Improving my pronunciation

Wednesday night I tossed and turned and ended up figuring out my lesson plan for my first drawing class next week. I don't know if the lesson planning kept me awake or if the sleeplessness led to the planning. Probably both. Then, when I received my April schedule yesterday, the drawing class wasn't listed. It turns out I won't be teaching drawing after all. I guess I really do have to stick to not believing something is going to happen until it is happening. Silly me for thinking that signing paperwork and discussing definitive dates and times was enough of a guarantee. I'm disappointed, but focusing on the silver lining of having my Thursday nights stay free.

Somehow, I never got around to sharing the results of my Translation class evaluations. Below are some notable replies.
What lessons or activities did you like? Why?:

• The activity I like is translate. One student read in English and one translate. Because its help me improve my speaking and listening skills. 
• I like standing in class and practising translation with teacher and my friends. It makes me confident and improve the other skills. 
• I like lessons or activities that the teacher offers. For example, the teacher asks the class to translate into English and Vietnamese. Because this can help us be confident in translation. And I can study more words and structure of sentences that help me avoid many errors when I write.

Other comments or suggestions:

• The teacher was very well. But the problems is on my own (myself). Sometimes I feel a little confused on oral translation. You are very skillful, very well. Don't worry!
• Teacher usually teaches over time, teacher should note about time because you and we are very tired, so we can't understand the lesson more :(

My favorite, however, was this reply to the question, "What is something the teacher could improve?": "Sometimes, I can't understand your pronunciation."

The most significant data is the reactions to "I would feel comfortable translating in a real-life situation." Only one student chose 'disagree'; 11, 'neither agree nor disagree'; 19, 'agree', and 3 'strongly agree'. Of course, since I didn't ask them this at the start of the course I don't know whether their comfort was caused by the class, but it feels good to know that, regardless of how things started, at least half of the students feel comfortable and capable.

Today I was supposed to have a Vietnamese lesson with Trang in the morning and then go out to lunch with her sister. However, about half an hour into our lesson, Trang got an upsetting text message and proceeded to have a drawn out texting session. And when I say drawn out I mean I fell asleep in my cafe chair and when I woke up thirty minutes later it was still going on. I suggested that Trang take me home and deal with whatever was afoot.

I met Thuy at the appointed time and we proceeded to have a blast. We had our usual massive lunch and then Thuy took me to a nearby shop so I could try on a dress I'd been eyeing every time I'm driven past it. It was neither surprising nor terribly disturbing to find that the dress didn't fit quite right, but Thuy seemed to have adopted a mission and took me to another store. I didn't find a dress, but I found the most fantastic pair of shoes. I tried them on just for fun, but they were just too amazing to deny. They came home with me. Our next stop was the milk tea place I go to with my students. I added lychee and hazelnut (we got two) to the list of flavors I've tried and Thuy helped me translate all of the flavor options so I can both boast a slightly expanded vocabulary and know exactly what all of my options are the next time I go. We had a great time and what with the feast and the two beverages we were bursting at the seams by the time she dropped me off at the college.

Season-irrelevant decor at the milk tea place

In the late afternoon, waves of rumbling gave way to sheets of pelting rain. I was lucky to be inside already, but I went and opened the door to enjoy the dramatic view and fresh scent of rain. I would expect locals to think me crazy for doing so, but given that they were all inside hiding there was no one to see my deviant behavior. When the rain got too horizontal I went back inside and watched the rain blow in under the door. The power went out soon after the tremendous but brief rainstorm, and I had to ask myself why (it seems) the college karaoke setup is hooked up to a backup generator but nothing else is.