Dear valued readers, Tuoi Tre News is celebrating its fifth birthday today, June 18. We have been around for five years with a mission of being a news gateway to Vietnam for everyone who wants to know what is happening in the country through accurate, updated news stories published in English. To celebrate this milestone, we have asked readers to tell us what they expect from our website, and what they think needs to be improved. And our call received an enthusiastic reply. We owe you, readers, great appreciation for this. But allow us to first show off our birthday wishes, which kept arriving and overwhelming us over the week. Another heartfelt thank you to all our valued readers. “Congrats. Long may you continue,” Mark McKellar-Harding told us on Facebook, while Graeme Marr hailed our good work and Choat Gemini said she loves Tuoi Tre News and what we are doing. “It's great to find an English publication for news and happenings in Vietnam,” Vickie Le said as she thanked us for our continued efforts. Francisca van Hassel sent her birthday greeting in Vietnamese (Sinh nhật vui vẻ) via an email to us, and said that she does not “have any negative comments.” “I like you the way you are,” she wrote. Thuy Nguyen, writing from Belgium, sent us a happy birthday wish and lauded our effort to bring readers the latest news from Vietnam. “Especially with breaking stories on the Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig in the disputed waters and the missing plane MH370 last year, TuoiTre News has proved to be a news gateway not only to Vietnam but also to Asia,” she wrote. “My friends and I often share articles from your news site on social networks as they represent Vietnamese perspectives upon various issues to the world.” Other readers have also told us what they like about Tuoi Tre News. Stivi Cooke, our Australian columnist, remarked that Tuoi Tre Newsis more interesting in its reporting of issues such as land disputes, poverty and life in the countryside over time, rather than leaning toward excessive scandal reporting and quaint descriptions of tourist attractions. Robert Ackley, an American who lives in Ho Chi Minh City, said Tuoi Tre News articles are interesting and the quality of the language is pretty good, even though the stories are written by Vietnamese reporters. We have also received supportive and thoughtful feedback on how to improve the quality of our news. David Arnold, an American, suggested we develop a workforce who can write in English instead of just translating Vietnamese news fromTuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper. To the uninitiated, Tuoi Tre is a leading Vietnamese language daily in Vietnam and Tuoi Tre News is its English language publication. We have indeed used the Vietnamese stories from the Tuoi Tre daily as input and ‘write’ them into English articles with angles which are usually different from the originals to cater to the needs of our target readers. But we have also produced our own content, as you may have noticed over the past five years. Ackley said Tuoi Tre News should try to be more interesting, and think about what is and is not important, so that stories on the same topic will not be repeated. Cooke said he wants to see more video and graphic content in the future, while Nguyen expected that more stories about overseas Vietnamese and their views on their country of residence will be carried on Tuoi Tre News. Thank you again for the valuable feedback. We are happy to blow out the birthday candles on this special occasion with you, and we do hope to be able to celebrate the next milestone with you as companions. Tuoi Tre News Staff