Journey to Peace Village

Today's lesson: you're never too old to become a student. I became a student of Mai Huong today. She's a young woman with a learning disability that I normally teach English and math.
When I came to class today she was making a friendship bracelet. It was a perfect opportunity for role reversal. Sewing is something I just am not very good at--I don't have the patience. And sure enough, soon I had almost tied myself in knots trying to imitate what the kids were doing.
Huong Mai took control. She patiently showed me how to loop the multicolored string and how to make an overhand and underhand knot. By selecting different colors you can make all kinds of patterns (we were working on a diamond pattern). She said "teacher" so happy that she could teach me something. I said "teacher ret tot!" We went over the colors, repeating "red, yellow, white, orange, green."
I try to do this as often as I can with the students, give them an opportunity to teach me something. It is so important that they realize that they too can be teachers, that they have something wonderful to contribute. This is one of the main reasons I became a teacher, when I volunteered with these fantastic young people four years ago, I soon realized that I was learning more from them than I could teach!
This is the secret joy of teaching--the teacher learns from the students. Where else could I learn how to sew a rainbow and weave colors between my small fingers? By the end of the lesson, I had helped make a friendship bracelet!

Labels: education, Viet Nam

Oftentimes, I'm really proud of my students. Last week I went to Ha Tay near Hanoi with my student Huy. Huy is handicapped, but he never lets that stop him from achieving his goals. He organized a trip to Ha Tay to cheer up his friend Linh.

Ha Tay is a beautiful rural area near Hanoi. I was stunned by the lush green fields and as always, the wonderful the hospitality of the people.

Labels: ecology, education, Vietnamese culture

I was very happy to attend my student Chien's graduation last week. Chien graduated from the Transportation and Communications University. Chien is an outstanding student; she's received top honors from the University and is fantastic in English. I work with her on a regular basis to help her achieve her dream of taking a master's program overseas.

The graduation is interesting because there wasn't a "cap and gown" ceremony. Basically I just attended her presentation of a thesis she did on traffic problems in Hanoi. Although I'm still not fluent in Vietnamese, her confidence and well put together power point spoke for themselves.

I had the pleasure of visiting her parents and hometown. Chien's family is not wealthy, they don't have running water and run a small farm growing tea. She is the most hardworking student I've ever met and I love teaching her!

Labels: education, Viet Nam

Photo on Flickr, from "Hanoi Mark"

Last weekend a great flood inundated Hanoi. We received almost 2 feet of rain within 2 days! The streets were flooded, and yet for many of us life went on. My school was located on high ground, as is my neighborhood. Ryan, a young teacher from Australia, and I ended up teaching all the classes Saturday afternoon! We each had more than 50 children! On Sunday, more teachers made it to the school, but I still had to teach eight straight hours, followed by more on Monday night. I was exhausted! When I go through things like that, I'm amazed at my coping skills.

Ironically, my adventures were minor compared to some of my fellow teachers. Kenny was trapped in a school for several hours because the streets were impassable and Phil, after losing water in his apartment, got stuck on a flooded bus. Shelly tried to get to school, but her cab got stuck in waist high water and began "buckling."

Fellow teacher Colm Pierce is an extraordinary photographer. I'm including links below to his website as he took much better photos than I did:

http://colmpiercephoto.com/content/view/25/44/

http://www.colmpiercephoto.com/

(Click "Hanoi underwater" for a fantastic slideshow")

Labels: ecology, education, Ha Noi

Recently I had th privilege of meeting the first lady of Greece at Lang Hoa Binh. May Panou Papoulia is the wife of the president of Greece, Karolos Papoulia. She has a degree in psychology from the Sorbonne and worked as a psychologist for forty years before retiring in 2001. She has a keen interest in the education of the developmentally disabled.

Mrs. Papoulia announced that the Greek government was giving the school 40,000 euros during her visit. She also spoke about the suffering of Agent Orange victims and the need for the international community to become more involved.

I was very excited to talk with her for about five minutes, as well as other members of her party, including a French official from UNICEF who volunteered in Vietnam for five years. Mrs. Papoulia is a very dynamic individual while putting you very much at ease. The event was very exciting for the children and she gave each child t shirts commemorating the 2004 Games in Athens.

An exciting day!

Labels: education, Viet Nam and the West

Truong is my newest student. He was working with George before he went back to England. Truong is an agriculature student who is going to Israel in September. I'm trying to do a lot of work to help him with listening and speaking skills. He's got great vocabulary and is creative. When we went to the Co Loa castle he showed me how to make a whistle from a banana leaf!

Labels: education, Vietnamese culture

I first met Huong in 2005 when I volunteered at Lang Hoa Binh. Since I returned last year, I've worked more with Huong. She's very good at math and I've been helping her with algebra and geometry. Huong has cerebral palsy, so she has trouble with motor skills and control, but she's very smart. She also helps with writing Vietnamese and I coach her on writing in English. Huong always works hard and has a great smile. She's very enthusiastic and a pleasure to teach!

