ANNOUNCEMENT:
As of August 1, all visitors to the American Center in Hanoi must undergo additional security checks of their personal electronic devices (laptops, cell phones, fitness trackers, etc.). These new procedures are being implemented worldwide to enhance the security of U.S. Embassy buildings. Please note that these new security screening requirements, which includes powering on the equipment in front of the guards, will lengthen the wait times for guests entering the American Center. Guests should plan to arrive at least 30 minutes prior to an event to ensure they can get through the screening procedures in time.
The American Center has ordered 30 laptops for visitors’ use, which we expect to arrive in the Fall. We recommend you consider using the U.S. Embassy’s equipment and leaving your devices at home to shorten the screening time for all guests. In the meantime, if you plan to bring this or other electronic equipment to the American Center, please allow more time for these new screening requirements.
Please note that there are no changes to the current entry requirements for consular customers visiting the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy. However, visitors seeking consular services should be advised of and prepared for the possibility of extended wait times for screening and entry.
Thank you for your assistance and patience.
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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 |
|---|---|---|
| Aug. 1, 4:00 – 5:00 | Discover the USA: California | Jasmine M. Lopez |
| Aug. 1, 5:00 – 6:50 | American English Club | American Center |
| Aug. 2, 3:00 – 4:30 | Writing the Personal Statement for College Admission | Elvia Valle, Public Affairs Fellow, U.S. Embassy in Hanoi |
| Aug. 3, 3:00 – 4:00 | Learning English Online: Introduction to American English MOOCs | American Center Hanoi |
| Aug. 3, 4:00 – 5:00 | Discover the USA: Texas | Elvia Valle, Public Affairs Fellow, U.S. Embassy in Hanoi |
| Aug. 4, 10:00 – 11:00 | Conversation Hour | American Center |
| Aug. 4, 3:00 – 4:30 | Preserving Vietnamese Tradition Across the Pacific: A Conversation with Emmy® Award Winner Vân-Ánh (Vanessa) Võ | Vân-Ánh Võ, Music Bridge |
| Aug. 7, 5:00 – 6:50 | Pronunciation Workshop #2 | Helen Huntley |
| Aug. 8, 9:00 – 12:00 | USAID Vietnam Scientific Research Community Workshop. Register here | USAID Vietnam |
| Aug. 8, 3:00 – 4:30 | AC Student News | American Center |
| Aug. 9, 4:00 – 5:00 | Learning English Through American Sitcoms: Friends (1994 – 2004) | Bui Phuong Anh, U.S. Embassy Hanoi |
| Aug. 9, 5:00 – 6:50 | Pronunciation Workshop #3 | Helen Huntley |
| Aug. 10, 10:00 – 11:30 | Debate Club: “Does money motivate people more than any other factors in the workplace?“ | American Center |
| Aug. 10, 2:30 – 6:00 | Learn More About Vietnam’s Wild Elephants | U.S. Embassy Hanoi |
| Aug. 11, 10:00 – 11:00 | Conversation Hour | American Center |
| Aug. 11, 11:00 – 12:00 | American Cultural Insights | Portland State University Graduate Students |
| Aug. 11, 12:00 – 1:00 | Learning English Online: Introduction to American English MOOCs | American Center Hanoi |
| Aug. 11, 5:00 – 6:50 | Pronunciation Workshop #4 | Helen Huntley |
| Aug. 14, 5:00 – 6:50 | Pronunciation Workshop #5 | American Center |
| Aug. 16, 5:00 – 6:50 | Pronunciation Workshop #6 | Helen Huntley |
| Aug. 17, 10:00 – 11:30 | American English Club | American Center |
| Aug. 17, 3:00 – 4:30 | College Life in the U.S. | Abigail Hill |
| Aug. 18, 10:00-11:00 | Conversation Hour | Tammy Dewan |
| Aug. 18, 11:00 – 12:00 | Learning English Online: Introduction to American English MOOCs | American Center Hanoi |
| Aug. 21, 2:00 – 6:00 | Film Screening: Blood Road | |
| Aug. 22, 3:00 – 4:00 | AC Student News | American Center |
| Aug. 22, 5:00 – 6:50 | American English Club | American Center |
| Aug. 23, 2:30 – 6:00 | There is No Single Truth in War: Screening and Discussion about the documentary Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick | Lynn Novick |
| Aug. 24, 10:00 – 11:30 | Debate Club: “Old people should live in professional old-age homes, instead of living with their children” | American Center |
| Aug. 24, 4:00 – 5:30 | Success: MOOC Facilitated Discussion # 1. Register here |
Trần Thị Thùy Trang |
| Aug. 25, 10:00-11:00 | Conversation Hour | Holly Calkins |
