Hey party people, Im coming home...

well, it is september first and i have successfully finished my teaching here. i took a four day, three night trip to celebrate and to explore more of vietnam, and it was a real highlight of my time here! i went to danang (china beach) and stayed in a $9-a-night hotel with other tourists and vietnamese travelers. the food was good, the company was super cool, the beers were cheap, and the beach was just a few yards away - who could ask for more? the sun was brutal and some of my new Irish tourist pals got the worst sun burn i have ever seen. one girl's legs were burned so badly that there were purple blisters under her skin...we all advised some asprin, beer, and a cold towel to ease the pain, but honestly i think she needed a real medical staff and not some salty tourists. Oh well, we did what we could. i swam all day and then did a top secret sneaking-in operation into the local resort pool which eventually resulted in me getting asked to leave after about three swims...i know, classy. but, i did pay for one over-priced breakfast, which i felt more than cemented my rights to the pool. 

enjoy the pictures. i'll be home on tuesday night, and i cant wait to see scott at the airport!

xin chao! 

howdy

hello again,

yvonne, i owe you a sincere shout-out for keeping it real and always posing comments! i hope summer in monterey has been rejuvenating. 

so it is august 9. i am proud of myself for being fearless and totally independent here. i have done many things and ventured to new parts of hanoi on a weekly basis. i have experienced a really harsh and expensive learning curve, but i have kept going, always seeking out the joy in this adventure. now, after about two and a half months, the walls are starting to close in on me. the traffic, the noise, the buildings, the concrete, the relentless sales pitches, the sheer density of this place are all making me feel trapped. teaching is a grind, and i can't see myself doing this forever. i am so blind here because i have no idea what the students really expect from me, and a needs assessment questionnaire has absolutely no value for capturing the deeper expectations of a culture and a diverse age group of students. also, three months isn't even enough time for me to get into the groove, especially since i started teaching my third day here. i have felt rushed from the beginning. the saving graces of hanoi are my students, especially the ones i have been teaching since i arrived. they are my only friends here (besides my room mates), and as we have slowly grown to know and trust one another, i have come to learn more about hanoi and vietnam. it is hard to get to know this place below the surface, and i certainly will not do so in three months (in three years for that mater). however, i have gained little glimpses and insights that have helped me to understand and to trust more. 

despite my students' care and concern, i still feel trapped, isolated, exhausted, and incompetent here. this has been the hardest three months of my life. it is my hope that it will mean something in the end, either for me or the people who i've taught. 

until next time, nat

Ho Tay (West Lake)

Hi everyone,

Well, my teaching is coming along pretty well, and I have been doing some more exploring around hanoi. Following the advice of my students, I went out to West Lake this past weekend and took some more pictures. I also visited Ho Chi Minh's tomb, and walked around the lake. I hope you enjoy the photos! Until next time,  nat :)  

Sapa

I took a trip to Sapa and the nature and views were amazing, probably some of the most vivid scenery I have seen in Vietnam. 

Hello again

Hi Karen, Yvonne, M and everyone else,

Thanks for posting. Yes, yvonne, the singing bread ladies are alive and well. There are a few regulars in my alley way. They are my source of carbohydrates! 

I have been feeling better with teaching here because it is starting to feel more natural and routine. I have had to really adjust to this context. I have started to gather more creative materials such as songs (thanks Karen for the idea). Last night, I read a really great journal article about teaching in Vietnam and the main thing that stood out to me was the writer's idea that CLT is a Western notion of teaching. I don't mean to say it's lacking in any way, it's just that Vietnamese students have a different way of thinking and being in the classroom. The article challenged the notion that pair and group work are the ways to make something communicative...In this EFL context, sometimes it feels like "classwork" is a more appropriate way of making lessons conversational and interaction-based. I think my beliefs about CLT as defined by Brown were sort of detrimental for me in this context. I have had to expand my definition some. 

