Teaching in Hanoi
Hello All You Lovely People,
Well, I have begun teaching in Hanoi. So far I have one class but others will begin next week. Should have 21 to 23 hours within a short period of time. The class consists of 22, yes, that’s right 22, students all of hom work for the Vietnam Customs Department (which could be good for me if I get into any kind of passport trouble). They range in age from about 24 to 55 and fom executives to receptionists, but this does not seem to be a problem for them. So far I have not seen any indication of a “pecking order”. The students are very nice, friendly, talkative and enthusiastic. They are well motivated and actually want to have homework. When I say, “OK, now likes do exercise B on page 31,” I walk around the room and discover that half the students have already done the exercise. It’s refreshing but I’ll have to bring in a lot of supplementary materials.
It is an Elementary Class and therein lise my problem. Supposedly, they are elementary one and two, with a few elementary threes thrown in. When I gave them a writing assignment after the first lesson (write something about yourself) they made the common errors of “no ‘s’ on third person singular verbs, missing and incorrect articles, and incorrect spelling. HOWEVER, there was also:
“I enjoy learning English because it is useful in my job and I can talk with everyone in the world.”
English is a means to help me go abroad.
I have worked here for over five years.
She has studied English since 1996.
I’ve been working here for ten years.
I hope that after this course, my English will be better and I can communicate with foreigners fluently.
I was and am impressed. This seems far above elementary work and each example is from a different pupil in the class. They seem to have a good grasp of the rules of grammar. We began past tense the other night and they already knew the past tense of both regular and irregular verbs. I asked if they knew the past participle of the verbs and they looked at me with blank faces. When I said, “Do you know ‘go, went, gone; see, saw, seen?'” they brightened up and nodded their heads enthusiactically. This will be an easy class to teach when I figure what they know and don’t know and what they need. to learn.
Though they were placed as elementary students they have a lot on knowledge already. They are generally very polite but the minute I ask someone to read something or to answer a question, there are about ten other voices in the room reading or answering.
The class runs for two and a half hours and meets three times a week. I’ll send you me schedule when it is complete but this class Tuesday and Thursday from 4:30 to 7:00 PM and from 1:30 to 4:00 PM on SATURDAY. YES, SATURDAY!!!! There are also classes on Sunday but that’s my day off. Most of the classes are mid-afternoon to 9PM. Very few early morning classes. Actually, the earliest may be 9AM. (I have one of those).
OK, so much for now. You should have gotten some photos the other day. If you did not, please let me know.
Hope all is well with you. Let me hear from you,
Love to all,
Tom
higgiro39