Vietnam... First Impressions

I need to put a few thoughts on my first impressions of Vietnam and of my new role at Eastern International University, Binh Duong.   This is unashamedly personal, rather than professional, although I do mention my new job and my first feelings about being at Eastern International University in Binh Duong New City. 

I flew out to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) on 31 October, with the intention of turning up at work on 1 November.  This I did, briefly, just to sort out my documentation, which included everything apart from my police check, which hadn't arrived in time before I left the UK.   The journey, at night, to my Hotel, the Thiên Hà, in Thủ Dầu Một was remarkable mostly for seeing the nightlife in Saigon for the first time, and the incredible number of motorbikes dominating the streets.  The pre-arranged taxi driver stung me for an extra 100,000 dong, fitting with a pattern that I am used to whenever I have arrived in a new country.  But jet lag dictates every time and my naivety won again.  I was also concerned about not being able to withdraw money at the ATM from one bank card, and this was due to a stoppage, due to some (not really) unusual purchases on my journey.  I managed to sort it out the next day, once I had rung the fraud section.  I sorted out some photos at the same time as another new arrival, Tom Petty, at a local 'Kodak' shop, in the shadows of Becamex Tower.  The photos which I had arranged in the UK did not have the sufficiently white background, but a very quick photoshopped, new portrait was conducted very cheaply.  Becamex, by the way, are one of the biggest corporations in the area and involved in many things other than education.  They will also be paying my wages.

On Tuesday, I went with Tom to the local hospital, for a health check, followed by a trip to HSBC to open a bank account, so that I could get paid (but not until December 15).  The former was interesting to say the least, full to the rafters, complete with possible casualities of the war or traffic accidents.  Laughably, for Tom and the accompanying assistant from EIU, I couldn't 'perform' the urine test, and had to drink copious amounts of water to pass the test.  Some of the other tests were quite arbitrary and were not dissimilar to those I had to undertake when I first went to Beijing.

First coffee, Cafe Sua Da, full of sugery condensed milk, was followed on Friday by a first taste of the somewhat basic canteen food at the university.  Cheap offcuts of meat, something soupy and rice.  Subsequent coffees were strong and black, Cafe Nam/Da, but still served with ice, both at the hotel and at the canteen.  Dừa (cocunuts) were an additional recommendation.

I met up with Tom Baker (a colleague from KSA, Riyadh) later in the evening.  Having stayed in the hotel for a whole year, he had just found a place to rent with 3 others.  He had also had equipped himself with a motorbike, similar to many others at EIU.  We tried some food at Tay Ho, which was a decent mix of shrimp soup and stir fried vegetables.  I was also introduced to JD's - an expat hang-out, with familiar western style breakfasts, cheap double gin and tonics and quiz nights.   

On Friday night, my head was full of stories about EIU, but I put that to one side as I ventured back into Saigon for my first night, staying at the reasonably-priced Bi Saigon hotel off Pham Ngu Lao, in the backpacker friendly district 1, but first heading out with work colleagues to watch an amateur dramatic performance of the Rocky Horror (Picture) Show.  The venue was the Bon Mua Restaurant on the banks of the river in District 2.  A sterling effort, carried by the leads, with a impromptu appearance by a live bat just as Brad and Janet approached Frank-n-Furters Castle.  This was followed by some dancing at The Hideaway, where a couple of guys from work did some DJ-ing. 

 

 

I was highly conscious of carrying my new Lumix camera and Blackberry.  I later ditched the mobile in favour of a Nokia complete with local SIM card. I took an expensive but tasty thai lunch at a place opposite the Crazy Buffalo.  Any culture shock which I was suffering from, was tempered by the number of foreigners wandering around District 1. The 616 bus back to Thủ Dầu Một, was convenient found parked in Pham Ngu Lao.

During the week I ate out at some local establishments - namely JD's, Billies, 'Quan Hai Phuong' (so-called 'Squid' restaurant), and Mi Xao Gion.  All of these are within a stone's throw of the Thiên Ha.  All of this was necessary to orientate myself to my new neighbourhood.  The disorientation that I have been feeling since I got here, was compounded by being so dependant on others who seemingly have adapted to life here a lot quicker than I might imagine happening to myself.  Being in a paid-for hotel, too, is a stop-gap, but in one week's time I have to start paying to be here, of which I talk about a bit more in a moment.

