Last Friday, I had my final meeting with my first class, officially known as “3-C,” here in Vietnam. The International Education Center, where I work at Hong Duc University has found a company that is willing to “officially” (i.e. through the means of a specially trained ESL TOEFL teacher far more experienced and qualified than myself) prepare my class for the TOEFL-ibt and on Monday, the torch will officially be passed from me to the new teacher. I, meanwhile, will begin teaching a new group of beginner-level students to prepare them to meet the qualifications of a test-prep company. While I am excited at the prospect of meeting and developing relationships with new students and to working with a different book (I was told to create a brand new course again, so I took advantage of the opportunity to try out a new book—let the syllabus construction begin!) I am also sad to say goodbye to my current group, with whom I have grown so close and learned so much. In my last blog post I said that I was in the middle of writing an entry about a particularly poignant lesson that I learned from my students in class one day so I’d like to share that story now, as I say goodbye to my first students (well, in a sense—I told them that I would still be a big part of their lives whether they liked it or not!) and look ahead to my newest teaching challenge and opportunity.
Every morning, I began my class by giving my students a “warm-up” speaking exercise to get them thinking and talking since 7:00am is quite an early time to begin studying a foreign language. I wrote a prompt on the chalkboard, made sure everyone understood the question, gave them between one and four minutes to organize their thoughts, and then had them, one at a time, speak to their partner for one minute without stopping. When I first began using this exercise in class, many of the students would either not speak at all or speak for maybe ten seconds before stopping and looking quite lost. After countless explanations and re-explanations of how to approach this sort of activity (one that will appear in test-question for on the TOEFL-ibt), lots of encouragement, and plenty of “okay, let’s try this again”’s, the room buzzed each morning during each of the partners’ minutes and I walked through the room listening and smiling. There were always a couple of confused faces, and lots of grammar issues that we then went over as a class, but ultimately the exercise turned into a success and the students were soon creating their own “warm-up” questions to go over with me individually.
Many times my questions asked the students whether they preferred one thing or another, and I then used their responses as a springboard for a class debate (a favorite activity of my students’.) Other questions, however, asked the students to describe a personal experience or individual in their lives. A little over a month and a half ago, I asked the students to describe an important skill that they learned from their mother or father as a child (questions about family, romance, or the environment tended to elicit the most creative and enthusiastic responses.) After completing the timed response section of the activity, I asked for the students to tell me which skill they talked about in order to check that they had provided supporting ideas and examples in their response. Many of the students said things like, “My mother taught me how to cook,” or “my father taught me how to fix a motorbike.” We discussed each of these, and a few other examples, and then I asked if anyone else had anything different to add. One of my quieter students, Trang, said “strangers” to which I immediately replied “yes! So your mother or father taught you not to talk to strangers,” repeating the mantra that is ingrained in most American children’s minds from a young age. Trang and others in the class looked back at me confused, and many of them responded at once saying, “No, they taught us to make friends with strangers.”
That response hit me like a ton of bricks or a breath of cool fresh air (and probably both) as I was reminded yet again of how wonderfully different Vietnamese culture is from American culture in many distinct ways. Every house I have visited in Vietnam always has a large insulated jug, with lots of boiling hot water at the ready, sitting near to a table in the main gathering area of the residence. This water, refilled and reheated throughout the day, is used to make tea which is given to all visitors, regardless of who they are, upon their arrival at a home. The water is kept hot and the teapot and cups are sitting out throughout the day because individuals and families in this culture are constantly anticipating, and glad to receive, friends and strangers, who will soon be friends, into their homes. This custom, and the meaning behind it, has been one of my favorite things to learn of and about during my time here and I was thrilled to learn and be reminded again of this societal mindset by my students that day in class. After a few brief moments of happily stunned silence, I smiled and said “of course. You’re absolutely right. That is how we should treat strangers and what a great skill for your parents to teach you.” I often think about this lesson from my students—one of many, I assure you-- as I walk along the road or through the market, exchanging greetings and smiles, and especially now as I prepare to soon meet a group of 22 strangers who will become my students and friends. I wonder what I’ll learn from them?