I have been keeping a teaching journal, and when I read over it last night I can tell how I am starting to evolve. At first I was writing mainly about the stresses, perceived failures, and frustrations. Now I am starting to focus more on what is actually working here and what the students are responding to. I am becoming much for positive and relaxed, and this makes me feel good.

Thanks everyone for your comments. 

More pictures to come...

natalie

Teaching

Hi all,
Well, today is the start of another week. I have been doing okay with my classes, but I still can't seem to really get a handle on the planning and preparation, meaning that it still takes me forever. I find it much easier to work with/plan for the pre-intermediate and intermediate students because I can find authentic materials that the students can read and use as the basis for discussion and class topics. For the beginning-level classes, I have used restaurant menus, magazine pictures of food, and magazine advertisements for travel. The materials are definately a good start, but it is hard to keep the momentum in a 2-hour beginning class! I notice that for the first hour and a half, the students really like looking at the materials, asking about new vocabulary words and doing jig-saw type things. It's the last half-hour that is a killer - they lose steam. I think things will start to feel more natural for me as more time goes by.

I think the one MIIS lesson that is continually proving valuable is the use of authentic material in the classroom. It really does give the classroom a whole new feel; a more legitimate purpose. The text books here are dull, and the language is really forced and fake. I have abandoned the books completely, which has contributed to my large planning load. I was given four different text books for the four different levels of classes and it was just too much confusion and headache over books that were not even worth my time or the students time. I hate to sound so negitive, but I have to be honest here!

I am thinking about watching a film or documentary that is related to the topics we are focusing on in my intermediate class. I just want to pick something that is worthwhile and interesting. Also, I will need to prepare some pre, mid, and post viewing activities. I will keep you posted on this exciting chain of events, as I know you all are on the edge of your seats due to the pedagogical suspense.

Now, a few thoughts unrelated to teaching. I have had some serious highs and lows here. Somedays, I feel willing and able to brave whatever comes my way. Today has not been one of those days, and I feel guilty admitting it. A series of events involving a bad run in with a bill collector buzzing my doorbell with a really high bill that is in Vietnamese; a payment of a phonebill that was rung up by the previous tenent; feeling stupid about everything; having to call my "supervisor" and sort things out. It has been unpleasent and has consumed all my energy. Sometimes I feel really alone and out of place. Now, I have to work on getting my good energy back. I hope that working with my students tonight will help.

Until next time, keep on keepin' on!

old and new

While wandering around (lost most of the time), I have noticed really captivating mixes of old and new and urban and rural. I took this picture (left) because I thought it was interesting to see the woman in the conical hat watching the group of young people behind her flirt and use their cell phones and PDAs. 

This picture to the left is of VINCOM Towers, a new mall-like building that was built less than a year or two ago. It is really nice, but it seems so out of place! I took pictures of the women selling fruit right out front of this mall. 

about the students and my classes and my schedule

Hi all,

I will be taking pictures with the students in my different classes next week so that you can see them (the are more than willing to take pictures, especially when it involves placing them in the internet in any way). 

For my monday, wed., fri. basic level class the students come for two hours, from 3 to 5. They are all in middle school, high school or university, and they come to the class after they get out of a long day in school. Planning and teaching for the basic level (and the other elementary class i have) has been the most difficult for me. Two hours of English with no breaks is a lot for beginning students. To prevent them from feeling overloaded, I stick to one topic for the day (my primary organizing category for this class is topics). I sort of repeat and reintroduce the topic from the previous lesson so that we don't just rush through something once and never revisit it. 

