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.

Weekend getaway

On Saturday morning I took the bus to HCMC and met up with Violet, Brittanye, and Kelly. After a delicious home-cooked lunch of utterly western burgers at the house of a consular employee who is a friend of a friend, Violet and I went looking for a tailor. Lam had given me the address of a good tailor outside of downtown, outside of the tourist area. Unfortunately, when our taxi deposited us at the given address, there was neither a tailor nor any of Lam's other landmarks in sight. After doing some wandering and asking around, Violet and I gave up on the quest, and just went shopping instead. It was raining in torrential spurts, so the shopping helped us stay dry. We didn't buy anything; we just partook of the ritual of trying on clothes that will never fit, central to life as a shopping-inclined westerner in Vietnam.

We stopped at a smoothie place and I had the best (only) avocado smoothie I've had in a long long time. Vincent, who teaches with Violet in Tra Vinh, and several of their students met us there, and then we all went back downtown. We went out for a few drinks and then went to dinner. After our western pizza dinner we went to a Vietnamese place for more food. We had a great time, and it was interesting to see how precocious and adventurous the Tra Vinh students are compared to mine.

Despite our late night out on Saturday, we got up at a decent time on Sunday and went to English mass at the cathedral. It was nice to go to church, even nicer to go with friends, and even nicer to be able to understand the language being spoken. After lunch we went to brunch at an American restaurant that actually felt like being and eating in America. So many times, western food just isn't quite right, which is why most of the time I prefer to eat good Vietnamese food rather than an approximation of American food that will never really satisfy my craving. But this food was good.

After that it was time to come back to Ben Tre. Violet and Vincent had gone to HCMC on Vincent's motorbike, and since Ben Tre is halfway between there and home, they stopped for a few hours in Ben Tre on the way back. We went out to dinner together and enjoyed some local specialties that I only get to eat when I have company. They also got to try some sweet Ben Tre coconuts before getting back on the road.

On Wednesday, the last USA class, I gave out course evaluations. One of the questions I asked was "What did you think about the quizzes?" I was very curious whether my students would feel that they were helpful, too difficult, or what. Here are some of the replies I got:

• I don't like quizzes because there is less time to remember the lesson. And the quizz that is immediate will not be good.
• It is pretty difficult but after the quizzes we can remember something from lessons.
• They are useful and necessary.
• The first, I think it help me developing my writing skill. The second, according to the quizzes, I can test my ability, my knowledge, my understood after readed material.
• I thought the quizzes were a good way of measuring my understanding of the material so that I could try more. 
• I think it's very necessary. It help us can express our opinion.
• I like doing quizzes after finishing the lesson. I can summarize what I learn in the class. I think the quizzes is very useful. If I can't understand the material clearly, but (after) when doing the quizzed I can know the main ideas or special line.
• I think it's not difficult and not easy too. But I must try more to get good marks.
• Quizzes are very important and necessary. It focuses on main points. They help me consolidate what I learn and test my knowledge on it.

"What is something the teacher did very well?" Got several replies like this one:

• Explaining the reading and materials clearly; preparing for lesson (techniques, photocopied papers, teaching devices); be friendly, kind, lovely

"What lessons or activities did you like? Why?":

• I like the revision games in the last lesson because it helped me remember the lesson and I felt very interesting.
• Game and work group because it help more interesting when I learning and it help improve many skills.
•  I'm very happy about spotlight on the U.S.A. Through the course I know more about the U.S. (people culture, states,...)
• I like work in group (speaking). Work in group, I can talk about my idea. 
• I like discussing in groups and answering teacher's question. I like the way which teacher describe something for us. I mean: body language.
• I like work in groups because I can discuss with my friends, I will solve matters quickly. And I feel more comfortable and confident.

I was happy to see that the students' response to the quizzes was largely positive. Of course I am a teacher and quizzes are a teaching tool, but with the quizzes' rocky start, I felt some level of guilt about implementing them. The students' replies showed me that they could see why I had quizzes, and the quizzes accomplished what I intended. I had also been curious about students' thought about how often we did group work (almost every class). I asked them if they liked group work and solo work in the first section of the evaluation, where students circled a number, ranging from 1 - strongly disagree to 5 - strongly agree. All students agreed with the statement "I like it when we work in groups" and most students disagreed with "I prefer to work alone." I was grateful that several students chose to address this further in their answers to the open ended questions, as you can see above. Students saw group work as an opportunity to practice speaking, help or learn from their friends, and get more comfortable with the material.

