Speed dating

Trang and I had another Vietnamese lesson this morning. It was not quite as magical as yesterday's, but it was pretty good. Today's language gem is the fact that if I'm drowning and in my panic don't pay attention to my pronunciation, I might shout "Marry me!" instead of "Help me!"

In the early afternoon I had my monthly schedule meeting for April. It struck me that I only have one more schedule meeting left. The meeting was more of a mess than usual because Trang wasn't there to translate for me and the person in charge of putting the schedule together wasn't there either because he is holed up studying for his upcoming Masters exam. Eventually everyone gave up and summoned Trang, even though she wasn't there because she was busy with another work-related activity. During the meeting it was proposed that we solicit third years to come to the adult English club and partner up with them in order to breathe some life into the wheezing and sputtering Tuesday night meetings. I was not a fan of this suggestion, and said so, but in true non-confrontational Vietnamese fashion I also said that I was willing to give it a shot if everyone was really intent on trying it.

By the time I left that meeting, the sky was a flat gray to the south of campus. Unusual for the dry season. Not long after, my room was being shaken by the rumblings of an approaching storm. It was loud, but it was brief, and it washed away the smell of smoke from all of the burning trash heaps. It also washed out the night's English club attendance. At first there were only six students. Eventually we had 12. I started them out in pairs, talking, and when we got more I decided to do speed dating style conversation. I set them up in six pairs, first years on one side and third years on the other side. Every five or so minutes I'd go 'bing bing bing' much to my students' amusement and one set of six would stand up and move down a chair. They really liked it, and they really spent the whole time speaking in English. After all of the first years talked to all of the third years, I mixed them up and the first years talked to each other and the third years talked to each other. It turned out that the third years had a lot of beef to discuss, and since I was standing in the midst of them I got quite the overheard earful. The general sentiment is that they are overworked and very stressed. Not only are they in their last semester of senior year, some of them are working on getting their teaching certification, and some are also taking a teaching and technology class. Additionally, the best students (those present in the club, largely) have gotten roped into participating in an upcoming speaking competition and several other events. Essentially, if they're good, then they're asked to do more and, just like me with my schedule, they don't have much of a choice. Then talk turned to teachers and their teaching styles. Apparently they don't like the atmosphere in the Translation class. They feel like the expectations are too high and their skills are too low, and the topics are too dense and boring. The whole semester is focused on environmental issues, and they think they would be better served by translating topics relevant to their future fields, like tourism and business. I wish there were a way for me to bring their feelings up with Trang to give her some constructive feedback straight from the horse's mouth, but I don't know how she would take it. I was glad to hear them reference my teaching style and activities as a better alternative.