| Aug. 25, 11:00 – 12:00 | Learning English Online: Introduction to MOOCs at the American Center | American Center Hanoi |
| Aug. 25, 4:00 – 5:00 | Learning English Through American Sitcoms: Friends (1994 – 2004) | Bui Phuong Anh, U.S. Embassy Hanoi |
| Aug. 28, 5:00 – 7:00 | Leadership Training Series: The Listening Advantage (register here) | Hoàng Ngọc Bích |
| Aug. 29, 3:00 – 5:00 | Film Screening and Discussion: Elegy for The Time Being | Tram Luong, Yale University PhD Student in Visual Anthropology |
| Aug. 29, 5:00 – 6:50 | American English Club | American Center |
| Aug. 30, 4:00 – 6:00 | Musical Movie Night: South Pacific | Molly Stephenson, U.S. Embassy Hanoi |
| Aug. 31, 4:00 – 5:30 | Success: MOOC Facilitated Discussion #2. Register here |
Trần Thị Thùy Trang |
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, starting from 5:00 PM. This fun upcoming program will feature performances of some well-known and beloved songs. After the musical performances, the audience will join the host to learn how to sing one of these memorable tunes 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.
Pronunciation Workshop
Mondays and Wednesdays, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.
Helen Huntley, ESL Specialist
In this series of workshops, the consonants and vowels that typically cause difficulties for Vietnamese speakers will be reviewed and communicative activities to address these problem areas will be explored and practiced. Participants will also learn about sounds (Aaah!, Huh? etc.) that have communicative meaning in English and practice using them to respond to common situations. Participants will also review a series of activities to understand how syllables, word stress, sentence stress, speech rhythm, thought groups, focus words, final sounds, linking, intonation, reductions can affect comprehensibility. Overall, participants will be encouraged to self-monitor their own speech to perceive patterns of strengths and weaknesses in their own pronunciation of English.
3D Printer Assembly and Design
August 16, 17, 22, 23, 8:30 – 12:00 midday
American Center and USTH FabLab
3D printing is a novel technology which brings several benefits in a variety of industries including industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction, automotive, aerospace, medical industries and education. Please come and join our 4-day workshop to learn more about 3D Printer Assembly and Design. Register here.
Writing the Personal Statement for College Admission
August 2, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Elvia Valle, Public Affairs Fellow, U.S. Embassy in Hanoi – graduate of Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
#EducationUSACorner: When applying to study at an American university, the application will often require a personal statement. This is often one of the most important parts of the application and can sometimes be the deciding factor for admission. The personal statement will give admissions counselors a better understanding of who you are, beyond the other information in your application. Come learn more about the personal statement for college admission, the process involved, and get started on writing your own statement at this workshop!
EXCLUSIVE THIS TIME: Students wishing to receive feedback on a draft of their personal statement are invited to send it by email to hanoiedusa@state.gov by 11:59 PM on Sunday, July 30. The first 20 students to submit a personal statement will receive feedback from the speaker at the workshop!
Learning English Online: Introduction to Five MOOCs
August 3, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
August 18, 11:00 – 12:00 p.m.
American Center Hanoi
Did you know that since May 2016, five MOOCs from Coursera have been introduced to American Center users? As a result, many of your friends earned certificates from Pennsylvania University, free of charge! So far, Vietnam has had the highest number of participants for the Business MOOC, 2nd place for Career Development, and 3rd place for Journalism. Currently Vietnam is beating all EAP countries in Media Literacy. Come join us to learn step by step how to register with Coursera through the U.S. State Department, which will then allow you to learn online and receive verified certificates upon course completion. All is free of charge!
