End of Term

The last two weeks of school were very busy, I had to give my students progress tests and then mark them (almost all of them improved, which made me happy), do their reports and have parent-teacher meetings, all in the space of a week.  In addition to normal teaching, paperwork and meetings.  For the classes last lessons of the term I gave them more fun activities.  In English, they had to make up a poisonous animal, draw it, give it a name and write information about it.  In my lively grade 6 class, ALL the boys stayed in voluntarily at break, and worked in silence on it.  I was amazed.  These kids are normally running around at break playing football and kicking a Vietnamese-style shuttlecock around.  Unfortunately I can’t take any credit for the idea, it was taken from one of the other teachers.

For the maths lessons, I decided to brave the computer room.  Never again.  Out of a room with 40-ish computers, 12 were working.  All my classes have more than 12 students.  The computers were extremely old and their break-down-rate reflected that.  By the end of the lesson all the students were working in pairs and most of the computers had been reset at least three times.  It was an educational experience, probably more so for me: only use ICT when absolutely necessary.  And threaten the students with many types of punishment, as well as bribery, before you go into the computer room.  I had threatened them (it did help that I was meeting their parents that week), and they were exceedingly well behaved.  I was very proud of them.

I did not take my largest class (30 students) into the computer room, for obvious reasons, instead the other teacher and I combined our classes, and with the 45 students, taught them about English culture – specifically, children’s parties.  Pin the Tail on the Donkey/Lion/Monkey/Pig, and Pass the Parcel, were a big hit and they had loads of fun.  Unfortunately there was no time for the ‘Hokey Cokey’, and we let them calm down in front of Disney’s Robin Hood, popcorn and sweets.  We all had a brilliant time, teaching is so much easier when you can do things like that because you trust them to behave, and do what you say.

The term ended with the EMG Celebration – Sunday morning spent in a theatre listening to important officials from different departments in the government making speeches about education and Vietnam.  It was followed by students singing and acting ‘Snow White’, and then awards were given to some students.  All in all, the performances were brilliant, the awards necessary (that was the point of it) and the speeches too long.  It started at 9am and didn’t finish until 11.45.  Most of the students had been there since before 8.30am, without parental supervision, because parents weren’t invited due to lack of space.  Imagine 1500 6-14 year olds with next to no supervision in a theatre ‘listening’ to an hours worth of speeches.  Yes, it was chaotic.  The students didn’t listen to the speeches, they were turning round in the chairs, chatting, playing, etc, and I can’t blame them.  I could hear two things – the speeches at the front, and a roar of chatter from behind us (teachers were seated at the front).  But it is now over, and I was proud to see two of my students receive well-deserved awards.

School is now over and unlike British schools we don’t get 6 weeks of holiday in the summer, if we are not teaching we still have to go into the office and ‘work’.  I have taken some leave starting next week (very exciting travels are planned), but at the moment I am stuck in the office, supposedly working, in actual fact I am playing quizzes and games on the internet, talking, colouring in flashcards for a primary school teacher (you have no idea how much my colouring has improved), spending a lot of time on facebook, and updating this blog! 


To say ‘thank you’ to us for our hard work, the company took us to the beach resort of Mui Ne for three days.  It was a great trip, with 40 Vietnamese and 20 foreigners.  We saw the local sights and relaxed by the beach and pool, played team building games and generally had a good time, despite the long bus journeys and mosquito bites.  The best part was that we were paid to go on a paid-for trip.  I made money by relaxing in the sun, in a four star resort!

A classroom where Ho Chi Minh used to teach in 1910 - the desks and benched have not changed in most of the schools in Vietnam - classrooms still look like this, including use of the chalkboard.

One of the sights of Mui Ne - the Lotus Lake and White Sand Dunes.  It was a beautiful view, and not too difficult walking up one of the Sand Dunes, obviously my time in the gym is paying off!

Now it is back to work, well, colouring and facebook.

Travels Up North

My Vietnamese travels have now extended to North Vietnam, specifically Hanoi (the capital) and the stunning Ha Long Bay.  A group of us from work took advantage of the public holidays for Independence Day and Labour Day and flew up North for the long weekend.

