[Interview] Pham Thi Hoai Anh from Vietnam
I am Pham Thi Hoai Anh. I am a children’s picture book author and educator. In 2022, I founded ICBC in Vietnam (Initiative of Children's Book Creative content), where I and my colleagues spearhead diverse educational programs and activities about children's books such as exhibitions, training program, and interactive story time. Currently, I am the children's book educational program manager in Crabit Kidbooks Publishing House. Children's books are my passion and greatest interest in my career.
For the past 8 years, I have worked professionally in the children's book publishing industry in a variety of flexible roles. Taking the time to delve into the practice of reading with my children to observe their joy of reading and to challenge myself in a variety of roles has given me valuable educational experiences and insights about reading education and children's education. These reflections help me understand more fully what a children's book really means to a child and the activities that need to be done for a children's book to truly enter the spiritual life of a child through stories time and educational activities at home, at schools and in the community.
As a children's book author, I am passionate about family topics with Vietnamese culture material. I have published three children's books on this topic including "Mommy's Heart", "Daddy's Hands" and "Goodbye Great Grandma"; in which the book "Mommy's Heart" was awarded the Vietnam National Book Award in 2016. In 2021, I organized a children's exhibition for the book "Mommy's Heart" to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the book. It was truly a memorable milestone in my career as I got to meet my young readers and see how much they enjoyed the artworks and participating in the activities of the exhibition.
During my professional journey, I greatly admired Korean children's picture book authors, they inspired me a lot, especially my two children's picture book idols Suzy Lee and Beak Hee-na. During the last week of participating in CPI's training program in Seoul, I was extremely happy to have fulfilled one of my dreams, which was to visit an exhibition of original works by Beak Hee-na at Seoul Art Center. There are no words that can describe my excitement and happiness when I entered the exhibition space and was immersed in her masterpieces. It was one of the most memorable memories of my life.
In my role as a children's book educator, I am always filled with energy when working with children. Besides working in kindergartens and elementary schools to consult and implement training programs on reading with children for teachers, I always love encounting and reading with my little reading buddy. I and my colleagues at ICBC Vietnam believe that ICBC believes that picture books, children's books and art are the wings of children's curiosity and imagination, no matter their age, so we strive to organize reading programs with creative concept to share the joy of reading with children. “I see…” and "It starts with a page..." is a series of creative and interactive reading workshops for children organized by ICBC Vietnam to help primary school-age children explore the world of curiosity and imagination at public art exhibition spaces through reading activities and different forms of creative practice. The children's books selected for the program will open a journey of discovery, feeling the works and stories with their own curiosity, imagination, and language, through which, each art exhibition, each children's book will bring beautiful and warm emotional connection for children.
When I am me, I love spending time and traveling with my family, sunbathing in the park, going to the library or watching K-drama. During 2 weeks of participating in CPI's training program in Busan, I visited a total of 5 libraries in the city such as Busan Metropolitan Library, Donggu Library, Donggu Children’s English Library, Haeundae Library... Each of these has its own special attraction. I have observed and learned many new and useful things for my professional work. Busan is an amazing friendly and wonderful city. I had a very memorable time learning and experiencing culture during my time here.
For a long time, I was very impressed by the Korean publishing industry in general and Korean children's picturebooks in particular. In the process of finding information about scholarship, training programs and projects related to Korean children's books, my friends introduced the 2023 CPI Cultural Experts Training Program to me. My biggest expectation when participating in the program is to directly learn and receive professional training from Korea's leading experts in the fields of culture, education, and publishing. I also hope that through the program, I can connect with Korean cultural experts, educational organizations and projects promoting Korean children's literature, and Korean children's picturebooks to establish cooperative relationships and share initiatives, activities to spread this topic more strongly and sustainably in Vietnam.
The topic that impresses me most through online training period are “Concepts and Uses for Cultural Resources” by Professor Park Shin Hee from School of Culture and Art Management at Kyunghee University and “Developing an Action Plan”. During the invitation training in Busan, two contents brought me the newest and useful knowledge are “creating book contents for children education” and “Illustrating children’s book” section. The field trip to Busan Metropolitan Library was the most impressive trip to me.
Our team project proposal is “Capacity building on managing and planning educational program for children’s librarians”. Our group decided to implement the project model at Children's Culture Library, National Library of Vietnam, where we have enough SWOT Analysis data to carry out the project in the most effective and sustainable way. We chose this idea to develop an action plan after discussing the current state of local libraries, especially children’s libraries in the cities we live in. We realize that one of the important reasons why libraries operate poorly and unattractively is due to the lack of educational activities and cultural events. Based on the knowledge and experience we have learned in the training program with EDCN, we believe that our project can create positive changes through capacity building on managing and planning educational programs for children’s librarians. When the project was selected as the best project, our team was very proud and happy. At the same time, we also hope that the project will continue to receive support from KOFICE so that we can implement and make the project reality.
My most important plan in the future is to implement our team project proposal. The training content and activities of the project will also give me the opportunity to practice the knowledge about Planning and Creating Book Contents for Children's Education that I have learned in the program. That means a lot to me.
I am full of hope and strongly believe that this project will also promote many other educational programs and cultural events for children to introduce and spread Korean children's literature, especially Korean children's picture book for Vietnamese children.
I am very grateful to KOFICE, CPI and EDCN because after the training program I really learned a lot of useful things to expand my knowledge and experience about Korean culture in general and the field of publishing and children's education in particular. Therefore, I plan to host a session to share about the valuable experiences I have had with the CPI Cultural Experts Training Program with interested people so that they can have more information about the program and have the best preparation to register for the program in the coming years.
I also have a suggestion. It would be great if participants like me who have participated in the general program could continue to apply for the advanced program in the next year to deepen my knowledge and complete my projects more sustainably. Sincerely, thank you.
PHAM THI HOAI ANH
2023 CPI Cultural Experts Training Program Participant
Manager, Crabit Kidbooks Publishing