For example, on wednesday we did a lesson on the topic "what is your daily routine?" First, I asked the students to share the vocabulary they knew related to daily activities - this helped me to see their prior knowledge and it helped them get into the days topic. Then, as a sort of advance organizer, I passed out a chart with two columns. one column had some words related to daily routine (some of which the students already knew) and the other column was blank so the students could write the definition or translation. Next, students got with a partner and completed an interview "Tell me what your daily routine is." Overall, I was really pleased that the students participated and asked their partner questions and then switched. Then, we moved onto "Guess the person's daily routine." I passed out one picture of a person to each pair of students. The pictures were of many types of people: rock stars, footballers, the prime minister, a business woman, a farmer, and so on. Students had to talk together and write out one version of the daily routine of the person in the picture  - again I was really pleased with the students' participation. Everything I described so far took about an hour. Then for the next class we built upon the general daily routine by talking about the topic "things we do at work and school everyday." This is my way of trying to build on topics and keep things relevant. I want students to see that there is a reasoning behind why i select and order class topics. This is my general hope. I just wanted to share some details of what I have been doing with this one particular class, which is by far the most difficult and energy-consuming to teach. Ideas and comments about this would be great.

I have three other classes too, but I will share what I do one class at a time. I think this coming week I'll write about my favorite class, intermediate.  In case you are curious about the internship hours here they are M,W,F 3-5 and 730:930 (I plan at 12 and 5) and Tues., Thrs, from 530-730 and 730-930. The four hours straight with no break is actually a killer for me, so I'm glad its only two days a week. Teaching from 530 until 930 means all my planning must be done for both classes and it takes me a while. This leads to a major weakness of mine, which is that I am not fast at planning - I feel so inefficient. (notice the lack of travel time between classes - interesting). Honestly, I feel that I am working at maximum capacity. I have been scouring vietnam and the internet for authentic materials that I can relate to my classes and students' levels, and I have been planning from scratch since there is no existing curriculum/syllabus. I enjoy the challenge, but I wish I had more energy and time to have been able to create a curriculum outline for each course BEFORE I started teaching, but I had no time. The basic class was given to me with two hours notice (that was a little scary). So, I am sort of catching up and trying to tie everything together, make it meaningful and all that good stuff.  Essentially, I have started drawing up my curriculum outlines AFTER I have started teaching, which I know isn't right (peter would be disappointed I think). I think that the total and rapid immersion I got teaching here was rooted in the idea that there is no need to pre-plan and form clear goals for a particular course. So privately I am holding on to my ways and sticking to what I think i right, even if things don't unfold in the order that we have been taught they should. I think one of the lessons I have learned in this short time is that sometimes, things are out of our (teachers) control, and I think we have to adapt and find a way to apply the lessons we are learning at miis even when it feels impossible. 

Well, with this small lesson, I will end for now. Your comments are welcome (and they make my day!).

Hope you all are well :P

nat

Flood

Tonight, the scene in front of my school building was surreal. Sheets of rain poured down as busses, cars (out of place and inappropriate for Hanoi), and motorbikes waded in thigh-deep water. The water, brown with muck, lapped  in small waves on the stairs to the entrance of my school. Persistent motorbike drivers trudged through the water, yet they were stalled by smoking engines, stalled motors, and the inability to keep enough speed to keep moving. The motorbike drivers who stopped driving took shelter in the already flooded sidewalk and decided not to fight through the clogged and chaotic streets. Horns were blaring, people were shouting and laughing, and the water was rushing through all the spaces between the stalled vehicles and people.  I craned my head out of the shelter of my school to see a sea of helmet-clad heads - drivers gathered in both directions (left and right), waiting for the still-rising water to recede. By the time is was 9 o'clock the other teachers and I were so tired that we decided to make a plan to brave the traffic, water, and chaos to try and get to a safe, dry house. Another teacher volunteered to drive me home, so I hopped on the back of his motorbike and held my breath as we whizzed down the ramp into the water of the streets. Slowly, we manuvered through the streets without being able to see what we were driving into. The water soaked our legs and was nearly up to our thighs on the bike.  Winding around the other vehicles and people was an amazing feeling - it was like floating though chaos. We finally reached a main intersection when we realized we could go no further. Thousands of bikes and people were stuck because there was no where to go and no room to move. People were packed in so tight there was not even a path for me to walk through. The water was higher and faster, so we gave up and realized we were better off where we started from. The motorbike stalled constantly on the way back, and eventually we gave up and started walking. I looked down at the water and noticed a black Croc sandal bobbing up and down like a fishing bobber.  I started to think about what else was in the water. 

