Things have been interesting lately. Maybe even adventurous.
But first – some comments about the comments.
Astute reader Dennis noticed I was perched on a “girl’s bike” in the pictures below. Of course, he is quite right, except for the fact that all the bikes made here in Viet Nam are built the same way. I prefer to call them “unisex bikes.” Since I have been in Hue, I have seen one “boy’s bike”, and that was a fancy imported bike that probably cost hundreds of dollars. A new Vietnamese bike costs about $40 US. They are not exactly Lexus quality, but they do provide employment to an untold number of bicycle repairmen you see everywhere doing business on the sidewalk. Another interesting things about Vietnamese bikes is they do not come in sizes. One size fits all. In a poor country like Viet Nam, people cannot afford to buy a kid’s bike, then replace it a few years later with another bike.
Pam – not to worry. My masculinity is intact. Nobody here knows there are such things as boy’s bikes and girl’s bikes.
Our first day of teaching on our own had some surprises. It seems that the school wanted us to team-teach all of our classes. While I’m not philosophically opposed to the idea, it was a surprise – to us and to our Vietnamese colleagues. I won’t even mention the hours of lesson prep we had already done for naught. We talked it over between ourselves, with our teaching colleague, and with our organization’s leadership in Ha Noi. In the light of day, it didn’t seem quite so critical, and we’ll see how things work out.
Speaking of “the light” - - we lost the electricity to our room yesterday afternoon and night. The person in charge of the building was not happy being called at home, and wanted to know why we hadn’t called earlier. Of course our reason was simply that we were teaching. She dutifully came out with an electrician, but it was pretty hard to find anything in the dark. But, they were here in the morning, and we have power again. It was a bit interesting to see how the electrician substituted for a ladder. (Be sure to click on the photo to see a larger version.)
The frustrating thing was trying to do lesson planning with no lights. We spent the evening in our colleague’s room trying to work, but it was difficult. This too we survived.
I know everyone is wanting to know how the teaching is going. The answer? Just fine, but I will need to write an introductory posting about the system of higher education in Viet Nam before I start telling some of our experiences. Once you get that background, our teaching stories will make more sense.
We try to have extracurricular activities for our students. On Sunday evening, the other foreign teacher hosted an American Culture Club. About twenty students crowded into her small room and played geography games. But, for me, the fun came next. I was introduced as a “history buff”, and the students were encouraged to ask me questions about the era of American history they had been assigned to research.
No pressure there, eh? Kinda ask the expert – and I’m the expert.
But, it was such great fun. The first question dealt with the feminist movement of the 60’s and 70’s. I had questions about reconstruction after the Civil War, about the Great Depression, and about Watergate. Yes – I had questions about America’s involvement in Viet Nam, but they were not hostile. The most discussion was generated during a discussion about Iraq. While I had a lot of fun, what was most impressive was the level of knowledge these students had about American history ad current world events.
Teaching history.
It is a passion for him
And a joy to share.
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