A Chef and Two Teachers

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And another corny, cliché comment from Sarah: “Time flies when you’re having fun”!

This is an update of our work days over the past 7wks.

Luke was lucky enough to meet a lovely Vietnamese Man; Toan, at a Guitar shop in our very early days in Hanoi. They got talking about what we were doing in Hanoi, and as a result, on Sunday November 9th, I met with Toan, his brother, and nephew at Pho 24 Restaurant on Van Mieu Street. Toan’s nephew; Son wanted Private English Lessons. The four of us chatted over ice coffees, and decided I would teach him, every Tuesday and Thursday mornings, at my apartment. The first lesson was the following Tuesday, 17th November.

Son is 20, studying Engineering, very intelligent, and so eager to be a fluent English speaker. Our first lesson, we started on a book Son wanted to go through - ‘Ship or Sheep?’ concentrating on pronunciation. It seems to be really common that the students in Vietnam study so hard from a young age and have English classes at school, but being taught by Vietnamese Teachers, are taught incorrect pronunciation. So this book was great to get us started, not only for Son’s level of learning, but also for my level of teaching.

It’s interesting how hard it looks on the other side; learning English as a second language is quite the challenge when you’ve been taught incorrect pronunciation from an early age, and are trying to remember our huge vocabulary (200,000+words), as well as remember the rules learnt about where to place verbs, and nouns, adjectives, and interjections, conjunctions, prepositions, suffixes, etc correctly in the sentences. A lot of these words I am only just starting to understand - so when asked questions like “do I place the verb before the noun?” or “what tense are we talking in - present continuous, present perfect, or present perfect continuous?”, or “where do I put the stress in this sentence?” etc, I struggle to pretend to know the answers.

Unfortunately due to his Uni commitments and lack of time, just this week, Son has decided to put our lessons on hold till February. I looked forward to our early morning classes, and just loved seeing him improve, not only in his pronunciation, but conversation skills, and grammar also. He put in so much effort, and it was hard to see someone so eager to do well at speaking English, struggle so much with words / sounds that are so simple to us, like ‘sea’ - always sounded like ‘she’, and ‘tree’ always sounded like ‘three’, ‘eat’ - ‘it’. And to be so caught up in finding where to put ‘stress’ on a word, that he’d forget how to pronounce it properly. Not only did I help Son with pronunciation, grammar, and conversation skills in our lessons, but outside of lessons, he was constantly asking me for help with University Essays, applying for Study Abroad, etc.

Early morning of Tuesday 8th of December, I received a sms: ‘Hi sarah. Can u help my essay for me? The essay for my application form. I have send it to your e-mail. Can you check it and send to me in today? Because tomorrow is dead time. If the essay is not good, can u show me and I will write again. Because the application form is very important for me. Thanks very much.’

It took me 3hrs to get his essay to a smooth reading point. It was an essay on ‘The person who is most influential to me’. And he’d chosen Napoleon Bonaparte, who apparently everyone knows about - except me!
So not only did I have to spend time deciphering what Son was trying to say, but I had to learn all about Napoleon Bonaparte to ensure it all made sense, which I actually really enjoyed.

I’ve never quite appreciated this feeling of pure happiness to help another person. It’s very gratifying, and I am so happy to be feeling it every day. As much as I helped Son with English, I think I got just as much out of our lessons, if not more.


The Friday we got back to our Hanoi Home after our week in Sapa, I applied for 4 Teaching jobs - advertised on The New Hanoian Website. I chose to ignore that I’d heard there were plenty of jobs available in Hanoi, and to not rush into job hunting, as things are pretty full on once you start. It was wrong of me to think that it would be hard for me to get a job, but I’m so happy I applied when I did, because it has led me to Summer School!

I applied on the Friday night, had an email back on the Saturday morning, offering me a Job Interview Monday morning. I met with Ms Nhung Monday morning, she asked me to come back that night to teach one lesson, and she would observe me, I spent all of Monday preparing for my 45 minute lesson, taught it, and straight after she offered me a full time teaching position - to start Tuesday.

I have an agreement, where I work two x 45min lesson each week night, three x 45min lessons Saturday afternoons, and a split shift Sundays, starting at 9am, working three lessons, until 11:20, and then not going back till the afternoon where I work three more lessons and finish at 6pm. It’s great.

Summer School is in Dong Da District, on Lang Ha Street - up Alley no 5.

I usually teach between 10-20 students. Ages vary from 13yr olds, right down to 3 ½ yr olds; very cute. They are going through English books (Superkids, Supertots, Grammar Time, and Connection), which means, I turn up 1hr before my first class, look at the pages I have to teach, and think of ways to make it fun for them to learn.

