"How beautiful you are!"

Few things make you want to say "only in Vietnam" more than having a late night of karaoke rehearsal. Tonight was the big show, an interdepartmental karaoke contest, and Morena and I were to be the English department's secret weapon. Our weaponhood relied partly on our satisfactorily learning a Vietnamese song, and largely on exploiting our status as campus celebrities (or maybe just novelties). Rehearsal started about two weeks ago, but later it turned out that the song we had chosen was not on the disc that would be used during the competition. So we had to start all over again. Last night we sang again and again, mixing in a few dance moves. Today it was the moment of truth. Lest you underestimate the scale of this event, let me tell you that it started at 630, and by the time all thirteen participating departments were done singing their four songs, it was almost five hours later.

Note the disco ball. It was definitely made use of tonight.

We sang Anh Em Ta Về, a song about people coming together. Click on the link to read the lyrics; don't bother with a Google translation; it's pretty abysmal.Without further ado, I now present my moment in the limelight:

Like I've said, life in Vietnam makes me feel like a superstar almost every day. Just walking in to the auditorium, I was garnering gasps and waves from all of my students (and comments of "How beautiful you are!"). Morena was a little self-conscious, but I guess I don't mind being a spectacle. At least not when that's the whole point, anyway. Even better was having my solo drowned out by a round of cheers, and being bum-rushed with glittery flowers during the musical interlude. The icing on the cake was scoring 93, a more than respectable score. I later found out that our combined machine- and human-judge score was 90.75, not bad at all.

Afterward, Morena and I were reflecting that neither of us would probably ever have done something like this in our home countries. But before I came to Vietnam I planned to check my pride and dignity at the door, and it has let me step out of my comfort zone in the most rewarding of ways.

After our performance, we went out for a quick dinner. On the way, Ms. Trang told me that she realized today that her confidence and fluency in English have significantly increased in the last few months. Today, while teaching, she had to explain a literary example of a metaphor, and she was able to do so smoothly and without hesitation. She credited this development to our extensive conversations. It really meant a lot to me because lately I have been questioning my impact. I know I am appreciated here, but it is so hard to know whether I am really making a difference. Some of my third year students are training to be secondary school English teachers, and a few weeks ago they started student-teaching. Ms. Trang told me that students that she tutors, who are students at the secondary school and consequently students of my students, were praising their teachers (my students) for their English skills. They say that they speak English more beautifully, clearly, and fluently than past student-teachers. Ms. Trang says she is curious to hear from the actual teachers at the secondary school, because in the past they have always only complained about the English level of the student-teachers. The last cherry on my praise sundae is that my students who are student-teachers have been coming to me for advice. Not only do they ask me for help pronouncing the material they will teach; they ask me for suggestions for warm up activities. This means that they think my teaching style is effective and worth emulating. And all of this makes me feel validated.

From the Khmer Festival in Tra Vinh