I had a great chat with Thuy, the other teacher that I have been working alongside with the 6-7 year olds (I need someone to translate for me as they know very little English) about the Vietnamese funeral tradition. At the weekend she had been at a party celebrating the life of her Great Grandmother. Thuy explained that there are many parties associated with someone's passing. Firstly, there is a wake after the funeral. 3 days after this there is another party and then 49 days after the funeral there is yet another party. The Vietnamese believe that the person's soul is trapped in the house after death so, at 49 days, the family all get together and throw a party that is designed to help the soul to leave the house and go to heaven. Depending on the lunar calendar there may be a party 15 days after the funeral but this was too complicated for Thuy to explain so we just left it at that! There is then a huge party 1 year later and another 2 huge parties in the following 2 years. Every year after that the family gets together and celebrates the life of the person who has passed away. Thuy and her family were celebrating the life of her Great Grandmother who had passed away before she was even born! How wonderful that they're still celebrating all these years on!
As I was fascinated by this conversation I then asked if there were any traditions related to birth. Thuy told me that 7 days after the birth of a girl the family has a party. They also throw a party for the boys but this is held 9 days after birth. Apparently this is different because it is believed that girls have 7 souls whereas boys have 9 souls. This is why the numbers 7 and 9 are very lucky in Vietnam.
We next went on to talk about university and finances. In the countryside people can expect to earn about 1-2 million dong (£31 to £62) per month from agriculture. On this kind of money it's hard to afford the cost of university. The government does help by giving a loan but it is still difficult. If students move to the city for university then they should expect to pay 1.5 million dong a month to rent a property. Student accommodation (that sounds like student halls in UK) is given to the poorer students for a reduced rate of 400,0000 dong (£12) per month. So the government does try to help the poorer families to get to university but, as in the UK, most students need to get a part-time job to help to pay their way. Teacher training courses are free (the government pays the fees) but, once qualified, teachers will only start on 3 million dong (£91) per month. This will only increase to a maximum of 6 million after many years of experience are gained in teaching. Teachers are currently asking the government for more.
Now that Alex has gone, I have been asked to work with some university students in the evening. I come up with a topic of conversation each evening and we discuss and debate around this topic. The first one I picked for yesterday was organ donation (I wanted to really challenge their beliefs and their English!) and we had a very interesting session. We discussed about blood donation, the types of organs that can be donated and the physical and emotional effects of donating organs on you (live donor) or your family (donating your organs after death). I then posed the questions "should an alcoholic be given a new liver if they are still drinking?" and "should an alcoholic be given a second donor liver if they destroy their own liver and the first donor liver". This struck up some very interesting conversations and the students became very aware of the dilemmas that healthcare professionals find themselves faced with every day. To me the most interesting conversation of the evening came out of a point I made about 'opt-in' donor registers vs 'opt-out' donor registers. I'd mentioned that in UK we have to opt-in to donate our organs but in countries like Spain and Austria it is assumed that you will donate your organs unless you opt-out. The Vietnamese students were horrified at this as it goes against their beliefs about the next life. It is believed that, if you donate your eyes after death, then you won't be able to see in the next life. You need to die complete to be complete in the next life. This fascinated me as it's the main reason that Vietnamese people do not donate organs. Some Vietnamese have now overcome these fears and started to donate blood - there is an incentive for this in that if you need a blood transfusion and you have previously donated blood then you can have blood for free. If you have not previously donated blood but you need a transfusion then you need to pay for it. This linked nicely into the main debate - "As there is a lack of donors on the donor register, should we get paid to donate organs?". Once again lots of brilliant ideas were thrown around. One side asked how you would price each organ and conveyed the potential for a black market and for an increase in murders for organs and the other side stated that it would increase the number of donors, thus saving countless lives. Needless to say, we are all still sitting on the fence!