Well, my bed and a good crossword puzzle are calling my name, so until next time, my friends, stay warm and well, and say hello to the next stranger you see for me—who knows… maybe they’ve got some tea ready for you to drink on a cold winter’s day.
All my love,
Hayley
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
getting back in touch
Hello Friends!
It has been (way) too long since I've last posted, and I am so sorry for my relative negligence of this blog. Work and life is crazy over here and in addition to all of my teaching and traveling adventures, I've also been dealing with a really touch-and-go internet situation for the past couple of weeks which made even checking my email tough. Luckily, the internet gods have given me a slight reprieve so I'm taking a break from writing comments on tests to put pictures on facebook (which is a task in and of itself with the new government block of the site... I've also become tech savvy since I've been here... okay, okay, I'm still pathetic at all things computer related-- I just have friends here that are tech savvy)and update this long-forgotten blog. Seeing as it has been almost 2 months since I last wrote, this post will really just be a sort of "get reacquainted" update with a few reflections on my time since you last heard from me.
As I alluded to earlier, time is flying for me here in Thanh Hoa. In fact, I'm actually fairly certain that we skipped November over here. In all seriousness, though, I really don't know where the time is going. When I sat down to write this blog, I looked back at my last post and thought "hmm... October 18th... well, that's not such a horrible gap since I last wrote, right?" Then I looked and noticed that it was December 6th, which absolutely blew my mind. As is true for most experiences abroad or in a new place, time has been progressively moving faster. Gone are the days of September and October when on certain (though certainly not all) days (particularly those when I had the swine flu...) I was totally and completely intimidated by the idea that I was somehow going to have to make time pass all the way until next June. Beginning in mid-October, really, I finally got my work assignment squared away with my university administration, was able to fall asleep easily on my bed, speak enough Vietnamese to purchase a train ticket and feel comfortable in the market, and really get into the groove of life over here. These days, as I look ahead to my remaining 6 months, I still feel sad that I am currently missing Lessons and Carols on the Mountain, or slightly weirded out that I will still be in Vietnam during all of Lent and the 50 days of Easter, but I am just as equally certain that I probably won't have enough time to visit all of the places on my "Vietnam Bucket List," that June will be here before I know it, and that my experience is so incredible that I am planning on continuing to live in the moment as time flied by me as I have been doing for the past month and a half... hopefully I'll also remember to update my blog a bit more...
I also suppose that now is probably an appropriate time to answer a question that many of you have been asking me in your emails and messages (thanks for those, by the way- I love hearing from you!): How is teaching?
Teaching is wonderful. Before I was comfortable anywhere or doing anything else in Thanh Hoa, I was comfortable teaching and getting to know my students and I look forward to being with them each and every day (which is saying a lot because my teaching day begins Monday thru Friday at 7:00am.) My class of 26 students was at a very, very beginning level when I met them for the first time. I had one-on-one meetings with each of the students just to assess the class's general level and a good half of them could only say "hello" and "my family has 5 people...mother, father, brother, sister, me"... which was a little scary and forced me to readjust my mindset and expectations-- I was really unaware of the English instruction that most Vietnamese students receive in high school and college-- very written grammar intensive with little to no listening or speaking practice. All of my students were so welcoming, friendly, and hard-working, and I fell in love with all of them immediately. (Yes, on occasion I also get so frustrated with them that I want to scream, but those moments are rare and fleeting... teaching is hard... but ultimately as I said before, teaching is wonderful.) Due to some complicated, bureaucratic issues that it would be unwise for me to go into now, I did not have a syllabus or any course materials when I began teaching, which was wildly frustrating at the outset, but ultimately a blessing because I eventually talked my administration into letting me choose a text and write my own curriculum that allowed for the class to move at a reasonable pace. My students, as I said before, have worked really hard, and we have had a lot of fun together, and I have seen immense and beautiful improvements in all of them in just the few months that we have been together. Last Friday I gave a speaking test, which involves each of the students coming into my office and answering a few questions I pose to them, and all of them were able to at least answer a bit of the questions-- some of them did an incredible job-- which was such a change from our first meetings together. While more administrative "drama" has crept up in recent weeks and I am not sure what or who exactly I'll be teaching after the new year, I hope that it will be this current group and that I will continue to get to watch them improve by leaps and bounds.