In the additional comments section, one student wrote, "I think we should have more periods with American teacher in a week." Another said, "I love to do with Adelina, teacher. I hope she can stay more time in Vietn Nam." I'd call that very positive feedback.

First year Friday

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its troubles; it empties today of its strength." 

I'd been a lot and a little worried about today for several days. Today was my first day teaching speaking to two classes of first year students (there are so many English majors they've been split into two groups). I had wanted to observe the teacher today so that I wouldn't be jumping in clueless, but the teacher insisted that he had meetings during class and so I had to teach today. To be honest, from last semester I know that asking to observe usually just resulted in me teaching anyway, so I tried not to get too upset. Still, I was worried about several things. 
1. I am to use the same textbook I used with second years last semester, but spend six periods on each topic, instead of two. This concerned me because, even though my first years will probably need more time to fully understand the material, triple the time seems like too much. It also concerned me because today's unit was Telepathy, which is an odd and sort of abstract thing to try and teach.
2. Because the teacher wasn't going to be there, I worried that the students wouldn't be able to understand my directions, and there would be no one there to help me clarify or translate if necessary.
3. The teacher asked me to correct my students more, because they aren't advanced enough to identify their own mistakes. While this is valid, repeatedly interrupting a student to correct his or her grammar is counter to my main goal of increasing confidence.
Then I decided that since I had what felt like too much time per unit and the teacher wasn't going to be there, I was going to do my own thing.


So, today's lesson was one big getting to know you for me and my students, with some learning folded in. First students made name cards and I took pictures of all of them with their name cards. Then they had to introduce themselves, paying special attention to pronouncing "My name iS" and "yearS old." Then I gave each person a word and they had to tell the class, "my word iS." As they each shared their word with the class, I could address some more specific pronunciation problems and, when relevant, gave them a word to contrast the critical pronunciation issue (e.g. eyes v. ice). After that we went outside and the students had to get in alphabetical order based on their words. Staying in that order, they got in a circle and we played the name game, where the first person says their name and a word that starts with the same letter, then the second person says the first person's and their own, and so on until the last person has to remember everyone. It took a long time and it was hot outside, but it helped me with their names and it helped them with vocabulary. We went back inside and I talked to them about my expectations for their behavior in my class by way of 'happy teacher, happy student' that I came up with last semester. Then class was over and I had to do it all all over again with the next set of students.

Alphabetized!

Name game circle

Overall, both classes went well and most of my worries were unfounded. The students are not as beginner as I feared, and I think we'll be able to communicate well enough on our own. They seem predisposed to student-centered teaching, so it looks like they'll have less adjusting to do to mesh with my teaching style, which is good since I only have three months with them. As for the amount of time I'm supposed to spend on each topic, I've got a plan. I'll teach the topic, and then I'll do whatever I want. As long as I cover the required material, I'm not obligated to spend three weeks talking about telepathy. Ultimately, I'm hoping this will result in a lot of freedom for me and a lot of general improvement for my students. This is a good phase in their education to curtail bad habits, and I dare dream I'll set them up to be the most articulate class in the college. Big dreams, but what does one accomplish without them?

Last night I got another text message from my mysterious paramour. It said "I am drem of teacher adaline tonight:) g9". Though my first class today was all women, there were four guys in the second group. I tried not to spend too much mental energy playing detective. Nobody was overtly besotted, so as long as I don't get any more and whomever's infatuation doesn't interfere with classroom dynamics I guess I'll take it as one more odd tale from my experience in Vietnam.

Let's hear it for the girls

Blame the internet's early bedtime for the infrequency of my posts.