During induction, at EIU, on the Monday, I became completely overwhelmed, almost to the point of thinking I couldn't do it, and contemplating the next, convenient flight out of the country.  Still quite jet lagged, my brain really wasn't functioning well and the extensive list of 'problems' associated with Vietnamese learners of English, didn't help.  Nonetheless, I slept on it, landing myself a desk, if not a computer, which I inherited from a South African who had had to leave suddenly due to a death in his family.  I also inherited his classes and found myself partnering a friendly and helpful British guy (pre-intermediate class) and his actual partner, an equally friendly Russian woman (elementary class).  There are a high percentage of British language teachers in post, with a splattering of Americans, South Africans, Germans and Aussies.  A remarkably high number had previously taught in Korea, while some have experience of the Middle East, like myself.  I was encouraged by a conversation I had about Teacher Training Videos, run by my friend and former personal tutor, Russell Stannard, at Warwick.  And I found myself using his site to introduce myself to Edmodo, a web tool being rolled out across the programme.

 

It is certainly going to be a steep-learning curve, and it would do me well to stay away from the politics and get on and just focus on teaching my classes.  All thoughts of being senior teacher have been quickly jettisoned in my mind, as I realised it would be difficult enough just to teach my daily four-hour classes (with 15 minute break).  Although IELTS preparation is a big motivational factor here, I am less involved in that, teaching on the general English program.  But I did offer the Collins IELTS books, which I won in Glasgow earlier this year, and these were gratefully received. My classes are a reasonably manageable 18 and 16 students respectfully, and despite the difficulties they face as learners, the big advantage is just how keen they are and willing to endure long class times.  I was cheered up by the round of applause I got when I was introduced to my pre-intermediate class on the day before I started teaching.  I think they were relieved to have a change of teacher, who had not been recording what he had done from the extensive scheme of work.  It was a great start, creating rapport and doing pronunciation, followed by a decent second lesson.  Keen, forgiving students who didn't seem to notice that on Friday I was 'spent' - no energy other than to teach straight from the book.  Test and homework submitted, but complete failure trying to get them to post a simple Mail Vu messgage on Edmodo.  I flagged a little during my third lesson on the Friday, relying on the book too much and wondering what the hell I was doing with them.  But they 'warmed' to their weekly test and the instructions for a game of 'battleships' was received and acted upon much better than I expected. 

The terms (or 'quarters') are 10 weeks long, during which time, in theory, the students progress from one level to the next, but in reality this is notoriously dificult.  They are tested at the end of every level.  In that sense, it was not dissimiliar to the situation I found myself in Beijing where there was an unrealistic expectations of how quickly the students could progress.  The British Council advice on going up a level takes a minimum of 6 months, but we are expecting them to progress in a much shorter space of time, which doesn't happen.  Luckily the manager of the general English programme is extremely knowledgable, helpful and willing to defend the teachers against the management of the institution if unrealistic progression is not forthcoming.

On my second Friday, and at the end of my first full week, I visited the Aroma Apartments, courtesy of an invitation from Andrea and her husband, Mark.  I am now faced, although not imminently, with a choice of whether I stay in the hotel, which is restrictive, but conveniently situated in the heart of the city, and these wonderfully furnished and spacious apartments, complete with HD TV, which almost overlook EIU, but stand alone in massive field of soon to be developed land.  The aim, I think, is to have 70,000 people living in Binh Duong New City, by 2020.  If I decide the move there, then the purchase of a small motorbike will be needed in order to get back and forth to Thủ Dầu Một. The third option would be to rent a place and sign a Vietnamese tenancy agreement, but that would require maybe 2 or 3 more interested teachers, willing to do the same.  The hotel is convenient for now, but will cost something approaching 450 dollars a month.  The apartment is conveniently paid for by Becamex and I would only need to fork out for utilities.  I could, however, shop and cook.  The big question is whether I would feel isolated living there.

This morning (Saturday) I found a swimming pool, thanks to my partner teacher's directions.  There I had an enjoyable swim, although I unwittingly drew the attention of lots of local kids, who were curious to know how I looked without my clothes on!  I also undertook a shop at the Big C supermarket, successfully getting a taxi back to the hotel before catching up with Tom and the owner of JD's, Harry, teacher and proprietor of the aforementioned Bar & Grill.  On Saturday night, I felt that I had finally arrived, just over one week after I actually did, with a trip into the city for a drink at May's Cafe and then a taxi back to the best restaurant I have found so far, Quan Hai Phuong.  On the way back from there, I discovered a Korean restaurant, so that's the next place I have earmarked for an evening meal.

