My Practicum solo teaching class at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (formerly in Hanoi. 20 students showed (3 on time and the rest came late) even though over 40 were officially enrolled--I probably scared the rest away! These were supposed to be low-intermediate level students, and I was told to teach a lesson on the topic of Advertising for Tourism. They were supposed to learn how to write a good advertisement for a tourist attraction.
You may be thinking, "What does an RF engineer know anything advertising or tourism?" The answer is, of course, "Nothing". I had to read up on the topic online and learn it before I could sound like I knew something during class. Then I wrote my very first lesson plan, in which I wrote every single word that I would be saying in class, including "Good morning students!" I knew I would be very nervous and would blank out, and I did! I even had typos on the board and didn't realize it til I looked at the pictures. But the students were very gracious, and they didn't say anything. The class lasted 2.5hrs with one 10min break in between. It was very hot in the classroom, even with all the fans on.
I started out having each student introduce him/herself, and then I introduced myself. Seeing that I didn't look like the rest of the other foreign teachers, they were curious. Vietnamese students, I was told, are supposed to be very shy, especially the girls, because they are not confident of their English abilities. They were chitchatting with one another, and then one of them actually got enough courage to her hand and asked if I was Asian? Then the whole class became totally silent, and all the eyes stared at me waiting anxiously for an answer. I then took a survey of what possible countries they thought I came from, and they named every Asian country except Vietnam. Why would a Vietnamese come back to Vietnam to teach English? What an absurd thing to do! They demanded that I said something in Vietnamese as if to prove I was not lying.
Anyway, the class ended well (no tomatoes in my face, no students walked out in the middle of class, just one or two in the back were texting on their cell phone during class), and I got feedback from my Vietnamese and American mentors. A few comments from the mentors were bad class management, bad use of the board, activities were too long, students lost interests (hence they were texting). And I totally agreed. But they also said I had good 'teacher presence' (meaning I didn't wear shorts and t-shirt to class like I had wanted to and talked loud enough) and I monitored well (meanin I walked around a lot during activities and actually sat down and talked with the students in their groups). The groups asked me a lot of words they didn't know, and I had a hard time explaining them. In the end, I had to cheat and use Vietnamese (and that's when they started laughing because my Vietnamese sounded funny). My background, however, was always a good conversation starter, not only in class but also at the market, restaurants, hotels, and with taxi drivers. Anyway, I was glad practicum was over.
In a few days, I will be facing 2 classes of 50 students each. And these will be real classes with real grades and everything. That's what I came here and was trained to do, to provide services to students who want to improve their English. And so far, I found out that these students (at least the ones I met in Hanoi during Practicum) were also interested in a personal friendship with foreign teachers, someone different, someone outside of their familiar environment, someone who can give them not only a peek into a world outside of their own but also observations about their own world looking in from the outside. Vietnam is a very different world. During training, we were taught a lot about culture immersion, being different but yet the same, becoming a learner in the new culture, and being concious of our own cultural biases. These cultural things come into the classroom as well, and both teacher and students have to learn together to deal with them. The students watch their teacher very closely and they draw conclusions from their observations. And they become curious when they see something they've never seen before or heard something they have never heard before (such as a 'foreign' teacher who can speak Vietnamese, albeit somewhat off and with a South Vietnam accent, or maybe a teacher who would actually step down from the platform and go to their seats and sit down with them and talk with them like friends, or one who would ask them if everything was ok with their family in stead of not letting them into the classroom because they were late coming to class). The classroom is often a center stage where there's more than just 'East meets West'. These are also kids who thirst for true love, respect, and understanding in a very dry place, and some of them don't even recognize love when they see it or don't know how to react to it when they actually feel it. And perhaps they will also learning English better if their other needs are met too?! Who knows. I just know that it's been hard living in here the past 6 weeks. There's no comfort anywhere. I was used to jumping into the car, turning on the AC, and driving to one of the many good restaurants and enjoying some awesome food in a nice, quiet, air conditioned environment. Here, well, it's not like that. But I also see how the students live in the dorms next to us. Four to six of them cramped into a room less than half the size of ours. And no AC or bathrooms! Their common bathrooms don't have real toilets. I am living like a king compared to these folks. That means, in the States, I was living like, what's higher than a king?, maybe a queen? Anyway, it's hard to live like a peasant after having lived like royalty for so long...
You may be thinking, "What does an RF engineer know anything advertising or tourism?" The answer is, of course, "Nothing". I had to read up on the topic online and learn it before I could sound like I knew something during class. Then I wrote my very first lesson plan, in which I wrote every single word that I would be saying in class, including "Good morning students!" I knew I would be very nervous and would blank out, and I did! I even had typos on the board and didn't realize it til I looked at the pictures. But the students were very gracious, and they didn't say anything. The class lasted 2.5hrs with one 10min break in between. It was very hot in the classroom, even with all the fans on.
