I haven’t written in awhile, primarily because I have had nothing to say, I mean I am pretty well settled in now and have a routine. Granted my routine differs greatly from most people in America but it is a routine none the less and is not really that exciting. However to show I am not dead I might as well write about something, and since the vast majority of what I have been doing involves teaching, I will just go with that.
After several months of not having a clear schedule or knowing how I was going to get money, I have finally settled into a few really good teaching jobs. The first job is a corporate one I have had since February. I wear a suit and teach employees of a construction company. There are two classes; one is a higher level class with employees who are a few years older than me, and there is a beginner class with civil engineers who are pushing 60. The beginner class is actually the better of the two, my boss, Mr Zu (how it is said not spelled) sits in and translates when necessary. This is good because while their level is very low, they have a lot to say. The reason I like them so much is because they pretty much take the conversation to the gutter whenever they get the opportunity, which gets them laughing hysterically and allows me to teach words like “brothel” as one of the students apparently went to one in Thailand and announced this to the whole class.
In contrast to the 60 year old men, I have a class at another center with what are known as “super tots” they range from 4-6 years old, and yes they are very cute. In fact Asian kids are much cuter than white kids and I suspect I will think most children are very ugly when I return to the states. The super tots are not very smart and forget the words about five seconds after you teach them… but my super tots think I am awesome and that is good because it means I get to keep my job which is what really matters. I am actually really happy with the super tots center for a great many reasons; I get to teach older kids as well, they know how to treat foreign teachers, they are professional, while providing a laid back atmosphere, which means I get to wear shorts! (This is awesome because the average temp has been about 95 for the last month) and the teaching assistants are all very attractive women under the age of 27, and none of the foreign teachers look like pedophiles (finding a center without creepy foreign teachers is DAMN hard).
I also teach 3 Japanese siblings in private lessons, one day for each kid. They have really awesome names like Takahito and Akahito. I really enjoy saying their names and asking them to write really fast in Japanese (which is funny as hell to see if you never have). Takahito is 9 and an OK student Akahito is 7 and a really funny little kid, but the girl is like 14 and has an attitude, I have started teaching her about art history in English because it is really the only thing she seems interested in.
The last center I am at is one I got through another teacher at the construction company who is Vietnamese and teaches grammar there. Her friend owns this low end center in a weird part of town that I have to take a bridge that we bombed the hell out of during the war to get to. I am looking to quit this center because the guy is really bugging me and doesn’t know how to deal with foreigners. But the good thing is that this center taught me how to teach kids with games, and now I am really good at it. This really surprised me because I spent the last 5 years trying to stay as far away from children as I could. But they think I am really funny and like my pirate wristband. This center had a graduation thing about two weeks ago that I wore my suit vest with a tie for and one of the kids comes up to me and says “Mr. Matt I think you are right, you really are a pirate!” that was awesome.
One last note about the kids, when we think of Vietnamese people we tend to think that most of them are small, and this is generally true, but DAMN are some of these kids big! Seriously, there are some 12 year olds, even at the poor kids school that are almost as tall as me! I remember when George and I taught together, he tried to take candy from a girl who was 8 but looked about 12 and said “you’re too big” but she was also too fast and got away! No matter what there is always at least one fat kid in class, and the great thing is you can call them fat because it isn’t culturally taboo. But seriously, these people need to keep an eye on their kids diets or they are going to turn into Americans, and they don’t have the health care system to deal with that.
That is all for now, more updates coming soon.