I have also loved learning from my students. I'm actually halfway through a forgotten draft of a post about a particularly poignant learning moment that I had earlier this semester that serves as my favorite example of learning from my students, so be on the look-out for that sometime soon. I think that what my students have taught (and continue to teach) me the most is flexibility... which is something (my mom will back me up on this) I have definitely always needed more of. About a month ago I had a class period that was just an absolute bust. I think it was a Monday morning, the students were tired, it was rainy outside, and I did a really crummy job of presenting the material (which was a hard unit, to top it all off)... all of those factors combined to make it a pretty lousy hour and 45 minutes for all of us. I couldn't see why in the world they were having so much trouble with the material and didn't seem to care about my examples and by the end of the class, I was absolutely exhausted.. a rare feeling for me, as I usually finish class with more energy than I start with. I dismissed the class by telling them that that afternoon we would be having the lesson again if they wanted to join me (the afternoon sessions are optional extra-help times, since I am technically only allowed to teach a certain number of hours.) I went back to my room and stewed a bit over the failed class (it had seemed so perfect in my plans!) but then calmed down and forced myself to think about the material again. That afternoon I asked the students to walk me through the lesson and I played the role of a follower, explaining the material according to how they saw it, and they ended up doing a great job of grasping the lesson and moving forward to the next unit. That afternoon is still one of my favorite teaching experiences to look back on.
Those lessons in flexibility also come out of the classroom. My day today, for instance, is a great example of this... I spent a good part of the early morning and early afternoon yesterday with the students, playing football, eating, and chatting so I had planned to spend today sleeping in (which these days means sleeping until about 7:15am), doing tons of laundry (because I have to do my laundry by hand in a small plastic tub, I choose to put it off until I am out of underwear, which leads to hours of scrubbing roughly twice a month), cleaning my kitchen/bathroom, grading tests, writing this blog, and reading a book. The day started out as planned and I was elbow deep in laundry when my cell phone rang... I wiped my arms off and ran to pick it up. One of my students greeted my "hello" with, "hi Hayley, we are all waiting for you," to which I replied "well, hi Loan! waiting for what?" She said "you are coming to Trang's (another student in the class) home to meet her parents and cook lunch and visit today, remember?" Well, no.. I didn't remember being told this, and I told Loan that, and she said "I told you on Friday, at the end of the day... remember?" I certainly believe that Loan did tell me about this plan, but I also know that she probably told me right in the middle of my trying to usher a student who had suddenly started crying about a mistake she made on a test in the middle of a crowded hallway out of the crowds and into my office to talk about things--- not the best timing. Nevertheless, I didn't want to suddenly renege on my apparent "commitment" to this event because I knew that Trang's parents, who are both farmers in a rural area just outside of the city, had probably planned to make this occasion special, so I told Loan to give me 10 minutes to get ready. I hung up the phone and felt like I wanted to scream because I could see my day's plans completely unraveling-- visits to parents take lots of time here, and I was standing in the middle of lots of wet clothes and bedding and really wanted nothing more than to just do my "own thing" today. After lots of grumbling (literally), I rinsed out my clothes as best as possible, threw on a pair of jeans, and walked out the door, still steaming a little bit. When I got downstairs and met the students, I couldn't help but smile at their excitement about my joining them, and as I rode on the back of Duong(another student's) motorbike to Trang's house, looking out at the rice fields, and enjoying the cool breeze on my face, I was able to begin to laugh at myself for getting so frustrated. Soon, I was helping to cook prawns and use chopsticks to turn home-made spring rolls in the frying pan-- I actually have a really lovely blister on my pinky finger from some large droplet of rogue oil-- and by the time we sat down to our enormous lunch (all of which was grown or raised on Trang's family's property)and I talked with her parents, I was really kicking myself for having gotten upset over being asked to come at the last minute. I had a great time, and made it back with plenty of time to finish laundry and clean my kitchen/bathroom area and having learned yet another lesson in flexibility and patience.