Today we discussed volunteering and specifically the types of volunteer opportunities available, how we find out about volunteering, whether you should be expected to pay to volunteer and how we could increase the number of people willing to volunteer (26% of adults in UK volunteered at least once a month last year). I also posed the question "should companies give employees 6 months off every 5 years to volunteer". It was another interesting debate with one side talking about how the employee will 'find themselves' and learn/ improve skills in time management, team work and communication as well as learning about different cultures and different potential client bases (depending on the job). The other side argued that it was too expensive to keep a position open and/ or to train someone to take over the post in the short-term (or in the long-term if the employee decides not to come back after the 6 month period). Once again, we were on the fence. Thankfully none of us need to make this decision currently!
As I was fascinated by this conversation I then asked if there were any traditions related to birth. Thuy told me that 7 days after the birth of a girl the family has a party. They also throw a party for the boys but this is held 9 days after birth. Apparently this is different because it is believed that girls have 7 souls whereas boys have 9 souls. This is why the numbers 7 and 9 are very lucky in Vietnam.
We next went on to talk about university and finances. In the countryside people can expect to earn about 1-2 million dong (£31 to £62) per month from agriculture. On this kind of money it's hard to afford the cost of university. The government does help by giving a loan but it is still difficult. If students move to the city for university then they should expect to pay 1.5 million dong a month to rent a property. Student accommodation (that sounds like student halls in UK) is given to the poorer students for a reduced rate of 400,0000 dong (£12) per month. So the government does try to help the poorer families to get to university but, as in the UK, most students need to get a part-time job to help to pay their way. Teacher training courses are free (the government pays the fees) but, once qualified, teachers will only start on 3 million dong (£91) per month. This will only increase to a maximum of 6 million after many years of experience are gained in teaching. Teachers are currently asking the government for more.
Now that Alex has gone, I have been asked to work with some university students in the evening. I come up with a topic of conversation each evening and we discuss and debate around this topic. The first one I picked for yesterday was organ donation (I wanted to really challenge their beliefs and their English!) and we had a very interesting session. We discussed about blood donation, the types of organs that can be donated and the physical and emotional effects of donating organs on you (live donor) or your family (donating your organs after death). I then posed the questions "should an alcoholic be given a new liver if they are still drinking?" and "should an alcoholic be given a second donor liver if they destroy their own liver and the first donor liver". This struck up some very interesting conversations and the students became very aware of the dilemmas that healthcare professionals find themselves faced with every day. To me the most interesting conversation of the evening came out of a point I made about 'opt-in' donor registers vs 'opt-out' donor registers. I'd mentioned that in UK we have to opt-in to donate our organs but in countries like Spain and Austria it is assumed that you will donate your organs unless you opt-out. The Vietnamese students were horrified at this as it goes against their beliefs about the next life. It is believed that, if you donate your eyes after death, then you won't be able to see in the next life. You need to die complete to be complete in the next life. This fascinated me as it's the main reason that Vietnamese people do not donate organs. Some Vietnamese have now overcome these fears and started to donate blood - there is an incentive for this in that if you need a blood transfusion and you have previously donated blood then you can have blood for free. If you have not previously donated blood but you need a transfusion then you need to pay for it. This linked nicely into the main debate - "As there is a lack of donors on the donor register, should we get paid to donate organs?". Once again lots of brilliant ideas were thrown around. One side asked how you would price each organ and conveyed the potential for a black market and for an increase in murders for organs and the other side stated that it would increase the number of donors, thus saving countless lives. Needless to say, we are all still sitting on the fence!
Today we discussed volunteering and specifically the types of volunteer opportunities available, how we find out about volunteering, whether you should be expected to pay to volunteer and how we could increase the number of people willing to volunteer (26% of adults in UK volunteered at least once a month last year). I also posed the question "should companies give employees 6 months off every 5 years to volunteer". It was another interesting debate with one side talking about how the employee will 'find themselves' and learn/ improve skills in time management, team work and communication as well as learning about different cultures and different potential client bases (depending on the job). The other side argued that it was too expensive to keep a position open and/ or to train someone to take over the post in the short-term (or in the long-term if the employee decides not to come back after the 6 month period). Once again, we were on the fence. Thankfully none of us need to make this decision currently!
Lots of English teachers would have just asked the students about family, friends, travel and the weather. Get them working hard!
ReplyDeleteHow many souls does a cat have? i think it's just one very dark one.