Exploring Perceived Speaking Skills, Motives, and Communication Needs of Undergraduate Students Studying Japanese Language

This study investigated the perceived speaking skills of undergraduate students who were majoring or minoring in Japanese Studies at two universities in Vietnam and Bulgaria. It also examined the factors associated with students’ speaking skills, their motives for studying Japanese, and their needs for communication with native Japanese speakers while proposing a hypothetical model linking these constructs. A total of 108 students participated in the cross-sectional online survey questionnaire, which included questions on personal information, perceived Japanese language skills, motives for studying Japanese, needs for communication with native Japanese speakers, and self-esteem. The data were analyzed using SPSS. The results showed that the respondents perceived their Japanese speaking skills level as lower than the other three skills. Factors such as age, year of enrollment, years studying Japanese, English level, co-living status, study abroad experience, and self-esteem were found to be associated with the perceived speaking skills of the respondents. Family-related factors, such as parents’ education and the family’s study abroad experience, were also found to be associated with perceived speaking skills. The study also validated three constructs of motives for studying Japanese, including being interested in Japan, being interested in communication, and being interested in going to Japan and highlighting the respondents’ needs for communication with native speakers. The proposed model suggests that motives for studying Japanese influence perceived speaking skills and the need for communication with native Japanese speakers. The findings of this study have implications for Japanese language education, particularly in the development of teaching strategies that enhance students’ speaking skills and provide opportunities for communication with native speakers. It also underscores the importance of understanding students’ motives for studying Japanese, as these motivations can influence their language proficiency and the effectiveness of language education programs

Revisiting the Approaches for Exploring Students’ Drive in Japanese Studies

Japanese Studies undergraduate programs offer students an engaging curriculum that provides a deep understanding of the Japanese language and culture. A degree in Japanese Studies equips students with valuable skills that are relevant in various fields, making it a popular choice worldwide. College students’ motivation is a critical factor in academic success and has been extensively studied in education. The paper aims to review the existing theories related to study motivation, language acquisition, study abroad drives, and motivation, then to consider the approaches and details that we could prioritize for investigating the motivations and drives of students majoring and minoring in Japanese Studies in universities

Synthesis and Optical Characterization of Dye Doped in Ormosil Nanospheres for Bioapplications

Dye-doped ORMOSIL (organically modified silicate) nanoparticles (NPs) have significant advantages over single-dye labeling in signal amplification, photostability and surface modification for various biological applications. The dyes: Rhodamine 6G (R6G) and Rhodamine B (RB) were successfully incorporated into ORMOSIL nanoparticles fabricated by micellar nanochemistry from Trimethoxysilane CH$_3$Si(OCH$_3$)$_3$ precursor. The optical characterization of dye-doped ORMOSIL NPs was studied in comparison with it’s of free dye in solution. The results shown that the photostability of ORMOSIL dye doped nanospheres is much improved in comparison with it’s of dye in solution. Other studies of the photophysical properties such as anisotropy, fluorescence lifetime and energy transfer were also done

"Cultural additivity" and how the values and norms of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism co-exist, interact, and influence Vietnamese society: A Bayesian analysis of long-standing folktales, using R and Stan

Every year, the Vietnamese people reportedly burned about 50,000 tons of joss papers, which took the form of not only bank notes, but iPhones, cars, clothes, even housekeepers, in hope of pleasing the dead. The practice was mistakenly attributed to traditional Buddhist teachings but originated in fact from China, which most Vietnamese were not aware of. In other aspects of life, there were many similar examples of Vietnamese so ready and comfortable with adding new norms, values, and beliefs, even contradictory ones, to their culture. This phenomenon, dubbed "cultural additivity", prompted us to study the co-existence, interaction, and influences among core values and norms of the Three Teachings--Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism--as shown through Vietnamese folktales. By applying Bayesian logistic regression, we evaluated the possibility of whether the key message of a story was dominated by a religion (dependent variables), as affected by the appearance of values and anti-values pertaining to the Three Teachings in the story (independent variables).Comment: 8 figures, 35 page

"Cultural additivity" and how the values and norms of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism co-exist, interact, and influence Vietnamese society: A Bayesian analysis of long-standing folktales, using R and Stan

