Virtual-Doug

Reunification Day

It cannot be ignored.  While it is not something we dwell on, or even think of frequently, the fact remains that we two old soldiers are in Viet Nam on April 30th – the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of Saigon.  It was the end of the war, and the beginning of today’s Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.

While eating breakfast, I found this excellent story from the Voice of America. 

Those of you who know me, and those of you who have read this blog over time know one of my favorite expressions is “Viet Nam is a country, not a war.”   And its true – reminders of the war are hard to find, except for tourist jaunts to the DMZ or the Cu Chi Tunnels.  And, its also true the Vietnamese harbor no animosity towards Americans.  They got over it – America still wastes time during presidential elections harping on something that ended thirty years ago.

We will watch the elaborate celebrations on Saturday, feeling a sense of loss for those young Americans who left their blood on Vietnamese soil  We know some Vietnamese in the south will not  share in the joy of reunification. Yet we also see a country bursting at the seams with energy and change.  We see young people moving forward at a breakneck pace that would astound most Americans.

On Reunification Day, I will remain proud of my service here a long time ago.  I consider it a badge of honor to be called a Vietnam Vet.

I am also proud to be here working with the Vietnamese to move their country ahead.

I tried to be a good soldier.  I am trying to be a good teacher. I am carrying out my calling.  Viet Nam is woven into the fabric of my life.

English Contest

Yep – no doubt about it.  We have the best students in the world!  Smart, hard-working, and articulate.

And they had a chance to show off their talents on a recent Sunday afternoon.  The English Department organized an English Contest, and invited all the English majors to participate.  It was worth spending a hot, steamy Sunday afternoon watching the future of Viet Nam.

Here is a sampling of the contents –  (Be sure to click on the photos to see a larger version.)

First was a public speaking contest.  Each student had ten minutes to talk about the opportunities and challenges that await an English major graduate in Central Viet Nam.

This young lady is one of my writing students.  She is poised and articulate.  Her talk was very well presented, but she did not win.  I noticed that the students had their presentations memorized (in good Vietnamese tradition), but they did not sound as though they were simply reciting words.  They put emotion and  expression into their talks. In her case, she even knew how to walk around a little bit to help hold attention.  Contestants also had to field a question from the judges at the end of their talk, and they all showed they had a true grasp of the subject.   Notice her ao dai (say ow yie).  This is the traditional dress of Vietnamese women, and is worn on dress-up occasions.  Its not formal – just dressy.  In the future, I hope to write an entire story on the ao dai.

There was also a “Vignette” contest in which a group of students from the same class put on a short play with no props.  In this picture, a group of students from one of Cindy’s first year speaking classes takes their turn performing. 

There was a translation contest in which teams had to make a fast translation from Vietnamese to English, and the other way around.  Best translation in the shortest period of time won.

My favorite was the quiz.  Teams competed by answering such questions as “What Nguyen king was on the throne when the French invaded Viet Nam?”  Hey – I knew the answer to that!  I also knew the answer to “What is the smallest state in America?”

This time, I was not asked to judge any of the four contests – but I have no doubt I will be asked to do so in the future.  Being a judge will mean tough decisions – these kids are good!

A Day in the Life (Non-Teaching Day)

If you have never lived in a culture other than your own, it is difficult – if not impossible -  to imagine what goes on in our daily lives.  A running description of a “typical” day might help readers get some idea what a foreign teacher’s day is like.  I will write about our non-teaching days, as well as our teaching days.  You see, we only teach three days a week, both of us teaching four classes.  That doesn’t sound like hard work, does it?  But the two “off days” in the middle of the week are used for prepping for our classes.  Weekends are supposed to be relaxation days, but we haven’t progressed to the point where we can do that yet – we spend most of the weekend doing more preparation.

Be sure you click on the pictures to see a larger version.

Thursday – I’m up a bit earlier than Cindy, usually about 6 to 6:15 or so.  No alarm – I just wake up then.  Breakfast is three or four slices of toast made from white bread that has no taste and is suitable only as a carrier for peanut butter or jam, washed down with Lipton tea.  While the toast is being made, I turn on the laptop, dial onto the Internet for email, and check news web sites to see if the world is still there.

