Educational Differences: Maturity

(PICTURE: The planet that always gets a chuckle in American classrooms -- Uranus.)

Don't let the post's title fool you -- teenagers in America and Vietnam are both totally immature. However, their immaturity is expressed in different ways. I'm not gonna even pretend to understand the cultural differences in immaturity but I will tell a funny anecdote from the other night:

Right now I'm teaching a teenage class at Language Link. The students range in age from 11-15, which is to say there are A LOT of immature kids in the class. Every class I get lots of snickers and some misbehaving which would be the same in a similar class in America. Well, the other night I was teaching a science section about the planets in the solar system and I had all of the students repeat the planets after me: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

The students repeated the planets without a chuckle. Not one chuckle was emitted from a classroom of pre-teens and teens who had just said the word "Uranus". Can you imagine that happening in an American classroom when a teacher says out loud, "Uranus"? While listening to the silence following the students and me saying "Uranus" I thought to myself, "This is so unAmerican." There was only one thing for me to do and that was to say, "Okay, lets try that U planet again -- Uranus." The students followed with a perfect repetition of "Uranus." I smiled to myself and said, "One more time everyone - Uranus." Yeah, I guess I'm a little immature sometimes too.

A minute later I told the students to turn over a sheet I had given out: "Okay, everyone flip over the sheet." Sure enough, one or two of the boys chuckled, "He said shit."

Educational Differences: Tutors

(PICTURE: That's me on the left.)

Here's another big difference between studying in America and studying in Vietnam: Vietnamese students have A LOT of tutors. Most of my private students have between 9 and 12 extra-curricular learning sessions per week. Some of the sessions aren't one-on-one (like when I teach them) but are done at teacher's house with a group of students. However, when they're not in "school" they're always being schooled somewhere.

As I've mentioned before on the blog, I generally teach very affluent kids but I'm pretty sure this isn't only true for the rich. About three nights a week, my cleaning lady's son has a math tutor who comes to our building and teaches him.

I've come up with a few reasons Vietnamese kids have so many tutors/extra classes:
1. Students attend school for less hours in Vietnam than in America. Most of my private students study at school from Monday-Satuday from 7:30 AM to around 12:30 PM. This is about two and a half hours less than American students generally attend school (minus the Saturday part).
2. Vietnamese value education. Education here is really as much on a parent's shoulders as it is on the child's. This hit home for me recently when I saw an award at Huyen's house that was given to her father. The award was for having raised three children who attended university (he'll probably get another now since Su was accepted to school too).
3. In Hanoi, there aren't exactly a lot of things for kids to do outside after school. Most of my students say that in their free time they either play video games or chat online. Sure there are parks all over the city but they usually seem to be void of children every afternoon.
4. Besides the university entrance exam which I've gone into detail on in the past, there is also a Grade 10 exam for many of the best schools. For example, if students want to attend Hanoi Amsterdam High School -- considered to be the best public school in the city -- they must pass an entrance exam for Grade 10.

Mom, tell me if I'm wrong but I think I had only one tutor growing up and that was for the SATs. And trust me, I'm not complaining. For me, Vietnamese kids study too much. My family valued education (my father was on the Board of the Board of Education for most of my childhood) but also understood the necessity of balance in life. I can't tell you how many times I've felt thankful for growing up in a suburb where my friends and I could play roller hockey in our driveway or on a school blacktop after the final class bell. Often in Hanoi, I feel like kids don't get to be kids a lot of the time.

Educational Differences: Summer Vacation

This summer I noticed a huge difference in the Vietnamese educational system and the American educational system. All of my private students spent the summer reading and studying the textbooks for their upcoming academic year. The kids were basically teaching themselves Math, Physics and Chemistry from the moment one grade ended to the beginning of the first day of the new school year. My students told me that they have to teach themselves the material first before the teachers teach it in class. They said that the teachers basically review the material and check for understanding from the students. To be honest though, I'm not sure if this is true for all Vietnamese students or just my private students who happen to attend some of the best public schools in Vietnam.

This is vastly different than in the states where generally our summers are spent goofing around with only the occasional required schoolwork to be done (i.e. read "The Agony And The Ecstasy" for AP European History).

Happy 2nd Birthday, Lilah!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday to my super cute niece Lilah!!!!

(PICTURE: Lilah wears sunglasses at night too.)

Recently Huyen and I have been skyping with Lilah. It's pretty cool to see her on skype especially since she knows my name. However, to be honest, Lilah is never as excited to see Huyen and me as we are to see her; Lilah is most excited to see a stuffed animal monkey that we have at our apartment. One of the first times we skyped with her, Huyen brought the monkey into the conversation and since then Lilah has requested "monkey" every time we talk. The cool thing is that I know what to give her for her 3rd birthday when I come home next year!


(PICTURE: My big brother and his special ladies.)

Vietnamese Ingenuity

I'm constantly amazed at Vietnamese ingenuity. The saying, "If there is a will, there is a way" applies here more than any place I've ever been.

When we went to Huyen's grandfather's village, someone brought a bottle of Da Lat wine. The problem with Da Lat wine is that it is sealed with a cork. All of the wine that is usually drunk in Huyen's Grandfather's village is from twist off bottles so hence nobody had a wine opener. The lack of a tool though didn't dissuade the crew of wine-thirsty men who quickly proceeded to figure out another way to open the bottle. The quickest and most logical way they came up with was to use a screw:

The Real Mr. Miagi

(PICTURE: On the left, Huyen's Grandfather. On the right, his brother.)

I have written in the past about Huyen's Grandfather's unbelievable strength. The last time I commented about it he was lifting himself up to a third level bunk bed on a train to Hue. Well, last weekend he proved to me that he is not only incredibly strong but he also has amazing hand-eye coordination.

On Sunday, Huyen and I went to her Grandfather's village for lunch. While eating outside, a lot of flies started to swarm around the food. Most of the men in my circle just waved their hands near the flies so that they would fly away. Not Huyen's Grandfather though. I personally saw her Grandfather eye at least four different flies and then catch them in his hands. I was dumbfounded at her Grandfather's skill and tried to imitate him -- I was totally unsuccessful. In fact, I tried so many times that all the old men around me started to laugh. One finally commented, "Ben doesn't like flying black beans."

Wedding Update: The Photographer II

(PICTURE: The first picture that shows up when you google wedding photographers.)

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday is that most wedding photographers DO NOT TAKE PICTURES AT THE WEDDING! This is a huge difference between American weddings and Vietnamese weddings. I have been to some wedding here that have a photographer/videographer but that is not part of the usual package that most wedding shops offer.

It is definitely possible to get someone to take pictures at the wedding and we're looking into this. My mom also suggested having everyone take pictures and then I can put together an album on Snapfish or some other website and print out a few copies for our family and Huyen's. Personally I think this is a great idea since a lot of my friends (especially from LA) are fantastic photographers. I'm hoping that one or two of them will come to the wedding and can take pictures. So if you're reading this LA people (Sam, Tom, Sebastian), you better be coming out to 'Nam!