First Week of Teaching

I'm glad I wrote this post after my first week of teaching instead of just my first day! Had I written this after one day, it would have been more "@!#$ what have I gotten myself into?" and now I'm more "Dang. This will be hard but I can totally handle it!"

I told everyone this summer that this year would push me out of my comfort zone- and it is true- I'm definitely uncomfortable! :)

Teaching

Teaching started out being really difficult. It is really hard to be super energetic and peppy when I'm teaching a lesson for the third time in three periods. Also, I didn't realize what a big percentage of my personality is based on humor, so I'm trying to find innovative ways to be funny when my students don't really speak English. This has led to me being way over the top in terms of gestures and facial expressions. The kids have been really receptive- they all want to learn from me, so its nice that I'm starting off with positive points-I'm the new, American, foreign teacher (it helps that I'm male too- not many English teachers are male).

One reason I have to be so peppy is because students are shy. Even after being prompted multiple times, they won't speak loudly. Their classmates can't hear them, I can't hear them, even when standing right next to them. I've been working on helping them realize that is OK to make mistakes- their other teachers can be highly critical of mistakes, so I want them to know that my classroom is a safe space. (I tell the story of how I accidentally asked a Vietnamese man if he loved me, when I meant to ask him if he could understand me). It will be a work in progress, I'm sure. Some former ETAs have said it takes months for them to get louder, so I'm trying to be patient.

My schedule is pretty easy: I teach 10 Physics, 10 Math, 10 Literature (non-majors), 10 English and 11 English, all twice a week. I teach only in the morning, three times on Mon/Tues and twice on Wed/Thurs. This means I finish by 10:30 every day, so if I want to head out to Hanoi for a weekend, I can.

(Just to be clear, I teach English to everyone- even if you are majoring in Physics or Math, you still need to take English! In my high school, you specialize in one subject and take more of that. So, if you specialize in Math, you take 6 math periods per week and only 3 English ones. Flip that if you specialize in English. In my high school, you take all your subjects in the same room. The teachers move from room to room instead of students.)

I'm teaching 10 periods per week (but you count teaching major periods- teaching English to English majors or math to math majors double, so really 14). A full course load is 17 or 18 periods. So, I'm close to 3/4 time, not full time. The real teachers teach 18 periods in the morning and extra periods (for extra pay) in the afternoon.

I'm not going to lie- the first couple days were TOUGH. I was exhausted and scared. I wasn't scared of teaching or my students or anything, I was just nervous if I was going to be creative enough to create innovative lesson plans for an entire year! Fortunately, 45 minutes is really not that long a time. I have a textbook to teach from in 10 and 11 English, and I just borrow games for the non-majors.

Originally, I was the non-majors' (10 Math, Physics and Literature) only teacher- teaching grammar and grading them. I explained to the school that I wasn't qualified to give assessments or teach anything other than Speaking/Listening and so they've given me a co-teacher for each class. This is great because it means if I need to miss class, all I have to do is prepare a lesson plan ahead of time and I can have more time to travel around Vietnam!

As the week wore on, each day got easier and easier, each lesson went better and better. The students are more used to me, I'm more used to them. While it started really poorly, I think everyone feels better every lesson!

Opening Ceremonies for the new school year, even though
school had already been going for 3 weeks!

All the local officials came out!

Everyone (include my co-teacher) got dressed up in
Ao Dai ("Ow Zai")

After Opening Ceremonies, the students competed in sports.
I "led" the student team  (left) to a massive defeat against the alumni team (right).
My friend James is Number 6 in red.
If you're wondering, the current team doesn't have their jerseys for this year yet, the jerseys
last year certainly look cool!

Boredom

I anticipate being bored a lot in Lao Cai (or LC, as I will henceforth be calling it). I teach only for a couple hours every morning, and while the students are in class (7:15-11:25; 1:10-4:30; 7:30-10 every day but Sunday), I'm left to my own devices.

I've explored, but LC doesn't have a lot to do or see. It has some markets and a park, but no movie theatre or central square or library. Not even many cafes to post up and do work in! I'm going to keep exploring (I've only seen 3 of the 4 districts with any thoroughness), but I'm not super optimistic.

