Tiếng Việt! Tiếng Việt!

Yesterday was the last day of Translation. I was a glad I would no longer be teaching a class I never thought I should have been teaching in the first place, but I was sad because it means I will no longer be teaching the third years. I was selfishly glad at the students' mild outcry when I told them I wouldn't be teaching them anymore. (I guess no one else bothered to tell them.) Since it was the last day, I decided to do something fun and only loosely translation related: tongue twisters! Perfect pronunciation practice. We started with "she sells seashells by the seashore." Students are perfectly capable of saying "s" and "sh", but tend to switch them, because "s" is pronounced "sh" in southern Vietnamese. So, this tongue twister would draw their attention to saying the right one at the right time. Next, I made up a tongue twister that would pose no problem for a native speaker, but that was quite challenging for them. "Grandfather brings fresh flowers." This emphasized the difference between "gr" and "fr" (for some reason I often hear about people's frandfathers) and helped them practice consonant clusters. Like magic, rings became brings and lowers became flowers. I asked students to translate the twisters, just to keep it relevant to the class, and then we all practiced saying each word, then a few words, and finally the whole tongue twister. Then I asked them to volunteer if they wanted to try and say it on their own. To my absolute delight, I did not have to resort to calling on someone even once. I've been keeping track of who participates in class all semester, mostly to make sure I got everyone to do something at some point, and this activity brought out the last dozen students who hadn't made a peep all semester. I closed with course evaluations, the results of which you will hear about once I get around to reading them. And then, because everyone finished before the end of class, I asked them for some Vietnamese tongue twisters. I breezed through the first one, but didn't even try to tackle the second:

It turns out rồ rồ is actually the onomatopoeia for the sound a flailing fish makes

My second class was not so successful. I was teaching a speaking unit on advertising to my second year students, and the lesson ended up being more challenging than I expected. Since I thought they would have an easier time of it, I hadn't constructed my lesson plan with the necessary timing to allow for as much preparation and explanation as they needed. Nonetheless, I thought I eventually did a pretty good job of explaining the differences between advertising a product and advertising a lifestyle.

Today got off to a great start with Trang. We had bún bò huế for breakfast, and it might be on its way to replacing pho as my favorite Vietnamese soup. Or maybe it's just been too long since the last time I had pho. Then, we went to our now-usual cafe for my Vietnamese lesson. Even though I want to learn Vietnamese, I am often intimidated to try to speak it. The food vendors I've been frequenting since I arrived just expect me to mime, so most of the time that's what I do. I know that I tell my students that the only way they can improve is to use English whenever they can and to not be afraid to be wrong, but my advice is easier given than taken.

Despite my disheartening experience this weekend, today was a turning point. When I realized that I was about to ask Trang a question that I maybe sort of knew how to say in Vietnamese, I would give it a shot. If I said it wrong, I would learn how to do it right. I continued practicing my compound sentences. I continued to pin down lexical nuances that I only realize exist when I am actually using the language. For example, vì thế = so as in "and so," whereas nên = so as in "therefore." The crowning achievement of the day was -- with a lot of help from Trang -- telling a whole story in Vietnamese. I might not be able to effectively use Vienglish on the street, but having Trang fill in my blanks revitalized my wavering confidence. I was also proud of myself for remembering the phrase xí xô xí xào from over a month ago, when Trang prompted me to. We were having such a good time we didn't realize that we'd been out for two and a half hours.

A new dish. Nó mặn hay ngọt? Is it sweet or salty?

I used today's lesson to arm myself with phrases for my next visit to the pajama shop. How to say, too fast, repeat please, and I understand what you're saying but I don't know how to reply. I learned that in Vietnamese reduplication, saying the same word twice, diminishes the adverb. So saying beautiful beautiful actually means a little beautiful. I also learned kỳ cục, which means weird, and ngán quá, which means I'm fed up/I've can't take it anymore.

Tonight's English club went a little better than it's been going, I think largely due to the fact that I reverted to a lesson format rather than attempting discussion. However, the students handed me a sheet of questions that they want to choose from for future club meetings. I appreciated the indication of effort and commitment, but I really don't think that discussion is constructive for this group. During my Vietnamese lesson Trang intimated that everyone acknowledges that this club is a failure, but that no one blames me because they understand that I can't teach everyone given the range in skill level in the group. I would be gladder about it if it meant I didn't have to teach it anymore, but I think the school probably feels like ending the club would be admitting defeat on paper, and they'll look better if we just keep going even if we don't accomplish much of anything. On the upside, it looks like I'll start teaching that drawing class next month! I'm giving up another weeknight to do it and the students may or may not even speak English, but I'm so pleasantly shocked that this proposal is translating into reality that I won't be complaining for now. I'm already starting to think of how and what I'll teach.