High School

Friday 19^th Sept.2008

Mr Tho had invited me to visit his High School, so yesterday I was ready at 6.am to accompany Michael on his bike to the home of Mr Tho, where he lives with his parents, from where he drove us in a very nice car about 8 miles or so to the school. The journey took us along the main road east that then leads north to Hanoi and was full of cars and Lorries as well as the morning rush of motorbikes. I really must take a video of a journey in the rush hours to remind me of the chaos!

The school is beautiful and only two years old. The girls all wear traditional dress, which looks wonderful on their slim figures (I’ve seen no sign of obesity here) and the boys all wear white shirts and dark trousers. They have the manners that used to be the norm in the west; standing up when the teacher enters and leaves the room, but apart from that they’re all normal teenagers!

I was flagging slightly by Michael’s third class and glad to come back when school finished at 10.30, for something to eat and an afternoon nap.

Monday 22^nd Sept. 2009

I’ve not been feeling so well for the past couple of days with a bit of tummy ache and a dry sore throat, so I got some medication last night with Judy’s help. Mark and I were at her parent’s restaurant for an evening meal, which was of course delicious. However, I just wanted to get back into bed; then I slept for hours, waking up with a very nasty cough. So I’m in bed today with my laptop, just drinking liquids, watching TV and falling asleep every now and then. I’m not even hungry, so I must be ill!

Mr Duck, one of the Vietnamese teachers will take my class tonight and I’ll do his on Wednesday. I’m looking on this as an opportunity to rest after a month of activity. I’ve been tapping on... ‘I really appreciate how my body gets on with the process of healing... and all I have to do is give it time with lots of love and care.’

Watching TV, I’m getting a new view of the world through the BBC World Service, USA’s Bloomberg News and an Australian channel. These programmes mostly focus on the Asian perspective and Europe seems so far away, as it is.

Thursday 25^th Sept.2008

After a couple of days I’m now recovered from the flu and took two classes last night. Actually that was hard work and I found myself losing my focus. So I’m taking it easy today and will recap on the rules of English grammar that are frequently broken and rewritten. Pity the poor students trying to comprehend the complexities of the English language. Although it may be easy for us, we don’t always get it right either!

I realise this is all a bit late as I've had trouble getting online lately.

Full Moon Festival

Monday 15^th Sept. 2008

This weekend, being the Autumn Equinox full moon, Vietnamese children celebrated the Moon Festival and I took pictures from the balcony of the little ones in the infants’ school downstairs having their very noisy celebration complete with Chinese dragon, all dressed up to sing and dance for the parents in the school yard.

Some of Mark’s students brought Moon cakes, lanterns and balloons for our very own party at school! Moon cakes being symbolic of the moon are round, and come in several different varieties, all about the size of the palm of your hand and decorated with traditional patterns. These cakes come in beautifully elaborate red presentation boxes. The most common cake consists of a kind of soft cake-pastry covering a savoury filling of an egg yolk or green bean paste, I think, which I didn’t find very appetising. More to my taste was a more up-market variety that seemed to be filled with a fruit and nut paste, which was very rich.

On Sunday I was invited to the Cinema by Mister Michael, who was going with two of the Vietnamese teachers at the High school where he teaches twice a week, so as Mark was otherwise engaged, I went along. The film was ‘Death Race’; not exactly to my taste, but what else could I expect, going with three young men? Afterwards, they took us to a Restaurant for an evening meal. When I say they took us, what I mean is, we followed them on Michael’s bike, in the dark, weaving in and out of the traffic on little back roads for a good ten to fifteen minutes, hoping we wouldn’t lose them, as we had no idea where we were, before we reached this very nice place out of the town and off the main road. It was nice to be away from the constant noise of traffic and blaring horns.