Preserving Vietnamese Tradition Across the Pacific: A Conversation with Emmy® Award Winner Vân-Ánh (Vanessa) Võ
August 4, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Vân-Ánh (Vanessa) Võ, Emmy® Award Winner, Music Bridge
Music is a lens through which we can visit another time or place. In general, music can tell us about the people and society of a particular time. Additionally, traditional music spans many generations and reflects the traditions and customs from many different regions.
Vân-Ánh Võ – national champion of Vietnamese traditional music, Emmy Award composer, vocalist, and educator – will use traditional music to showcase Vietnam’s 4000-year- old cultural heritage in the context of 21 st century. There are many ways that Vietnamese musicians in Vietnam and outside are preserving traditional music. Various virtual media are used–YouTube, online forums, electronic exchanges between teachers in Vietnam and students in North America and elsewhere–and there are some new experiments in performance practice and composition that are used. Vân-Ánh Võ is an example of the latter–she has collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, Kronos Quartet, and performed at Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the 2012 London Olympic Games Festival. The sounds of the traditional instruments and folk songs will offer insights into the different traditions and customs of Vietnam’s three main regions: North, Central, and South.
Under the guidance of Vân-Ánh Võ and with demonstrations from her students from America, the audience will join us in playing traditional instruments to create music with their own twists. This hands-on experience will help the audience appreciate and understand more about the Vietnamese history, traditions, and culture.
Learning English Through American Sitcoms: Friends (1994 – 2004)
August 9 & 25; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Bui Phuong Anh, U.S. Embassy Hanoi
Are you tired of sitting for hours in class to learn English without getting any better results? Are you fed up with the thick big book of endless grammar? Are you frustrated with not being able to understand native English speakers? Would you like to try a super fun way of mastering English language when you can actually enjoy the lessons? Join our series of “Learning English through American sitcoms” to improve your English language skills and learn how to speak English fluently. You will get to watch fun American sitcoms and analyze the English idioms being used in each episode.
Learn More About Vietnam’s Wild Elephants!
August 10, 2:00 – 6:00 p.m
In recognition of World Elephant Day, come hear from a panel of experts about Vietnam’s last population of wild elephants and what we are doing to help protect them and Vietnam’s biodiversity. Our panel of international and Vietnamese experts will talk about the elephants of Yok Don, efforts to reduce demand for illegal ivory and other illicit wildlife products, and how Vietnam is fighting wildlife crime.
Discover the USA series
Do you ever wonder what it is like to grow up in different parts of the United States? Then come join us as Americans from all over the U.S. talk about their home! A different state will be featured each week. Come learn more and ask questions!
Women in STEM and Innovation Series
To help Vietnamese women to develop skills in science and technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, the American Center of the U.S. Embassy is launching a year-long series, “Women in STEM and Innovation,” to encourage more women to pursue career opportunities in these fields.
Course 1: Introduction to Coding for Women: Building Your Own Website and Applications taught by teachers from CodeGym
Starting on August 14, every Monday and Wednesday from 1:30 – 4:30 at the American Center, 170 Ngoc Khanh.
This eight (8) week course is to teach women the basic skills to build a website. It’s easy to learn, and was designed so that everyone – even non-programmers – can do it. NO IT background is required, except for your determination, passion and commitment.
- From Coding to Passion: Whether you want to do art, business, health, and community – the course will help you to turn your passion into reality.
- Learn the Development Process – You not only learn the technology but also the process of creating, implementing and managing products with guidance from mentors.
- Join a STEM Community for Women: Meet and form a community for support.
Register now to join 8 weeks of free training @t The American Center Hanoi!
Film Screening: Blood Road
August 21, 2:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Join us at the American Center, U.S. Embassy on Monday, August 21, 2017 for the Hanoi Screening of Blood Road!
Rebecca Rusch and Huyen Nguyen will hold discussions with the audience after the screening. Official BLOOD ROAD trailer: https://youtu.be/zbrqTnMAFno
Blood Road follows the journey of ultra-endurance mountain bike athlete Rebecca Rusch and her Vietnamese riding partner, Huyen Nguyen, as they pedal 1,200 miles along the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail through the dense jungles of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Their goal: to reach the crash site and final resting place of Rebecca’s father, a U.S. Air Force pilot shot down over Laos some 40 years earlier. During this poignant voyage of self-discovery, the women push their bodies to the limit while learning more about the historic ‘Blood Road’ they’re pedaling and how the Vietnam War shaped their lives in different ways.