At seven, I hear the students chattering as they walk across campus – classes start at seven in Viet Nam.  About the same time, the phone rings, and it is my new friend, the history professor – a most personable man in his early fifties.  We’ve been meeting on Thursday mornings for coffee.  He teaches me about the history of Viet Nam, and I help him with his English.  In the three weeks since I’ve known him, we have established a comfortable friendship. I walk down the three flights of stairs, meet him in the courtyard, then we stroll to a riverside café.   We dawdle over strong Vietnamese coffee.  I drink ca phe sua, or coffee with milk.  Its like espresso with condensed milk in it.  The conversation meanders – he tells me he attended a requiem mass for the Pope at the Phu Cam Catholic church.  He is not Catholic, but enjoys the ceremony.  (Liturgy was a good English word I introduced him to.)  He also knows the pastor of the only Protestant (Tin Lanh) church in the city.  We talk about the fact that Catholicism was a key part of  the colonization of Viet Nam by the French.  He invites me to make a short presentation to the History Club about why America entered World war II, then both of us realized we other things to do, and we stroll back to campus.

Walk up the three flights of stairs to the room.

By now, it is 9 o’clock.  I had written another letter to the Vietnamese administrator of our school about the air conditioner, and hopped on my bicycle to deliver it.  (Down the stairs, first.)   As good fortune would have it, he came around the corner as I was getting off my bike.  He had no time to chit chat as he was on his way to a meeting, but he did tell me the air conditioner would be replaced.  Bike back to the room  - and walk up the stairs.

On return, I find a student waiting for me.   She is a fourth year student doing her research paper before graduation from the College of Pedagogy.  (Teacher training.)  Her topic is “The Difficulty of Teaching English Writing Classes.”  She has already observed me teach and now she wants an interview.  I am delighted to meet still another bright, eager, and progressive student.  The interview over, we talk about the future for her and her country.

By now the morning is shot, and its time for lunch at 11 AM.  Cindy and I find our teammates, and we walk down to Phuong Nam,  a little open-air restaurant two blocks away.  (Down the stairs.)  I order bun thit nuong, a dish of noodles, bits of barbequed pork, and greens, with a peanut sauce.  Of course, I also have my usual banana sinh to (similar to a milk shake, but healthier).

The Vietnamese are wise – they don’t try to work in the heat of the day.  They eat lunch, then nap until 1 PM.  True, some shops are open, but the banks, schools, cyclo drivers, and offices are closed until 1:30 or so.  American teachers are not so wise.  They keep on working, so its back to the room (up the stairs) to prepare Friday’s classes – the first of which is at seven in the morning.

This is computer time.  I find where I am in the syllabus,  look at my notes from the last class to figure out where the students are, dig into my resources, and make up some handouts.  Piece o’cake.  It takes about two hours or so, then I have to make copies of the handouts.  Its off to see The Copy Lady. 

Down the stairs, walk about three blocks, walk back to the dorm, up the stairs.

Back to the room in time to meet with the technicians who are trying to fix our air conditioner.  I speak no Vietnamese, and they speak no English, so its down the hall to find our Vietnamese-American teaching partner.  There’s not much to do while they work, except molder in the heat.  I  chat with my fellow teacher, and finally the guys say they’re through.  We make our goodbyes, they leave – and fifteen minutes later, the air conditioning stops – again.  A phone call tells us they will return on the morrow.

But – I still have some prep work to do for my Friday afternoon work.  Hunger beckons, so I decide to eat, then come back and do some more work.

Down the stairs.

Walk to The Mandarin Café, a back packer joint nearby owned by the delightful Mr. Cu., then back to the dorm

Up the stairs.

Another two hours or so of prep work, and I’ve had it for the day.  The heat has about melted me by this time, so I need a shower before going to bed.  Because the air conditioning does not work, we have been sleeping in the common room next door where the AC works just fine.  Nine thirty finds me clean, propped up in bed reading, then ten thirty means I get up, let down the mosquito netting around the sleeping Cindy, turn out the lights – and say thanx.

Good night, Viet Nam.

You Gotta Watch the Students

The students are my favorites.  Oh, all my students get lots of attention, but these kids are special to me.  They are all members of one of the many ethnic minority groups from the mountainous areas of central Viet Nam.  In an effort to elevate the level of education for the highlanders, the government exempts them from having to take the national entrance exam.  Provincial authorities appoint students to come here, and they attend for free (as do all students in teacher training.)

But – these kids are way behind their Vietnamese counterparts.  For some, Vietnamese is not their native tongue, so they are working at Vietnamese as well as English.  None have had more than three years of  formal English in school.  Most have not had a strong high school education, and are ill prepared for university studies.

