Rough patch

Wednesday morning I had my rescheduled Vietnamese lesson. We definitely spent more time speaking English than Vietnamese, but I did claw my way through telling a somewhat elaborate story. Today's mispronunciation jewel is rằng (that, as in 'She said that...') v. rặn (push, specifically as in pushing a baby out of your loins). Bonus: răng is teeth. The main thing I got out of today's lesson was a lot of introspection about language. In trying to tell my story, and working from the English in my head and trying to make Vietnamese come out of my mouth, I was hyper-aware of the level of detail and nuance we can express, which I cannot express in Vietnamese. Part of me marveled at it, and part of me wondered if it is superfluous, overcomplicated, if language could be a lot simpler and just as useful.

The evening's English club was music themed, and I played snippets of songs from different genres and asked the students to talk about their reactions to and opinions about the songs. One girl described rap as relaxing, and another said jazz was just confusing noise. In general, they disliked rock and jazz and liked pop, dance, techno, and country. They all agreed that reggae was very strange, though for some it was strange in a good way and for others it was not.

This morning I taught Listening and things went smoothly until the end. We had listened to an interview with a woman who heard voices in her head that told her to go to the doctor because she had a brain tumor, and the voices even gave her an address that turned out to be the address of the brain scan department of the hospital. Thanks to the voices, she was able to be cured. As part of the post-listening discussion, I asked students to talk to their partner about where they thought the voices came from. After giving them time to organize their thoughts, I called on some students to share their opinions with the class. I called on Tiên and that's when I hit a brick wall. Her reply, after an eternal 30 seconds, "I'm sorry, I don't know." I told her that it was an opinion question, so there was no wrong answer. Another eternity passed and she said "I'm sorry, I didn't listen." I repeated the question. "I'm sorry, I don't know." It's an opinion question. "I'm sorry, I didn't listen." In the past, I used to feel guilty about making everyone uncomfortable by keeping a student in the hotseat, but I had given everyone time to prepare their answers and at this point students should know the system. We kept going back and forth and after five minutes I had to let her sit down, though what I really wanted was to send her out of the class. It's one thing if a student is trying but struggling, but it's another thing if the student is refusing to try (and also demonstrating that she had not been following instructions). I interrupted the lesson to explain to them why I ask them to discuss with their partners: both to practice speaking and to make sure everyone has an answer, and that I therefore expect everyone to be able to answer the question if I call on them. My mini-lecture was lost on the most intended listener, though, as she and the girl next to her resumed whatever non-class related work they'd been doing as soon as she sat down. I resisted the urge to call her out and tell her that I was talking to her. I asked the next discussion question and went around listening to different students share their ideas with each other. I made sure to visit Tiên and hear what she had to say. Guess what her reply was when I asked for her thoughts. "I'm sorry, I didn't listen." So, once again, I repeated the question and stood in front of her, expectantly. This time the girl next to her (who was still working on something that was not for class) saved her by whispering an answer in Vietnamese, and Tiên was able to reply. I told her that in the future I expect her to listen and participate and be able to answer questions, and that I do not like it when I see her doing things unrelated to class. These things should be able to go unsaid, but here's hoping that they inspire some change.

This weekend I'll have some ETA visitors who will join me in exploring the offerings of the coconut festival. I have no idea what that might entail, but I have seen a massive stage set up in the middle of the city lake and have had to walk around festival-related rehearsals on campus for the last month. I'm looking forward to finding out what's in store for us.