When we got back to the school, we found our other co-workers huddled there and decided to walk in a different direction to see where we could end up. Tired, shivering, and totally waterlogged, we steeled ourselves for another attempt at the streets. Slowly, I stepped into the water, pushing one leg ahead of the other over and over until we made it to a shallow, higher area where the sidewalk was visible through a few inches of water. We spotted a taxi, and my vietnamese friend told the driver to take me and another woman home. The deal was set and the price worked out. We hopped in the cab. An hour later, after stalling in traffic and water, the cab finally dropped me off in an alley near my house. I felt confused and couldn't remember which direction to walk, but i didn't say anything. I just got out and walked away, glad I didn't have to sit anymore in the humid, damp cab. At vietnamese man, about my age, was walking ahead of me and I decided to try and ask him for directions. "Ciao ban, Loung Dinh Cua?" He replied in what sounded like English. I repeated myself and he said "Yes, I know. Walk with me." So I did, and now I am home glued onto my couch amazed at one hell of a night. 

Until next time,

natalie

ps-pictures of students and more details on teaching to come...to overwhelmed now to talk more. 

Acceptance and humor and motorbikes

Hi everyone,

thanks for commenting on my first post. it is so nice to hear from you all! today is monday, my third week here. i have a full schedule now. i teach an elementary class with students who are first learning english; two intermediate classes with students who are fairly advanced; and one preintermediate class with students who are steadily advancing/progressing in their learning toward the intermediate level (but not quite there yet). I have to say it is a lot! holy crap. planning has been the hardest part because i am starting from nothing. i am getting my stride though, and things are moving along. 

The students' cultural expectations about what goes on in an English class are VERY different from what i am used to. The students, many of whom have been studying English for 5 or more years, are extremely sophisticated meta-linguistically. The have mastered the phonetic alphabet (IPA) and they can articulate even the most difficult grammar rules. it is unreal! they are like grammar machines.  clearly, they have been taught to view English as an object of study rather than a language that can be used to express thoughts, ideas, emotions, and so on. As far as writing and reading pedagogical materials, the students are really good as far as I can tell from what the teachers here tell me. I decided to take the risk and make a rough (and very loose syllabus) with the primary organizing category of a theme: current events in hanoi. i abandoned the text book completely because it is too easy for the students, and I want to explore how well i can work from scratch based on the students needs and goals (and expectations, too). I conducted a needs assessment in the form of a questionnaire and an oral discussion - the students were shocked (okay, appalled) that I, the teacher, was asking them about their preferences and opinions about ways to learn...it freaked them out and one student told me "we shouldn't even be having this discussion...you should tell us because you are the teacher and you know." i was a little blown away by that comment and I had to explain my educational background and perspective just to maintain my credibility to the students after that! but, as appalled as they were at first, slowly i started getting some feedback: "teacher, we want to do listening and speaking because we want to practice with a native speaker" and "teacher, we like the activities that you make because they are harder than the book." i think the students positive comments have really helped me to feel motivated as opposed to completely discouraged.  