Labels: education, Viet Nam

Huyen is a dynamic student. She loves speaking and is interested in a career in marketing (ideal choice, I think). Huyen is a great cook and has given me some lessons in Vietnamese cooking. She's interested in studying overseas in Australia.

One of my highlights of Tet was visiting Huyen and her family in Thai Nguyen, a small city about 50 miles from Hanoi. They gracisouly opened their home to me and my friend, Tracy and we learned about many special kinds of Vietnamese food.

Huyen is a fan of Roswell and has gotten me into a Korean soap opera that's popular over here.

Labels: education, Vietnamese culture

Why am I still in Viet Nam. One of the main reasons is that I'm working with some fantastic students. Over the next few segments I'm going to give you a few bios. Chien is the hardest working student I've met. I taught her at Apollo in December as a beginner and she's worked her way up to being able to read novels and write short essays in English. She listens to VOA everyday and keeps a file on her computer of words and their history in the English language. She's studying transportation engineering at a university near my home and I tutor her once or twice a week. She loves Columbo and other murder mysteries. I had the pleasure of meeting her family just before Tet. Chien lives in the country, about 3 hours from Ha Noi. Her family was extremely generous and welcoming. It's an extremely rough ride to get there and this is one of the reasons Chien wants to be a trasport engineer. It's her dream to build better roads to lift her hometown out of poverty. Chien recently received another scholarship to continue to study at the university. Her family can't afford to send her to college without financial aid. I'm helping her to study for IELTS/TOEFL so she can pursue her dream to do graduate work. overseas.

Labels: education, Viet Nam

I haven't posted for a long time and my apologies for this! I've been frightfully busy and one of the reasons is this bunch! For the past three months I've been teaching four "Kindy" classes on weekends. Kindy classes are for our youngest students, kids anywhere from three to six years old. These classes are a lot of fun, but they are very energy draining and challenging. The kids are "little sponges" they can absorb all kinds of lanuage. But you have to keep things fast paced and yet repetitive enough so they learn the words. It's hard to keep the kids focused all the time and I have two teaching assistants to help me chase "em" down and keep them on task.

Generally the kids are pretty good and love projects such as coloring and drawing. Sometimes they are perfectionists and try to create something for the Louve when we're trying to learn words like "hand" or "apple" or "house." I enjoy especially singing songs with them and playing the Wheel of Fortune. All my students love earning money, even if it's only play money!

Labels: children, education, Viet Nam

What can I say about my experience in Viet Nam after four months? Exasperating? Yes!

As my friend and co teacher John said, "Nothing's easy here." Between the language barrier and the lower standard of living, things we take for granted at home become a challenge that sometimes makes me feel like pulling my hair out. You can't expect anything to work like it does back home.

I put a Harry Potter DVD in the TV for my kids yesterday as a last day in class treat. It took a half hour and three of us to get it to work, me, the security guard and the administrative assistant, Mrs. Ting. Finally Mrs. Ting swapped out DVD players and got it working. The sound was fine, the picture was perfect. The only trouble was that the subtitles were for a totally different movie, some epic about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

I tried to get rid of the subtitles, but the menu instructions were in Vietnamese. So when the subtitles started to get a little too salty and the soldiers were talking like, well, soldiers, I had to cut short the movie. The class, which was teenagers got a big kick out of it, but I could be in big trouble. So what, I thought would be a cakewalk class turned into a frustrating, ninety minute ulcer starter.

What can I say about my experiences these past four months? Uplifting? Yes!
I go to Peace village every week and I'm greeted like a favorite aunt. The kids always surprise me. I've been working with an eight year old boy, Khanh, who has severe cerebral palsy. He always gives me a big hug. We play basketball with my Packers Nerf ball and I help him build with Lego's. It turns out that he's very good at math. He can add, subtract and multiply and even use a computer. He answered every problem I gave him correctly and legibly.

When I come home at night, sometimes uplifted, sometimes bemused and bedraggled, I often turn on Vietnam's TV 4. They show a lot of traditional Vietnamese opera. Listening to the poignant singing and hauntingly beautiful instruments makes me know I'm supposed to be here, despite the hardships and struggles. For there's something in the music that heals my soul.

Call it purpose.

Labels: education, music, Viet Nam, Viet Nam and the West

I had lost faith and then something dropped out of the sky into my locker and brought me back to my senses again.

One of my most problematic classes is filled with surly teenagers. The last place they want to be on a Sunday afternoon is cooped up studying English.

I approached a poetry teaching session with this group with absolute dread. How could I generate even a few words out of this sullen, silent group? I gave them a sheet of words to help. Actually, I gave them to my co-teacher, Lisa.

So, yesterday when I came to Apollo I opened up my locker and found a pile of magic. These sullen, moody kids had produced some terrific, creative, poetry. They wrote in the shapes of stars, boxes and suns and found ways to relate themselves to the stars, the moon and even Pluto. Their words defied gravity and my expectations.

We posted their work in the classroom today and they were very happy to see it go on the walls. Excited chatter filled the classroom as I struggled with the sticky putty and tacks to display their grammatically jagged dreams on the walls. Grammatically jagged, just like adolescence.