It’s can be a real challenge to think of games to play over a 45minute period, when the only words I have to work with, are “This is a…” and “That is a...”, as they’ve already learnt the vocabulary the previous lesson.

The really little kids are the biggest challenge. It is so hard trying to keep them focused. I teach a class Sunday afternoons, and there are about four 3 ½ yr olds, the rest of children are 4. While this is a very cute class, the kids are so easily distracted, and get caught up cuddling each other, and falling over, or looking at the pretty bows on their socks, to even know I’m there sometimes. I teach this class, with the help of Ms Ha, and another Vietnamese Teacher.

Those who know me, would expect I have favorites, and there is one little girl in this particular class, who I just want to cuddle every time I see her. She’s a little menace, with a really short hair cut, she’s one of the 3 ½ yr olds, and she’s always up to mischief. She has a really cheeky little grin, and is just so funny.

I made a very fun mistake of playing the ‘tickle game’ with the kids in this class - where they run close to me, and ‘try’ to tickle them, and they squeal, run away in fits of laughter, only to come back 5 seconds later. It becomes really quiet tiring after a couple of minutes, and in no way relates to speaking English - it’s just good fun. Ever since that one time, now, whenever I stand up and walk close to the kids in this class, one of them will run up behind me to try start the tickle game.

In every lesson, the books have songs for the students to learn as they go - I love getting to these pages, and often come home with no voice as I’ve sung louder than my whole class. Luke shakes his head at me sometimes, when he sits and waits - and says “all I can hear is you”. Haha, I think sometimes I enjoy these classes more than the kids. I constantly have songs stuck in my head like “Hello, Hello, Hello, How are you? I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine Thank you”. Of course with every song, there are actions, and the children (and me) love it.

I was told by Ms Nhung before my first class that the kids love to be put into teams, and play lots of games with the words they are learning, and when their team gets something right, to put a star up on the board under their team name.

These stars are mostly fun, however sometimes, they cause tears. As does the choosing of a team name, it seems everything can be resolved with a quick game of ‘paper, scissors, rock’ though, and fairs fair with that game, so whoever looses is always a good sport - a bit different for whoever wins though, cheering in their opponents face. Common Team names are; Barbie, Ben Ten, Superman, Flower, Doremon, Sandcastle, - etc. One class with some very high achievers always has their team name as ‘We love Ms Sarah’.

After each Unit is completed, there is a test; Listening, Reading and Speaking. I get to do the Speaking Test. I feel so sad for them sometimes, they get so nervous, I point to a picture and they have to tell me what it is - they look at me, blinking with their big brown eyes, no front teeth, all confused, so I throw them a few hints to get them on the right track.

I love teaching a class, and having other students walking past, up the stairs, call out “Hello Ms Sarah”. They all love to ask me “How are you?” and “What’s your name”, and some of them ask “How old are you” - which I always get confused hearing that and “How are you”.

After they ask these questions, and I ask them, there’s always a bit of silence, as the conversation just can’t go any further - well for most of the kids there it can’t. They ask these questions with so much energy and enthusiasm though, and even though there’s silence afterwards, that doesn’t matter to them, they sit back with big grins, and then another student will pipe up and ask me the exact same questions.

The classes are grouped in ages, and learning levels, there is only one exception - my little mate Ngoc. He’s 10yrs old and is in a very small class - 2 other boys who are 13; I teach this class every Friday. His English is amazing; I’m just in awe of him. He said to me the first time I taught his class, to not call him “Ngoc”, as it’s too hard to pronounce, and to just call him ‘Alien’. On his test papers, he writes, ‘Master’ or ‘Doctor Alien’. If we finish class a bit early, he always wants to play Hang Man - using the words out of their English books of course.

They had a speaking test a few weeks ago, and it was a pretty free test, I had to ask general information on ‘self’, questions about ‘daily life’, ‘past experiences’, ‘future plans’, information about ‘school’, studies’, ‘work’, ‘likes and dislikes’, etc. The other boys’ answers for these questions were good, Anh saying he wants to be a Lawyer, have a family in America, study at Harvard, etc. Phuong saying he doesn’t have plans for the future but he likes taking photos so he may want to be a photographer, he likes pop music, doesn’t like rock music, he likes playing soccer with friends in his spare time, etc. And then little Alien Ngoc, trumps them all, telling me he wants to be an Inventor when he grows up, because the environment is sick, he says he wants to invent an underwater city where we all can live while earth rejuvenates itself.

