June 3rd, 2024 - Teaching day 1

Slept from 9 pm to 6 am last night. Had an orange an apple and an iced coffee for breakfast Went and taught some kids how to play basketball but there were no hoops. At first we just stood around and watched the kids for a while and just watched the kids play but I got bored of that so I started to run some drills. After the drills Harrison and I played keep away from 15 little kids. It was fun. After basketball we stopped for a breakfast Bahn mi. It cost 20k dong and was very tasty. My drink of choice is Diet Coke while I’m here. It has just the right amount of caffeine to keep me awake but not enough to prevent me from sleeping that same night.

Next came observing a lesson. It was taught by an Algerian woman who has a nice English accent. The kids were around 7 years old and there were 20 of them. All of them were well behaved but it didn’t look like they understood very much because they didn’t interact with the teacher at all. They did have workbooks though but I have no idea how well the children were utilizing them. An interesting lesson was now taught in Vietnamese but think it was just the history of chess and not how to play chess. Moreover, I got to teach chess to a young boy who didn’t speak much English but somehow could understand me. I am very bad at chess but I know all the rules. Then one student came over who spoke good English for his age and helped me and my new pupil finish the rest of the game. I am so reckless when playing chess as I don’t account for all the pieces in play and made many mistakes but I still had fun.

Lunch time took place at about 11 am. All the kids were sitting on the floor with a very low table to eat off of. Much like the table I sat at for dinner my first night here. They were all served the same thing. Sweet and sour pork, green beans, rice, cantaloupe and spinach soup. We got to eat the same but only once the students were finished. It was quite tasty 7/10. They will be feeding us lunch every day but I believe breakfast and dinner I am on my own. They are giving us 100k dong per day for a food allowance which is $5.50 Canadian. Seems very low but for instance I had a meal that cost me 2$ for Bahn mi and a coke.

Once lunch was finished we just sat around for a bit and chatted with the teachers. They said we could go home and relax as the kids were taking a nap themselves. I took this opportunity to go to the mall (a very nice brand new mall with many American stores and food vendors) and I had to get a power adaptor because the plugs don’t fit my 3 pronged laptop plug. It cost me $45 Canadian. I should have bought one before I came for 30$ but alas you can’t change the past. After that I came back to the home stay and took a nap.

Next was my first teaching lesson. It was for one hour from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm. They gave me a lesson plan with 3 pages. They didn’t give me much direction on how to teach the class so I had to wing it. I blew through the material in half an hour so I had to make up my own content for the remaining half hour. I taught them about animals and numbers and colours.

Once that was finished Harrison and I went to the mall and walked around for awhile and decided to get some McDonald’s. Oddly enough I had Korean chicken at McDonald’s fries and a passion fruit sprite. We then walked around trying to talk to girls. We then went to the super market and bought some beer and drank it while walking around the mall. The security guards didn’t seem to care. After that we caught a grab car to a tourist bar but there wasn’t much happening there so Harrison and I walked around the tourist district. We ran into this South African couple and the mans name was Dillon. I don’t remember his wife’s name. He gave me all kinds of tips about teaching and we even talked a little bit about South African politics and the way of life. He was so helpful and I am grateful for that.

Went to bed at 11:15 pm