LookAtVietnam – While most students have returned to their home villages to
celebrate Tet with families, a lot of other students still stay in Hanoi,
because they have to work to get money to spend on Tet days.
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The special babysitters, car keepers and house cleaners
Some of the students are lucky enough to get the jobs which have relation with
their trained majors, while others have to take any jobs they can, from
babysitters, car keepers to house cleaners.
Nguyen Van Truong, a student of the Hanoi National University, said that he
would stay in Hanoi for some more days to earn some money to pay for the rent
room. The rent alone costs him 800,000 dong a month. Therefore, Truong does not
have much money left for meals.
Though Truong would leave for the home village in some more days, he would still
have to pay the rent. Meanwhile, he does not want to ask for the money from the
parents. Therefore, he has decided to work as a taxi motorbike driver.
“I can earn hundreds of thousands of dong every day. However, I have to work
from the first gleam of daylight until it is completely dark,” he said.
Mai Thu Phuong, a second year student of the Hanoi University of Labor and
Social Affairs, is working as a babysitter and house cleaner, saying that the
job fits women.
Phuong took the job three months ago. At first, she only had to do this work
three days a week, but now she has to work every day.
Phuong said that babysitting is really a hard job. Meanwhile, house cleaning
requires patience and carefulness. “If you don’t have such characters, you won’t
get the job,” she said.
“I have realized that it is really difficult to make money. Therefore, I
treasure every dong I earn,” she said.
Phuong’s friends also think this way. They are also staying in Hanoi, working as
waiters at restaurants and cafes, sellers at fashion shops, operators at
companies. Many of them deliver leaflets and gifts in companies’ promotion
campaigns. They have to bear hard pressure in their work, though they can earn
1.5-2 million dong a month.
The surveyors-students
Nguyen Thi Le Na and Le Trung Kien from the Hanoi University of Transport said
they feel happy because they can earn some money to spend on Tet with the job of
traffic surveyor.
The job seems to be unfamiliar to other students, but it is really familiar to
the transport university students. Na and Kien have to come to meet people,
deliver questionnaires, interview people. For every survey sheet, they can earn
5000 dong.
Na and Kien also have to count the number of buses and the vehicles in
circulation to report the traffic situation at different hours on different
streets, for which they can get 1 million dong.
Kien said that the income is “satisfactory”, but they have to work too hard. For
example, in order to count the number of vehicles, they had to stand on the
streets from 6 am of the day until the 6 am of the next day in the cold and
rain.
However, most of the students said they are proud of the jobs and the money they
can earn. “Now I can afford my study, while I still have money to spend on tet
days,” Kien said.
Meanwhile, Na said that she now has enough money to buy a coat for the mother,
and buy medicine for the father, who suffers from the backache.
Thu Thao