My first week as a Language Teacher in the classroom

Let me start by saying it's been an absolutely mental week here. Moving and settling into the apartment, starting 3 new jobs, a couple of hairy moments, a few dates with Daniel, a visit from Teresa (kon tum orphanage), the return of our legendary 'bad wolf' Maxim, and a serious karaoke session lasting until 8am, has left me pretty knackered and ABSOLUTELY back in love with Saigon.

Out with Teresa and her brothers- she managed to find somewhere that does her own minority 'montangard' food in HCMC

Wild night in backpack with Hao, Maxim, Cass and Morrin

Getting myself some home comforts for when I need a bit of the west.

So let me attempt to describe the language school I'm working at... It's a very different set up to most of the teaching I have experienced in England. The school itself is massive, one of the biggest in the city with 6 different campus's. I seem to be working at campus 6 on my Tuesday evenings (classes from 5pm-7:30) and my Saturday and Sunday classes (7AM till 6pm... that's means a 5am start to make it on time, a right shock to my system after months of getting up at 8am!), and then I work at campus 2 on a Thursday evening (classes 5pm-7:30 again).
Arriving at the school on my first day was very nerve racking - here's my First Day at School photo....

On arrival I was presented with an A4 schedule of my classes for that day. Each class has a code which corresponds to the book I need to teach them from, then I am given the page numbers to review, and the page numbers to teach, and the room number. You are not given time to prepare for the lesson beyond quickly flicking through the pages as you walk up the stairs, and there are no gaps between lessons. You are also not told the age of the kids, their language ability, or how many you will have in your class. Thankfully I had been out to buy my own white board pens.
My first lesson went surprisingly well. My second lesson was a total disaster. Then the next one was pretty good again. And the last one was terrible.
So first day over and 2/4 went well which I decided not to be too harsh on myself for as I'm hoping 'ad libing' interesting lessons will get easier with practise!
I've now taught about 15 lessons so they have sort of blended together but I'll give you an example of some of them...

ABC class: this class was on a Tuesday evening and the kids clearly did not want to be there, they'd all had a full day at 'normal' school and now their parents had sent them in to language school when they would all much rather be outside in the cool evening. My instructions were 'teach the alphabet' which I had to string out for an hour. The kids were all about 5/6yrs and I had 15 in my class. I decided there was very little point in trying to perfect their letter sounds this evening so instead came up with loads of games. I loved it. But most importantly so did the kids! I got them to all sit in a circle (which they clearly hadn't done before in school because they found it hilarious) and we sang the alphabet:
- as loudly as we could
- as quietly as we could
- like a mouse
- like a bear
- just one letter each and everytime you said a letter you jump up and do a 'gangnam style' k-pop dance move (this was very popular with the boys)
... and so on ....

An excited class: As I was frantically flicking through the book on my way up the stairs, and trying to figure out if I even knew what the rules are for countable and uncountable nouns (anyone?!), a group of kids hanging over the railings starting wooping with glee! They were so excited to have me as their teacher they were pretty much screaming with delight - I am the only white female teacher at this campus, and possibly the first white girl any of them have actually talked too. So pretty exciting stuff. I was so pleased that they were this happy to see me. Unfortunately it all went downhill when they realised I was actually going to teach them.. They didn't want to play my games, I couldn't get them to listen to me at all, no-one was interested in 'repeat after teacher'... I got myself in a terrible tangle with the bloody countable and uncountable nouns.. A total disaster lesson! But hay, you win some you lose some... :-)

I have had some really great classes and in some rare moments I think I might have actually taught them some English too. I love getting the kids up to draw on the board, creating characters we can talk about and making everyone laugh, I love it when I can get them to understand my games or when their pronunciation improves. I do not like that the TA hits the kids when they misbehave, and that I was asked to please speak with an American accent so the children can understand me better (I said no sorry), I wish I had time to prepare for each lesson so I could have even better games and activities going on. So overall I'm really enjoying using my brain and having to think on my feet is a challenge. I do not like 5am starts on the weekend...!

Apartment!

Just a quick update this time.

So I have finally moved out of Laura's bed....where I would be without these girls is not worth thinking about! Cass and Morrin (aka Julianne and Laura) have been such a huge support and so generous to let me bunk down with them for the last 3 weeks. We are all feeling very lucky to have each other at the moment that is for sure <3

And now a new chapter begins! I have moved in to a brand new fancy apartment in the heart of the city, right on the river bank, with 2 lovely American girls - Tien and Annika. I am so excited to get to know them both better and to have some wild nights out and some lovely evenings in - I think we will make a great little house trio.

