We gonna introduce to you a little bit of the television world.

This is the OB truck and inside the truck we have.

Hello everyone.

We have Anh Trong, who is our DOP.

Dũng, our production assistant.

This is anh Dũng, our OB truck technician.

And all of these materials and equipment is really complicated.

I don't understand all of these, but one day I do wish to.

But an interesting thing about this topic is that this is where all the magic happens, this is where the direction happens.

It's one of the coldest places that you can find in a television station.

And it's also at night, this is where all the mist go to, because this is always outside.

But despite the fact that you saw a bit of the technicality of television, today's episode we will be talking about television with a very special guest.

And it's gonna be the human aspect and human experience of television.

So be excited and we gonna give you a tour into our life.

Welcome back to the studio.

Guys, guess what, you ask and we listen.

And today topic is on Television and we have our guess that you've been all waiting to meet.

And she is right here shooting with me in this studio.

Let's welcome Duong Tran.

Hello.

Hello, hi.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you. Thank you for having me here on the show.

I'm very excited to join in 8IELTS.

How does it feel being a guess this time?

Oh God, I think I'm really used to posing questions.

So if I seem a little bit on the spot today, feel a little bit hesitant, it's because I'm always used to posing questions.

So this is new for me.

I guess today is a conversation.

I ask questions, you're free to ask questions too if you like.

Ok, first question, you were an environmental major as well as French major, how did your path to television start?

It seems quite random, doesn't it?

I graduated from school and like all graduate back then, I had no idea what I want to do obviously.

In Liberal Art School in the States, people embrace this image of a graduate going out there to kind of save the world.

Once you get out in the real world, especially for me coming back to Vietnam that time.

It wasn't like I could go out and have a job that would allow me to be like this hero or save the world as in the books that I learnt during college.

So I started a translation job because that's what I knew, I knew English.

That's how I ended up in VTV and television.

And then people started giving me jobs and things that I'd never done before.

It started from the voice and it started “Ok, we need someone to stand in for this person to read news”.

I can't do that, but I did, eventually I did.

One thing just led to the next.

You're doing your Journalistic TV; you're also doing a little bit of the broadcast TV.

What is the difference in these experiences?

It's a little different in term of practicality obviously.

When I first started out being in front of the limelight in talking, being able to express your idea fluently and at the same time being very mindful of what audience think,

whether they be Vietnamese or international, those are kind of first challenges.

But overtime, the challenges are to stay and continue to be creative and love what you do.

Obviously, people that I meet, they are the biggest inspiration.

I'm lucky to be able to work in different variety of fields.

Those things give me inspirations to continue on my next show and to continue this path.

Whether the differences in journalistic and then broadcast, obviously, in a lot of the feature that you have more fun in terms of you get to experience more lifestyle or sides of broadcast.

Whereas, with journalistic, I get to practice a lot of what I learnt in school later on, in grad school.

That's kind of the basic of the journalism and journalistic identity, where you try to portray what you see as closely as possible.

Obviously, there're differences between features and news.

A lot of the time when you think about television, especially television in Vietnam, and probably similar around the world in sense of that people love drama.

You know, people like to see all that crazy motions on TV.

And sometimes people on TV, they love that kind of stuff as well.

So are you a drama person or are you not a drama person when it comes to your work?

To answer straightly, I would say I'm not a drama person.

I do a lot of news on TV on a daily basis; I try to keep it as straight-forward as possible, quick and simple, but at the same time very true to the story.

We also broadcast to international audience, so it's also about how the international audience sees Vietnam.

And I see myself having to film real huge truth because that is about portraying the whole country.

When it comes to news, we're very careful.

But obviously when it comes to feature, we try to portray Vietnam in the best of ways, but also in the fun of way, interesting.

One of goals is to get people to come to Vietnam, to know about Vietnam, to know what is going on.

Now that you're a mom, and you're working mom, what's your day like?

Right now it's definitely hard being a working mom.

I definitely have a huge respect for all moms once I turn to mom.

And even more so now as my baby's growing up older and especially more appreciation for my mom.

And all of the hard work that she had to go through to raise me up to be who I am today.

But in terms of my day, definitely I try my best to, you know, see my baby as much as possible.

I'm very lucky to live right next to my work, so I go home as much as possible and try to work once he goes to sleep, if I had work to do at home

But it's going well so far, definitely stressful and it gotta give me so much appreciation for all the working moms out there.

And it probably trains you to be a lot more to recognize your identity and another aspect of the Vietnamese identity, right?

It's an identity that's so close and dear to the heart of so many Vietnamese people that Vietnamese women are strong.

Strong in terms of not only physically strong, but mentally strong to be able to balance all of the things in their life, a career, a family, children and still having great to all of that.

Those are my role models, and my mom is a great role model in that aspect, someone I aspire to become in the future.