While I was having one on one time with each student for this Speaking Test, Luke had come in to see a few of my classes to see if he thinks he might like to take up Teaching, and was playing Hangman with the boys while they were waiting / after their test. One of the boys had picked a person, a musician I think, and as he was writing up the 'rejected' words, it looked like they spelt a very naughty 4 letter English word - Luke and I were fairly humoured by this, and took a photo of course. (The letter that looks like a 'n' is actually a 's' though)

I love going to Summer School every day, and all but skip home sometimes due to the amazing buzz I feel after teaching these wonderful kids. - Well most days. Some lessons are harder than others, and some kids are much better behaved than others.

It’s interesting to see that the boys are always the class clowns, sneaking in things to play with, distracting themselves and their class mates. The boys are naughty; while the girls sit back so quiet and innocent trying so hard - and giggling at the boys. It’s frustrating as a teacher, when these naughty disruptive boys are far better at English than the rest of their class, without trying at all.

There are about 3 classes that are harder to keep entertained than most. Thankfully I teach one with Ms Phuong Anh, she’s one of my favorite teachers at Summer School, and she also teaches me Vietnamese week days. We call this class, the crazy class, Tots 2B, all about 6yrs old. There is a set of twin boys in the class, and one is so naughty.

The children are at Summer School for an hr and a half, once or twice per week - depending on their age. So I teach either the first 45 mins, or the second, and the Vietnamese Teacher teaches the other. They have a 10 minute break in between lessons, and one day, in this break, I saw the naughty twin squeeze another little boy so hard he lifted him off the ground, as quickly as he did that he dropped him on the ground, walked over to a seat, kicked the boy off who was sitting down, and if that wasn’t enough, he kicked him while he was on the ground, and then sat back with his arms folded!

It was this day that the children were particularly crazy, and I was doing an activity, where we were all sitting in a circle, on our plastic kids chairs, and I stood up for 5 seconds, I went to sit back down, and the little boy next to me quickly pulled my chair out from underneath me!

Dumbfounded, sitting on the ground, I looked back at him, and he just smiled mischievously at me, and placed my chair behind me. I couldn’t laugh, cause then all the kids would start doing it, and so I just had to quickly stand back up and continue my lesson, with a bleeding hand.

When the really young children have a lesson where they learn a song, I always try making it fun for them at the end by playing musical chairs - this only works with some students; one little boy after not getting a chair, picked up another chair and threw it across the room, then sat in the corner and cried.

My last lesson of a Sunday morning is with Ms Ngoc, she’s a lovely Teacher. The kids in this class are 5yrs old, and there are about 25 of them, which gets a little crazy at times. Over the past few weeks they have been learning a Unit on Birthdays. Which has been a lot of fun, and for their review lesson, I asked Ms Ngoc if she thinks it would be ok to throw an actual party with the children - with party hats, and cake, and games, and cookies - all of the vocabulary they are learning. She thought it was a great idea, so last Sunday 13th December, I brought in Party Hats, balloons, cake, cookies, made up pass the parcel, and little presents for the children. It was chaos! As soon as I got out one party hat, everyone went nuts, crowding around me begging to get one, there were about 3 kids who missed out, so I had a balloon each for them, once I got out one balloon, I had kids coming up wanting to hand their party hats back to get a balloon.

It went ok though, we played a game where they were in teams, and had to run with their balloon between their legs to their team partner, and change over, we played musical chairs, sang Happy Birthday a few times, and went over their vocabulary - just with the real things, instead of picture cards. They all blitzed their Test, thankfully.

It’s so exciting walking into the classes where the kids drop whatever it is they are doing and scream “Ms Sarah” and bold me over with hugs. Most lessons we have so much fun, and I get so excited when I can see the children actually understanding, and improving their English. I leave feeling very accomplished.

Not only do I get such a buzz out of the students at Summer School, but also by the staff. There is only one male Teacher at the school, Mr Viet, and he teaches Saturdays. So the rest of the time is just us girls, and they are just so sweet. Mai, Duong, Mai (no. 2), Quynh Anh, Ms Mi, Ms Nhung, Phuong Anh, Ms Lien, Ngoc, Ms Ha - everyone is so lovely and happy.

When I first started, Luke would drive me on the motorbike and then come back and wait for me to finish. Ms Ha, who is the boss, calls Luke ‘The boyfriend’, and said to me during my first week ‘Sarah, do you want to learn Vietnamese’ - of course ‘Yes’ was my reply, and then she asked ‘And what about the boyfriend, does he want to learn too?’ - We started learning Vietnamese the very next day, half an hour before class with Ms Phuong Anh. Of course Luke has to be better than me, but it doesn’t bother me, for some reason the girls I work with think I’m just so cute, and whenever I say something right now, or have a bit of a conversation with them, they squeal, tell me they love me and give me hugs. Haha, Luke doesn’t get that reaction.