3.7.12
It was the last day of my USA class. I held a review session disguised as a contest, and teams worked together to 1. list as many states as they could in eight minutes, 2. match a list of states and cities, 3. match a list of historical figures with their descriptions. In the first activity I only counted correctly spelled states, and teams' scores ranged from 17 to 30. Interesting alleged states included: Huron, Ontario, Brooklyn, Bronx, Mohata (Manhattan, I think), Canada, and Mexico. I expected the students to do really well, or at least better than they did, on the city-state matching exercise. Everyone paired Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and New York City with the right states, but St. Louis was almost exclusively paired with Louisiana. Much to my surprise, the students did a speedy and stellar job on the last exercise, and most groups got them all right. This was surprising since, when I used to have more specific quiz questions, questions about historical figures were rarely answered correctly. Members of the winning team received pens decorated with images from Texas, and I was happy to see them start using them right away. I also gave out magnets with the NYC skyline to the two students with the highest average quiz grade.

States, states, states

The evening's English club went especially well. It turns out that asking students what topic they want to discuss makes for much more active students during the discussion. What a surprise! Not only did everyone participate, they asked follow-up questions to their peers' replies and proposed additional questions for discussion. It probably also helped that there were only ten students. The topic was marriage, and there were only 9 female students until about halfway through, when one guy arrived. I learned about their ideal husbands and wives. One student (who is a ham and a half) said that she wanted to get married at 22 to an American, go live in the US, and have 12 children, which is why she wanted to get married so young. I wasn't sure if she was serious. The other students asked her if she wanted to make her own soccer team. Much to my surprise, two students said they don't want to get married. The class agreed that having eight boyfriends before getting married is too many, but 5 is ok. In between is a gray area.

Attractive professions and the qualities of an ideal husband

On my walk to dinner I talked to myself in Italian to refresh my memory. I figured talking to myself wouldn't make me stand out any more than I already do as a foreigner, female, person walking alone at night, and there wouldn't be much difference between me speaking one language no one else here understands and another. When I started speaking in different voices I decided maybe it was time to stop talking to myself.

3.8.12
Today is international women's day. In Italy, people give you yellow flowers and bars all have male strip shows to entertain the night's female patrons. In Vietnam, people give you flowers and other small gifts. So far, it seems that I am well on my way to having a full Vietnamese disguise. On Tuesday night I got a bedazzled purple shirt from the teachers' English club. Last night I got a flower arrangement and oranges, the latter for my continued recovery. Today I got a rose and a big floppy hat from my students, who also took me out for coffee during the break between periods. I also got a dress from the administrators.

After the gift-giving, class was business as usual until break. The students invited me to go to the canteen to have coffee with them, and break ended up being much longer than the scheduled 15 minutes.
 

Around lunchtime I got a very unexpected text message from an unknown number. Take a look:

My teacher! Please accept me today my wish for u HAPPY WOMAN DAY! Teacher isso bauety body and lovely hjhj. Love for you is  alway. I see u in my heart wish to forever with u. My LOVE my WIFE my DREAM FREIN and KISS. Som day i can hope to spaek open to u:D pjpj teacher

When I replied, asking for the texter to tell me his or her name, this is what I got: "Oh u do not reconi me :DDD i am wait for u hope for see u teach me in futre MY LOVE." Interesting.

In the afternoon I was supposed to go watch the women's day activities that were taking place. Originally, Trang had plotted to get me in the cooking contest despite my protests, but I was spared by the fact that only union members were allowed to compete. As I headed to the gymnasium, I was trying to set aside my misgivings about women's day being celebrated with a cooking contest, but when I arrived I was pleased to see that there were as many men as women on the cooking teams. It was a spring roll making contest, judged on quantity produced, presentation, and flavor.

The winning team

Another fanciful display

After the judging, everyone in attendance got to dig in. I should have known that any remotely important day would include food, and I should have known that there would be more food waiting in the wings. And with food and celebration, there is always alcohol. I watched the men flit from table to table, inviting people to partake of the shotglass they refilled with a plastic bottle full of moonshine. I had already eaten my last bite of dessert and some of the teachers at my table were starting to leave but my table had not yet been pollinated by the alcohol butterflies. Could it be possible that I would make it through the meal without having to down any drinks? Vietnam would never allow such a thing. They swooped in just in time, and then I was snared again later, as I was on my way out.

Life goes on

As if to confirm just how miraculous my sleeping in this weekend was, this morning I was awakened first by an insistent rooster, later by a text message from a student, next by screaming students, and lastly by a phone call from Trang. We were supposed to meet for lunch, so you'll forgive me if I dared to forget that I was in Vietnam and wasn't expecting to be summoned at 930 in the morning.