Not to worry – they are eager to learn.  Eager indeed.  Cindy and I have them over on Wednesday evenings to do fun stuff that will help them learn English.  We’ve played Uno, and they have put sticky notes on my map showing where they live, while they describe their home village to us – in English, of course.  They also like to sing, and singing is a great way to learn English.  The first week, we taught them “Take me Out to the Ballgame,” a venerable old song if there ever was one.  The next week we taught  them “Deep in the Heart of Texas.”  We added a little bit to that song and taught them to do a good, rousing “Yee haw!” at the end of the song.

Yesterday morning, I was sitting in the courtyard on a bench, waiting for my new friend, a history professor, to come by.  We have coffee each week as he tells me about the history of Viet Nam, and I help him with his English.  As I am sitting on the bench, I become aware of some very noisy students in the classroom building overlooking the bench.  Because noise is so common here, I didn’t pay much attention at first – until my mind reacted to an unusual sound.

Yee haw!

I looked up, and there were four of the boys from the class yelling out Yee Haw at the top of their lungs – they even had their fist in the air in proper cowboy style.

You gotta love ‘em.

A New Blog

Hey - check it out.  My nephew arrived in Ha Noi last week for a month's visit to Viet Nam.  He decided to blog while he is traveling.  Take a look at  Sojourns.  (Its a link to the left too.)  He will be in Hue in a week or so - for a short time, there will two bloggers in Hue.

Welcome to Viet Nam, Paul!

This is Why We’re Here

As we get closer to the end of the semester, things are getting livelier.  In my third year (junior) American Culture class, the best students are given the choice of doing a formal research paper instead of taking finals.  It will be the first true research paper they have done in college – and I get to advise them.  Last week, I met with each of them and showed them how to narrow down their topics, and how to do basic research.  Some of you would have recognized it as a lit review, but owing to the scarcity of books in the library, most of the lit review and research work is done on the Internet.  We talked about using Google Scholar, MERLOT, Wikipedia, and other sources of information.

But today – ah yes.  The first of them visited me for about an hour so I could advise her.

This is why we came to Viet Nam.  This is why we received a calling.  This, as they say, is what its all about.  To see the light bulb come on over a student’s head.

I wish you could have seen the expression on this young woman’s face as she realized she was learning about something she previously  knew little about – and she was learning it through her own efforts.  Her original proposal was just to learn about cowboys.  Now, she is finding out about real cowboys.  She is going way beyond movie cowboys and rodeo cowboys.  She is learning about the kind of values cowboys are seen to posses – values of self-reliance, and independence, and hard work and individualism.  With a gleam in her eye, she said she thinks those are American values too.

She made that association, not me. By herself, she moved from the shallow to a quest for deeper knowledge.

I know I have been a successful teacher when my students no longer need me.

Miscellaneous Ramblings

This is a record – it has been well over a week since I last posted.  I believe it is the longest period of time between posts since I began blogging two year ago. I suppose I could tell you why, but most likely, you don’t care.

So I’ll skip the excuses  (er, reasons.)

The last weekend was “interesting.”  As you know, we live on the top floor of a dormitory, and there are other dorm buildings built in such a way that we share a central courtyard.  A concrete courtyard and concrete buildings make the acoustics loud indeed.  This weekend as it was the Laotian lunar new year – commonly called the Water Festival.

So what?  We’re in Viet Nam, right?

The bottom floor of the dorm opposite us has Laotian students.  Though Laos is one of the very poorest countries in the world, these students seem quite well off.  Many have computers in their room, and most have expensive imported bicycles, or motorbikes.  Last weekend, they celebrated their new year by soaking any unwary passerby, and by setting up a set of humungous speakers for their party music.  I don’t know if you have ever heard Lao rap music before, but at two gazillion decibels, it was hard to do much worker.  The music got louder as the beer consumption increased, and the party continued for three nights.  We’ll be prepared next year with ear plugs and rain suits.

You have heard us marvel at the support we get from the agency we work with.  We marvel some more.  Last week we had a visit from our Ha Noi based supervisor.  He observed our teaching, offered solid practical advice, talked to the powers-that-be at the university, and shared some quiet time with us as well.  Thanks, Peter.

