:30 | AC Student News | American Center Interns |
| Jan. 25, 4:00 – 6:00 | English for Media Literacy (PDF-426KB) – MOOC Facilitated Discussion #3 | Trần Thị Thùy Trang |
| Jan. 26, 08:30-11:30 and 1:00 – 3:00 |
7th U.S. Embassy Hanoi Blood DriveRegister here by January 25th |
U.S. Embassy and Vietnam National Institute of Hematology – Blood Transfusion |
| Jan. 29, 3:00 – 4:00 | Developing the Skill of Self-Awareness: A Key to Life and Career Goal Setting | Cynthia McKinney |
| Jan. 30, 3:30 – 5:00 | East Sea Fisheries and Environmental Cooperation | Greg Poling |
Conversation Hour
Fridays, 10:00 – 11:00 am
American Volunteers
Call it a conversation, or any one of this word’s synonyms – chat, colloquy, converse, dialog, discussion, etc. – this is an hour of informal talk and your opportunity to improve your English speaking and listening skills. An American host of the hour will introduce a topic and guide you through discussion around it. Come to chat and learn. Bring your friends and make even more friends!
American English Club
American Center Interns
Come join our American English Club to improve your English speaking skills and enhance your English vocabularies on a variety of topics. The participants will join the host to learn how to sing one of the popular memorable songs as a warm-up activity. Then, the club will continue with its interesting activities that will give you the opportunities to improve your English speaking skills, enhance your vocabulary, and have a lot of fun discussions and presentations.
Debate Club
American Center Interns
The goal of the American Center’s Debate Club is to create friendly environment where anyone can express and freely debate their ideas on interesting current topics. So if you like to analyze facts, communicates openly, or just interested in debate please make your way to the AC to join our club.
AC Student News
American Center Interns
Adapted from the CNN Student News, this program encouraged participants to reflect on and discuss international issues, while using opportunity to sharpen English language skills, especially listening and speaking.
A Comparision of LGBTQIA Community in Vietnam and Other Countries
January 3, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
David W. Tushaus, Missouri Western State University
Human rights for LGBTQIA persons is a global issue. There will be some background provided on this community in general. The lecture will also provide comparisons of laws related to LGBTQIA individuals. The focus will be on Vietnam, but there will be some comparisons with countries in Asia. The U.S. may also be included. Descriptions of some human rights advocacy projects aimed at assisting LGBTQIA individuals will be provided.
David W. Tushaus is a professor in Criminal Justice, Legal Studies and Social Work at Missouri Western State University. He has presented and co-presented at over 30 academic conferences and over 20 other venues. Many of these presentations are on human rights issues. Previously, he served as managing attorney for a United States Legal Services office. He has obtained grants, supervised staff and handled cases involving human rights issues, including government benefits, health care, consumer issues, domestic violence, disability needs and farm problems. He has been working internationally on access to justice issues since serving as a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar in India in 2012. He also served as a Fulbright Specialist at the University of The Gambia Law Clinic in 2017.
Metamorphosis of a Storyteller
January 5, 2018, 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Arki B. Carino
Storytelling is the mother of all communications. Every art form relies on story to convey meaning. Stories have been recognized as a powerful tool in developing children’s communicative as well as linguistic competence both in mother tongue and in learning or acquiring a second or a foreign language. The use of storytelling helps promote kids’ language and vocabulary that will entice them to go back to reading books. The technique presents the storyteller as interestingly and animatingly lifting his story from a book he/she reads. Balancing reading, animation and interactive techniques make the storyteller a good inspiration to read children’s books. As communication style differs in today’s generation, the young and modern audience needs- engaging, enjoyable, stimulating, creative and collaborative fun kind of approach to detached them into melodramatic pieces which leads to boredom and dismay that will eventually affects their attitude as a reader. The workshop on “Metamorphosis of a Storyteller” presents to the teachers, coaches, librarians, parents and students, the various techniques used in storytelling. To ensure that concepts are clearly understood, sessions are loaded with talk and group exercises for hands on application. Allowing practice after the workshop, participants will surely be able to confidently used storytelling in their own field of work.
One-hour Small Group Discussion with 30 Columbia Business School MBA Students
January 12, 2018, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Need business advice? Don’t miss the one-time opportunity to free get in-person advice from the 30 ivy-league Columbia University MBA students. You will be matched with people who have had international business experiences in the fields including startups such as AirBnB, management consultants in IT, Healthcare businesses, industrial goods, infrastructure, finance, accounting, marketing, engineering, pharmaceutical industry in Vietnam and South East Asia.
Dispatches from Vietnam: Stories of War and Peace
January 16, 11:00 – 12:00 midday
Please join us for a conversation about the legacy of the American war in Vietnam. We are a small group of U.S. college students who recently completed a two-week tour across Vietnam, from the Mekong Delta to the DMZ to Kham Thien Street in Hanoi. Our aim is twofold: to learn about the war’s impact from the perspectives of a diverse array of Vietnamese, and to take home stories that shed light on the notion that Vietnam “is a country, not a war.” We will share some of our insights and observations in hopes of facilitating a dialog about reconciliation with our Vietnamese audience.
In this session we will discuss what self-awareness is and why it is important in goal setting for life and career. We will discuss tools that will help increase awareness of strengths, weaknesses, core values in life, and identifying emotions. We will learn to find and develop “the best” in ourselves.
Developing the Skill of Self-Awareness: A Key to Life and Career Goal Setting
January 29, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m
Cynthia McKinney
In this session we will discuss what self-awareness is and why it is important in goal setting for life and career. We will discuss tools that will help increase awareness of strengths, weaknesses, core values in life, and identifying emotions. We will learn to find and develop “the best” in ourselves.
Fisheries and Environmental Cooperation in the East Sea
January 30, 3:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Greg Poling, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Please join us in a presentation and discussion with visiting U.S. speaker Greg Poling, a leading expert on the East Sea. Poling is the Director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC. He also chairs CSIS’s East Sea Expert Working Group, which brings together prominent experts on maritime law, international relations, and the marine environment. Their recent publication, “A Blueprint for Fisheries Management and Environmental Cooperation in the East Sea,” seeks to chart a feasible model for claimants to manage these aspects of their maritime disputes. The report stresses that the entire East Sea fishery, which officially employs over 3.7 million people and helps feed hundreds of millions, is now in danger of collapse unless claimants act urgently to address the decline.
Greg Poling’s biography:
Gregory B. Poling is director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative and a fellow with the Southeast Asia Program at CSIS. He oversees research on U.S. foreign policy in the Asia Pacific, with a particular focus on the maritime domain and the countries of Southeast Asia. His research interests include the East Sea disputes, democratization in Southeast Asia, and Asian multilateralism. Mr. Poling’s writings have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Nikkei Asian Review, Journal of Political Risk, and YaleGlobal, among others. He is the author of The South China Sea in Focus: Clarifying the Limits of Maritime Dispute(CSIS, July 2013) and coauthor of multiple works including Building a More Robust U.S.-Philippines Alliance (CSIS, August 2015), A New Era in U.S.-Vietnam Relations: Deepening Ties Two Decades after Normalization (CSIS, June 2014), and A U.S.-Indonesia Partnership for 2020: Recommendations for Forging a 21st Century Relationship (CSIS, September 2013). Mr. Poling received an M.A. in international affairs from American University, a B.A. in history and philosophy from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and studied at Fudan University in Shanghai.