 

Mental Indigestion

Library Noticeboard - what is 'Warwick Jailbreak' ?

REFLECTION: It's the end of week 4 of my MA ELTAM (ELT/ICT/MM) .  I seemed to have squeezed a lot in and it's still October.  I've been taking modules in Spoken English, Issues and Research in ELT, Second Language Acquisition and Classroom Language Learning , Text and Discourse Analysis and Research Methodology.  The first part of the first marked assignment is done, although I still have to hand it in and there is little time to rest until Christmas. I say, 'rest', but there is still time to drink, but only mildly, and I have yet to go to a single SU event. I have no interest in the nightlife - that's for freshers and maybe 2nd years,  innit? Not us postgrads.  I've been out in Leamington a few times - with my housemates - most notably the Jug and Jester (a Weatherspoons pub) - but I am keeping the drinking to a sensible level, knowing that there is seemingly bottomless pit of reading to do and, being the conscientious student I am, I don't want to miss the opportunity to get a 'distinction', which my tutor, Russell,  candidly said I should aim for.  I've only missed one seminar so far and despite feeling poorly, it has more to do with the bus not turning up on time.  

INTERNATIONAL FLAVOUR: As I mentioned before it is very international on the MA ELT with 29 out of 57 students coming from China, another 5 from Taiwan, 5 from Syria - which is interesting in itself considering the political turmoil taking place right now in that country.    Another 20 countries are represented, with myself, Christine and Joanne (see later) being the only Brits.  As you can imagine, I feel entirely comfortable in this environment.  We have a closed MA ELT facebook group to share thoughts, ideas and videos.  That currently has 26 members.

 

MA ELT module breakdown below:

SPOKEN ENGLISH:  My favourite module so far is the ethnomethodological inspired area of conversation analysis.  The minutiae of everyday conversation/talk - with each other and in the classroom.    I have already finished the first part of my first marked assignment.  This was based on an informal chat with Luke Phillips in the Round Midnight Jazz and Blues Bar in the Angel Islington, London (23 October).    I recorded this after failing to get what I wanted at the Language Show (see later).   I absolutely love breaking down and analysing in depth what people actually say when they speak. I guess I have developed this fascination over many years, including the way we initiate, take turns, self-repair and end conversations.  The module has also been our introduction to the hyper and talkative Keith Richards.   A man who can't let silence go uninterrupted, he has entertained and informed with passion.  He really knows his specialist area and leads by example, although one or two of the international students get lost with some of his  anectdotal references.

ISSUES AND RESEARCH - a thorough look at the history, theory, methods and practices of ELT - such as Audiolingualism, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Task-based Learning (TBLT), and applied linguistics.  It features a significant summary of the history of ELT from the joint author of the UK directory of research and as mentioned in Scott Thornbury's A-Z of ELT.  It draws upon experiences in the classroom and is, therefore, not open to students who haven't had at least 2 years language teaching experience.  It includes some focus on Reflective Practice for language teachers and as an extension of that a number of co-operative development groups have begun, co-ordinated by Steve Mann, who has worked with people like Julian Edge and Thomas Farrell - who spoke at last year's IATEFL conference.  More to follow.

SLA:  Being reflective also forms part of the Second Language Acquisition module.  A jointly-presented module, between Japanese-born but Irish-raised Ema Ushioda and Hungarian-born Annamaria Pinter.  This module concerns key concepts around second language learning, invidvidual factors, such as age, motivation, interaction and output.  It also involves learning Hungarian and Irish (Gaelic) using different methods (deductive/inductive) to remind us what it is like to be beginner learners.   

SLA Lecture

TEXT AND DISCOURSE - so far, a literary-filled romp through textual cohesion - learning about exophoric, endophoric, andophoric, catophoric referencing - and genre analysis from a 100 year-old (sic) expert in Language and Intercultrual Communication.  Yup! We have crossed the muddy, tempestuous waters of ideational meaning in an interdisciplinarity analysis of minutiae, and deconstructed Coldplay's Yellow along the way. Warning: reading more than one article per day causes 'Mental Indigestion'. Yup!

RESEARCH METHODS:  Obvious, really.  An ongoing foray into the ethics, practice and obstacles surrounding collecting original data. This goes into term 2 and, naturally, leads into the final dissertation. I've been here before, of course, with my first degree in Sociology, at Anglia.

