Forum "Capital students with reading culture"

On October 8, 2008, the forum "Capital students with reading culture" organized by the Hanoi City Student Association took place at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

The purpose of the forum is to create opportunities for young people and students to share their needs, experiences, and exchange views on reading, thereby helping to improve the quality of reading, enriching knowledge in many fields, contributing to improving the quality of students' learning. Many students from VNU and some universities in Hanoi attended the forum.

The main contents revolving around reading culture discussed at the forum include: the role of reading in improving knowledge for each individual; the current status of reading among students and young people; reading as a cultural feature of Hanoians; choosing good books for effective reading; effective reading methods and skills.

Many opinions at the discussion strongly opposed the current misconceptions of overemphasizing audio-visual culture while neglecting reading. This is becoming increasingly popular among young people, causing a lack of knowledge among students and negatively affecting the entire education system. Many reasons were given by the delegates such as: the passivity and laziness of a part of the young generation, and more importantly, the shortcomings in education when we have maintained uncreative and stereotyped learning methods for students since their high school years.

In addition, young people often make a very elementary mistake of reading books but not having the right attitude and reading method, making reading ineffective. It is common to skim, read quickly, read for entertainment without thinking, leading to not being able to fully grasp the knowledge in the book. And according to Dr. Le Van Cau - a guest at the forum - when reading books, we should think, experience and apply what we understand into our daily life, in our behavior, in our thinking to make our lives more beautiful and complete. That is the profound meaning of reading books.

Also at the forum, many effective reading skills were introduced to help young people explore and acquire different levels of reading, from elementary reading, systematic skimming to controlled reading and speed reading. These reading levels are applied to different purposes of readers, helping readers know how to approach and grasp all types of texts, whether they are literary works, scientific books, mathematics, philosophy or history. And more importantly, knowing how to read books will promote the reader's passion for discovering books.