One of the young men Mr Tho, is not only very good looking, but also the son of the extremely rich owner and founder of this school. He teaches physics and his beautiful young girlfriend, who used to be one of his students, met us there. Their English isn’t so good, but the other teacher, also called Mr Tho, loves to talk. He’s small, wears glasses, looks a bit of a geek, but is great fun and we had a really good time. By the time we were ready to leave, it was pouring down, yet again. We never know when, but at this season it’s bound to rain some time every day.

A night of Drama!

Tuesday 9^th Sept. 2008

You know how things seem to happen in threes? Well last night after classes everyone left quickly and Mr Gam the caretaker reminded us to turn off the lights in the stairwells, as I went up with Mark to his room for a chat and a drink before returning to my hotel.

Except that when we descended the 85 steps to the front door so that Mark could let me out and lock up again, we discovered the padlock securing the door had been locked from the outside and couldn’t be reached without smashing the glass! It was then we realised that we should have said something to Mr Gam about leaving it till I’d left for the night.

The security of buildings is very strange here. The building which houses the school also accommodates a primary or nursery school and there is a stairwell at each end. The children have the ground and first floors, our stairwell being separated by gates in the corridors on those levels so that we hear all their noise during the day. However, by the time they’ve gone home, KTV is opening up for evening classes. After that, the division becomes more vague right up to the top, where there is a very grand room; maybe their Directors Boardroom, and food is prepared in their kitchen opposite Mark’s room. They have exclusive use of the elevator, presumably for the Directors and to take meals down to the ground floor. The second and third floors are used by KTV; the Teachers’ room, Office, Library and Reception being padlocked out of school time and the outer gate also padlocked when no-one is in school.

However, when we went into the other side to find a way out, I was surprised to find an open entrance hall with no front door, but only an outer gate, which was padlocked. Mark tried to find the caretaker without success, but eventually managed to climb over a wall and let himself into ‘our’ side with his keys, so as to let me out... if you can follow that!

It was now after 10pm as I sloshed my way home through the rain, only to be met by a young man from the hotel, on his bicycle and holding an umbrella, who stopped me saying, “telephone school... Mister Michael!” I hurried the last few yards to the hotel but as no-one here speaks English I could only use my cell phone to contact Mark as I didn’t have Michael’s number. I knocked on Michael’s door on the way up to my room but there was no response. I got out of my sodden clothes while phoning Mark for news but he couldn’t contact him. Then hearing noises in the corridor outside, I opened the door to find Michael standing there in bewilderment, saying “I don’t believe it! My laptop’s been stolen!” as the hotel owner and staff clustered around his door, all babbling away incomprehensively. How they knew about it before Michael even got back to his room is another mystery!

Mark was here right away and we convened in Michaels’s room to give him support. Mr Thom and Ms Khan, our support at KTV, were immediately contacted. According to the hotel staff, a stranger had come into the hotel (how he came in without being noticed is a mystery) apparently picked the lock to Michael’s room and walked out with the laptop before being spotted, but not stopped! He also lost a large amount of money that he was planning to send home to his family, that he’d left with the laptop. OK, that was a foolish thing to do! One can’t be so trusting, especially in a hotel where we hand in our room key every time we leave.

Naturally, he was devastated! As a young American, his laptop is his contact with home and especially his family, who he talks to regularly. I know how I’d feel if it happened to me... the gods forbid! How he slept I don’t know, but today he had classes most of the day at the local High School and had to be there by 7am.

Oh yes, the third thing! As I left KTV that night in the pouring rain, we spotted a large frog trapped in the lobby and you’ll be relieved to know that it was persuaded to return outside, where there is an ornamental fishpond. If only all problems could be so easily resolved!

Wednesday 10^th Sept 2008

Postscript to Michaels’s laptop. It appears that the hotel management are not keen to involve the Police, but with Ms Khan’s negotiating skills agreed to reimburse the cost of replacing his laptop. However, they pointed out that the Hotel Regulations clearly state:

‘Valuables and money...

You’d better take care of your money, documents, maferial. For preventing loss or stolen, valuable and cash can be left in hotel care. Our hotel provides free of charge service.’