So far, I've read 4 books (the Airborn series and Siddartha), watched 4 movies (Dear White People, Mean Girls, Up in the Air, and Gideon's Army), and watched a ton of Youtube videos. So, by all means- send me your recommendations of books and movies to consume!

I'm also working out everyday from 3-4 (add on a 20 minute bicycle transit on either side) and playing basketball from 4:30-6.

I've made a sign up for students to sign up to have a meal with me, so I can have lunch and dinners with people. So far, I've been mostly passive-letting people invite me places. However, I know that that will slow down, as I lose my novelty, so I'm making an effort to connect with people who treat me like a normal person (i.e. not screaming hysterically whenever I say "hello") of which I have found at least 3 so far!

Friends

Making friends was one of the things I was most curious about (sorry for the passive voice). My co-workers are mostly either a) busy, b) older, or c) do not speak English. I can communicate with them but not to a sufficient degree to get any meaningful information from them.

My students are much younger- most of them are 15-16 and treat me like a....celebrity? I'm focusing on introducing myself and my foibles so they will know I'm a normal person and not an...object? Its weird- I get treated like a thing to be admired and screamed at, not a person to be talked to.

Fortunately, I've been able to make 4 friends so far!

My closest friend is James. He graduated last year from CLC (my high school) and we lift and play basketball together every day. He has great English! Unfortunately, he is leaving for the police academy at the end of the month, so he is focusing on introducing me to his friends, so I can have people to play basketball with!

I've also befriended two German girls who teach English at Lao Cai High School Number 1, about 20 minutes from me. I feel bad for them- they are only 18/19 and they just got placed in Lao Cai. They applied for a gap year to Vietnam, and all their friends are in Hanoi! (Fortunately, they have each other). They are really great and interesting people, and I would hope to be able to travel with them. The only thing is- they might leave- teaching is really hard for them because they didn't get any of the training that the Fulbrighters got. They just applied to come to Vietnam for a year; they only found out that they'd be teaching and in LC upon arrival! For very tough circumstances, I'm so impressed at how cheerful they are!

Me, Olivia, and Pauline

Finally- I've made friends with a retired Singaporean sailor named Phillip. He works out at the gym everyday. I'd say its weird that he is always there when I'm there, but the gym is only open Mon-Fri from 3 pm -7 pm, so you end up seeing the same people every time. Cool dude, good English and great spotter! (Also- very weird to lift in kilograms! Requires a lot more math to figure out what I'm lifting!)

Loneliness

After teaching (which is difficult, but getting easier), my next biggest problem has been loneliness. While many people in LC have gone out of their way to invite me to dinner, culture shock has definitely been hitting me hard. I definitely appreciate how far out of their way people have gone- there is really no getting around it- I miss my family and friends!

I was pretty surprised to come to this realization. I don't usually get homesick. Of course, I miss my friends and family- if I haven't hung out with you lately, I miss you and want to know about your life! I wasn't expecting the homesickness to be quite so strong. In college, I skyped my family once a week or once every two weeks. Not too much, and I didn't skype them because I was homesick, I skyped them because I wanted to stay involved in their lives.

Here, I've found myself talking to my family every day, sometimes even more than once a day (in the morning, which is night their time, and in the evening, which is morning their time). I become much happier once I realized that I could talk to my family and friends more often if I wanted to- I didn't have to limit myself to once a week...which was a limit I set for myself for some arbitrary reason.

So, while I always knew I had great friends and family, I've been really astounded at how willing everyone has been to skype/call/e-mail/fb message/snapchat me at all hours of the day and night. Truly, I didn't know how great everyone was until I left!

While the first two weeks in LC have been really difficult, every day has been getting easier and easier. The more I find out about Vietnam, the more everything makes sense. I have some really interesting travel plans coming up (I'm visiting Chin Yee this weekend, visiting Josh the weekend after, and going to Sapa the weekend after that!)

Picture I show when people ask to see my family- sorry Adam, but its a great picture!

The thing about Vietnam (and maybe, about post-grad life) is that everything I do, I do for the first time. That means that every day is easier than the last!

Onwards. Always Onwards.
Daniel