Now back to my class structure. I have been using authentic news articles and opinion columns in the classes, and I can tell the students were struggling at first. many of the words were new to them and it took extensive vocabulary work, discussion, my explanations and student pair work to get through it all. now that three weeks have gone by, the students trust me and they like that we talk about current evens in the hanoi news because it is a topic that they enjoy discussing (amazing, they are now willing to freely give me their opinion and feedback!). they LOVE to speak, and i think it is because they have been craving the chance to do so and this is one of the first times they have had the opportunity in an English classroom! they are becoming more familiar with the vocabulary and ideas related to current events because i reintroduce and recycle information and words from one class to the next so that they get a chance to continually hear and use the terms related to current events in hanoi (e.g. development, growth, traffic, environmental concerns, tourism, family, tradition, change, safety, recycling, health). Their comfort with the class theme has really become apparent in the last week because they are realizing there is a theme and an organization to the class. 

i also have to add that physically and mentally i have been a little overwhelmed and i am still working on relaxing and finding my center when ever i feel like things are too much. i am doing well now as far as understanding more surface information about the culture at large, although i realize that i could never really be "in" here. 

Yvonne, if you are reading this, Hanoi is probably changed a great deal since you have been here because everything is being built so fast!!!!! i have some more pictures i will post shortly. i live on Loung Dinh Cua (sorry, no tones) street in the Dong Da district. My house is near Kiem Lien road. I was living with a vietnamese family and the other intern, but things radically changed when the other intern, an undergrad, QUIT and left the internship. Her family was vietnamese (she was vietnamese american), so they left too. i am alone now and i really wish i could move in with some people instead of being by myself... 

overall, i am doing well. the teaching load is crazy but i just keep going, always keeping in mind the lessons i have learned at miis so far. i have had a good time exploring and implementing the ideas we have talked about in classes. i have been doing some reading at night to help me relax and get more ideas for what i am doing. Kimi let me borrow her "teaching of reading" book, and it is a real gem! who know it would be the book i turn to to relax after a long day!!!!!!!! 

okak, i hope all of you are having a good summer so far! write me or comment about what you are up to! i miss you all and want to hear how you're doing! 

until next time,

natalie :P 

Culture Shock and Awe

Hanoi is like a giant, powerful river with a current that sucks you into the flow, ready or not. I have been moving nonstop for the past two weeks. I was observing classes and attending teaching orientation meetings my second day here, and then I started teaching and taking vietnamese lessons my third day. At first it seemed like no big deal, but now I realize there has been no time to think or reflect or let the new impressions sink into my overstimulated brain. I have my classes assigned to me and have been planning and trying to get to know the students, their needs, their cultural expectations and their interests. It is so much...

For my first week I was ripped off, tricked, and politely taken advantage of. Initially, I felt lost and helpless because I did not have the language to negotiate or to understand what is going on. Now, I am slowly adapting, familiarizing myself with the roads, and learning some basic vietnamese. Also, I have come to the acceptance that I will just pay a lot more for stuff and get over it. It saves me energy and it makes me feel a lot better - acceptance has been my way of getting my good attitude back and letting go of the frustration I felt at first.  

The traffic and horn noise is something else! I can't believe that people actually drive here because it is really scary... seriously. I ride xe om (pronounced say om) which means on the back of a motorbike. it is really fun but it can be intense when there is rush hour or when people drive too fast. i see small children on motorbikes with no helmets and it seems really dangerous. I realize that I am really safety conscious, or at least from my cultural view, I am used to traffic "regulations." Here, it is like the wild west, and only the strong and savvy drivers survive. 

okay, so this brief and poorly punctuated entry is the best i can manage at the moment. My main lesson so far has been to take a deep breath, relax, let go, and calmly join the flow. I repeat this to myself when I feel lost, scared, overexcited, and so on. 

so now, i take a breath, ready myself for a xe om ride...

until next time,

chao cac ban (bye all of you friends)

ps-i miss everyone very much. 

The adventure begins...

Hi to all my MIIS friends,

I have, at long last, created a blog for Vietnam. I leave tommorow, May 24, in the evening, and I can't wait.

When I get situated and recover from jet lag, I will post photos of the school, the city, the food, and the students (with their approval!). I will also describe my teaching adventures and perhaps ask questions if I have any. All of you are welcome to respond, say hi, or just browse. It will be nice to get feedback and response from you all, my friends whom I already miss!

Take care and remember to work on those sun tans :)