Periodically, Trang will tell me that 'something very horrible happens' and she will go under the radar for several days. She makes it pretty clear that she doesn't want to talk about it, so I never find out what kind of horrible things are happening. I wonder whether they are related incidents. I'll never know. Our morning meal together was significantly quieter than usual. Her mind was presumably on whatever issues she is dealing with, and I was barely awake because I stayed up way too late last night.

In the afternoon I met with Ms. Chau Anh, with whom I'd been leading the English club last month. She had asked me to look over a bunch of elicitation results for her thesis. It is a lot of work, and not work I'm entirely comfortable doing, but from what I've heard from my fellow ETAs, it is a pretty normal request. I meant to get through most of it this weekend, but getting sick got in the way, so I didn't have much to show her today. We chatted about how busy she is, and eventually the topic shifted, implicitly, to reciprocity. She asked me if I needed anything, and I said no. She told me that if I ever did, I should ask her. Then she told me that if I ever needed money, I should feel free to ask her. I was quite taken aback. The last thing that would ever occur to me in my exchange rate position would be to ask a Vietnamese person for money.

A little while later I was summoned to the office, and when I arrived I found that I had been summoned to make and eat spring rolls. Let's just call it a sign of being in Vietnam that no one, despite knowing I'd been sick and am still recuperating, thought it might not be a good idea for me to make food for everyone else, and to double-dip in shared peanut sauce.

Sicky

Usually when I don't update for several days, it's because I'm off doing something exciting. Unfortunately, my recent absence is due largely to the opposite. I've been sick. I'd been feeling really tired all last week, and by Thursday night I was pretty sure I was coming down with something. That night I went out for pho, which felt like a big accomplishment because, believe it or not, it was the first time I've gone out to eat alone in Ben Tre. Usually, if I'm alone, I just get takeout and eat back in my room. But, I wanted pho and I go there often enough that I felt like I would feel safe enough even though when I go at night I usually see leery groups of men. It was a successful accomplishment and I found out that one of my students works there, part time. Though the pho was good, it wasn't magical, and I spent the next several days in bed.

Conveniently, the next several days were Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, during which I had no obligations. It wasn't until today, Monday, that being sick interfered with any obligations. In what any ETA will tell you is a miracle of immense proportion, I managed to sleep in until 11, uninterrupted, for the last four days in a row, even before I had told anyone that I was sick. I literally have not gone outside since Friday. I slept through most of Saturday, and Trang brought me chicken soup for dinner and and instant chicken soup for me to make later. Yesterday, in addition to being sick, I had no power or water until nightfall. I spent the day alternating between reading, trying to nap, and being utterly bored, sweating throughout the day. Trang's sister brought me more soup in the afternoon. Today I feel better but still have no voice and could still use some rest, which is why I'm not teaching.

"the best tasteful instant bean thread soup" is actually chicken soup with rice noodles

What kind of sick was I, you may ask. I will tell you: a very strange kind. I never had a fever. I never had a cough - or maybe I did but the fact that I had almost no occasion to talk during 72 hours kept the coughing to a minimum. I had fatigue and extreme body ache and I lost my voice. But the fatigue and body ache were enough that sitting up for over an hour was overwhelmingly exhausting, and my body hurt even when I was laying down. I noticed that I generally felt better after eating, but getting up to make food was so tiring that it felt like a trade off. I was very fortunate to have all of my caring food deliveries. So, for now, I'm feeling better but still voiceless.

Leap days

2.27.12
My original plan was to take the 430 am bus to Ben Tre to be back in time to plan and then teach both of my Monday morning classes. Luckily, Trang suggested that I teach her class in the afternoon, so I got to 'sleep in' and take the 630 bus instead.

I taught Speaking at 10 and was met with a pleasant surprise. All year I've been having students count off and then get in groups to work together. From the very beginning, students always shouted out their group number in Vietnamese, even though it's obviously something that should be just as easy to do in English. I tried to encourage them to do so in English, but eventually I got tired of shouting over their shouting. Today, I heard my students shouting their group numbers in English. It brought a smile to my face. Even if it's a little thing, it's a sign that I'm having an impact. Unfortunately, during the res of the class they were a little lacking in energy. The last conversation group made up for it, though. We had a good, real conversation, and we even ended up going over time.

