Finally Teaching

Since I last wrote, I've continued to get more comfortable in Cao Bang.  Meeting new people and discovering new places to eat, places to hang out, and things to do has been a lot of fun.  Two weeks ago, I spent the week observing classes.  I only saw one 45 minute class a day (which left me with a ton of time with little to do), but the observations served as a nice introduction to the teaching styles of my co-workers, the classroom environment that students were used to, and the level of English among the students.  I was not surprised to see that the teachers, for the most part, simply did exactly what their textbooks told them to do.  There was little student participation, little student-to-student interaction, and no critical thinking.  The students would listen to a recording and fill in some blanks or practice saying a scripted conversation and that was pretty much the extent of the "learning" that went on. There is also a huge amount of time wasted on things that just don't matter.  For example, for some reason handwriting is really important and even accounted for in students' grades.  Another example of something that doesn't matter is the enormous focus on pronunciation. Obviously English speakers need to pronounce things in such a way that another person can understand, but beyond that, "correct" pronunciation not only doesn't exist (there are a million different accents and people pronounce things differently), but it is totally unnecessary. The goal for students should be the ability to communicate as opposed to sounding like a native speaker (whatever that even means). In addition, though this also wasn't a surprise, the teachers used way too much Vietnamese in their classrooms.  Granted, sometimes and in some classrooms it's appropriate and necessary to use the native language, but repeating every direction in Vietnamese only reassures the students that they can just tune you out when you're speaking in English!  The teachers were not only unwilling to explain things or rephrase things in English, but most of them simply can't. Almost none of the English teachers are anywhere near being fluent and there are students in each class whose English skills are far better than their teachers.  Needless to say, this is a HUGE problem. And not only is it a problem for the students, but it's a problem for me when it comes to communicating anything to most of my co-workers.  As a result, scheduling issues, concerns of mine, expectations about teaching, and everything else that I need to talk to people about is very hard and often impossible.  This has been really frustrating, but on the flip side, ignorance is bliss and it gives me an excuse to just play dumb and do things however I want. The one exception to all of this is my direct host Tuyet with whom I do not struggle to communicate and who teaches with a more interactive style. It's definitely refreshing to be able to work with her and my experience here would be infinitely more difficult without her here. My final observation was that the physical construction of the classrooms, also not surprisingly, reflects the style of teaching.  Permanent desks are squeezed into two rows in classrooms barely big enough to fit them with one small aisle in the middle. Obviously, this limits the ability for any teacher to do any activity that requires the students to stand up, let alone move around!

Watching the classes combined with ample free time also allowed me to take some time to think about and prepare for my first week of teaching.  I should also note that until Wednesday or Thursday of the week in which I was observing, I didn't have my teaching schedule for this past week!  When I did finally get my schedule, it was only for one week so I didn't know whether I would have the same students consistently or whether I would have a completely different schedule every week (although once again, I only know my schedule for the upcoming week, it appears that I'll have the same classes each week).  Anyway, I'm teaching 18 45 minute lessons each week to 15 different groups of students.  I teach the section of English majors from each grade twice per week (6 lessons) and then I have three sections of non-English majors per grade per week (12 lessons). All this means that I'm teaching hundreds of students which will make it difficult to measure progress, build relationships, and give more individualized attention. My suspicion is that they wanted to expose as many students as possible to me as a "native speaker." This brings challenges, but it also allows me to meet more people and to work with some really talented students who happen to major in subjects other than English. While it's frustrating that I was told that I would be teaching mostly students majoring in English and that's turned out to be far from true, I've learned that the best English speakers aren't necessarily the ones who major in English.  The English students are more consistent in their ability (sections of English majors have less of a range of ability within the class), but they aren't necessarily the most developed. Anyway, teaching was fun and definitely challenging, but I think it went pretty well. The biggest things I think I need to work on are: time management, balancing how much I rely on the textbook versus how much I just do my own thing, making sure everyone participates, measuring progress, and dealing with a wide range of abilities (both from class to class and within each class). An example of the latter is that one highlight of the week was having a great discussion about the positive and negative effects of economic reforms, but I also walked into another class and said (probably a little too quickly) "How's everybody today?" and they looked at me as if they didn't have the faintest clue as to what I had just said.  Overall, though, students seem to be less shy than I was expecting and many of them are also much more advanced than I was expecting.

It was also interesting to have my co-workers observing my classes this past week.  I'm really thankful that they took the time to come to my classes and they gave me some great feedback on the students and my teaching. However, in a few classes (two teachers in particular) would almost translate everything that I said.  Not only that, but they would often sit in the back and give students the answers to the questions that I was asking them. It really blew my mind that they actually thought that they were helping the students and, in fact, the students really didn't need their translations or help with the answers.  This was just another reminder of this environment where getting the right answer is all that matters.  It's really a shame that failure does not seem to be seen as part of the learning process here. Teachers come down HARD on students who don't get the right answers or act out of line and it's clearly surprising to both students and teachers when I try to embrace students' failures in the classroom. What those teachers who translated my directions don't understand is that I want some students to turn to the person next to them and ask their friend what I just said. I want to be able to rephrase directions until students can understand, I want students to disagree on answers, and I want them to think for themselves. While I probably need to do a better job of politely expressing my displeasure with my co-workers, I'm hoping that this does not continue to be a problem.

Part of my job is supposed to include organizing opportunities for cultural exchange outside of the classroom.  While this is proving difficult (getting things done in Vietnam is just generally difficult), it's in the works. I am trying to revive what seems to be an inactive English club and hopefully host some American movie nights. We'll see how it goes, but I really hope that I can make these things happen.

In my free time, I've been hanging out with both teachers and students and just exploring by myself. It has and I'm sure will continue to be difficult to build close relationships here.  Teachers are mostly busy with work and their family lives (not to mention me not being able to communicate with them), and the 4-6 year age gap between my students and me isn't ideal. However, many people have gone out of their way to look out for my well-being. Teachers often invite me to have meals with them (I've seen some interesting dishes--congealed buffalo blood on one occasion and bees on another) and students have shown me around town and included me in many activities. 

All in all, I'm really enjoying being here and continue to be thankful for all of the incredible experiences as well as the rewarding challenges.

The view from one of my classrooms. Also, I live just behind the building on the far left.

One of the rivers that runs through the town

A fun activity that I did with my students

The other river that runs through the town

One of my students took me to play badminton--never have I felt so athletically inadequate. These guys are really good! It was nice of them to include me, but I had no business being on the court with them.