Life as an Expat: New Year's and Vietnamese Dating Advice

Well keeping with my New Year’s resolution, here is my first of hopefully many weekly updates.

Since my last update, I have celebrated New Year’s, survived a cell phone fiasco (more to come on that later), and said goodbye to one of my "young leaders’" class (often referred to as “the little sh*ts or little f*&%ers” by the vast majority of my colleagues (please excuse the language)). This class is the one I had to give assigned seats, the one who gave me grief about everything I planned saying it was boring, the ones who made me nearly shake in class when they refused to do what I said.

And, I have to admit, I ended up liking almost all of them, that I will feel sad tomorrow when I won't be teaching them anymore. I guess I have to say, we made progress. Our last day was “review” or “Marguerite does whatever she wants." Having heard of some promising activities from my colleagues I came armed with excitement and candy so they might give me a good review. Always the responsible teacher my review consisted of writing, speaking, and listening. For writing I had them write about the qualities they look for in a girlfriend or boyfriend and then share with the class. The answers ranged from the typical "handsome," "beautiful," "nice" to the outrageous “I want a gf who got a big front, like 215 cm,” “I want a man who don’t love me just for my money,” “I want someone who isn’t cocky and too proud of his muscles" (so that the entire class would understand the word ‘cocky’ I had to act it out…please imagine me acting like I had big muscles and was proud of them). For speaking, I paired them up with a partner of the opposite sex and had them write out dialogue acting as if they were breaking up with that person. Vietnamese people love the melodramatic love stories and thus the students got really into the whole, “how dare you cheat on me, I am beautiful," "I will never forget you," "I'm sorry but he make more money than you” kind of thing. Some students got really into the acting and some students really did hate each other, so it was believable and totally hilarious.

I also had a very proud moment when I gave them a speech at the end of class telling them how much I enjoyed working with them and how I hoped they learned a lot while having fun, and they all APPLAUDED and told me how much they would miss me, and believe me, these children don’t lie. While they will tell you if you look beautiful if you just wear earrings, they will also tell you if you look ugly or tired or sad or if your hips look big in a dress you are wearing (this was actually told to me by a thirteen year old). I was very touched and almost cried. And I didn’t even give them candy until the last day!

Another funny part of teaching that I have mentioned to some of you is the choosing of the name. There is a mutual inability to pronounce names between my students and myself. Seeing how, as one of my guides told me when travelling with my mother and Alice, the longest word in Vietnamese is the royal name Nguyen (which is six letters), you can imagine the groans and cries of shock I hear when I write my name on the board.

“Teacher, what is that? What is that?” the students cry.

“It’s my name.” “No," they say.

"Yes," I say.

"What? What kind of name that? I can’t pronounce that!” they yell.

And I really want to yell back, “oh yeah, what kind of name is Phoung?!?” but I’m the teacher, so I have to be mature. So I allow them to call me “Teacher” and I have them pick English names. They find this fun, and I find it entertaining. And who wouldn’t when you have a sweet, innocent young girl who chooses the name “Candi” or a name that would be better suited for a stripper (in case one of my few readers has one of these names I will refrain from listing them). They also love naming themselves after movie stars. I have had Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Hannah Montana, Bella (from Twilight), and Barbie all grace my class. Some of my favorite names have been from boys who have picked “Supreme King” or “I Am Death.”

Some other sweet moments from teaching have included my students offering me food, when a shy girl presented me with a bracelet she had made, when the most precious nine year old yelled “yeah Baby” when I gave him a word search (they, thankfully, love, love, love word searches. They beg for them, and I’m like yes please now I don’t have to occupy you for the last twenty minutes of class), when another ten year old from another class said “oh hey darling” when a late student entered the room, when a student described me as ‘tall,’ and when I subbed for my favorite backpack class and they all yelled “AWWW, YAY.”

Of course, not all moments are pleasant, but these ones do keep you going, such as my class tonight when the boys wouldn't stop throwing balls of wadded paper at the girls or texting on their cell phones.

In other teaching news, I have also started working at an additional language school, so I will be working in the afternoon as well as most nights, which will give me something to do and allow me to have more travel money. There I will be teaching 3-4 year olds (yes, I taught them today, it was a lot of duck, duck, goose and me singing "The Hokey Pokey"), 5-6 year olds, and primary school.

So as this blog entry is already getting long enough, I will fill the rest with pictures from New Year’s. I will write more later about my motorcycle drama and the cell phone fiasco.

New Year's Eve

Many people have asked me if Vietnamese people celebrated New Year's Eve, and the answer is yes. Expectedly, bars and hotels had parties for the expat community, but many Vietnamese people got into it. It is much like Christmas where the enjoyment is more commercial than anything. There were stages set up for concerts in the parks and downtown, the lights were lit there was free food somewhere, though we never got to it, and there was even a ball that dropped (though we didn't see it). And there were people everywhere. We walked around and then ended up going to a bar where there was a live band and had a great dance party. Although I did miss my "Chattanooga New Year's" with Connor Brooks, I have to admit, it was a really fun time. And to make it even better. I didn't have work on New Year's Day!

Here is a view of one of the many stages set up. There were speakers placed all around the park, which was filled with people. Neither cars nor motorbikes were allowed in many areas downtown for a change, so I really enjoyed walking!