Ms Khan was quick to point out the ambiguity of this statement and as far as Michael is concerned, if he locks his door and hands his key to someone in Reception, his possessions are in the care of the hotel. I’m a bit more cautious and lock my valuables in a cupboard, keeping the key on me. However, this might not be enough to ensure their safety, which gives me the option of taking my laptop with me wherever I go; not always convenient as it’s quite heavy with all the leads. I often do take it to school in my bag on wheels and leave it in Mark’s room if I want to use it there, but then I have to drag it back again. Ideally I’d like a much smaller Notebook that doesn’t weigh so much.

My daughters would ask; “Why travel with a laptop anyway?” They have no idea! On my laptop I can chat to Diane and others on ‘messenger,’ send letters by email and when my credit is accepted on Skype, be able to phone anyone at home very cheaply. It stores all my photos; otherwise my camera would be too full to operate. It contains my favourite music, and most importantly, enables me to write my personal journal and publish my Blog, as well as preparing lessons, which can be printed out for my students. You may not realise how much my life is enhanced because of the internet. It really is a magic window on the world, wherever I happen to be.

My thanks to Mr Gates and all the geeks who somehow invented this modern miracle of communication! I just watched a film on TV about the history of Microsoft and Apple Mackintosh; very interesting. There were numerous people involved in the process of inventing the computer but it took the genius of a very few to see its true potential and have the nerve to put the parts together in a marketable package.

Their motto was, or is; ‘Great artists don’t borrow, they steal.’

Isn’t that a thought? I’ll have to think about that one! What do you think about stealing? Where does trust come in? I may write more on that.

Any comments welcome! I'd love to hear from anyone who may be following my ramblings.

Teaching

Sunday 7^th Sept. 2008

It’s 6pm and I’m in my room watching the dark sky lit up by flashes of sheet lightening every few seconds. It started to thunder around 4.30 after Mark’s Movie club where we watched ‘The Green Mile’, a truly awesome film as Mark would say. That’s a film that never fails to move me; even more than ‘Brief Encounter’! Two sodden tissues. Anyway, as I heard approaching thunder I decided to come home before the rain. I should have moved quicker! As soon as I stepped outside, the heavens opened and even wearing my water proof jacket I was soon drenched. So I just enjoyed the cooling downpour, wading through the rivulets in the road like Gene Kelly in ‘Singing in the Rain’. That’s how it rains here although I hear it’s been doing much the same at home recently!

As soon as I got to my room I stripped off, only to discover a shortage of towels, which necessitated a trip down to reception with only a beach sarong to cover my modesty. I don’t use the internal phone as no one here speaks English and the only Vietnamese I’ve learned so far is... ‘Lam on’; please, ‘Gam on’; thank you, ‘Xin chao’; hello, ‘Tam biet’; goodbye, ‘Tot lam’; well done and ‘Toi khong biet’; I don’t know. If I can remember them at the right time and pronounce them right, otherwise my attempt at please could mean, ‘open the door’.

Mark holds the Movie club in the school Library every two weeks; well actually this was the second one. Although The Green Mile is three hours long, it’s worth seeing and I found it riveting even though I’ve seen it two or three time before! It will be interesting to hear what the students made of it in their next lesson.

Actually, I was very glad of the English subtitles, essential for foreign students of English. I’m beginning to realise how much dialogue I miss in American films; they don’t talk properly like we native English. Ever since Marlon Brando mumbled his way through ‘On the Waterfront ‘ the clarity of dialogue in films has deteriorated in the interests of ‘realism’. Can’t argue with that. Oh for the great films of Cary Grant, Charles Laughton, James Mason and Deborah Kerr; English actors all! Those were the days. (Yes, I’m kidding... sort of!)

