A Quick Trip

Last weekend I took a quick trip to a nearby city, Vinh Long to do some guest teaching at the local community college. It was nice to see another part of the delta and see another community college. I gave two lessons. The first was on Saturday and we did a rhyming lesson, the next was on Sunday and I had them work on telling stories in the past tense. Both classes were a group of adult learners primarily pulled from two companies in town.

What was nice about these learners and different from my students was their attitude and countenance. Frist of all they all know why they are there – the immediate impact English will have on their current jobs. This is different from my students who are taking my class for their future jobs – jobs some of them can picture and jobs others can’t even start to foresee. Second their attitude is immensely different. By large my students at DTCC are still in high school and very few have made the emotional and intellectual leap into young adulthood. It was like night and day. It was a positive teaching experience and I am glad I went. Pictures are below.

After teaching Sunday I went to an ecotourism sight, which was interesting. The most memorable thing was the ‘zoo’. It was so sad. The stuff these animals in cages with cement floors. No foliage, no habitats – nothing. It looks like these poor souls are in purgatory just waiting to die. It'll break your heart. The lesson here is simple: DON’T VISIT ZOOS IN VIETNAM (or Asia according to my two guidebooks).

In my next post I will post some of the Christmas decorations that have gone up in tropical Cao Lanh. It’s so weird it’s hilarious.

Keep on keepin on readers!

The gates of Vinh Long CC.

Me teaching and proudly wearing my offical Fulbright polo. I am MAPing it people. (BTW MAP is the Fulbright acronym for "Make America Proud")!

Here I am being introduced by the Director of Foreign Languagees at Vinh Long CC.

Look at the teaching! Isn't it beautiful?

A little one-on-one time. I like the photo but all I can see is the pit-sweat. Clearly I haven't fully adjusted to life here :) What's worse is that the AC was on.

More teaching.

Me and the class. I am a skyscraper - seriously I am more the a head taller then anybody in that room.