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