Vietnam week--2

4/6/09 Monday -Week 2

Ah Monday! Today we practiced the processes from the last week and began to feel we were grasping a few of the concepts. Then to counteract our new found confidence, our afternoon period was a class in phonology. This subject is something I'm quite interested in. I always wondered what those funny characters were under words in the dictionary. I hope I can follow through with more study on this when I get back home. Today I again talked to Andy about TV job opportunities. Apparently they have a lot of TV stations but very little content. I switched on the TV once and could barely get through 1/2 hour of local programming. Very poor.

Tomorrow we have our beginning teaching practicum. A one on one with a Vietnamese student at a local school. I'm going to spend the evening prepping.

4/7/09 Tuesday

Got up early and headed out toward school. I wanted the egg sandwich I used to get by my old place, but realized I'd have to find a new "sandwich lady." As I meandered through the streets I came upon one of the larger street vendors nearby. "How much?" I asked. He said 10,000. That was 2000 more than usual. I told him that it was expensive. "He said 10,000." He spoke English well. After he gave me the mediocre sandwich, I said, "OK, I'm hungry and in a hurry, so I'll buy it this time. But I want you to know, I'm passing here every day, and I'm not buying from you again."

Once more I was the first to arrive at school and it was still closed. As usual I stood outside stewing in my own sweat. When everyone arrived we walked a block to the industrial training college. We were supposed to have 1 student each, but 16 showed up so some of us had to have 2. I volunteered for a duo and asked if could have a boy and girl. I was hoping to get some insights to the gender learning differences. It turns out this "girl" was 22 and the "boy"was 20. Honestly, they both seemed like 13 y.o. In the class work, however, they were quite advanced. We had a great time. After the class, the girl, (Mai) saying goodbye added "you happylucky." I think she meant I was Happy-go-lucky. Whatever, it was acompliment.

Back at school, our afternoon period was spent preparing for out next class at the same place.

My first 2 students Mai & Tung

4/8/09 Wednesday

Awake and jonesin' for the egg sandwich. Walked down the same street as the day before and saw "expensive sandwich man" on the left. I made eye contact with him and moved on to the corner were there was another sandwich lady. I had no idea what her price was, but I was determined that he see me buying from her. Ooops. Her price was 10,000 just like his. However, hers was 2 eggs with all kinds of great fixin's. It was a great sandwich! At last, a new "usual sandwich lady" had been found--and I was sticking it to "expensive sandwich man".

The new sandwich lady.

Once again I was the first in to school. After everyone arrived we quickly set out to the college. As I prepared to work with my 2 students a third student showed up. Just by his introduction I could tell he was not as advanced as my first two. Fortunately, Diêm decided to gave him to Darren which sure eased my burden.

My little instruction was great fun. I chose a reading that told the story of a N. Korean man getting to see his mother in S. Korea after 50 years. Unfortunately, it was quite moving and as my usual wimpy self, my eyes welled up. I quickly tried to move the lesson along but I think the girl caught it. I imagine her telling her parents, "Teacher was crying at the story today. It was weird." I did have to make use of a time filler in my lesson. For this I had developed a related exercise where I had pictures of famous international landmarks, and the students had to match them to a descriptive text. It was surprisingly difficult for them, but they were determined. Everyone had a great time.

Our return to school was followed by a class on appropriate language/subjects for when we teach a full classes. No discussions on Politic, religion or sex.

For lunch we went back to our usual "Rât Hue." It was today that we really began to get tired of the Kenny G Christmas CD. We vowed to buy them another CD. Somehow "Hark the Herald ..." played on soprano sax and piped in every day (April)can get quite annoying.

4/9/09 Thursday.

The day began as usual. Great sandwich and some Nestle instant mocha in my room. Got to School sweating as usual. I'm convinced the A/Cs in Vietnamese buildings are faux. Like those fake security cams in the US. I don't think I'll ever get accustomed to the heat. I didn't in Trinidad, have not in Florida, and see no chance in Vietnam.

Lunch was at Rât Hue again. Darren should get shares for bringing the class there. 5-9 people every day. They are quite appreciative with their smiles--but not with any freebies. On the way back to school we often pass handicapped people missing limbs. I keep forgetting that I would like to keep my really small bills handy to give them. A 500vnd is 3¢ USD. I was told by one of the American students, "Don't do it, they get taken care of by the government. If you give them money they'll never get a job!" I had to ask, "The guy is missing both legs and one arm, and rolls around on a board with wheels! What job can he get?" Minnesota boy turned out to be the "Ugly American"Phew!

We have been told that teachers in Vietnam are highly respected. I think this is in contrast to their status in the US. The best evidence of this so far is Tim. Apparently he told his landlord he was a teacher and they responded by dropping his rent and gave him the bigger room.

In the afternoon we were organized into teaching partnerships by picking from a bowl. I got Iris. As we began to plan the studying schedule, Tim was asked by his partner about working on Friday night. His response? I've been getting drunk every Friday since I'm sixteen, I'm not going to stop now. We can study on any other day. Ah, youth.

4/10/09 Friday.

