A Typical Week in Saigon

Monday

I start work at 8am and as the office is a 10 minute walk away from the guest house I am living in, it’s an easy commute.  I don’t teach on a Monday so I either plan lessons for the week ahead and keep on top of my work, or I get given cover lessons.  Recently I have been given quite a lot of cover for primary schools.  If I don’t have any cover I am extremely bored by the end of the day, as I don’t like spending all day in the office, especially when there are very few people around – most people go out to teach.  Office hours are 8-5.30, and you have to be in the office when you are not at the school, except lunch which is 12-1.30.

I eat lunch in the office as the company provide it for us.  The options are limited and, well, boring.  I usually go for fried chicken wing/drumstick.  The meat comes with plain rice and very few vegetables in a canteen tray.  Oh, and I shouldn’t forget the bag of soup, which is more like a bag of coloured water with things floating in it.  I have only tried it once or twice and I am not a fan, especially as by the time it is delivered to work, sorted out and eaten it is all warm, not hot.  The meal sounds worse than it actually is, but the repetitiveness of having the same plain meal over and over again it increasingly dull.  I can’t complain though, as it is free.  Trying to get the fried chicken off the bone with chopsticks and a spoon is a skill I am currently trying to perfect, but with little luck!

Tuesday

I start teaching at 7.45am, so I have to be at the office at 7am, to get the minibus to the school.  The secondary school I teach at is one of the schools furthest away so I stay there all day instead of travelling back at lunch time.  I teach 16 Grade 7s from 7.45 – 10.30am, with a half hour break, and 18 Grade 6s from 1.30 – 4.15pm, again with a half hour break.  It is a long time for the students to concentrate so the end of the lesson involves lots of competitive games getting the students very hyped up before they go home to their parents.

I buy lunch from food sellers on the road, costing about 50p for a meal of rice and pork.  No chopsticks, but eating a piece of barbequed pork with a flimsy plastic spoon is also a challenge, a challenge that usually fails and fingers come into play.  Luckily table manners don’t exist in the same way as at home, and it’s just me and the AC (a Vietnamese person who helps out in the classroom) anyway.  After we have eaten the AC goes to sleep on the floor and I either work – marking books, planning lessons – or (if I haven’t anything to do) read my book.  It is nice to spend time away from the office.

Wednesday

I only teach in the afternoons so I’m in the office at 8, ready to plan lessons and mark books.  As well as battling with the photocopier which breaks on a regular basis.  My class in the afternoon is Grade 6 and my favourite class – most of them are extremely bright, and they are all willing and lively, there are some real characters there, so even though there are 30 of them, I really enjoy teaching that class.  I enjoy teaching my other classes as well, but these kids are always more fun.   I come back hands covered in chalk from the board with marks all over my clothes.  Black is not a good colour to wear, but it looks the smartest, and appearance is everything here.  I teach in the same room all week and, amazingly, they have just put air conditioning in the room.  It is wonderful!  It means that I don’t come out sticky and sweaty, and more importantly the windows stay closed so I don’t have to raise my voice over the noise outside as well as inside the class.  The classroom is fairly big, which is good for when I want the students to move around (we have just been doing drama = loads of fun), but bad for my voice, when I have to raise it to get their attention.  There is a portrait of Ho Chi Minh at the front of every classroom above the board, which is just one of the signs it is a communist country.

Thursday is much the same as Tuesday, and Friday the same as Wednesday.  I really enjoy working here, the people are great and I am loving the teaching.  I haven’t been put off teaching yet, but I have a feeling I will get a rather large shock if/when I start teaching in England due to the differences in behaviour.  Schooling is quite strict here, and parents have a lot to say about it as education is a way to gain status, also if a child fails (and by fails, sometimes that can mean getting a B) it is seen as losing face.  When it comes to tests, all the parents want to know how their child has done in relation to the rest of the class.  Sometimes the pressure can be good as it means they do their work and work hard (at least in my school) but a lot of the time it is difficult.  Cultural differences are always tricky, and this is one of the ones I’m finding most difficult.  Many students only see their friends at school because they don’t have time to see them after school due to the extra classes that their parents make them take.  I’ve also had parents ask for extra work for their child.  So yes, it is different from the UK, but I am enjoying it, and the teaching is great fun.

The main difference between secondary and primary is that you can have a conversation with them, and some fun.  For example, I've just finished doing drama with them, all the boys like 'Androcles and the Lion' because it has gladiators in and people being eaten by lions, the girls like it because it has a bit of romance in.  I taught them the word 'flirting' (yes, it was in the play) and they loved that, they can all remember it too!  Also, I gave them a wordsearch that I had created on the internet, and although I checked that all the words were in there, I didn't check for other words that had been generated by accident.  My Grade 6 class found RAT, my Grade 7s said 'teacher, teacher, there is a bad word in there' 'what bad word?' 'SEX'  it was so funny.  I then explained that sex can also mean gender, and you see it on forms.  Give me secondary schools any day, even if they do answer back!  I had to pull out my 'teacher stare' for the first time when one of the boys wasn't behaving and then wouldn't do as I asked.  He didn't misbehave for the rest of the lesson!

The lifestyle is also great, I live in a room (a bit like uni halls) but I have an en suite, a maid comes everyday to clean my room, and I eat out all the time because it is so cheap and I don’t have a kitchen.  Massages and manicures are so cheap, they are a regular thing for the weekends, which are spent relaxing and recuperating for the next busy week.  The other weekend I got the courage together to try and drive a motorbike.  My friend lent me her bike and gave me a lesson in the park.  It was good fun, but I do need a lot more practise to get the acceleration right.  I was very stop-start fast-slow, and I was told by a Vietnamese man to slow down.  If the traffic wasn’t so crazy I would definitely rent one, but the roads here are mental, with drivers all over the road, on both sides, they even go on the pavement.  The taxi ride to the school and back really puts me off driving as I can see how crazy some of the drivers are.  Fortunately, you have to wear a helmet by law.  If you are over 16.  So a lot of kids (including little babies) ride on bikes, sometimes 4 people on one bike, without any protection.  Going on the back of a bike doesn’t bother me, and I’ve done it quite a lot, but driving one still fills me with dread!

I hope everyone is enjoying themselves back home, and that it is getting (slightly) warmer and sunnier.  I won’t gloat about the weather here!  If anyone wants to skype then just let me know, it would be great to hear what you are all doing :)