I started out having each student introduce him/herself, and then I introduced myself. Seeing that I didn't look like the rest of the other foreign teachers, they were curious. Vietnamese students, I was told, are supposed to be very shy, especially the girls, because they are not confident of their English abilities. They were chitchatting with one another, and then one of them actually got enough courage to her hand and asked if I was Asian? Then the whole class became totally silent, and all the eyes stared at me waiting anxiously for an answer. I then took a survey of what possible countries they thought I came from, and they named every Asian country except Vietnam. Why would a Vietnamese come back to Vietnam to teach English? What an absurd thing to do! They demanded that I said something in Vietnamese as if to prove I was not lying.
Anyway, the class ended well (no tomatoes in my face, no students walked out in the middle of class, just one or two in the back were texting on their cell phone during class), and I got feedback from my Vietnamese and American mentors. A few comments from the mentors were bad class management, bad use of the board, activities were too long, students lost interests (hence they were texting). And I totally agreed. But they also said I had good 'teacher presence' (meaning I didn't wear shorts and t-shirt to class like I had wanted to and talked loud enough) and I monitored well (meanin I walked around a lot during activities and actually sat down and talked with the students in their groups). The groups asked me a lot of words they didn't know, and I had a hard time explaining them. In the end, I had to cheat and use Vietnamese (and that's when they started laughing because my Vietnamese sounded funny). My background, however, was always a good conversation starter, not only in class but also at the market, restaurants, hotels, and with taxi drivers. Anyway, I was glad practicum was over.
In a few days, I will be facing 2 classes of 50 students each. And these will be real classes with real grades and everything. That's what I came here and was trained to do, to provide services to students who want to improve their English. And so far, I found out that these students (at least the ones I met in Hanoi during Practicum) were also interested in a personal friendship with foreign teachers, someone different, someone outside of their familiar environment, someone who can give them not only a peek into a world outside of their own but also observations about their own world looking in from the outside. Vietnam is a very different world. During training, we were taught a lot about culture immersion, being different but yet the same, becoming a learner in the new culture, and being concious of our own cultural biases. These cultural things come into the classroom as well, and both teacher and students have to learn together to deal with them. The students watch their teacher very closely and they draw conclusions from their observations. And they become curious when they see something they've never seen before or heard something they have never heard before (such as a 'foreign' teacher who can speak Vietnamese, albeit somewhat off and with a South Vietnam accent, or maybe a teacher who would actually step down from the platform and go to their seats and sit down with them and talk with them like friends, or one who would ask them if everything was ok with their family in stead of not letting them into the classroom because they were late coming to class). The classroom is often a center stage where there's more than just 'East meets West'. These are also kids who thirst for true love, respect, and understanding in a very dry place, and some of them don't even recognize love when they see it or don't know how to react to it when they actually feel it. And perhaps they will also learning English better if their other needs are met too?! Who knows. I just know that it's been hard living in here the past 6 weeks. There's no comfort anywhere. I was used to jumping into the car, turning on the AC, and driving to one of the many good restaurants and enjoying some awesome food in a nice, quiet, air conditioned environment. Here, well, it's not like that. But I also see how the students live in the dorms next to us. Four to six of them cramped into a room less than half the size of ours. And no AC or bathrooms! Their common bathrooms don't have real toilets. I am living like a king compared to these folks. That means, in the States, I was living like, what's higher than a king?, maybe a queen? Anyway, it's hard to live like a peasant after having lived like royalty for so long...
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2 comments:
Why are there only girls in the class? Is it because boys tend to be more tardy/absent? Or is it because Andy is the new cute male English teacher?????
It's actually pretty hot in SJ right now. Almost 100. But the humidity is low, and fortunately the AC here in my office is nice...
Mike
Good question. There are actually boys also in the class, but they didn't make it into the pictures. But there were definitely more girls than boys, and I was surprised too. I was told that English majors are usually girls. Perhaps more girls want to become teachers than boys. This one particular class that I taught during practicum was a class for students who would graduate and become secretaries! I guess it makes sense that more girls want to work as secretaries. There were supposed to be a lot more students that day, and only half showed up. That should answer your point about the new cute male English teacher. Now, if you Mike were to come here, I am very sure the class would double in size! We met with school officials the other day and they had planned a lot more classes for us to teach, such as teaching a course on the American culture to their English teachers, but there are not enough of us foreign teachers. We suggested that they request more teachers from ELIC. Life is tough here, so it's hard to find teachers to come here. I'll be thinking about you. I asked our teammates (who are a lot older than we are!) why they've stayed here for so long, they said it's the students. And it's true, they talk about the students all the time. They really care for them. Today, we had 2 students over and they had so much fun, they didn't want to go home. We had to kick them out.
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