The event is co-hosted by
About the Rebecca Rusch:
Rebecca has been a professional athlete for over three decades and has continually tested her own limits, and shattered the glass ceiling in whatever sport she tackles. She redefined the team dynamics of adventure racing, has a first female ascent rock climbing El Capitan in Yosemite, river boarded down the Grand Canyon, and has given the men a run for their money in endurance mountain biking.
Rusch’s work extends beyond the start line as the best selling author of Rusch to Glory, event producer for Rebecca’s Private Idaho, motivational speaker, firefighter, and cycling advocate. She has raised over $100k for bike related charities through her adventures and events.
About Huyen Nguyen:
Huyen has been a professional Athlete from 1996 to 2008. She still competes, but has turned her interest in coaching young girls. She currently work as a Sports trainer at the HCM City University and Coaches Junior Vietnamese Female Team.
There is No Single Truth in War: Screening and Discussion about the documentary Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick
August 23, 2:30 – 6:00 p.m.
Lynn Novick
Join us for the screening and discussion about the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s documentary “Vietnam War” with the Director Lynn Novick from 14:30 – 18:00, August 23.
THE VIETNAM WAR, a new 10-part, 18-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, will premiere on September 17, 2017 on PBS http://pbs.org/thevietnamwar.
A trailer for the film is available here.
In an immersive narrative, Burns and Novick tell the epic story of the Vietnam War as it has never before been told on film. THE VIETNAM WAR features testimony from nearly 80 witnesses, including many Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as Vietnamese combatants and civilians from both the winning and losing sides (see clips here).
“The Vietnam War was a decade of agony that took the lives of more than 58,000 Americans,” Burns said. “Not since the Civil War have we as a country been so torn apart. There wasn’t an American alive then who wasn’t affected in some way — from those who fought and sacrificed in the war, to families of service members and POWs, to those who protested the war in open conflict with their government and fellow citizens. More than 40 years after it ended, we can’t forget Vietnam, and we are still arguing about why it went wrong, who was to blame and whether it was all worth it.”
“We are all searching for some meaning in this terrible tragedy. Ken and I have tried to shed new light on the war by looking at it from the bottom up, the top down and from all sides,” Novick said. “In addition to dozens of Americans who shared their stories, we interviewed many Vietnamese on both the winning and losing sides, and were surprised to learn that the war remains as painful and unresolved for them as it is for us. Within this almost incomprehensibly destructive event, we discovered profound, universal human truths, as well as uncanny resonances with recent events.”
Ten years in the making, the series brings the war and the chaotic epoch it encompassed viscerally to life. Written by Geoffrey C. Ward, produced by Sarah Botstein, Novick and Burns, it includes rarely seen, digitally re-mastered archival footage from sources around the globe, photographs taken by some of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th century, historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, and revelatory audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations.
Film Screening and Discussion: Elegy for The Time Being
August 29, 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Tram Luong, Yale University PhD Student in Visual Anthropology
‘She said no’, and in that moment there was despair and hope. When the archive of memories become dead weight, stories have to be told anew. Elegy for The Time Being is a documentary film project inspired by the life of Huỳnh Sanh Thông – the first Vietnamese scholar to arrive at Yale University in the 1950s. Professor Huỳnh left a critical legacy for the field of Vietnamese study, including the masterpiece translation of The Tale of Kieu.
Elegy for the time being moves through the alleys of the life of Huỳnh Sanh Thông to weave together moments that glimmer and sink, waiting to be told, and retold. Enmeshed with the musical quest of An Tran, a young Vietnamese guitarist and a personal seeking of Tram Luong, a young storyteller, the life and times of Huỳnh Sanh Thông find a new spirit. The film is a critical reflection on the act of story-telling, a quest to answer the puzzling question of documentary representation. What could we do if the past is not open to us? Do we choose to forget or to remember?