I mean I'm not sure I'm doing such a great job now, and it's still so new for me, jungling all of this in one life.

But we'll see how it goes and I have a lot of people who've gone before me to look at and to be a role model too.

Now talking about that, there're a lot of people in universities, in schools, and young working adults who really look up to you as a role model.

And actually, we invited some people here today, to the studio but we're gonna meet them later.

Before you guys have a chance to meet Duong, we're gonna play a game.

And if you already know, we have the IELTS MARATHON and Duong's gonna take for it.

OK.

Have you ever taken the IELTS before?

Yes, I took the IELTS once, actually for my graduation at school.

Not the TOEFL for the undergraduate and then the IELTS?

Yes, exactly.

- Ok. Let's go! - Thank you.

Hey! You're now with us at the 8IELTS MARATHON challenge and of course, with this challenge, we always will have our contender.

Our contender today is Duong Tran.

And to prepare for the IELTS MARATHON challenge, what have you done?

I don't know. I'm quite nervous and hopefully I do well.

OK. Your first task is basically dig your hand around all of this mess and you're gonna have to be blindfolded.

You're gonna find the passport, you're gonna find the keys and also you also gonna have to find the confirmation letter.

Alright.

I'm gonna leave you to the first box. Can you feel the box, four boxes?

First box, second box, third box and then the fourth box.

OK. Ready and set. Go!

First box. She's digging through what we call Spaghetti.

OK. What do you feel? What does this feel like to you?

It feels like spaghetti, but like nylon spaghetti.

I feel a paper. I don't know.

- Is this the confirmation letter? - That is the confirmation letter. You've got the first one.

OK. I'm gonna check to see if there is anything else in this box.

Alright. So you're onto the second box.

OK. There might be something in here.

What is this? I think it's cotton.

Cotton. What does that feel like to you?

Very furry.

Very furry. You though it's an animal?

Yeah. It was my first initial reaction.

I find the keys.

- Oh. She has the keys. - I found the keys. Ok.

So your fingers work very well.

I check again. This box seems to have anything else.

This is your third box. You only have one more item. One more item.

Stuffed animals.

Stuffed animals.

I found it.

Oh! Congratulation!

Can I take this off now?

Yes, you can. That's very fast.

OK. Beautiful. How did that feel?

Good. Yes. OK I see what I've been touched. Flowers.

So you're on to the next challenge.

What am I doing here?

You got to set the timer to couple of seconds, ten seconds.

And you gotta go on to that spinning wheel, spin one round and make sure it snaps right at the moment where you're in front of the camera.

I'm gonna take off my shoes if that's OK.

That's a very smart move.

Alright. Press it.

Alright. OK you go!

What I have to do? Turn it?

Spin it and make sure at the last minutes.

The last seconds.

Oh. It's taken the picture of you. Very beautiful back.

So I have to do it again?

Yes. You got to do it one more time.

It's too difficult.

Be careful.

Beautiful. You're on to the next one

So number two is the City Gallery.

Number two is the City Gallery. Is this correct?

You're onto the next one.

Now it's the PARAPHRASE challenge.

OK.

Yeah. You just three words and find three synonyms and you're off to go.

Alright. Nearest is the closest.

Major is large

And support will be help.

Support will be help. That's absolutely correct.

Alright, next to the PRONUNCIATION challenge – the final challenge in this section.

You're gonna read the whole paragraph. You should see one sentence fully recognized to pass.

OK. Shall we begin?

3, 2, 1..Action!

Alright. You're on to the next challenge. Go over here.

What do you think about all of these challenges, just now?

Yeah, it's very fun to take these challenges.

I mean you definitely get a little bit nerve wreck at some points.

So, your final challenge is gonna be called the SNEAK OF SHAME.

You're gonna be sneaking up to the letters.

And then I'm gonna have to turn around.

And everytime I turn around, you got pauses and freeze. So whatever stand to you're standing.

Sure. Ok.

And that is just the rule of the game.

So are you ready for THE SNEAK OF SHAME?

Yes, I am ready.

OK.

SNEAK OF SHAME, a new edition starts now.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, two and a half, three.

You just look like you haven't moved.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, two and a half, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

I have a four.

I have all the letters.

You have all the letters.

This is O, R.

I hold some for you.

O and R

H, C and A

What can that be?

Remember I have a secret letter as well.

Without it, you may not be able to form the word.

What would you tell me to give you the last letter?

Please?

Since you said please, here's your last letter.

O, R, C, H, A, N.

I have no idea.

Let's me hold this for you, so you can have a visualization.

Oh my God.

What does Anchor mean?

Anchor means presenter.

What do you want to say to all the young people that want to get to the television?

Are there any tips to remain in this industry?

Yeah, I mention this abbreviation one is to stay opened and open is OPENED.

O stands for Optimism.

P stands for Patience.