The day of the move was crazy... I had my first teaching day (5am start) - which I will have to explain as a whole separate post - it was also Tiens bday, all the furniture arriving and being assembled, the handing over of a ridiculously large rainbow coloured selection of notes, unpacking, sorting the internet.. crazy crazy. But so exciting (minus Tien being mugged part! o and my first motorbike accident - not too serious though so don't worry!).
So without further ado, I present to you my bedroom. The first time I will sleep in a bed on my own for 3 weeks, and the first night I will sleep in my own room in 3 months... I hope I don't have any monsters under the bed :-P

A rather rubbish late night photo of our living room (you can see Annika franticly lesson planning at the kitchen table there!)

 

And the BEST bit - the view from my bedroom window!!!!!

 

I'll leave you with a pic of the Birthday Girl and some delicious veggie food I got for 50p from down our road.

 

 

Vung Tau and the power of a sunset

As most of you probably know, I had a tough week last week. My first real 'low' since February really. Each of us girls had a lots going on and I think we were all feeling the pressure of the city and unintentionally increasing each others anxiety.. Plus the build up of a few unpleasant situations put us all in a bad place.. Chuck in some homesickness and culture shock and you make for dramatic posts/messages - for which I am sorry and I won't do again.

 

Also Sophie, my wonderful travelling buddy who I know always has my back even when I'm bloody annoying and who will always always have a special 'Soph loaf' shaped place in my heart, has left for new ventures.

 

And so a new chapter as the Saigon Sisters begins.. But first we all needed to shake off the last week and take some 'maning up' time.

An hour and a half boat ride later and we arrive at Vung Tau - a purely Vietnamese holiday destination, with a sunset to restore any lost faith I was feeling.

 

 

Spent a few chilled days drinking take away Café Sua Da, and Com Sa`un (iced sweet coffee and sticky rice and pork) on the beach with a very excited Vietnamese fan club watching our every move - particularly when we did something weird like swim in a bikini or lie in the sun :) Alot of the Vietnamese who go to Vung Tau come from local rural areas and a sighting of a white person is pretty rare, and also worthy of a photograph...! Julianne was handed a baby at one point so the parents could photograph their kid with her (I should also mention this 8month old baby was wearing a baseball cap with had a fake curly blond ponytail wig sticking out from under it).



 

Lots of laughter and good talks with the girls. And now I am back in HCMC and back on the job hunt and still waiting to hear the date I can move into my new apartment with my new American buddies :)

 

I'll leave you with this fantastic sign to ponder....



Catching up... Halong Bay

Feel pretty out of touch with keeping this blog up to date so hear goes....

Last Leg of Travel (for now!):
Soph and I headed to Halong Bay after our tour of Sapa. I hadn't really done much research for this part of the journey to be honest - I'd basically just google searched some images... But Halong did not disappoint.
We decided to go for a pre paid tour again as Sapa was a success and nice and easy - I would recommend doing this for any place you want to visit for only a few days, especially if you are in the mood to be a proper cheesy tourist.
Halong Bay was spectacular. It looked like the set for Pirates of the Caribbean but with those big floating rocks in Avatar (sorry to use film references to describe - it's a bit of a cop out I know!). Even in the mist and the drizzle the scenery was breathtaking. VERY epic film style.

 

The photos really don't do it justice.

 

Our first night was spent on 'Monkey Cruise'. Where we had our own little cabin, with a lovely big window right at water level. We had plenty of time to chat with the other travellers on board and enjoy a 'Halong Beer' or two before out first stop.

 

Our fellow travellers were a really good bunch, including some proper northern lads who were very funny (and very rude) right from the word go. Male banter and clowning around was just what Sophie and I needed I think.

Our tour guide, 'Smokey', also really appreciated all the buffoonery and unlike the more sedate groups of wrinkles walking around enjoying the beautiful caves sensibly, Smokey had us all trying to find the best 'mans weapon' amongst the stalactites and stalagmites...The winner got 5 beers.

We then had the chance to kayak around the islands. An absolute must for Halong. Although within 30 seconds of getting into the water Sophie and I got in the path of an oncoming boat and got trapped under it's bow... We were screaming and laughing so much...!

 The silliness of course continued into the evening with everyone on board singing karaoke and dancing around to old 90s pop music. By 11pm the cabin crew were all joining in and clowning around with us. One of the younger guys ended up getting out his traditional Vietnamese flute and playing along to the pounding dance music.... A totally un-English and hilarious evening - I couldn't do it regularly but it was certainly different and really fun.

The next day we were taken to a little beach island where we stayed the night in a tiny little thatched beach bungalow. Very romantic, and again a beautiful secluded spot.

