Weathering the storm

In the classroom, hinges creaked and glass rattled as windows and doors slammed open and shut. The wind swirled leaves across the courtyard cement. The sky was a steely gray that matched the courtyard concrete, where the wind swirled dry leaves. All that was missing was a grizzled old timer sagely murmuring "storm's a-comin'." But the wind blew on through and despite a few near-misses of Marilyn Monroe steam vent skirt flying moments while teaching, the rain never came.

I was a little frustrated with my classes today. With my 3rd year listening class, I pretty much had to give up on soliciting answers. My questions were met with the inscrutable silence that can just as easily indicate lack of understanding, lack of desire to participate, or just shyness. Was the audio just particularly challenging today? Even the class standouts sat there looking disconnected. Yet, when I stopped asking questions, and just asked them to tell me something they heard, they could answer. One of them could recite the audio back almost word for word. Is it possible to remember every word but not understand it enough to answer basic comprehension questions? This didn't happen at the beginning of the semester, but it has been happening more and more in the last few weeks. I've had to resort to rewriting key phrases of the audio, which turns listening comprehension into reading comprehension, and then playing the audio again so that they can at least pick out the words I have already told them are there for them to hear. If I knew what the problem was, I could brainstorm ways to fix it. But I'm at a loss.

My 2nd year speaking class's behavior was not so different from usual, but maybe because of what had preceded it it was further disheartening. Though it seems that in Vietnamese culture it is not considered rude to talk when others are speaking -- indeed, this happens during meetings, during assemblies, when the rector is making a speech -- that doesn't mean that it is not distracting and disruptive in a classroom. Students usually keep quiet when I speak, but the second it is their peers' turn to talk, the parallel conversations start up. Today it was so bad I caught myself not paying attention to the speaker because I was trying to count how many people were speaking at the same time. When more than half of the class is talking, you can't just move someone across the room or send someone home. Equally frustrating was that when I asked them to come up with imaginative possible Halloween costumes, only five of the answers were ones that were not part of the lesson's vocabulary. And this is not a limited vocabulary issue; they know enough people and objects to come up with costumes beyond witch, ghost, spider, bat, vampire, mummy, etc. Instead of teaching being the uplifting experience it usually is, today it was a drain on my already low energy.

This morning things went slightly better. Even though it was delayed by almost an hour, I had my first (sort of) real Vietnamese class in over a month. It was gratifying to be a student again, to add to my small trove of vocabulary, and to realize I can understand whole sentences that I haven't specifically learned.

In other news, mostly from yesterday:
I finally found a palatable flavor of chè. It doesn't look like much, but if this blog has taught anyone anything, it should be that chè never looks like much.

Corn chè: gelatinous but not powdery

I have an industrious new guest in my bathroom.

Meet Mr. Mud Dauber

I spent the better part of 10 minutes trying to tap and poke and prod this guy out of my door frame so I could close the door without crushing him. After all of my efforts, the next time I opened my door he was still lurking just outside the door. Given that he fits under the bottom of the door, I'll give you one guess as to where he probably ended up.

This guy seemed to think that puffing up would be a good way of intimidating
my shoe.

A minor in Pictionary is a prerequisite for becoming a language teacher. And yes, I did not deal with the goat or the dog, but this post demonstrates my goat-drawing 'prowess'.

This was for the teachers' English club. I was
half-tempted to teach them to ask 'what's your sign?'.

I feel the need to recognize a milestone of my internet existence: this blog has hit over 2500 page views. Thanks for the love and attention!