We were picked up at 5:30am to get onto a bus to Tan An and finally meet with our school. We arrived at 9am in the outskirts of Tan An, which was much quieter than what we'd seen so far. We were introduced to the school's director and straight away we were given a lesson topic and just 15 minutes to prepare an example 45 minute lesson to perform to other staff members - no pressure!
I feel it went well, and afterwards the feedback I was given was that I'll fit in well but I just need to talk slower so the students could understand (I'll put my fast speech down to nerves!). Claire had pretty much the same feedback.
After the class we were told that we would have a few days of teaching classes assisted to ease us in (thank god!), but we would have to go stay in My Tho to do it because a teacher there is sick. So our plans changed once again and we headed half an hours drive away to My Tho...
We got there and were shown to our accommodation: the teachers house directly behind the school (but down a nice quiet lane - quiet hasn't been part of the vocabulary so far!). The inside was a bit basic and lacking charm but had all the things you'd need - shower, bed, WiFi etc. Later on we were given our schedule for whilst we were here: 1 class each on Friday evening and a full schedule on Saturday and Sunday of 4 classes each day with 1.5 hour lessons.
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| The teacher's house in My Tho |
After all that we just wanted to relax at home but the owner of our house insisted on inviting us out for dinner and wouldn't take no for an answer. We really wanted to say no but our sense of adventure told us to go with it so we agreed.
So our landlord and another man arrived at 8 to pick us up on their motorbikes, we both jumped on the back and were whisked away to a street food seller a few roads over (streetfood sellers also have little chairs and tables outside so they double as little restaurants). We sat down and soon after 6 others joined our table. Everyone was friendly but one person in particular was the best English speaker - his name was Hai.
After getting to know each other and tucking into some vegetarian pho, Hai explained why we were here. He had told these people there were 2 native English teachers in My Tho and no one believed him - it turns out that everyone here was actually learning English themselves and Hai was their leader, they were the seniors community! (They looked a bit older, but apart from one with grey hair I'd never had guessed they were all over 65!). They wanted to get to know us and practice speaking English with them, to which we were glad to.
In the group, many of them were actually war veterans - Claire and I instantly looked to change the subject as whatever side they were on, we would've been uncomfortable talking about the war - and one of them was even a high state chief of the area we were staying in (kind of like a mayor).
After eating (we knew they would insist on paying as it is custom here if someone invites you out) we headed for a drink (to be polite we just had lemonade rather than beer) and carried on conversation and practicing English. We continued the conversation and Hai said if we came back to My Tho he would love us to join the local tennis club and another invited us to come visit his large gardens for a free tour. Eventually Hai said to us "you must be tired" - at which point we took our cue to leave, our research before leaving home had told us when this phrase is used it's a polite way of requesting you to leave (and for everyone to do the same), our research on customs paying off!
The whole experience was so humbling, it was like I was watching some documentary with Michael Palin, except there were no cameras and this was real. This sort of thing can actually happen!
Friday 14th March 2014
We had all day off until our first lesson at 5:30pm, so we went for coffee at a cafe nearby which was really nice, with water features and fountains, and then before we headed to class we filled up on pho at a nearby street seller before heading to school. We hadn't been given any lesson plan and didn't know if we would be leading the class or not, so the lack of information only served to heighten our nerves.
We both sat in on a teacher's class - ages being roughly 10-13 - and he called us up at certain points to introduce ourselves, ask questions, drill pronunciation and correct pronunciation. The same teacher had two classes back to back so it was a 3 hour stint in one room.
We had both been incredibly nervous, but as we didn't have to do too much in this first class we came out happier to have gotten over the hurdle of the first class and we both had more confidence.
We headed across the road to a restaurant for celebratory beers and a large plate of Singapore noodles (only thing on the menu we knew to order here!).
Saturday 15th March 2014
Woke up early and ready for a long day, with our first lessons at 7:30am. At weekends the lessons here are mostly for much younger kids and we experienced that was the case throughout.
Most of my classes didn't go like they had the night before, in fact I lead nearly all of them. As before, I was given no preparation as to what to teach, so I just frantically whispered with the teachers when they arrived to ask what to cover before they all nonchalantly sat at the back and watched.
Most of my classes followed the same pattern: introduce myself, get them to ask me questions to learn about me, then use those topics to ask the same questions to them, practice the words I elicited, drill the words chorally and individually, correct students and then cover a small bit of a textbook before spending the last 20 minutes playing a game (my 'go to' being hangman, which they love).
We had a couple of hours off for lunch which whizzed by, before more classes until 5:15. Afterwards we headed back over the road and wanted to eat something other than Singapore noodles but due to lack of knowledge of Vietnamese we caved and had them again (they are lovely though!).
Sunday 16th March 2014
Up early again for classes at 7:30am, we break for 5 hours at 11am, and we eat pho at a street seller, get coffee and then doze at home before another shift until 7pm.
Classes were almost an exact replica of yesterday's with some of the same subjects being taught too, which isn't motivating but did allow us to start to hone our techniques. Once again we go for beer and Singapore noodles before returning home to Skype family.
Tomorrow we are finally supposed to head to Tan An and at the time of writing our 8am pick up is now delayed by over 6 hours... Lovely.
At this point we haven't been enamoured with our surroundings, and we are clearly the only Westerners here which does mean a lot of eyes on us when we walk around, but generally people are friendly and say hello.
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| The only real sight we've seen in My Tho - lovely Buddhist temple near our house. |
We hope when we get to Tan An we can settle into life there and into life with our classes because so far the truth is we haven't fallen in love here with the locations. There are some good points such as the food and coffee and nice people, but other things are lacking. We came on this adventure perhaps too focused on the travelling and beaches, which does make being somewhere not of our specific choosing harder, so much so that Claire and I are already looking to when we next get a couple of days off and where we can go!
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