Down With Wednesday

Another early morning - 6th grade this time, though they're usually easier to handle than my 8th graders.

It's fairly obvious which textbooks were written by Vietnamese and which were written by Americans. The American ones usually assume a familiarity with American culture that is completely unwarranted (one chapter on food concentrated largely on Cajun cuisine) while the Vietnamese ones have characters named Hoa and Nam rather than Tom or Alicia who live in Hue or Dalat instead of New York.

Another difference: this week I get to teach the chapter about Ho Chi Minh's Young Pioneers! Did you know the Young Pioneers help poor and sick people? And they embody the spirit of a unified Vietnam? I do now.

After class I headed over to Pho 2000, one of the few places I can eat watched over by a smiling Bill Clinton rather than Uncle Ho. The potato curry was quite nice after two straight months of eating their pho.

Then Vietnamese class, where we read a dialogue of two people 'at a party' accompanied by a photo of two people clearly standing in front of a post office.

Finally I saw 'Tropic Thunder' at Diamond Cinema with a friend. I wasn't sure if the Vietnamese would like it, since it's mainly a collection of character actors mugging and swearing loudly, but they seemed to enjoy it.

Two for Tuesday

Not a particularly eventful day. After Vietnamese class I taught at Cleverlearn, where my students - after learning about Halloween - noisily insisted that I bring them candy.

Although, i did read in the paper a triumphant announcement by the Prime Minister that Vietnam is 'winning the war on leprosy'. Go team!

A Week in the Life: A Case of the Mondays

The life of an English teacher, that is. So let's go right in...

Mondays are difficult for anyone, but mine especially since they begin at 6 AM. That's when I wake up so I can get to school at 7.

This is Duc Tri, a public school which my private language center sometimes provides with teachers (myself being one0. Today I teach 8th grade, which is more or less what you'd expect a third-world public school foreign language class to be like. i have no materials except the book, a marker, and a whiteboard. There are about 40 student sin the class so the ones at the back are far out of reach and the studious ones sit up front and answer everything.

This particular morning I arrive a few minutes early and go to my classroom to wait. Out in the school courtyard I can hear patriotic music combined with the sound of children marching and chanting, but the last time I tried to look out duringmorning patriotism one of the Vietnamese teachers dragged me away.

Today's lesson (I have two classes with the same lesson, one time a week) is on letter-writing, so I take them through headings, greetings, closings etc. I don't know if one-third of them understand the lesson, but I did my best.

after school I take the long, hot trek up Nguyen Trai to Pham Ngu Lao past Ben Than Market and finally ending up at the health club on Le Thanh Ton, where $40 a month buys use of the gym, showers, and sauna. Use the treadmill while watching CSI New York and then wash myself off so I can go to Vietnamese class a new man.

Before that, however, I'm feeling a bit curry-deprived so I head to Ganesh and splurge by spending $6 on their three-course set lunch. There are better and cheaper Indian restaurants to be found but this one is right across the street from the gym.

Vietnamese class is OK; for the fourth time in six weeks we have a new teacher. We only have a couple of weeks left so we're wrapping it up. My class has 12 students - nine Asians (from Taiwan, Korea, and Japan) and three Westerners including myself. There is one German and one Italian.

After we say our final 'chao co' a few of my classmates and I went to a small restaurant nearby and had some sour Korean xuc xich (sausage) and che, a Vietnamese dessert drink made with beans and sweet coconut milk, among other things.

Then home to watch check the pirate copy of 'The Lion King' I bought yesterday to see if it works. Not only does it work but it has only Spanish dubbing. my surprise increases when I realize that the same person who is Grandpa Simpson in the Mexican dub of 'The Simpsons' is the voice of Scar.

Salute Your Local PCCC

It must be Fireman Appreciation Month or something here in HCMC because those posters have been appearing everywhere.

Personally I find it hard to imagine a full-sized fire truck threading it's way through Saigon traffic in time to save a building; maybe they have smaller trucks. Or maybe the constant rain and humidity prevents fire by itself.

In a way it reminds of Crassus, the old Roman gangster who would set fires and then surround the building with toughs so that the fire brigade couldn't get in, and only step upside if the owner paid protection money. I wonder if a similar scheme runs here?

I do like the artwork though. I haven't seen even vaguely Realist public art in a long time. I don't know how effective it is but is does add character.

Yes Sir...I Mean, Yes Very Sir!

Today I showed up to Vietnamese class wearing my Obama t-shirt, which the teacher found hilarious. He decided to use it as a jumping-off point for teaching us a number of political words suck as 'election' (cuoc tong tuyen cu) 'president' (tong thong) and 'prime minister' (thu tuong chính phu).

However, I soon disgraced myself by referring to the Vietnamese Prime Minister by using only the respectful form of adress (anh), not the very respectful form of adress (ong) such a situation demands.

There was awkward silence for about ten seconds, then my foreign ignorance was forgiven and we continued with the lesson, and I learned to say 'Bush khong la thông minh'.

By the way, there haven't been alot of pictures here lately. That should change soon.

Beer Ahoy?

Anyone who spends a good deal of time in Vietnam cannot avoid the Bia Hoi, cornerstone of Vietnamese male social life.

A bia hoi (literally 'fresh beer') is for all intents and purposes a beer hall. In fact, the Vietnamese apparently got the idea from the Czechs. Within, on the usual plastic chairs and aluminum tables, one can find a 90% male clientele cheerfully consuming large quantities of very cheap, light beer and having the best time.

One thing about Vietnamese drinking: there are alot of toasts. People frequently clink their glasses with cries of 'Yo!' and, if someone yells '100%!' they will drain their glasses to the bottom.

Beyond this, most bia hois have expansive menus spanning much of the animal kingdom - the usual beef, chicken, pork and shrimp but also frog, snake, various other birds, squid, and other things to offend the squeamish.

In short, they're wonderful.

There are Some Moments of Hilarity (for me, anyway)

Two in one day, sometimes.

Lesser:

During a game of Taboo, in which the player tries to make his teammates guess a word without actually saying it, one of the words was 'wife'. My student began by saying 'It's the woman, who is in love, and she marry -" another student burst out with 'Lesbian!'

Greater:

One of my favorite students turned in a short paper about his trip to the aquarium. The title/ "I Go to the Museum of the Fish". I laughed my ass off for about five minutes. In this business, you take what you can get.

Learning Tieng Viet

Anyone who has ever tried to explain the English language to a non-native speaker knows what a frustrating experience it can be. The grammar is confusing, there are a ton of irregular verbs, the spelling makes no sense and the pronunciation is a nightmare.

BUT, at least, even if your pronunciation isn't perfect, you can still be understood fairly well. The sheer volume of accents present in English attests to that.

Vietnamese is not like that. Very vowel and consonant has to come out exactly right or the words is different or unintelligible. It's terribly frustrating, though rewarding in its own way.

What A Country!

The complete Woody Allen ouvre for $10. I wonder why people are always badmouthing media pirates.