Firstly, sorry it's taken me so long to do a blog update - I've just been having too much fun to stop and write it all down!
I have finished my 3 weeks of teaching at the school now and I've got to say it was an amazing 3 weeks! I met some wonderful people (Thuy and Phuong Anh, two teachers who helped with translation in my 6-7 year old class, have been absolute stars!) and the children have grown a lot in this short time.
A couple of weeks ago I taught the older (12-16 year olds) how to say "the dog ate my homework" which I hope the other teachers find as funny as I did. If nothing else, it built a lovely rapport with the students and allowed me to teach them a lot more about Western culture as well as furthering their English. In one session we were learning about meeting new people from different cultures and the children were interested to learn that people in India only eat with their right hand as they use their left hand to clean themselves.
I have spent the most time with the 6-7 year olds as they have lessons with me every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning as well as every day at 2pm. Minh is a funny little boy and I've watched him grow a lot in the past 3 weeks. He can now say "please can I borrow the ball" as he loves to play with the beach ball that I bought as a teaching tool that they play with in break times. He and a couple of the other children have also learned the word "careful" as I use it all the time when they lob the ball towards the very expensive projector and interactive board! Every time they do something that they know they're not meant to now they will instantly turn to me and say "careful"! It's very sweet! Minh is also the biggest daydreamer and is very easily distracted. He will even lose is focus when eating lunch and is always the last one to leave the lunch room. Last week the children were eating a pork steak and it was hilarious watching Minh try to eat this as he's missing his two front teeth! As we were eating with chopsticks I had no way of helping him to cut it up so all I could do was watch and try my hardest not to laugh! He managed in the end!
Thai is a funny young boy who fluctuates between angry and aggressive one day to sweet, caring and thoughtful the next. His spoken English and understanding is quite good as his older sister is also in the class and I think they practice at home too. He is the cheeky one who always needs to be reminded to be quiet or to focus but I have no doubt that he will be good at English in the future. When it's time to sleep (after lunch) he always fights with Tien Vinh over a blue pillow. I'm sure it's as soft as the other pillows but they both seem convinced that it's the best! A simple game of 'rock, paper, scissors' seems to settle the dispute most days.
Tien Vinh has a lovely temperament. He gets excited and jumps around, however, he's about as graceful as a buffalo! His English is very good, he loves drawing (and will draw and colour a picture in about 4 minutes - not good when the rest of the class takes about half an hour!) and is great at bingo. In my final week we played a couple of games of word bingo which included all of the words that we had learned over the few weeks since I've been teaching. He won the first game and was incredibly excited, screaming "BINGO" at the top of his lungs for a full 20 seconds before I asked him to sit back down so we could continue!
Thao was brand new to English when she started with us 3 weeks ago. She had never learned letters or numbers which made it very hard as everyone else had at least the basics. She is very shy and under-confident when talking in English (although she will quite happily natter away in Vietnamese when she's in the lunch room) and she doesn't like joining in with our games. I had a breakthrough in the last week when she came up to me and said boldly "thank you" straight to my face. I have no idea what she was thanking me for but it made my day!
Hoang Linh is a little bit older than the other children in the class and his English is a little better. He doesn't really like to engage in the lessons very much and would prefer to do exercises in his book (he and Ha Linh have a different exercise book to the rest as they are more advanced). I take a 30 minute lesson with Ha Linh and Hoang Linh every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to work with them on some more complicated English as I am aware that they get bored in the beginners class. During breaks he likes to lie on the floor and play with the ball (sometimes at the same time!). He loves the soup at lunch and will sometimes have 3 bowls and he loves Oreo biscuits which he brings for break-time quite often.
Ha Linh is the oldest girl and likes to take on the Queen Bee role. Thao can often be seen mimicking her or following her around like a little sheep. In the lunchroom they take great pleasure in whispering to each other, looking at me and laughing knowing full well that I don't understand. I once asked one of the Vietnamese teachers to translate for me - apparently they'd just said that Miss Jenny looks like a man! Kids can be so lovely, can't they?!
One thing I have found interesting is that the children here learn American English. I find that I have to translate myself before teaching the children (the pronunciation of 'vase' and 'tomato' and the spelling of favourite/ favorite and colour/ color stand out). In India it was easy as they learn English English (it was Molly who struggled when she would use words like 'trash' or 'period' instead of 'full stop') but I have found that it's kept me on my toes here.
All in all, a great few weeks. I've learned a lot about how children learn, how quickly they learn and how different they all are in their abilities and needs.