So I've got my routine now. My morning instant mocha, tasty egg sandwich, and an always entertaining walk to school. It is nice preparation for the day to come. This Friday is class work review and prep for teaching on Monday. At lunch I decided to forgo Rât Hue and bought a soup from a nearby street stand. It was quite good but had a few of the gelatin-ized blood cubes. Yep, I still don't like that item.

After school we all went out again to drink at Andy's favorite place. My conversation with Andy was very interesting. He told me some Vietnamese history stories and the characters involved. There was Tran Hung Dao who defeated the Khans 3 times. There were two also sisters who led a revolution against the Chinese when they ruled Vietnam. This story has similarities to the story of Judith, but with two main protagonists. There is also a General who was the military brain behind the Vietnamese forces in the 5 most recent wars that they won. Apparently he is still alive at 102 y.o, or something like that. If I got it correct, he beat the Chinese in the early part of the last century, beat the French and then the Americans, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and again the Chinese. Unfortunately, not much of the pre-colonial history is available, and none of it in English. The later history is too propaganda-ish. Still, I think the story of the sisters would make great movie.

Eventually it was time for us to get some food. Colin led us to a place he liked that had a huge menu including western style foods like burritos, hamburgers etc. Mr Vu our Vietnamese language teacher came with us. There was a lot of beer drinking and we made a lot of NOISE. I could tell the other western patrons were miffed. After dinner we moved on to another bar where we met and African who had been living in Saigon for 6 years. It was quite something hearing Vietnamese with an African accent. This placed also seemed to be where all the "brothers" hung out. There were some yank hip-hoppers, but mostly a lot of Africans. There was also an Australian woman sitting close by. When Loren began speaking to her, her Brisbane country accent came back strong. Later we met some other foreigners, all of us sitting on the tiny chairs and table on the sidewalk. The group now included Eibin from Belgium, Danny form england, and Bri from Canada. These three work in the Philippines and were here on holiday. I was talking to Eibin and realized I'd made a mistake. I was mixing up Belgium with Switzerland. I apologized and told him I generally take pride in my knowledge of other peoples countries. He found that interesting "for an American" and decided to test me with his world geography questions. I acquitted myself quite well and he was impressed. That catholic school education at Maria Regina really paid off. Still, it was a good thing he didn't question me on the Soviet Union. That would have been my downfall, and with Artem there to correct everything a humbling experience.

Hanging out at "Grandma's bar."

Later Tommy came and joined us and some Dutch guys also stopped by. Everyone decided to met the next afternoon to play football as had been planned the previous week. I bowed out as I dared not risk screwing up my weak ankle at this point in the process. Overall, it was quite an evening,

4/11/09 Saturday

I got to sleep in today but really only did about a 1/2 hour more. I spent the day doing home work for the big Monday class. I was also prepping for my first solo class the on Tuesday. My context was "The music store and types of music." Yeah, how do you explain Bluegrass to Vietnamese kids? In the evening I Met Collin and Tim for dinner. We went back to the good restaurant with the 35 page menu of western food. Colin ordered the Burritos, Tim curried okra, me Vietnamese curried chicken. I figured I'd stick with the local fare and my choice seemed correct. The Vietnamese idea of a burrito was a tiny folded flour tortilla about 2"x 3" and 1/2" thick. Underwhelming to say the least. Later our favorite peddler girl came by selling nail clippers, and other "beauty" items etc. Colin bought nail clippers and I got new tweezers. She and I settled on a price of 18,000 ($1) but she conveniently didn't have enough change for the 20,000 I had. I laughed. I paid a total of $1.05) She is quite a character.

Tim and our favorite peddler.

4/12/09 Sunday

Today is Easter and lots of stuff is going on. This is probably the remnants of the French Catholic colonials. I actually live 1 block away from the cathedral. I decided to stay in and do more practice. I could hear lots of music coming from the park. It was really cheesy stuff as is most Vietnamese popular music. Think Air Supply, but poorly recorded with way to much reverb and chorus. Also, if it's a video, there are flowers everywhere and a boy and girl look longingly into each other's eyes. EVERY VIDEO! Very cheesy. Still, I really should have gone out and seen what was happening.

In the afternoon I called Marc about meeting for lunch. He said he'd been on a bender the previous night and was now waking up. We agreed to meet for dinner instead. Still hungry, I went walking to find some food and scout the silk clothing market. I find the traditional women's Áo Dài quite sexy, and thought I had a few friends who might like one.

Áo Dài woman's outfit. The traditional version is long sleeved.

Unfortunately, the average western woman is much larger than the sizes of the off the rack stuff. While in the clothing area I found some cheap food at a crappy restaurant. Other westerners were eating there so I figured I could. The food tasted great, but....well,... you know. On the walk back home I took some more casual pics. The painting of the Olsen twins still confuses me. Wow! Who would buy that?

In the evening I practiced our class lesson with Iris and then met Marc for the dinner. We again went the the temporary restaurant at Ben Thanh market. We ordered the whole BBQed snapper and a bunch of other stuff. God that food is great. One of Marc's friends joined us there, and she was another bright girl. She works for an Israeli furniture supplier and was traveling abroad the next day to check up on the factories.

After dinner Marc dropped me back home and I then went out to print my lesson materials. Not having my own printer is my biggest peeve here in Vietnam--after the heat of course.