Can anyone translate this sign?

I have a vague idea, but don't want to embarrass myself by trying... Life begins at 30 asked me to help.

Comments

[Yen]

There could still be some secret propaganda message, but the one on the right is something about developing from a seed into a tree, the fruits nourish and then grow tall.

(blue sign)
phat trien = improve
giong lua = rice plant
can an trai = tree bearing fruit
va = and
vat nuoi = raised animal (?)
chat luong cao = good quality

(red sign)
quyet tam = determine
xay dung = building
gia dinh = family
van hoa = culture

[joseph duemer]

I took a bunch of pictures of signs like this in & around Hanoi in 2000-2001 & had my Vietnamese teacher help me translate them. My Vietnamese is marginal, but the first sign is an encouragement to farmers to follow good agricultural practices: "Improve the quality of your products." The second one is about the family being the basis of culture. Part of the problem with translating signs is that, like billboards anywhere, they use advertising-speak & the grammar can be obscure to non-native speakers.

LOL, "secret propaganda message", it's funny that you guys always assume that this kind of billboard must have some propaganda message.

The left sign can be roughly translated as
"Determine to build cultural families"
"Cultural families" is a campaign of VN government encouraging families to uphold traditional values ( http://www.cpv.org.vn/details_e.asp?topic=61&subtopic=160&leader_topic=264&id=BT1100759472 )

The right sign can be roughly translated as
"Grow high quality rice, fruit and animal"
This is the "propaganda" (or advertising if this billboard is in other country :) ) of the VACR system in which farmer "combines fruit and vegetable cultivation, animal husbandry and aquaculture and contribute to sustainable agricultural management by cycling products through several stages of production in order to minimize waste while maximizing benefits"(I'm quoting from this http://ss.jircas.affrc.go.jp/english/publication/newsletter/2002/No.31/research/index.html)

[Aaron]

As no one has pointed this out yet, the words inside the big heart reads "Ideal (examplar) grand-parents and parents; hieu thao children"

"Hieu thao" itself is a grateful attitude towards senior members in a family, which I failed to find a counterpart in English :(

[Graham]

Thanks all. I'm kinda stunned I still folk interested in Vietnam coming to this blog :) Happily stunned, hope lifebeginsat30 is tuneing into to all this.

[jen maiser]

Yes, tuning in! Thank you, Graham and all your readers. The right hand sign was the most intriguing that I saw because it had to do with food - nice to have a translation.

[HA]

hieu thao can be translated as filial

[Cate]

Would like to have an alternate, more equivalent, less literal translation from Yen's:

(blue sign)
phat trien = expand/strive [...to make]
giong lua = agriculture [,]
can an trai = produce/orchards [,]
va = and
vat nuoi = livestocks [,]
chat luong cao = high [in] quality

(red sign)
quyet tam = [be] determined [to]
xay dung = build
gia dinh = family [and]
van hoa = culture

[Marc]

The one on the right is something about the ecosystem and global warming, and how it's better to eat fruits than fish, because of whatever ...

Yeah. I think I need to brush up on my Vietnamese ...just a little.

[Steven Khieu]

The sign on the left says.

"determine to build family, educated"

now for the proper non-lips out of sync action translation.

"determined to build an educated family"

I can't see what's inside the heart so i can't translate.

The sign on the right reads.

"improve the rice field (implies agricultural fields, fruitful trees, and high quality livestocks"

VACR is an organization in VN that helps or promote the improvement or modernize and westernize the society commercially of VN.

[Tommy Ngo]

Dudes!

I have seen a various good translations above. But let me just put this in a normal American phases:

Phrases on the left:
Determination to develop family culture.

Phrases on the right:
Develop high quality rice seed; fruit plants and domesticated livestocks.

My background is Vietkieu Financial Professional living in the US for 30 years.

[Tommy Ngo]

Dudes!

(Correction: I took out the "a" article.)

I have seen various good translations above. But let me just put this in a normal American phases:

Phrases on the left:
Determination to develop family culture.

Phrases on the right:
Develop high quality rice seed; fruit plants and domesticated livestocks.

My background is Vietkieu Financial Professional living in the US for 30 years

Sorry Dude!
I typed too fast a notice some error in grammer in my previous postings. Here is the correction again.

I have seen a good number of translations above. But let me just put this translation into a normal American context:

Phrase on the left:
Determination to develop family culture.

Phrase on the right:
Develop high quality rice seed; fruit plants and domesticated livestocks.

So these phrases look like the old Soviet days because only agricultural development is mentioned. Industrial development is not mentioned here.

My background is Vietkieu Financial Professional living in the US for 30 years.

Posted by: Tommy Ngo | November 03, 2007 at 05:55 PM

Dudes!

(Correction: I took out the "a" article.)

I have seen various good translations above. But let me just put this in a normal American phases:

Phrases on the left:
Determination to develop family culture.

Phrases on the right:
Develop high quality rice seed; fruit plants and domesticated livestocks.

My background is Vietkieu Financial Professional living in the US for 30 years

[lirelou]

Actually, it is propaganda, though the term "secret" propaganda sounds like an oxymoron. In this case, "white" propaganda as it is from an acknowledged source, and is designed to promote or elicit a specific behaviour. (positive behaviours in this case)

[bathrobe]

One person says jia dinh van hoa means "cultural families". A second says it means "family culture". Which is correct? I can see the problem. According to Chinese order (these are both words from Chinese) it would mean "family culture". According to native Vietnamese order it would be "cultural family". But it would be nice to know which is the most likely interpretation in modern Vietnam.