I am also really enjoying learning Vietnamese. While I would still call my language skills pathetic, my teacher has bumped me up from saying "Em noi tieng Viet khong tot" (I don't speak Vietnamese well at all) to "Em noi tieng Viet mot it" (I speak a little Vietnamese)-- which I viewed as a huge accomplishment. Recently, in fact, a fellow Fulbrighter and friend, Sofia, and I traveled to Ninh Binh for a weekend and upon learning that we could speak a little bit of Vietnamese, the staff of the hostel where we were staying decided to only speak to us in Vietnamese (their English was much better than our Vietnamese, mind you), which meant that getting things done took about 3x as long, but we all had a great time. Because my job is to teach English, I really don't have much time to practice Vietnamese, but I absolutely love fumbling around with it at the market, while waiting for the train, or even with my students on the weekends. I would say that I am definitely to the point where I could survive in Vietnam with my language skills, but am not any further past that point. I have also managed to accidentally learn a couple of really bad words in Vietnamese-- the hazards of a tonal language.. one innocent word can become something really really bad with at the drop of a tongue... but luckily my most egregious mistakes have been met with plenty of laughter. I've been told that I'm almost to the "plateau" point that many people who living in foreign countries for short amounts of time reach in terms of their language skills, and it is certainly frustrating to simply not be able to say what it is I'm trying to say, but I'm enjoying the frustrations right along with the triumphs, and definitely cultivating a greater sense of empathy and admiration for my students in their English-learning processes.
Essentially, my experience thus far has been one of surprises, frustrations, joys, challenges, laughter, a few tears, and general thanksgiving for being given such an opportunity. Some days are breathtakingly fabulous, other days are really hard and infuriating, while many others are just normal routine days, but I do give thanks each and every day for my wonderful life and for the people in it-- my students and friends here, and you all back home-- whose friendship, love, and support sustains me during the good, and not so good days.
Okay, I've got another busy day ahead of me tomorrow, so I'm off to bed-- until next time (which will be soon, I promise!) stay well and enjoy this season of Advent.
Lots of love,
Hayley
P.S. Here are the stable links to the pictures I have taken since being in Thanh Hoa... in order from earliest to latest--enjoy!:
1. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034251&id=44701566&l=ce2948dfcb
2. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034732&id=44701566&l=1150c40eff
3. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035308&id=44701566&l=91355a2b18
4. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035811&id=44701566&l=442ab9172b
5. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035735&id=44701566&l=d4373c53d3
It has been (way) too long since I've last posted, and I am so sorry for my relative negligence of this blog. Work and life is crazy over here and in addition to all of my teaching and traveling adventures, I've also been dealing with a really touch-and-go internet situation for the past couple of weeks which made even checking my email tough. Luckily, the internet gods have given me a slight reprieve so I'm taking a break from writing comments on tests to put pictures on facebook (which is a task in and of itself with the new government block of the site... I've also become tech savvy since I've been here... okay, okay, I'm still pathetic at all things computer related-- I just have friends here that are tech savvy)and update this long-forgotten blog. Seeing as it has been almost 2 months since I last wrote, this post will really just be a sort of "get reacquainted" update with a few reflections on my time since you last heard from me.
As I alluded to earlier, time is flying for me here in Thanh Hoa. In fact, I'm actually fairly certain that we skipped November over here. In all seriousness, though, I really don't know where the time is going. When I sat down to write this blog, I looked back at my last post and thought "hmm... October 18th... well, that's not such a horrible gap since I last wrote, right?" Then I looked and noticed that it was December 6th, which absolutely blew my mind. As is true for most experiences abroad or in a new place, time has been progressively moving faster. Gone are the days of September and October when on certain (though certainly not all) days (particularly those when I had the swine flu...) I was totally and completely intimidated by the idea that I was somehow going to have to make time pass all the way until next June. Beginning in mid-October, really, I finally got my work assignment squared away with my university administration, was able to fall asleep easily on my bed, speak enough Vietnamese to purchase a train ticket and feel comfortable in the market, and really get into the groove of life over here. These days, as I look ahead to my remaining 6 months, I still feel sad that I am currently missing Lessons and Carols on the Mountain, or slightly weirded out that I will still be in Vietnam during all of Lent and the 50 days of Easter, but I am just as equally certain that I probably won't have enough time to visit all of the places on my "Vietnam Bucket List," that June will be here before I know it, and that my experience is so incredible that I am planning on continuing to live in the moment as time flied by me as I have been doing for the past month and a half... hopefully I'll also remember to update my blog a bit more...