GUEST SPEAKER:  As part of the Issues module, and on the invitation of Richard Smith, a visting professor, John Gray came to talk (19 October) about 'Neoliberalism, celebrity and 'aspirational content' in ELT textbooks.  Interesting because as English language teachers we often find UK/US published textbooks promote the role model of 'celebrity' as an appropriate resource for learning the language.  I had never really thought about it before at the level he spoke of.  I whipped my camera out to record it and was soon having to forward this onto the department for the benefit for those that missed it and wanted to watch it later.

LANGUAGE SHOW LIVE / RUSSELL'S TRAINING SESSIONS: As I mentioned, I went down to London last weekend for the Language Show at Olympia, Kensington.  I stayed in Hackney overnight.  I primarily went to see Johanna Stirling give her talk on 'Spelling Myths and Enchantments' and to record the audio of this for my Speaking English assignment.  I also recorded several other pieces but had to abandon the idea of using it due to background noise and a very monologic (one way) delivery.  As a bonus, I saw Russell promote his website, Teacher Training Videos and give a demo on Mailvu - easy-to-use video email, which can be utilised by students for submitting homework and giving feedback to students.  He went through this again on Friday with an online session, conducted from his office.  He also talked about using Todays Meet and Jing.  All of these are incredible simple to use.  I seem to have heard a lot about the connected classroom lately.  But this is just the beginning of getting to try out a whole range of web tools and write about this in term 2. Other such items already tried out include: Brainshark, Blackboard, Audacity, Soundscriber and  Webex, although there's nothing like the simplicity of 'Snipping Tool', which comes free with Windows 7, for a straightforward screen-capture.

At Russell's presentation at the Language Show, 22 October

Jo Gakonga is a part-time, two-year MA student who has already overturned her sceptical view of technology and started her own blog, teacher training website and online training sessions.  She has quickly adapted to using various tools, like the ones mentioned above, and she is becoming a good person to hang around due to the significant progress she has made on the course, by drawing on her personal experiences.   When it comes to devising my own blog for the second term, well, I've already got one.  I could start again, or I could develop the one I've already got.  I will continue to adapt it, therefore, for the purpose of my MA and the future.  But how to increase page views? That's the trick.  Well as this happens, it may become less personal.  However, I have the opportunity to develop other ways of expressing personal development, without resorting the publishing this for anyone to potential see (not that they do currently, page views for individual posts on this blog are generally in the single figures at the time of writing!)

CO-OPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT GROUP:   Being a reflective professional is something that has already come up and with the help of Steve Mann, mentioned above, a 5 person group has been set up.  This includes Joanna, Christine (the 2 other Brits), a teacher and fluent French speaker from Trinidad and Tobago, and one from India.   It could lead into Steve's optional module on Teacher Education and Development in Term 2.   Although there are very interesting modules on Literature and Drama, Professional and Academic Discourse and Language Testing to choose from, I think this is likely to be the module I pick for Term 2.  It leads into my long-term goal of being a teacher training.   I recorded a 30 minute video in the first session, during which I took the chair and spoke at length about how I came to be at Warwick and how my 'personal' and my 'professional' entwine themselves.  The others generally listened and gave reflective responses only as 'understanders'.  Much like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, their role was not to add their opinions, advice or ask too many questions, but instead they would gently prompt me.  I went into knowing what I wanted to reveal and this seemed like the perfect, safe place to do it.  I didn't write a script, however and I didn't write any notes down beforehand. 

Being a Reflective Teacher and getting some free counselling

STEPHEN FRY'S PLANET WORD: I have been watching  Stephen Fry's Planet Word and telling others about it. Very good.  Pompous, as always, but he covers a lot of ground on the history and use of language.

Fry at Carrow Road

DIVING THEORY:  I've joined the British Sub-Aqua Club and enroled on an ocean-diver course.  I've had two theory lessons so far, but I have postponed the swimming pool sessions until the new year.  The reason is I want to focus on training for the trip to Cornwall in March when, after a weeks worth of diving in the sea I should quality as an ocean diver.

185 TACHBROOK ROAD:  I've run out of time and I want to post.  Suffice to say, we recently received our 10th housemates, Harriet, but we also have a mysterious 11th housemate, called 'Barry', who lives in the cellar.

Signing off.

TP