Peter brought little gifts from Ha Noi.  Cindy and our fellow teacher asked him to bring chocolate chips.  Yummers!  The Toll House cookies Cindy baked were great!  The cookies topped off a dinner of “tacos” (made with home made tortillas) and some tongue-burning salsa.  It was great fun asking our Vietnamese students how to spell “tortilla.”  Nasty trick, eh?

I had a “bad teaching day” last week.  Mean ole me – I had assigned a five page essay (unheard of for third year students, I was told later), with two weeks to write the paper.  But – the fateful day arrived, and only about half of the class showed up.  Yikes!  Did I scare them all away?  After the first period (we have three periods in a row, one day a week in each course), I noticed some students sneak into the classroom – and put their papers on the stack.  Then more did so during the second break.  By the beginning of the third period, all the students were in class – and all the papers on my desk.

Life has been interesting.  The air conditioning unit in our room is broken, so we have had to sleep in the common room, then come back over to our own room for lesson preparation, taking showers, eating breakfast, and the like.  It has been a hassle.  I know I used to sleep without air conditioning in this country a long time ago, but my body has betrayed me.  Try as I might, I will never be in the kind of shape I was in 35 years ago, and I simply must have it cool to sleep.  But getting the air conditioner  repaired has prompted a bit of struggle.  The powers that be don’t want to spend the money because we are supposed to move into new quarters in the fall.

I am writing this in the hot room.  Cindy went next door to sit in the cool and work.

The lights decided to quit working in that room.

Life is interesting in Viet Nam.

Your Teaching Dollar at Work

I took pity on my third year writing class today.  I was mean and had assigned them a 5 page and/or 15 paragraph essay due next week.  I wanted to loosen up a bit with them, but I also want to develop some creativity in their writing.  Vietnamese students are not expected to be creative – they are expected to work together and rock no boats.

So – we had some fun.  We took some time to write “chain stories” in class.  After splitting up the class into groups of four, each was given a piece of paper with an opening phrase, such as “One day I woke up late”, or “One day I decided to go for a walk by the river.”  Each student added one more sentence to the story, then passed it on to the next student.  (Its also a good way for them to catch grammar errors in each other’s writing.

Here’s the story I liked best:

One day I had a big fight with my best friend.

He stole my money for his girlfriend. 

Meanwhile I was short of money – I did not know why he could behave me like this!

I couldn’t hide my anger, so I spoke out bad words to him.

Vice versa, he said he used money to buy gift for the last meeting with his girlfriend.

“That is my first girl friend and I can’t refuse her invitation to go to the cinema with her” he explained.

This is the first time I became hot-tempered today.

I cannot control myself so I knocked him down on the floor.

He didn’t know that I needed money to buy a gift for my girlfriend.

My gift to heal the heart in her heart. 

Because  one day I came to her house, by accident I saw her bathing without closing the door.  S

o that she ran into angry with me.

So what did you do when she ran away? 

You tried to run after her, didn’t you? 

If you say yes Oh, you were very excellent when you guessed completely right.

I insist her apology but she didn’t accept.

I was the reason I wanted to buy a gift for her.

If I were you, I would follow her silently

This is not typical of the work they usually hand in.  Remember, this is unedited, free-writing, and the purpose was to enhance their creativity.

And they got creative, eh?

How’s the Weather?

I’m glad you asked – how’s the weather?

Okay, show of hands.  How many of you think Viet Nam is hot and steamy? You know, as in “the steaming jungles of Viet Nam.”

Two, five, eleven - - yep, most of you think Viet Nam is hot and steamy.

And, you would be correct much of the time.  But, not all the time.

The weather throughout the country is strongly affected by the monsoons.  Contrary to popular belief, the “monsoon” is not the wet season itself, but rather the whole system of wet and dry winds.  In Viet Nam, the monsoons drift north and south so that the wet season occurs in different places at different times.  The wetness also affects temperatures and humidity.  For instance, the hottest time of the year in Saigon (the south ) is April and May.  The wet season begins in June (or so) and that tempers the temperature.  Please don’t confuse “tempers” with cool  - Saigon has two temperature descriptors.  It is either hot or hotter.  It is never cool in Saigon.

But Hue is well north of Saigon.  Yes indeed, it gets cool here,  When we arrived in February, it was downright cold.  You may wonder how fifty five degrees translates into being cold.

Fifty five is cold because of the humidity.  Throughout the country, the humidity is always high.  A day with 80% humidity is “dry.”  Warm, hot, or cold – the humidity compounds all the other weather senses.

