Getting Colder in Hanoi
1 December
It didn’t dawn on me that we’ve moved into December til my student told me that this starts the winter season in Vietnam. He tells me that it will last this way til March next year.
The weather in Hanoi is getting colder so much so that wearing two layers in the classroom is barely enough to keep warm. We all dread standing along the corridors since the winds blow, making us feel even colder. Even my students have begun to wear more than two layers in the classroom. T-shirts have given way to thicker turtlenecks and wooly sweaters.
I guess the hot day we had in Hanoi on Tuesday is gone and the cold winter is here to stay. I’m hoping that I will hold up with the cold weather for the next 8 days that I’d be here. It’s amazing to know that I’ve already been teaching for a week!
The challenges I face differs each day, and I feel proud in a way of how I’ve taken things in my stride and doing the best I can with what I had.
I wasn’t feeling too well yesterday and so didn’t go for dinner and the water puppet show with my teammates. Instead, I stayed in my room and watched Jim Carrey in Liar Liar. In between, I typed out revision notes for my students for all they did this week. Looking back, I did cover a lot with them.
I decided that the best I could help them whilst here was to help them improve on their diction and pronunciation. I realized that certain sounds were not used in their local language and hence it made producing these sounds difficult in the English language. One such sound is the “s” sound. So today, I made them learn “She sells seashells on the seashore” to get them used to using the sound. It surprised me that they actually liked it, and some were even religiously memorizing it!
Before I begin each class, I say a prayer that I’d be able to contribute to their learning, and with each class so far, my students have made me smile, perhaps as a signal to me that yes, they are learning from what I am teaching them. Today, they finally sang with Christian Bautista “I Will Be What I Believe” at least three times because they loved the song so much. After that, they even requested for more songs! And so I did one more song with them in the afternoon session, “Tomorrow Never Comes” and got them writing a love story.
I also got them to play “Playing Opposites” and it really got them excited as they went around the room trying to find the words of the opposite meaning from what they had. It was equally fun for me to see them so engaged in their learning.
It was encouraging when one of the lecturers revealed to me that our partner Vietnamese teachers have found the students more responsive and participative during our lessons, and in a way more motivated to want to learn English. It made me want to help them learn even more!
I set them some homework to do over the weekend, doing Internet research on Singapore, and having them tell me what they would like to do if they had a chance to visit Singapore. It helped that the website I referred them to had a Vietnamese version to it so it’d be simpler for them to understand. They just had to translate their ideas in English.
As I ended the day sitting at the office whilst waiting for the car to send us back to our hotel, I reflected on how far I’ve come using just what little I had, and it dawned on me that I can be doing so much more back home with so much more I’ve given. It also made me realise how many things I’ve taken for granted back home – the technology, the photocopiers, the risograph machines, the printers and not to mention WIFI. These have certainly made teaching, and learning more convenient.
The students will be bringing us on their scooters for dinner and karaoke this evening. A part of me wished I could rest instead but another knows that this is perhaps an experience I wouldn’t want to miss. So here I am, all dressed up warmer and ready to tap on the red pie of my brain. ☺ Tomorrow, there will be more sightseeing with the university people and Halong Bay on Sunday! Til then, I’m wondering if I will survive my bike ride with my students later….
Just back from the dinner and karaoke with my students. It sure was an experience as more than 20 of them gathered for dinner with us. The students picked us up from our hotel and we rode pillion on their bikes. I must admit I was shaking and shivering as we left our hotel as suddenly I felt so vulnerable! It seemed as if any bike, car or truck was going to knock me off any minute. And trust me, it’s amazing how the locals figured out their traffic rules in their homeland! They don’t use traffic lights, they don’t use signal lights, they don’t have mirrors on their bikes, they chat across bikes and even sms while riding their bikes! And I haven’t seen any accidents yet!
It was actually pretty cool as they rode slowly so the wind wasn’t exactly blowing into your face, but gently through my hair. Oh – yes… they don’t use helmets either!
Dinner was nice, and pretty much like our chicken rice and steamboat combo we get back home in Singapore. I was certainly well fed as they thought I was too skinny! Hmmm…. We had dinner near the West Lake, apparently the biggest lake in Hanoi. Too bad it was dark so I couldn’t really take pictures of the lake, but I’m sure it must be beautiful.
Karaoke after that was more of an experience as I heard Vietnamese songs. My voice gave way and I began to sound sexy even before the singing began so I was spared the singing! Thank goodness!
We headed back to the hotel before 11pm, and I learnt that it’s because their night clubs had to close by 11pm, probably early for Singapore’s standards!
Well, it gives me time to blog and get some rest before tomorrow’s full day tour. I hope to fill you guys in with more photos then! Have been in the classroom these few days so not many sights of Hanoi for you to see…
It didn’t dawn on me that we’ve moved into December til my student told me that this starts the winter season in Vietnam. He tells me that it will last this way til March next year.
