A chance to stay and work
Tuong Vy believes that if you work hard, stick at it, do your best, and do your part for Taiwanese society, “One day they’ll change how they think about you and will look on you more kindly.”
Despite only working part time, she took her job as seriously as a full-time one, taking a hosting skills class and developing interesting new programming ideas. But even so, she was still worried about whether she’d be able to stay after finishing college.
At that time, if an international student wanted to work in Taiwan after graduating, they had to meet two conditions: they had to have two years of work experience, and a job paying at least NT$48,000 a month. (The Ministry of Labor has since 2012 relaxed these conditions somewhat, dropping the pay requirement to NT$37,619 a month and doing away with the experience requirement.) Tuong Vy had the experience, but getting a job that paid that well was a tough ask for a fresh college graduate.
As she watched her classmates head back to their countries one after the other, she only grew more worried. Then one day one of the bosses at RTI came to see her. As it turned out, the director of the Vietnamese service had already long since asked them to keep her on, and having seen how hard she had been working, management agreed. With that load off her mind, Tuong Vy set to work again with RTI, filming a show for them entitled Dau Chan Nguoi Viet, or “Vietnamese Footprints.”
Made under a tight budget and with minimal staff, the show nonetheless turned out to be an excellent way for Tuong Vy to promote Taiwan in her homeland. Despite the two countries not having formal diplomatic relations, after a year and a half of hard work by RTI and with the help of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, Dau Chan Nguoi Viet became the first Taiwan-made show to be broadcast on Vietnamese television.
Tuong Vy is not just a radio and online video host, but also goes on location to host television shows outside the studio. (courtesy of Da’ai Television, New Faces in Taiwan)