Actually I think today’s movies are amazing with all the benefits of intelligent direction and modern technology, not to mention huge investment. Telling and acting out stories is just as important now as it was when we sat around camp fires and cheered or booed players in the market place. The best way to teach is through story, which is what I try to do in teaching English, which brings me back to what I’m doing here, especially getting kids to comprehend the foreign words they’ve been learning in books and songs, which painfully reminds me of learning French at school at which I did not excel. Hope I do better here.

Teaching English

The last two weeks since I arrived in Bien Hoa (pronounced Been Hwa) has been very busy, getting to know my way around, (although I don't have any transport of my own as yet!) shopping, usually eating out because its so cheap, but sometimes cooking in Mark's apartment at the top of the school. That's literally at the top, on the roof. He's taken over a large store room and furnished it with desks borrowed from the classrooms, a very nice bed, table and chairs, fridge, washing machine, electric rice cooker, water heater and little gas stove. It's a bit like camping with all mod cons. It's very private up there and his window is visible from mine in the Hotel.

Anyway, I want to tell you about the school. Students of all ages come here to learn English in their spare time after regular school, college or work. So some classes can have students of varying ages at the same level of ability. These classes start at 5.45pm Monday to Saturday, last for approximately an hour and forty minutes with a 10 minute break and are all finished at 9.15pm. At the weekend, classes for beginners, from age 5, start at 7.45am and some of the tiny tots are still sleepy. They are so cute, (what's the English word for that?) and love singing songs in English, even though they don't understand yet. The girls did this little dance for me! I do two half-classes in the morning in co-operation with their Vietnamese Teacher. It's great fun, but exhausting and I've come back to my room to recover!

When I attended Mark's advanced class last week I offered to coach their speaking abilities, so on Wednesday when I got to school at 5.00pm two young ladies were already waiting for me. We settled into a corner of the Library and had a good hour and a half of conversation. I asked about them and life in Vietnam and encouraged them to ask me questions. I learned that both girls are 16, though they appear very mature. They are in the same class at High School, which starts at 7.00am and finishes at 4.30pm, with a lunch break from 11.15am to 1.30pm. Miss Trang’s dream is to be a Lawyer and she’d like to study in the US, while Miss Uyen’s ambition is to be a Doctor and study medicine in the UK, but they have to improve their English in order to achieve their goals. Uyen’s speaking was quite good, while I had to correct Trang’s pronunciation when I didn’t understand her, which was quite often. Trang told me that her main problem is nervousness, so right there and then I taught them both the rudiments of EFT to convert any nervousness into confidence. Unbeknown to me, the Director, Mr Thom was watching but hasn't asked me what we were doing!

They obviously come from good families. Miss Uyen’s family is Roman Catholic and she attends Church every evening. Her parents are Tailors and have their own business, living over the shop. Miss Trang’s parents are both Teachers, her father teaching Physics and her mother teaching English, but she doesn’t like to practise English with her Mother in case she gets it wrong! Oh dear, the tensions between mothers and daughters! Both girls join their families for dinner at 7.30 in the evening and don’t go out at night, except to come to KTV English School. They surf the net, read, study and are in bed by 10.00pm.

As we talked, other students surreptitiously joined our group, eager to join in. One young man, Mr Tuan is from Thanh Hoa City near Hanoi in the north but prefers the warmth here in the south. He achieved a degree in Economics and now has some job in the government, unless I misunderstood. Two young ladies, Miss Loan and Miss Van were waiting to join their first class at level 4; the ‘Black Dragons’. I don’t know who dreams up these class names, but they’re more imaginative than the impersonal letter and number system in use when I was at school; I think it gives them some kind of identity.

Later I joined Mark in his first VIP class for students at level 10. These students have very good English and are here to polish up their speaking skills and I'll be glad to help them. Mark has been teaching a class of teenagers and older at level 8 called 'The Evil Ones' but I was amazed when the class was suddenly assigned to me yesterday morning, to teach that evening! Mark is a hard act to follow!! I've already met this class, having joined the one Mark took last week. Not only that, but we all sang at the Karaoke bar on Monday night! That's me up there, jazzing up 'Pennies from Heaven'.

