For me, teaching kids doesn't have many rewards. As most of your know, I'm not a kid person and I don't have patience for them. So teaching at these schools hasn't exactly been the highlight of my life. But that being said, there are a few things I've learned from them being their student of culture.
Back when I was in HCMC, I had a class of university students. One night, I asked them, "Why are you learning English?" But instead of waiting for their responses, I continued. "Because English isn't the language of the future." I waited a moment and then asked, "Do you know what the language of the future is?" and as usual, only one student spoke those magical words. Chinese, she answered and we began a short discussion about China, its power and how I think they should all be learning Chinese. Half of the class agreed with me (not about learning Chinese, but that China is the next global power) and half didn't. At one point, a male student responded, "Vietnam is the next big country." The class laughed. I didn't however, because he may very well be right.
The Vietnamese might be poor, and they might be ignorant on some topics, but they aren't stupid. They enjoy learning, want to learn and spend a whole lot of time doing it.
Most kids who are between 12 and 18 get up around 5:30 every morning. They start school between 6:30 and 7am. Then they stay in school for about 9 hours, until 5 o'clock. They leave school, go immediately to English class (1-2 hours, 3 days a week), then home. They study and do their homework, and they're in bed by 10pm. Somewhere in between, they eat dinner. When they tell me their schedules, I never hear words like, play, video games, or see my friends. Those are words reserved for the weekend - usually Sunday. They also go to school on Saturday! Not for a whole day, but it's school nonetheless. And some of them even have a class or two on Sunday morning.
With all these hours at the school and studying, there is no time for them really to be kids. But you rarely hear them complain or object to it. Most likely because, except for Hollywood movies, they don't realize that it isn't like this in many parts of the world.
And so, this is why I wouldn't be surprised if Vietnam did become some kind of big player in the world within the next 25 years. Because after hearing child after child repeat the same daily schedule, and seeing how enthusiastic they are to learn English, but how silent they are about all the studying they have to do, I can't believe that all this brain power is going to waste. I definitely believe that the young generation has the ability to move the country forward and up. Whether they believe it, is another matter.
