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Time for an update I think, so here goes. A rag tag mix of recent events...
It's in two parts. Here goes part one.....
Haiphong Medical University English Festival!!!
In our kids classes on Saturdays and SUndays we occasionally have a teaching assistant to help out. This is basically someone Vietnamese who can help out with low level classes and translate some instructions to the kids. Or to help stop them killing each other - whichever is a priority at the time. Anyway, most teaching assistants are students and it's their part time job at the weekend. 2 women in particular are medical students - Tao and Trang (pronounced Chang).
It turned out recently that Tao and Trang were organising an English language competition at their university and needed some native speakers to help out. So they asked me and Kate. Kate was to be a judge and I had the lofty honour of being the MC. We agreed without too much deliberation one Saturday night before leaving work and then wondered what we'd let ourselves in for....
Turns out it was a pretty big event they had planned. There were 4 teams already in the
Preparing the MC speeches
Kris, Tao and Trang.
And Uncle Ho.
Kris has clearly said something hilarious. running - all students at the university - and it was going to be run like a gameshow with a big screen showing questions, musical interludes and a huge audience of students and dignitaries. I was going to be up there, microphone in hand, presenting the show with my co-host, Trang, in English and Vietnamese, much like the Eurovision Song Contest (except with Vietnamese, I guess...). We weren't the only English speakers to be part of it either, Kate was joined at the judging table by David and Christina from the USA - on the Fulbright programme in Vietnam. Our first "rehearsal" made me realise the scale of the event as we were led into a huge auditorium in the university and I climbed on stage with Trang next to a bust of Ho Chi Minh and a big red communist flag. Basically I had a few ideas about what would happen on the night, but I'd largely be winging it during the questions as I could read them from the screen. We had a few run throughs and cracked some corny jokes and decided we were ready.
On the night we filed into the auditorium and the crowds
One of the performers
singing with feeling. started to pour in. It was a little nerve racking, but then I wasn't really running the show so I felt happy to hide behind Trang. Although this was difficult, due to height issues - though she did wear heels on the night.
So the competition started and the questions were answered and important people were presented with flowers. I missed a lot of the musical interludes as I was backstage, Kate, as a judge however, enjoyed a front row seat. Occasionally a stressed Tao would appear before me and thrust a microphone in my hand and demand that I introduced the next singer. "Quick! His name's Quzzyxsjuyhs and he's from Jhuahbtbm". At least that's how it sounded to me. "What?? There's absolutely no way I can say that." So I dashed out into the spotlight and mumbled names as quickly as possible and said the name of the song and scuttled away.
But who knew breakdancing was so big in Vietnam?? Amid some singers covering Linkin Park songs and a ropey version of "Yesterday", a troupe of breakdancers stole the show. Meanwhile, the latter part of the show took a surreal twist as the teams in the
The quiz
Two teams: Good Doctors and E and V.
It stands for English and Victory.
I think Good Doctors is pretty self explanatory. contest performed their rehearsed performances. They were a little confusing but one involved a lot of people dressed as animals jumping around the stage, girls with moustaches, one was a romantic tale about friendship set in a cafe (I think) and another involved the whole team and several other people dressed in some old folk style...
"Why do you want to be a doctor?"
Things got more surreal when the students had to give speeches about being doctors. One guy made a crucial vocabulary error. Or at least I think he did. As an aspiring physician, he stood on stage with a microphone in front of an auditorium of people and mixed up the verb "cure"....with the verb "kill". His speech went something like this...
"I want to be a doctor because if my family get ill I want to be able to kill them. I want to kill my mother. In the future, if I have children and they get sick I will kill them."
I didn't dare challenge him and ask if he meant "cure", in case he said "no".
Being a presenter...
I must admit it was interesting being
a gameshow host for the night - and I did manage to sneak in a "catchphrase". In fact a few of Roy Walker's (star of Catchphrase) favourites snook out. At one point the contestants had to name the organisation represented by a symbol on the screen. The image showed a red cross on a white background and was clearly representing the Red Cross. They were struggling and I couldn't resist saying "Say what you see, say what you see!". Alas, I think only Kate knew where that came from. I'm sure also said at some point - "It's a good answer, but it's not right". I refrained from any Bruce Forsyth poses or Michael Barrymore "awights"....
Anyway, at the end of the night both of us were presented with gifts for taking part - which was nice. A paperweight and a photo album. Alas, no Blankety-Blank checkbook and pen.
Friends in Haiphong
So far we've already had 2 friends visit us in Haiphong - both mates who we did our TEFL course with in Thailand in 2007. First was Bryan, a guy who has been living and working in Thailand ever since we did the course.
He passed through Haiphong on a trip around Vietnam. Bizarrely, after not seeing him for over a year, he turned up in one of our regular bars for 1 night only! Which was nice!
A week or so after that Seth turned up. Seth had been working in Korea and passed through Haiphong on his way on a Vietnam tour, storing a load of his stuff at our flat on the way. We took him out to see the sights before sending him on to Ho Chi Minh City after 2 days hanging out and exploring some of the music venues of Haiphong.
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Clare
non-member comment
Hello! You two look like you're having a great time. Many thanks to Kate for the pics and comments in my hen book. Will look forward to showing you it when you next visit blighty xxx