The weather in Hanoi is getting colder so much so that wearing two layers in the classroom is barely enough to keep warm. We all dread standing along the corridors since the winds blow, making us feel even colder. Even my students have begun to wear more than two layers in the classroom. T-shirts have given way to thicker turtlenecks and wooly sweaters.
I guess the hot day we had in Hanoi on Tuesday is gone and the cold winter is here to stay. I’m hoping that I will hold up with the cold weather for the next 8 days that I’d be here. It’s amazing to know that I’ve already been teaching for a week!
The challenges I face differs each day, and I feel proud in a way of how I’ve taken things in my stride and doing the best I can with what I had.
I wasn’t feeling too well yesterday and so didn’t go for dinner and the water puppet show with my teammates. Instead, I stayed in my room and watched Jim Carrey in Liar Liar. In between, I typed out revision notes for my students for all they did this week. Looking back, I did cover a lot with them.
I decided that the best I could help them whilst here was to help them improve on their diction and pronunciation. I realized that certain sounds were not used in their local language and hence it made producing these sounds difficult in the English language. One such sound is the “s” sound. So today, I made them learn “She sells seashells on the seashore” to get them used to using the sound. It surprised me that they actually liked it, and some were even religiously memorizing it!
Before I begin each class, I say a prayer that I’d be able to contribute to their learning, and with each class so far, my students have made me smile, perhaps as a signal to me that yes, they are learning from what I am teaching them. Today, they finally sang with Christian Bautista “I Will Be What I Believe” at least three times because they loved the song so much. After that, they even requested for more songs! And so I did one more song with them in the afternoon session, “Tomorrow Never Comes” and got them writing a love story.
I also got them to play “Playing Opposites” and it really got them excited as they went around the room trying to find the words of the opposite meaning from what they had. It was equally fun for me to see them so engaged in their learning.
It was encouraging when one of the lecturers revealed to me that our partner Vietnamese teachers have found the students more responsive and participative during our lessons, and in a way more motivated to want to learn English. It made me want to help them learn even more!
I set them some homework to do over the weekend, doing Internet research on Singapore, and having them tell me what they would like to do if they had a chance to visit Singapore. It helped that the website I referred them to had a Vietnamese version to it so it’d be simpler for them to understand. They just had to translate their ideas in English.
As I ended the day sitting at the office whilst waiting for the car to send us back to our hotel, I reflected on how far I’ve come using just what little I had, and it dawned on me that I can be doing so much more back home with so much more I’ve given. It also made me realise how many things I’ve taken for granted back home – the technology, the photocopiers, the risograph machines, the printers and not to mention WIFI. These have certainly made teaching, and learning more convenient.
The students will be bringing us on their scooters for dinner and karaoke this evening. A part of me wished I could rest instead but another knows that this is perhaps an experience I wouldn’t want to miss. So here I am, all dressed up warmer and ready to tap on the red pie of my brain. ☺ Tomorrow, there will be more sightseeing with the university people and Halong Bay on Sunday! Til then, I’m wondering if I will survive my bike ride with my students later….
Just back from the dinner and karaoke with my students. It sure was an experience as more than 20 of them gathered for dinner with us. The students picked us up from our hotel and we rode pillion on their bikes. I must admit I was shaking and shivering as we left our hotel as suddenly I felt so vulnerable! It seemed as if any bike, car or truck was going to knock me off any minute. And trust me, it’s amazing how the locals figured out their traffic rules in their homeland! They don’t use traffic lights, they don’t use signal lights, they don’t have mirrors on their bikes, they chat across bikes and even sms while riding their bikes! And I haven’t seen any accidents yet!
It was actually pretty cool as they rode slowly so the wind wasn’t exactly blowing into your face, but gently through my hair. Oh – yes… they don’t use helmets either!
Dinner was nice, and pretty much like our chicken rice and steamboat combo we get back home in Singapore. I was certainly well fed as they thought I was too skinny! Hmmm…. We had dinner near the West Lake, apparently the biggest lake in Hanoi. Too bad it was dark so I couldn’t really take pictures of the lake, but I’m sure it must be beautiful.
Karaoke after that was more of an experience as I heard Vietnamese songs. My voice gave way and I began to sound sexy even before the singing began so I was spared the singing! Thank goodness!
We headed back to the hotel before 11pm, and I learnt that it’s because their night clubs had to close by 11pm, probably early for Singapore’s standards!
Well, it gives me time to blog and get some rest before tomorrow’s full day tour. I hope to fill you guys in with more photos then! Have been in the classroom these few days so not many sights of Hanoi for you to see…
posted by deb at 9:23 AM
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