I’ve started teaching a private class at Summer School, for the Admin Staff and their friends. I love it. The girls are between 19 and 26yrs, and we’re going through Cambridge’s KET Objective book, in preparation for them to Study IELTs. We meet twice a week for an hr and a half. Since our first class, I now have 8 new Facebook friends and a Yahoo account so we can chat. They are really lovely girls, and are improving very quickly.


Luke’s work is just as fun and interesting, he just has to work a little harder than I do! He started at The Drift Backpackers on Wednesday the 18th of November, and works in the kitchen. We rode there for him to have a chat with the Manager the Tuesday - and met Tiff, a very Australian girl. Who has lived in Hanoi for the past 6 or so years, she owns a Café here also - Gecko, and a travel company.

The Drift Backpackers is only 6 months old, and still getting on its feet. There’s another Aussie who works in the kitchen with Luke, Kenny - he’s been in Hanoi for 6mths, and until Luke came along, was working everyday in the kitchen.

It was a bit full on when he first started, with learning the menu, and having next to no experience in a commercial Kitchen prior. Regardless, he’s fallen perfectly into place, and is such a natural in the Kitchen.

The menu is Western, with Salads, Chips, Burgers, Open Grills, Pastas, Breakies some Mexican and a few other bit's and pieces. On the busy days I go in and peel potatoes for chips, to help out (ok so Luke's making me mention that it's only happened once - but I'm sure it'll happen again). Not only does Luke like the experience in a Kitchen, but he’s making friends with the Vietnamese Staff there too. Phuong and Tuyen are kitchen hands, and they all get a long great. Luke teaches them English swear words, and they teach him the Vietnamese words.

Since he started at The Drift, he’s not been able to come to our Vietnamese Language Lessons at my school, but he’s cruising along just smoothly with his Vietnamese - he can have better conversations than I can, and knows numbers and vegetables and fruit!

There are a few things that come with working at a Backpackers, Luke gets to munch on chips all day long, he’s made good friends with the locals - who help out with buying groceries, and also - of course - The Party Scene.

Within the first week, Tiff had made us promise to come to every theme night at their rooftop bar. The first night we planned on having a few drinks, turned into a lot of drinks, which resulted in the Police coming upstairs to shut the music down! About three weeks after that, the rooftop bar closed - it is being renovated into a Massage Parlor.

Tiff’s Vietnamese Business Partner is Kien, he’s a funny character; he likes to say the ‘f’ word a lot, which sounds hilarious with his Vietnamese accent. He invited The Drift staff to his house for a Christmas dinner just last week, which was just great. There were 10 of us, all at Kien’s house, sitting on his floor, around a delicious hot pot to share - in it was pineapple, chili, garlic, etc, and we could put our own fresh chicken in, and leafy greens, it was a feast! There was also a huge grilled fish for us all to share, beers for everyone, and noodles and rice. It was such a great experience for us all, he kept thanking us for coming, when we were leaving, and even the next day when I saw him.

He invited Luke and I to go to his home village in the Countryside during TET (Chinese New Year), so fingers crossed that for that to happen.

Luke-e had been coming to my classes off and on for a couple of weeks to get a feel for Teaching, and see if it might be his thing. Ms Nhung pulled me aside after class one day and said that her friend has a school and wants Luke to teach Sunday nights. So he had his first lesson on Sunday 13th of December.

He was so quiet and nervous all day, we'd planned on going to the class together, after I finished at Summer School, where I would help him prepare - but it didn't work out. Nguyn, Ms Nhung's friend, wanted Luke to go earlier, and I wasn't finished classes, so he had to go alone.

I was so nervous for him, and worried till he finally called me - typical Luke, so cool and calm, just said "Yeah, I nailed it".

And just like that, he now works as an English Teacher each Sunday night, and every second Monday night!

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Photos

The Merge
This is normally two classes, but has now just been merged together

Ms Ha
My Boss at Summer School

Hien and Mai
The Admin Staff at Summer School

Happy Birthday Lesson
Class: Tots 1B

Hangman
cust, looks like ****.

The Staff of The Drift
Luke fits in just perfectly

Tuyen
Chilling out after some lunch

The Rooftop Bar
The Drift Backpackers

The Chef
and his new beard