I woke up this morning already tired. But teaching is invigorating, at least in the moment. I love seeing people learn, knowing that I'm making that happen. And, of course, I'm learning, too.
After class I went to the canteen, thinking I would get to-go and eat in my room to get more planning done. However, while I was waiting for my food, two of my students arrived and asked if they could join me. I was quite happy to say yes. As a bonus, this was the first time I was served a dish in a way that looked like presentation was taken into consideration. Ergo, a picture. (Also because I think my posts looks a little sad without pictures.)
Vietnamese table manners are still a tricky thing for me, not so much because I don't understand them as because there are several things that directly contradict western table manners, and apparently it's hard for me to overcome 20+ years of subconscious training. The main thing is that there's no knives here. Most meat comes on the bone, and people here are really deft at separating the two using only a fork and spoon or spoon and chopsticks. This is not a skill I have mastered. Occasionally, along with liberating a piece of meat, I also fling rice off of my plate. Other times, people just bring the meat up to their mouth and gracefully snip off the meat and put the bone back on their plate. Who needs a knife when you have teeth? Except my teeth are not so expert, and my snipping usually devolves into gnawing. I have been told I can use my hands, too, but that's not something I see other people do very often.
In the afternoon I had Vietnamese class, and unearthed a whole slew of words from daily life that become inappropriate or just wrong if I mis-tone or otherwise mispronounce them.
Thầy/male teacher ≠ thây/dead body
Trường/school ≠ truồng/naked lower half
After writing truồng on the board for me, Trang said it must be immediately erased and rushed to do so, presumable lest anyone see that she was teaching me this taboo word. Half of the time I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of tone, and the other half of the time it feels like it's merely a matter of luck when I say something right.
Tonight I had two sessions of English club for students. Because it is club rather than class, we can do a lot more fun, informal things. In class earlier in the day, a few students had requested that I teach them the song "If You're Happy and You Know It." Conveniently, this fit perfectly with my plan to play them songs in English. I played "500 Miles" by Peter, Paul, and Mary and "Eight Days a Week" by the Beatles, and had them fill in some blanks in the lyrics. Both are clearly sung and have basic vocabulary for the students to pick out and somewhat basic concepts for me to explain. The students really enjoyed it, and several were singing along by the time we got through all of the rounds of listening. When we did If You're Happy the students didn't seem quite so happy when I called on groups of three to lead us in song. But it was a good-natured grumpy. When I stood in the back of the class then they really got into it. That concluded my plans, other than the backup filler I prepared. I used my new-favorite classroom game, Competitive Telephone, with lyrics from the evening's songs, and it was met with great success (this group had not played before). A few hipchecks later, the class ended in fits of giggles.
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| "If you're happy and you know it say, 'Yipee!'" |
I feel so guilty that I have not commented on the last few days. I read your writings, and it does pain me to read about your struggles, wishing to be there to comfort you [but then again, would I be crowding your space too]. Still, this is like watching you learn how to ride a bike once again. I must watch you, and see you over come. It it just hard to know that what your are doing at this stage is under harder circumstances.
ReplyDeleteYet, always know that you are loved by God; that He holds you in His hands, always, as your ever present Father. You have so many people loving you, cheering for you, and being enormously proud of you.