Busy in group work

Happy and busy in group work

The power went out in the late afternoon but luckily I was supposed to go out to dinner with Quyen from the teacher's English club, so I didn't have to sit around in the dark. We went out to eat bo la lop and nem nuong and bo dun, and after we'd eaten a bit she asked me which was my favorite. When I replied, she ordered a whole other platter. Both of us were struggling to eat our way through it, and she kept encouraging me to 'do my best' to eat it all.

Quyen had planned to take me to the supermarket after dinner, and so we did. She seemed to be under the impression that I had never been before, and wanted to show me around and explain all of the food to me. The only problem, aside from the fact that I've been several times, was that her English is not quite good enough to do all of the explaining she intended. There were some things I was interested in buying but she couldn't translate the cooking instructions, so I was reluctant to just add more things to my freezer.

When we turned onto my street on the way back from the supermarket it was clear that the power was still out. Many shops were closed or candlelit. The campus was almost pitch black. Some students were practicing a dance routine outside by the light of a motorcycle headlight, while some students studied outside by candlelight. I went to my room and decided to work on my computer until the battery died or the power came back. The power came back around 830 and a cheer rose from the campus. Indeed.

This hefty cricket flew straight towards my face minutes before the power came back.

2.28.12
I went to Trang's paternal grandfather's death anniversary today. Just like the last death anniversary I went to, there was no apparent ceremonial element; it was just a family gathering with a mountain of food. As always, the food was delicious. As seems to be a new trend, I was sent home with leftovers to furnish my lunch/dinner/whatever meal comes after a 9am feast on lunchlike food.

At the women's table

In the past, Sunny, one of the grandkids, has taken quite a shine to me. In fact, he usually goes straight for second base. Today I guess he was feeling slightly more gentlemanly, and restrained himself to stroking my arm throughout the meal, and occasionally rubbing his face on my arm. It was all very PG until nap time. I was sent to a hammock, and then Sunny decided he was going to climb in, too. It would have been fine (and was of course very cute, causing everyone to rush over and take pictures of us) except that he kept climbing in and out of the hammock which, as you can imagine, was impairing my napping. After a while of pretending to be asleep he left me alone long enough for me to actually fall asleep.

Me and Sunny

Between eating and napping, Sunny spent the morning serenading us with the ABCs and another alphabet song that he has taught himself off of youtube. Without further ado, I give you Sunny (and Trang's dad in the background):

2.29.12
Trang's sister took me out to lunch, and she took me to a restaurant that I've been to a handful of times. As she was deciding what to order, the waiter suggested a few things. It turns out he remembers me and he remembers what people usually get for me. In addition to the usual sour soup Thuy decided to order prawns with their eggs. To my surprise, the eggs tasted just like shrimp, except with a notably different texture. Last weekend, when I was in Hue, Thuy had called me because she had bought me some mangoes and wanted to bring them by, but I wasn't there to receive them. Apparently, she bought mangoes for me this time, too, but she had tasted some of them and deemed them unsuitable. So, after lunch, we went out to buy more mangoes. Thuy seems to have a skewed perspective of how much fruit it is reasonable to buy for one person (especially when that person also receives large fruit gifts from others), so I ended up with seven large, ripe, sweet mangoes. Whenever I try to tell her it's too much she insists that I just put them in my fridge. I am determined to not end up having to throw some of them out, even if it means gorging myself on mangoes and neglecting all of my other fruits in the meantime.

It's been a while since I had a new and interesting dish to show you.

I taught the English club in the evening and I was feeling really tired and at a loss for ideas. I decided to talk to the students about what they really want to do in the club. I don't want it to feel like a classroom, and I want them to talk more. So, I need to know what they actually want to talk about. We brainstormed future discussion topics, and they requested that I also give them grammar tips, so I will try to work those in. I didn't really have anything else prepared for the night's meeting, but I didn't want to end after just half an hour, so quick thinking came to the rescue. They like to play hangman and I usually do it with vocabulary, but tonight I used it to teach them expressions. They'd hangman their way through to revealing the phrase, and then I would explain the expression and when we use it. By the time I'd filled the board with expressions and explanations, we'd filled the alotted time.

Board full of expressions