I don't think I did too badly; we did have a good time, didn't we? (That was the target language, by the way.) When I ran out of ideas near the end, I got one student to organise a game, which was great fun. One team writes a word, followed by the other team who take the last letter to begin their word. They are very fond of finding words ending in X and I had to contribute xylophone and xenophobic to my team.

I'm relieved to be back online after four days without internet, either here or at the school. We had a big thunderstorm on Tuesday, though I don't know if that had anything to do with it. Mark's here to take me to lunch, so I'll sign off for now.

Living it up on Independence Day

You won’t believe this, but last night I went out with Mark and some of his students to a Karaoke bar and had a really good time! I thought it would be gross... and it was... too much beer, noise and hilarity. I haven’t had such a good time for many a moon. Everyone took their turn singing. Mr Michael (from Louisiana) may not have been the best singer in the room, but he was the star turn and a barrel of laughs. Mark belted out Queen’s; ‘We will rock you’ followed closely be ‘We are the Champions’ and I enjoyed jazzing up ‘Pennies from Heaven’.

I have never sung Karaoke before, except in the seclusion of my own bathroom! At home I am ready for bed by 10pm and would hesitate to ‘go out on the town’ preferring a quiet night in, but here my inhibitions are down... it must be the heat! In spite of waking early and retiring late, I rarely feel tired although I did fall asleep at the Cinema during The Dark Knight, may be because there was too much noise and violence and I just clocked out.

That's Mark and Judy with Mr Michael after we'd been shopping in the 'Big C' Shopping Mall, drinking chilled Coconut Milk... soooo delicious!

Today is a National Holiday in honour of Vietnam’s Independence as well as the anniversary of Uncle Ho Chi Minh’s death. How strange that during that infamous war he was the villain, but here of course, he’s their great hero. It all depends on one’s point of view.

It dawned bright and sunny and we were invited by Mr Marcus and Miss Mai, along with Mr Thom and Ms Khan to have lunch at the Riverside Restaurant, some 3 kilometres away. It turned out to be a very attractive place with a Hotel style swimming pool, mainly for children I think and Ms Khan’s young son Peter spent much of his time in the water. I’d taken my swimsuit and was longing for a dip but as no-one else were inclined I didn’t either. We were seated in a sort of pavilion overlooking the dirty brown river where I certainly wouldn’t like to swim. An occasional boat passed by, but otherwise the river, about as wide as the Thames in London, seemed to be unused. We enjoyed a good meal before Mr Marcus produced a game called ‘Are you smarter than a 10 year old.’ I proved that I am, winning the jackpot. Phew! That’s a relief!

As we finished the game a strong wind blew up across the river, scattering anything not weighed down. We could see storm clouds approaching and decided to make a run for it. I had my waterproof jacket but Mark had nothing but the clothes he was wearing and the rain started as we got to his bike. To say it rained is an understatement; it was more like a huge high pressure ‘needle’ shower and yes; we were both soaked by the time we got back. Actually it was rather refreshing and didn’t feel cold at all. As soon as I got back ‘home’ to my hotel I just stripped, showered and waited for the AC to cool me down. I’m so glad I brought a cotton beach sarong, which is the ideal wear for keeping cool in my room.

So tonight I’m having a quiet night in, answering emails, writing my experiences and watching TV. There is a huge choice of channels; certainly more than at home. The one I watch most often is the BBC World News, which I can’t get in North Wales and is far more comprehensive than feeble old Auntie Beeb at home. (Why is it that our News channels are not keeping us fully informed about world affairs? Maybe they’re put on late after I’m asleep.) Then there are American and Australian channels showing familiar and unfamiliar programmes. So I’m not short of anything to watch.

Maybe I’ll fall asleep while watching TV tonight... I wouldn’t be surprised!