I even got to hand feed some local wild beach monkeys!

A fantastic end to the travelling adventure (for now...), and now I am back in Saigon job hunting and apartment hunting - desperate to unpack my backpack!

 





Sapa

Yet another stunning part of the world hidden this time in the north east of Vietnam. And once again I am at a loss for decent vocabulary in which to describe it! I'm really going to have to sort out my totally linguistic inadequacy before I start to try and teach English - blame 3yrs of a Science degree perhaps...
The thing that struck me first was the weird perspective Sapa has... I haven't seen many mountains or views that have so much going on vertically, so it felt almost unreal to see mountains stretching high up into the clouds and also sweeping down into the mist, so you can neither see the top of bottom of anything. Everything is also watercolour paint colours so it gives you the feeling you really are looking at a huge backdrop to an amazing play. It actually looked a bit 'Lord of the Rings' like Dad! Talk about Misty Mountains! :)

...more to come...

 

Ho Ho Ho - Hoi An, Hue, Hanoi

Hoi an:

         A very pretty and romantic small city which felt to me like a sort of French Venice...

 

 

 

         Hoi an is famous for it’s tailoring (which has become a bit of a tourist gimmick if I’m honest). However the city has lived off tourism for 300years so in a way it’s actually authentic that it’s touristy! I found that there was no price difference in having clothes made in the market compared to the ‘posher’ looking shops, but it was less obvious that it was a ‘sweat shop’ in the shops on the main roads. I had two dresses made and have worn them both loads already!

           My birthday: kept my expectations for the day realistic and didn’t do the typical Annabelle thing of making it a huge deal, so I ended up having a lovely lovely 22^nd. The hotel staff all wished me a happy birthday and sophie took me out on a cycle ride to the beach and treated me to a coke in a hammock overlooking the river.I felt very content and lucky and I didn’t even miss home or speaking to everyone too much. I was also really very touched by all of you who emailed me – I wasn’t expecting emails or to hear that you are reading my blog. It really made me feel good, and stopped any lonely feelings before they’d even started.

Hue:
   
         I had read a fair bit about Hue and was therefore expecting a very old, cultured city with beautiful parks boarding the river, and lots of delicious food from the days of the Emperor’s rule . Unfortunately Hue itself was a bit of a let down, and I’m not sure why it’s so prominent on the tourist map.. I would probably advise spending longer in other places in Vietnam to anyone who travels here.

That said it was so lovely to have Julianne and Laura travel all the way up from Siagon (18hrs on a train – are they crazzzzyyy?!) for delayed birthday celebrations. We enjoyed far too many cocktails and caught up on all the goings on – which included many many funny stories on both sides…

       Did a lot of cycling round the area after the success of renting bikes in Hoi An which gave us a better perspective of the city and landscape around. I would definetly recommend renting bicycles in these cities if you do visit, as there are a lot of scams around and taxis and ‘helpful’ people on motorbikes are not all that they seem unfortunately.

 

Hanoi:

        After the last two sleepy cities and a few tense travel days for me and sophie we were really ready to start having some FUN again. Hanoi was just what we needed. An excited city with narrow roads, lots of lost looking tourists, an embalmed Ho Chi Minh, hot cross buns, friendly Indians in taxis, good beer, and some really well laid out museums.

 

     Hanoi is the most organised place I have visited in Vietnam – one street will be entirely devoted to shoes, while another will only sell selotape and paper, and the street next door only huge bags of glitter and bird cages… Still chaos but very organised for Vietnam.

     The food has also reawakened my love for Vietnamese cuisine. Bo La Lot has become a definite favourite here – succulent strips of beef rolled and fried in a type of vine leaf.

  

Hanoi is also full of history and legends. Including the one about the huge magical tortoise that lives in the lake in the middle of Hanoi..

The lake is the real ‘heart of the home’ in this city. In the morning the old locals do tai chi and dance classes around the edges, in the evenings couples walk around and photographers can be seen taking really cheesy picture of newly weds amongst the trees. The Women's museum was also absolutely fantastic, and i'm pretty rubbish at behaving like an adult and being interested in reading placards for more than 10 minutes... but I loved this museum, and I also really enjoyed visiting the Water Puppet Theatre and having some of the history explained to me in nice simple dance and music by floating puppets on a stage of water... 

 I have enjoyed these last few places but I think for me nothing could really follow Kon Tum and have the same level of impact on me. I have also made the decision to stop travelling in about a week and go back to Siagon to find a job and an apartment. I literally can’t wait to stop living out of a bag and to be able to put my shampoo and toothbrush in the bathroom and then leave it there!