Our jobs

This past Tuesday, I was able to sit in my teammate’s Speaking class to observe and learn from his teaching. The class had about 50 students total, with just 8 boys and the rest were girls. Manny was having the class practice asking questions, so he used me as a guest for the first hour, where students could ask me any questions they wanted. They asked me lots of personal questions and had lots of fun trying to figure out my age and getting me to say something in Vietnamese. During the breaks, some of the boys came and chatted with me and exchanged phone numbers. I also took the chance to ask the boys why they were way outnumbered by the girls in the class since a few of my friends have been wondering. They said that girls tend to be better than boys in languages, so most boys don't usually score high enough on the entrance exam to get into the university as English majors. I told the boys they must be very special then, and they agreed with big smiles on their faces. So, there you have it, the official response from the students themselves! Now, it's up to you to figure out why girls are better than boys in languages. One reason I heard was that girls just talk a lot more. What do you think?
I just received my teaching schedule today and found out that I will start teaching this coming Monday 9/15, not 9/22 as I had previously been told. Surprise!! All of my classes are in the morning, and some start at 6:30am! In the States, I had a hard time getting to work by 9am. How am I going to teach a Speaking class at 6:30 in the morning? Nothing in my body is going to be awake at that time, so it’s going to take a miracle to pull it off. I am hoping that this year’s freshmen are bright, enthusiastic, motivated, and understanding. They know that Mr. Andy is teaching them Speaking and Listening, Misses Ruth is teaching them Reading and Listening, and Mr. Manny is teaching them Writing. Three foreign teachers will be spending the next two years with 100 new students to prepare them for their future English teaching and translating/interpreting jobs. What an impossible task, considering the family, home, and learning environment of these students and the cross cultural nature of our jobs! We’ll do the best we can at loving and caring for them in our teaching, and they’ll somehow manage to learn and grow.