We spent one and a half days being tourists in Hanoi, which was a strange feeling considering we are now very comfortable in Saigon and don’t feel like tourists.  It was strange walking around and recognising street names, because the names are often the same as in Saigon.  Streets are largely named after famous people from Vietnamese history, so they are repeated across cities.  We mainly stayed in the Old Quarter (more touristy and older sights), the sights we saw included: 

• Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum which is in the centre of Ba Dinh Square, where Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence on the 2^nd September 1945.  There was a huge queue and we were short of time, so we didn’t go in, but the building looked very Soviet in design.

 

• The One Pillar Pagoda (Chùa Một Cột) is right next to the Mausoleum, and is a Buddhist Temple built by Emperor Lý Thái Tông, who ruled from 1028 to 1054.  It was far smaller than I imagined, but extraordinary in design – a temple on one pillar in a pond, with steps leading up to it.  You could smell the incense from the ground, it was so strong.
• The Presidential Palace which was built between 1900 and 1906.
• We stayed in the Old Quarter and, unlike Saigon, there are lots of lakes in Hanoi, one lake close to where we stayed was Hoàn Kiếm (or the Lake of the Returned Sword).  Legend has it that Emperor Le Loi, worried about the advancing Chinese, was boating on the lake when a giant tortoise rose from the murky waters and gave him a magical sword with which he could strike down all his enemies. The tortoise made Le Loi promise to return the sword once the Chinese had been defeated, which he did.  Since then, the lake has been known as the Lake of the Restored Sword. A pagoda on an islet in the middle of the lake has been built in the tortoise's honour, but it can’t be visited.  We did, however, visit the other pagoda in the lake: Ngoc Son Pagoda, or Temple of the Jade Island. which is accessed via an old red wooden bridge: the Huc Bridge (Morning Sunlight Bridge).  It was beautiful and very peaceful, which was surprising how close it was to the hustle and bustle of central Hanoi.

 

• We passed St. Joseph Cathedral, a beautiful old cathedral built in the 1887 but closed at the Reunification of Vietnam and wasn’t opened again until 1985.  The inside was beautiful and a similar style to Canterbury Cathedral which was strange to see.  Outside, sound the sides was a wall depicting some of the main scenes from the Bible.
• Another stop was The Temple of Literature, where Vietnam’s first national university was.  It has links back to 1070 where Emperor Ly Thanh Tong built a temple for learning as well as religion.  The building are traditional Vietnamese style, and beautiful.

So many sights in a short space of time is something I am not used to because when you live in a city, you do sights over a long period of time.  It was fantastic to see more of Vietnam though, especially Hanoi, the capital.  The food in Hanoi was amazing and highlights include the Chocolate Café – they only serve things with chocolate in, and I had the best chocolate cake.  It was definitely a girly afternoon, and not at all Vietnamese.  A more typical Vietnamese experience was going to a Bia Hoi on ‘Chicken Street’, yes it is known as Chicken Street due to the fact that there are a lot of places that serve chicken.  We sat on small plastic chairs outside, drinking beer and eating honey bread and chicken leg.  It was delicious.  Sitting on small plastic chairs outside and drinking beer is very common in Vietnam, when more people come, they just bring out more chairs.  It is lovely to have hot weather so we can sit outside.

We didn’t just go to Hanoi; we spent a night in Ha Long Bay.  It was beautiful and so peaceful.  There are almost 2000 islands, and although we didn’t go too far in we saw the Hang Sung Sot Grotto (Cave of Surprises).  It was surreal inside and was completely natural.  It reminded us of the ‘Mines of Moria’ from ‘Lord of the Rings’.  I am glad  I have seen Ha Long Bay, it is well worth a visit if you ever come to Vietnam, and it was wonderful to relax for a bit and get out of a city.  City life can be tiring, even if you don’t notice it.  A break is needed every once in a while, it is also another excuse to see different places (not that I need lots of convincing to travel!)