Happy pi day

Monday morning I taught Translation. I had a sketched out lesson plan that was essentially a repeat of last week, when I had students translate a recording about a US state, but when I got to the classroom I found that I wouldn't be able to use speakers because the only outlet was across the room. Luckily, I had my thinking cap on and it took me less than a minute to come up with a new plan -- and a pretty good one at that. I gave students 10 minutes to come up with a topic of their choice, and prepare a short speech about it. Then they would come to the front in pairs, one presenting and one translating. It went shockingly well. I didn't even have to call on anyone until after the fifth or sixth pair. I interrupted the translating to spotlight some pronunciation issues, and challenged students to pronounce the following words distinctly: glow, glows, close, low, love, glove. Believe it or not, all of those words often end up sounding like 'low' because students struggle with the consonant clusters at the beginning and don't articulate the consonants at the end. When I presented them as a set, they became more distinct, though glows and close were still hard to distinguish, but the real issue is getting them to be distinct even when they are not in direct comparison with a similar word. 

Yesterday I had my Vietnamese lesson with Trang. I hadn't had one in a while, but this one was quite productive. I learned conjunctions and am (theoretically) now able to construct compound sentences, assuming that I know all the other words I need. I learned that there is a specific word, lạt in the South and nhạt in the North, that means 'not salty enough,' but there is no such word to describe sweetness or other tastes. I also learned the word vừa miệng, which means 'just right', which is used to describe a dish that is just right in every way, not just regarding one specific element of it (e.g. temperature, seasoning, etc.). Trang finally revealed what had been going on when she sent me that 'something horrible happens' message last week. I was both happy that she felt like she could open up to me and happy that it wasn't as bad as many of the things that message had conjured in my imagination. I also found out that next week I'll be teaching my last translation class. Huzzah! I won't even complain much about the fact that I was maybe starting to hit my stride.

Trang's sister, Thuy, called to take me out to lunch. She is becoming the new purveyor of new dishes. We tried cá thát lát and tôm kho tàu. Both were delicious. After lunch, Thuy bought me another two kilos of mangos.

cá thát lát

tôm kho tàu

Later, I was surprised when two first-year students showed up for the office hours I forgot I had. I am pretty sure they will attend regularly; one of them made a point of showing up to all of Morena's office hours and serenading her the whole time. I was not treated to quite so much singing, though she did sing me Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA and a song in English by a Japanese singer.

I had English club in the evening, and I kind of took the teachers to task, though I don't think they noticed. With each passing week, this feels more and more like a waste of time. Equal amounts of time are spent speaking English, speaking Vietnamese, and in silence with people staring at each other. People are showing up later and later. Last week we didn't get started until 45 minutes after the scheduled time. So, last night I told them that we would stay as long as they talked, and if they didn't want to talk anymore then we could all go home. Things went ok. More importantly, I came to a realization. The reason that the club has declined so much, aside from the fact that only a handful of people show up anymore, is because the activities have changed. I used to teach lessons. In February, however, Trang became my co-teacher and she decided that I should tell the attendees next week's topic at the end of class, and ask them to prepare a presentation. Unfortunately, even though people prepare presentations, no one seems to want to present, so I have to spend a lot of time urging people to stand up and just read the piece of paper they have in front of them. Even though this is not unusual within the general student attitude in Vietnam, it is particularly frustrating because a) they are adults b) they choose to attend and c) they know what to expect. Then, because no one else understands the presentation, the presenter re-presents in Vietnamese, and then everyone starts discussing it in Vietnamese. So, next week, I am going back to lessons. This means more work for me, but if it also means that I can end Tuesdays on something other than a sour note, it will be more than worth it.

Today was uneventful. Now that I'm not teaching the USA class, I don't have anything on my schedule until 6pm. I made the most of my free time, getting around to some miscellaneous tasks that had fallen by the wayside. English club was much better attended this week, and we talked about the obtuse topic, Ambitions and Challenges, which my students requested last week. I found out on Friday that the reason they suggested it is because it is the topic of a speaking contest some of them will be participating in in a few weeks. It took a while to break it down and talk about the meaning of ambition, in particular, but we had a pretty good discussion even though it was dominated by consensus.