I was wrong to ever doubt Poetry.

Always write poetry,
write standing
sitting
lying

write poetry knee deep in flood,
limping through the village
or falling off a barstool

write after kissing
and before eating
during prayer
and on waking

write when you fear the future
regret the past
or cough up the present

write when you're thankful
when you're angry
especially when you're in despair

there is nothing better then this
to write from your heart
even when all else
fails

Labels: education, poetry, Viet Nam

Sorry for the delay in posting. I've been busy adjusting to full time teaching and trying to find good internet outlets on this side of town. I moved into an apartment on Cau Giay street about three weeks ago. Internet connections are not as reliable as the guesthouse and I've had a hard time even taking a break to post.

The apartment on Cau Giay is very nice. I have a marble kitchen, a living room and a large, airconditioned bedroom. I have a brand new tv with cable so I can keep up with CNN and some of the tv programs in the US, such as American Idol.

Cau Giay is about 5 miles west of the center of Ha Noi. On the map it is right near the "Thu Le park." (The extreme left of the picture.) It's also quite near to the diplomatic quarter. The street name translates into English as "Bleached paper street" because this used to be the business here. However, it is now a commercial center and paper bleachers are nowhere to be found.

I'm still adjusting to the hustle and bustle of teaching. Every weekend I teach 8 classes of energetic youngersters, ranging in age from six to about sixteen. Three nights a week I teach adults. The hours in the classroom add up to about twenty per week, but it takes at least another twenty to plan for classes. My class planning tends to be pretty labor intensive, too, because I like to create my own games and worksheets. Just the other day I created a "Gilligan's Island treasure hunt" to teach contractions. It worked pretty well, too, even though the students had never heard of the classic tv show.

We've entered the summer time here in Viet Nam and it is unbelievably hot! Temperatures in the nineties every day with high humidity. This makes me appreciate the apartment even more, and I hardly go out except to go to school to teach. Thank heavens, the school is airconditioned.

Labels: education, Viet Nam

My biggest difficulty in Viet Nam is the language barrier. Together with the cultural differences, it makes me feel like I'm running around in a huge maze.

Here is an ongoing saga that illustrates this:

I have been teaching a few weeks at an outfit called American International College. It is Vietnamese managed. I was working at a center in Kim Ma, the diplomatic area of Ha Noi. They also had a Tuesday night opening at a brand new center.

When I asked the Vietnamese secretaries where it was, they didn't know the address. However, they gave a map with directions and the street on which the school was located. They also gave me their phone number.

I took the information back to the guesthouse and Thom, the receptionist, called and took down the address. So I went to the school and started teaching.

The week after Easter I received a call from the school that I was laid off from the Kim Ma school due to low enrollments. But, I would continue working at the new center.

Last week I brought my timesheets and other information to the school. I have to have the timesheets signed by the director of the center to get paid. Then, towards the end of class, there was a power failure and everything went pitch black.

I picked up my bag and we all managed to get out by using the light from our cell phones. Unfortunately, I had left the timesheet and directions plus address in the room during the commotion.

I didn't realize my oversight until the next day. I had no address and no phone number for the school. We called the other school and got a phone number. Then, checking the center, we took down an address.

It didn't match what I remembered. I thought maybe they misunderstood. Luckily, I had taken the bus part way home on several visits to the school. So, I had to take a motobike to the bus station and then try to retrace my route to the school. I boarded a bus I thought went to the school.

Because I read Vietnamese very poorly, I was on the wrong route. When I realized this, I had to disembark an extremely crowded bus. This took me a few stops.

I made my way back to the original bus stop and this time took another bus I was sure would go to the right location. This time I was fortunate and made it to the school.

At the school, I explained to the secretary that I had lost my timesheets (I tried to do this on the phone but it didn't work.) She told me I would have to talk to the person I dealt with on Tuesday nights. I took down the address so I could get back there this Tuesday.

So now I have to talk to the director about this tomorrow. The timesheets are the only way I can get paid (about $130). And since I am moving on to a better job, they may very well not be very cooperative about this. I will keep everyone informed about this ongoing trial!

Labels: education, Viet Nam, Viet Nam and the West

My first weeks as an English teacher:

Scary
Surprising
Challenging
Fun

I work with both children and adults. The kid's classes are the most difficult. The kid's are high energy and don't always want to be there. To add to the challenge, the school I work for rotates me around to different classes due to a teacher shortage. I never know what group I'm working with until I get there! This is very stressful on me as a teacher and has forced me to "think on my toes." To varying degrees of success I'm able to engage their interest. So far they're favorite activity is passing around a Packer nerf ball I have and challenging them to words.
The adults are easier to work with and I have a steady group. But they are perfectionists! They want to learn how to pronounce words perfectly. They do pretty well although I'm having a lot of problems getting them to distinguish t-s sounds in words like "carpets." They invariably say "carpests."
Any suggestions in this regard would be joyfully welcomed!

Labels: education, Viet Nam, Viet Nam and the West