Friday, September 18, 2009

A Nice Letter

I make fun of myself all the time on here so once in a while I get to toot my own horn. I received this really nice email the other day from one of my former students. It made me feel pretty darn good:

Hi Ben! How are you??? I'm Dai TRang- your student in pre-intermedate class which your last class you had taught before you came back USA. I'm sorry for I haven't kept in touch with you for a long time. I'm so so so sorry. DO you remember what I wrote in my first literary composition i gave you? I wrote that my biggest dream was go to USA to study. I always think that it's just my dream and never becomes true. But you know, there was a marvellousness happended to me. i had got a schoolarship 100% to study in high schol in USA in 1 year. After that i wil get others schoolarship to study in university in USA too. I can believe that i could do it. It will be exciting. I wanted to study in USA because of the way you taught us. YOu see, in vietnam, the teachers are very serious,unfriendly and keep space with their students. Opposite them, you are so friendly,easy, understand your student,always change the menthod to teach. Your class was very fun and made me interested in studying English. So I think that, all teachers in USA are like you and study in USA will be my new trial. But I afraid of Americans cann't understand what i say and so do i,I can't understand what they say in English!!!!!!! So what do you think I should do to improve my English. I did a lot of ways and now my speaking skill is better and i can speak english more confident.

You always is my best English teacher so thank you for helping me and makes me could reach my dream!!!!!
Best wishes,
Trang
P/s: I know i have many mistakes in this mail, i'm sorry! =)) I'm looking foward to seeing you soon.

7 comments:

Hannah said...

OK this made me tear up. It's amazing to think that despite everything, the American Dream still exists not as an abstract idea of success anywhere in the world, but a concrete desire for success in the U.S.

teacher's mom said...

Like mother like daughter, I cried too. Find out where he is studying and maybe we can meet him.

Benjamin said...

You both teared up! Man, now I feel bad that I didn't cry!

This former student of mine is a girl, mom. I told her to keep me posted on where she is going to study and to email me with any questions she might have.

Anonymous said...

"Count your blessings", is what my Grandma always told us. Your former student has reminded all Americans of the opporunities for learning given us simply because of where we are born. In this wounderful place we call our home, even a backwoods boy raised in a log cabin by the name of Abraham Lincoln can realize their dreams. Lincoln was in many ways akin to your student Ben. Lincoln looked for ways to better himself and did it through hard work. Not merely how to properly use the english language, but how to use Language to heal wounds and bring a divided people together in peace. My hope for your students is that each and evey one of them will use their own country's language skills AND the English you teach them to communicate peace and good will to the rest of the world. LH in KY

lvu said...

Hi Ben, I took a liberty to bring your post to my blog. I really like the comparision between American teaching style and Vietnamese teaching style :)

Huyen said...

I feel bad like you Ben because I did not cry. I just see your student is totally right that you always refresh everything same to that I have never felt bored with you.

Another thing of your student is similar to me is the dream to study in America. But your student is much better than me and now it pushes me to get my TOEFL soon. Hope I can meet your student in America too.

cpak001 said...

that's so wonderful!!