I also suppose that now is probably an appropriate time to answer a question that many of you have been asking me in your emails and messages (thanks for those, by the way- I love hearing from you!): How is teaching?
Teaching is wonderful. Before I was comfortable anywhere or doing anything else in Thanh Hoa, I was comfortable teaching and getting to know my students and I look forward to being with them each and every day (which is saying a lot because my teaching day begins Monday thru Friday at 7:00am.) My class of 26 students was at a very, very beginning level when I met them for the first time. I had one-on-one meetings with each of the students just to assess the class's general level and a good half of them could only say "hello" and "my family has 5 people...mother, father, brother, sister, me"... which was a little scary and forced me to readjust my mindset and expectations-- I was really unaware of the English instruction that most Vietnamese students receive in high school and college-- very written grammar intensive with little to no listening or speaking practice. All of my students were so welcoming, friendly, and hard-working, and I fell in love with all of them immediately. (Yes, on occasion I also get so frustrated with them that I want to scream, but those moments are rare and fleeting... teaching is hard... but ultimately as I said before, teaching is wonderful.) Due to some complicated, bureaucratic issues that it would be unwise for me to go into now, I did not have a syllabus or any course materials when I began teaching, which was wildly frustrating at the outset, but ultimately a blessing because I eventually talked my administration into letting me choose a text and write my own curriculum that allowed for the class to move at a reasonable pace. My students, as I said before, have worked really hard, and we have had a lot of fun together, and I have seen immense and beautiful improvements in all of them in just the few months that we have been together. Last Friday I gave a speaking test, which involves each of the students coming into my office and answering a few questions I pose to them, and all of them were able to at least answer a bit of the questions-- some of them did an incredible job-- which was such a change from our first meetings together. While more administrative "drama" has crept up in recent weeks and I am not sure what or who exactly I'll be teaching after the new year, I hope that it will be this current group and that I will continue to get to watch them improve by leaps and bounds.
I have also loved learning from my students. I'm actually halfway through a forgotten draft of a post about a particularly poignant learning moment that I had earlier this semester that serves as my favorite example of learning from my students, so be on the look-out for that sometime soon. I think that what my students have taught (and continue to teach) me the most is flexibility... which is something (my mom will back me up on this) I have definitely always needed more of. About a month ago I had a class period that was just an absolute bust. I think it was a Monday morning, the students were tired, it was rainy outside, and I did a really crummy job of presenting the material (which was a hard unit, to top it all off)... all of those factors combined to make it a pretty lousy hour and 45 minutes for all of us. I couldn't see why in the world they were having so much trouble with the material and didn't seem to care about my examples and by the end of the class, I was absolutely exhausted.. a rare feeling for me, as I usually finish class with more energy than I start with. I dismissed the class by telling them that that afternoon we would be having the lesson again if they wanted to join me (the afternoon sessions are optional extra-help times, since I am technically only allowed to teach a certain number of hours.) I went back to my room and stewed a bit over the failed class (it had seemed so perfect in my plans!) but then calmed down and forced myself to think about the material again. That afternoon I asked the students to walk me through the lesson and I played the role of a follower, explaining the material according to how they saw it, and they ended up doing a great job of grasping the lesson and moving forward to the next unit. That afternoon is still one of my favorite teaching experiences to look back on.