The rainy season in Hue is in the late fall, mainly November and December.  That is when the torrential downpours occur.  Last November, there was some serious flooding here in Hue as the rains were heavier than normal.  But rain occurs during the rest of the year.  My students like to describe the weather as “changeable.”  True enough, it can be sunny and 90 degrees one day, then the next could be like today.  It is dreary, misty, and chilly.  I will wear a poncho when I pedal my bike to class today.  It has been like this for three days now.  Not only is it gloomy, but the wetness affects the electrical power and the phone lines.  The lights dim often as power surges come and go.  Our telephone line (and our Internet connection) is iffy as the junction box gets wet and our line shorts out.  Tomorrow – who knows?  It may be sunny and 90 tomorrow.  I have no television, and I don’t understand Vietnamese, so I can’t watch the news and weather on the tube.  I just wake up in the morning, peek out the window, and get my own weather forecast – its damp outside, so it will rain today.

The humidity is the constant.  The humidity accounts for the mold-ravaged walls you see on most buildings.  Anything made from iron is badly corroded.  Moss grows on the shaded sides of most trees, buildings, walls, and other object that blocks the sun.  The humidity rots leather, and eats wood.  It is perpetually clammy in Viet Nam.

Today is damp and gloomy.  We have been told by many that the spring season of cool misty days has persisted longer than normal this year, and that soon, Hue will be hot – and sticky.

And when it is hot, the jungles are steamy.

More This and That Stuff

Create the scene in your mind.  During a break, I am standing in the room checking my notes.  One of my students is standing outside the door, when I hear:

    “Teachuh.  There is somebody here to see you.”

    I dutifully go to the door, and there is nobody there.

    Gales of laughter and giggling from the students as they yell  “April Fools!”

I laughed with them, and felt honored they were comfortable enough with their big foreign teacher to pull an April Fools joke on me.  But - - the ringleader added a uniquely Vietnamese twist.  She approached me with head hanging, wringing her hands - and respectfully apologized.

I love my Vietnamese students.

As I posted earlier, we’ve had problems with our Internet connection.  Seems we have a bad phone connection – somewhere.  During the past week or so, we have had long periods with no dial tone on the phone.  Sometimes it would work – sometimes it wouldn’t. Now that I know its our phone line, that problem may also account for the problem we’ve had connecting to the Internet.  Some days it would take 8 to 10 tries, and then we’d be kicked off in a few minutes.  It may also account for the very slow connections we’ve had.

Frustrating.

Thursday morning, the All American Efficient Manager in me awoke from a deep slumber.  We had been working so hard on being acceptable outsiders, but I’d had enough of no phone and no air conditioning.  So, I wrote one of those crisply worded business notes I used to write so often, and hand delivered it to the head of the college.  He wasn’t in his office, and I checked twice, so I left it on his desk.  By the time I returned to our room, he had called and talked to both Cindy and our team mate.  The deal was that there would be a technician at our room by “this evening.”

Five o’clock came, and with it came the Three Blind Mice.  The leader tried desperately to impress me with his supervisory skills, the other with his electronic skills (he had a Compaq PDA), and the third went outside to look at the air conditioner.  Of course, they brought no tools of any kind, and had to borrow someone else’s phone to try to call ours.

The outcome?  They will return on Sunday morning at 9 AM.

New topic – some of you have mentioned bird flu.  To the best of my knowledge, there has not been any bird flu in our province, nor have they confirmed any person-to-person transmission of the flu in Viet Nam.  As long as we don’t drink any raw duck blood, or go playing around in chicken feces, we should be okay.

I admit it is strange, though.  The news is full of bird flu stories, yet you see live poultry for sale in the markets all the time.  I dunno.

We had a real treat the other night.  We had clean mosquito netting.  As you know, Martha Stewart recommends washing your mosquito netting whenever there is an accumulation of dead bugs readily visible.

Are you tired of checking the blog each day, only to find I’ve been too lazy to post?  I recommend an easy remedy.  Go to www.bloglines.com.  On that site is a nifty little “notifier” you can download.  Here’s how it works.  When you log onto the Internet (or if you have a high speed connection, when you turn on your computer), it will automatically check to see if I have updated Virtual-Doug, or any other blogs you choose.  If I have updated, a neat little icon appears on your desktop.  If I have not posted anything new, there is no icon.

Finally - tomorrow will mark six weeks in Hue.

Unreal.