I have finished my 3 weeks of teaching at the school now and I've got to say it was an amazing 3 weeks! I met some wonderful people (Thuy and Phuong Anh, two teachers who helped with translation in my 6-7 year old class, have been absolute stars!) and the children have grown a lot in this short time.
A couple of weeks ago I taught the older (12-16 year olds) how to say "the dog ate my homework" which I hope the other teachers find as funny as I did. If nothing else, it built a lovely rapport with the students and allowed me to teach them a lot more about Western culture as well as furthering their English. In one session we were learning about meeting new people from different cultures and the children were interested to learn that people in India only eat with their right hand as they use their left hand to clean themselves.
I have spent the most time with the 6-7 year olds as they have lessons with me every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning as well as every day at 2pm. Minh is a funny little boy and I've watched him grow a lot in the past 3 weeks. He can now say "please can I borrow the ball" as he loves to play with the beach ball that I bought as a teaching tool that they play with in break times. He and a couple of the other children have also learned the word "careful" as I use it all the time when they lob the ball towards the very expensive projector and interactive board! Every time they do something that they know they're not meant to now they will instantly turn to me and say "careful"! It's very sweet! Minh is also the biggest daydreamer and is very easily distracted. He will even lose is focus when eating lunch and is always the last one to leave the lunch room. Last week the children were eating a pork steak and it was hilarious watching Minh try to eat this as he's missing his two front teeth! As we were eating with chopsticks I had no way of helping him to cut it up so all I could do was watch and try my hardest not to laugh! He managed in the end!
Thai is a funny young boy who fluctuates between angry and aggressive one day to sweet, caring and thoughtful the next. His spoken English and understanding is quite good as his older sister is also in the class and I think they practice at home too. He is the cheeky one who always needs to be reminded to be quiet or to focus but I have no doubt that he will be good at English in the future. When it's time to sleep (after lunch) he always fights with Tien Vinh over a blue pillow. I'm sure it's as soft as the other pillows but they both seem convinced that it's the best! A simple game of 'rock, paper, scissors' seems to settle the dispute most days.
Tien Vinh has a lovely temperament. He gets excited and jumps around, however, he's about as graceful as a buffalo! His English is very good, he loves drawing (and will draw and colour a picture in about 4 minutes - not good when the rest of the class takes about half an hour!) and is great at bingo. In my final week we played a couple of games of word bingo which included all of the words that we had learned over the few weeks since I've been teaching. He won the first game and was incredibly excited, screaming "BINGO" at the top of his lungs for a full 20 seconds before I asked him to sit back down so we could continue!
Thao was brand new to English when she started with us 3 weeks ago. She had never learned letters or numbers which made it very hard as everyone else had at least the basics. She is very shy and under-confident when talking in English (although she will quite happily natter away in Vietnamese when she's in the lunch room) and she doesn't like joining in with our games. I had a breakthrough in the last week when she came up to me and said boldly "thank you" straight to my face. I have no idea what she was thanking me for but it made my day!
Hoang Linh is a little bit older than the other children in the class and his English is a little better. He doesn't really like to engage in the lessons very much and would prefer to do exercises in his book (he and Ha Linh have a different exercise book to the rest as they are more advanced). I take a 30 minute lesson with Ha Linh and Hoang Linh every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to work with them on some more complicated English as I am aware that they get bored in the beginners class. During breaks he likes to lie on the floor and play with the ball (sometimes at the same time!). He loves the soup at lunch and will sometimes have 3 bowls and he loves Oreo biscuits which he brings for break-time quite often.
Ha Linh is the oldest girl and likes to take on the Queen Bee role. Thao can often be seen mimicking her or following her around like a little sheep. In the lunchroom they take great pleasure in whispering to each other, looking at me and laughing knowing full well that I don't understand. I once asked one of the Vietnamese teachers to translate for me - apparently they'd just said that Miss Jenny looks like a man! Kids can be so lovely, can't they?!
One thing I have found interesting is that the children here learn American English. I find that I have to translate myself before teaching the children (the pronunciation of 'vase' and 'tomato' and the spelling of favourite/ favorite and colour/ color stand out). In India it was easy as they learn English English (it was Molly who struggled when she would use words like 'trash' or 'period' instead of 'full stop') but I have found that it's kept me on my toes here.
All in all, a great few weeks. I've learned a lot about how children learn, how quickly they learn and how different they all are in their abilities and needs.
You really are being worked hard for your teaching - sounds fascinating! :-)
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