Those lessons in flexibility also come out of the classroom. My day today, for instance, is a great example of this... I spent a good part of the early morning and early afternoon yesterday with the students, playing football, eating, and chatting so I had planned to spend today sleeping in (which these days means sleeping until about 7:15am), doing tons of laundry (because I have to do my laundry by hand in a small plastic tub, I choose to put it off until I am out of underwear, which leads to hours of scrubbing roughly twice a month), cleaning my kitchen/bathroom, grading tests, writing this blog, and reading a book. The day started out as planned and I was elbow deep in laundry when my cell phone rang... I wiped my arms off and ran to pick it up. One of my students greeted my "hello" with, "hi Hayley, we are all waiting for you," to which I replied "well, hi Loan! waiting for what?" She said "you are coming to Trang's (another student in the class) home to meet her parents and cook lunch and visit today, remember?" Well, no.. I didn't remember being told this, and I told Loan that, and she said "I told you on Friday, at the end of the day... remember?" I certainly believe that Loan did tell me about this plan, but I also know that she probably told me right in the middle of my trying to usher a student who had suddenly started crying about a mistake she made on a test in the middle of a crowded hallway out of the crowds and into my office to talk about things--- not the best timing. Nevertheless, I didn't want to suddenly renege on my apparent "commitment" to this event because I knew that Trang's parents, who are both farmers in a rural area just outside of the city, had probably planned to make this occasion special, so I told Loan to give me 10 minutes to get ready. I hung up the phone and felt like I wanted to scream because I could see my day's plans completely unraveling-- visits to parents take lots of time here, and I was standing in the middle of lots of wet clothes and bedding and really wanted nothing more than to just do my "own thing" today. After lots of grumbling (literally), I rinsed out my clothes as best as possible, threw on a pair of jeans, and walked out the door, still steaming a little bit. When I got downstairs and met the students, I couldn't help but smile at their excitement about my joining them, and as I rode on the back of Duong(another student's) motorbike to Trang's house, looking out at the rice fields, and enjoying the cool breeze on my face, I was able to begin to laugh at myself for getting so frustrated. Soon, I was helping to cook prawns and use chopsticks to turn home-made spring rolls in the frying pan-- I actually have a really lovely blister on my pinky finger from some large droplet of rogue oil-- and by the time we sat down to our enormous lunch (all of which was grown or raised on Trang's family's property)and I talked with her parents, I was really kicking myself for having gotten upset over being asked to come at the last minute. I had a great time, and made it back with plenty of time to finish laundry and clean my kitchen/bathroom area and having learned yet another lesson in flexibility and patience.
I am also really enjoying learning Vietnamese. While I would still call my language skills pathetic, my teacher has bumped me up from saying "Em noi tieng Viet khong tot" (I don't speak Vietnamese well at all) to "Em noi tieng Viet mot it" (I speak a little Vietnamese)-- which I viewed as a huge accomplishment. Recently, in fact, a fellow Fulbrighter and friend, Sofia, and I traveled to Ninh Binh for a weekend and upon learning that we could speak a little bit of Vietnamese, the staff of the hostel where we were staying decided to only speak to us in Vietnamese (their English was much better than our Vietnamese, mind you), which meant that getting things done took about 3x as long, but we all had a great time. Because my job is to teach English, I really don't have much time to practice Vietnamese, but I absolutely love fumbling around with it at the market, while waiting for the train, or even with my students on the weekends. I would say that I am definitely to the point where I could survive in Vietnam with my language skills, but am not any further past that point. I have also managed to accidentally learn a couple of really bad words in Vietnamese-- the hazards of a tonal language.. one innocent word can become something really really bad with at the drop of a tongue... but luckily my most egregious mistakes have been met with plenty of laughter. I've been told that I'm almost to the "plateau" point that many people who living in foreign countries for short amounts of time reach in terms of their language skills, and it is certainly frustrating to simply not be able to say what it is I'm trying to say, but I'm enjoying the frustrations right along with the triumphs, and definitely cultivating a greater sense of empathy and admiration for my students in their English-learning processes.
Essentially, my experience thus far has been one of surprises, frustrations, joys, challenges, laughter, a few tears, and general thanksgiving for being given such an opportunity. Some days are breathtakingly fabulous, other days are really hard and infuriating, while many others are just normal routine days, but I do give thanks each and every day for my wonderful life and for the people in it-- my students and friends here, and you all back home-- whose friendship, love, and support sustains me during the good, and not so good days.
Okay, I've got another busy day ahead of me tomorrow, so I'm off to bed-- until next time (which will be soon, I promise!) stay well and enjoy this season of Advent.
Lots of love,
Hayley
P.S. Here are the stable links to the pictures I have taken since being in Thanh Hoa... in order from earliest to latest--enjoy!:
1. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034251&id=44701566&l=ce2948dfcb
2. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034732&id=44701566&l=1150c40eff
3. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035308&id=44701566&l=91355a2b18
4. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035811&id=44701566&l=442ab9172b
5. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035735&id=44701566&l=d4373c53d3
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