Every year, the Vietnamese people reportedly burned about 50,000 tons of joss papers, which took the form of not only bank notes, but iPhones, cars, clothes, even housekeepers, in hope of pleasing the dead. The practice was mistakenly attributed to traditional Buddhist teachings but originated in fact from China, which most Vietnamese were not aware of. In other aspects of life, there were many similar examples of Vietnamese so ready and comfortable with adding new norms, values, and beliefs, even contradictory ones, to their culture. This phenomenon, dubbed “cultural additivity”, prompted us to study the co-existence, interaction, and influences among core values and norms of the Three Teachings –Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism–as shown through Vietnamese folktales. By applying Bayesian logistic regression, we evaluated the possibility of whether the key message of a story was dominated by a religion (dependent variables), as affected by the appearance of values and anti-values pertaining to the Three Teachings in the story (independent variables). Our main findings included the existence of the cultural additivity of Confucian and Taoist values. More specifically, empirical results showed that the interaction or addition of the values of Taoism and Confucianism in folktales together helped predict whether the key message of a story was about Confucianism, β{VT ⋅ VC} = 0.86. Meanwhile, there was no such statistical tendency for Buddhism. The results lead to a number of important implications. First, this showed the dominance of Confucianism because the fact that Confucian and Taoist values appeared together in a story led to the story’s key message dominated by Confucianism. Thus, it presented the evidence of Confucian dominance and against liberal interpretations of the concept of the Common Roots of Three Religions (“tam giáo đồng nguyên”) as religious unification or unicity. Second, the concept of “cultural additivity” could help explain many interesting socio-cultural phenomena, namely the absence of religious intolerance and extremism in the Vietnamese society, outrageous cases of sophistry in education, the low productivity in creative endeavors like science and technology, the misleading branding strategy in business. We are aware that our results are only preliminary and more studies, both theoretical and empirical, must be carried out to give a full account of the explanatory reach of “cultural additivity”

Spatiotemporal evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Alpha and Delta variants during large nationwide outbreak of COVID-19, Vietnam, 2021

We analyzed 1,303 SARS-CoV-2 whole-genome sequences from Vietnam, and found the Alpha and Delta variants were responsible for a large nationwide outbreak of COVID-19 in 2021. The Delta variant was confined to the AY.57 lineage and caused >1.7 million infections and >32,000 deaths. Viral transmission was strongly affected by nonpharmaceutical interventions

Kinetics of neutralizing antibodies against Omicron variant in Vietnamese healthcare workers after primary immunization with ChAdOx1-S and booster immunization with BNT162b2

We studied the development and persistence of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 ancestral strain, and Delta and Omicron (BA.1 and BA.2) variants in Vietnamese healthcare workers (HCWs) up to 15 weeks after booster vaccination. We included 47 HCWs, including group 1 (G1, N = 21) and group 2 (G2; N = 26) without and with breakthrough Delta variant infection before booster immunization, respectively). The study participants had completed primary immunization with ChAdOx1-S and booster vaccination with BNT162b2. Neutralizing antibodies were measured using a surrogate virus neutralization assay. Of the 21 study participants in G1, neutralizing antibodies against ancestral strain, Delta variant, BA.1, and BA.2 were (almost) abolished at month 8 after the second dose, but all had detectable neutralizing antibodies to the study viruses at week 2 post booster dose. Of the 26 study participants in G2, neutralizing antibody levels to BA.1 and BA.2 were significantly higher than those to the corresponding viruses measured at week 2 post breakthrough infection and before the booster dose. At week 15 post booster vaccination, neutralizing antibodies to BA.1 and BA.2 dropped significantly, with more profound changes observed in those without breakthrough Delta variant infection. Booster vaccination enhanced neutralizing activities against ancestral strain and Delta variant compared with those induced by primary vaccination. These responses were maintained at high levels for at least 15 weeks. Our findings emphasize the importance of the first booster dose in producing cross-neutralizing antibodies against Omicron variant. A second booster to maintain long-term vaccine effectiveness against the currently circulating variants merits further research

Electrochemical Fabrication of Hybrid Plasmonic-dielectric Nanomaterial Based on Gold-diamond Clusters

Hybrid plasmonic-dielectric material were fabricated by micro-discharge through water sols of sub-micrometer-sized diamonds mixed with HAuCl4 acid. Primary characterization of their deposits on a silicon wafer surface by means of electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy indicate close proximity of gold nanoparticles and diamond particles, which is supported by photoluminescence studies demonstrating strong – almost two-fold – damping of diamond luminescence owing to the attachment of gold nanoparticles. UV-near IR spectroscopy of their sols consistently exhibits small red spectral shifts for the fabricated nanomaterial, comparing to bare gold nanoparticles. Keywords: micro-diamonds, gold nanoparticles, hybrid plasmonic-dielectric material, electrochemical fabrication, electron microscopy and optical characterization.Hybrid plasmonic-dielectric material were fabricated by micro-discharge through water sols of sub-micrometer-sized diamonds mixed with HAuCl4 acid. Primary characterization of their deposits on a silicon wafer surface by means of electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy indicate close proximity of gold nanoparticles and diamond particles, which is supported by photoluminescence studies demonstrating strong – almost two-fold – damping of diamond luminescence owing to the attachment of gold nanoparticles. UV-near IR spectroscopy of their sols consistently exhibits small red spectral shifts for the fabricated nanomaterial, comparing to bare gold nanoparticles