Out of the Melting Pot and into the Rice Bowl: Tales From a Scholar on the Mekong Delta: Oh The Places You'll Go

Fulbright is based on exchange – you give something to the people of Vietnam and you bring back something to America. A two way street. Since I started this grant I have been aware of what I have been given – patience, fortitude, pride in this awesome journey and all that I have been able to accomplish and a once-in-a-lifetime experience that very few other Americans have the privilege to undertake. But of course that leaves the first half unanswered – what have I given to Vietnam?

Perhaps it’s because I am in it – here teaching and focused on my classes. The daily grind of lesson planning, grading, club crafting and such that I couldn’t see it – but let it be said that at times I felt like I wasn’t giving enough. Or even giving at all, just taking in this awesome adventure. Sure I saw students’ test scores rise, but of course they would they’re in class and I am jamming exercises down their throats so I wasn’t attributing that to me so much as to education in general. Well last weekend I got my answer and I finally saw what I have given.

Last weekend Dong Thap Community College hosted it’s annual Fulbright ETA – Dong Thap CC conference for students and E.T.As and since I am the ETA here at DTCC I played host. We had 5 ETAs come and 46 students attend along with some facilitators (i.e. English teachers and high-level speakers at the college, and Mr. Hung and Mr. Lam of course). My co-teacher Co Dung and I played MCs for the event.

The conference was intended to be “coffeehouse convos” – very informal and low key conversations about topics easily grasped by our students, college life, food, sports, healthy life, etc. Each ETA was assigned a group of students and a facilitator and before the conference I made a worksheet for each group to do to prepare some thoughts and vocabulary about their topic.

To be honest I was dreading this conference because I knew my students have a low level and given my absentee issues at the start of my time here I wasn’t optimistic that this would come together and if it did that anybody would come or that students would want to speak… boy was I wrong!

My students completely totally ridiculously out did themselves. Not only did they all come, but they all did their worksheets and most even prepared presentations to show their ETAs. Yep my students went so far above and beyond that I was just stunned. On top of that we had a singing interlude to relax things and myself (I sang “Time After Time” (1947) and “Orange Colored Sky”) and Co Dung were planning on singing – well every group also sang including 2 individuals and they all sang in ENGLISH. I would have taken Vietnamese but every group/singer chose an ENGLISH SONG!!!!!!

When I got here seven-and-a-half months ago they couldn’t answer the questions “How are you?” and “How old are you?” correctly and now they are doing presentations and singing in English in front of a room with 50+ people and foreigners who they have never met.

Who are these students?

I know. They’re mine! And Co Dung’s! Those are our students!

The Friday before the event Co Dung and I spent the afternoon reassuring groups and calming nerves in rehearsals but I was blown out of the water.

I realized that while my students might not remember the details of the present continuous grammar point, the classroom that Co Dung and I created has in turn created more open, inquisitive and engaged students – some of the most engaged on this campus. And that legacy with my students and this college is unexpected and it snuck up on me and Co Dung for that matter. We have been so focused in the classroom about pronunciation and grammar that last weekend our students made us look up and realize just how far – how absurdly far they (and we) have come. Not only in English competency but also in life skills and confidence. When I arrived nobody would utter a word out of fear for saying something wrong.

I was on the verge of happy tears as I watched my students interact and work with ETAs to create presentations and swayed while they sang. When I arrived here my goal was to give my students pride in their education and break some of the misinformation given to me by the embassy about community college students. Last Saturday my students did just that in a very public way with voices raised in song! And some pretty sweet presentations while working the crowd.

I have talked before about the lows and highs, about that tightrope – well I feel like I made it with these kids and this high is so much higher then anything I have ever experienced before. I still have a dopey smiled splayed across my face and when I think about that Saturday I can’t believe it given where we started.

This is what I have given my students and it took 4 hours on Saturday for me to see it. To see what seven-and-a-half months have created. There are times when my students teach me things and in this process I have often felt like I am the student and Vietnam or life is the teacher. At times I struggled to keep up, but it appears that while I fumbled my way through this provincial experience Co Dung and I have empowered our students and given them confidence and joy in English and their own knowledge and power. Why couldn’t I see this transformation before?

This does make me wonder if I should let some of my students do their final oral presentation in song… just a thought.

Tons of pictures below. Have a good week readers!