Re-learning Patience

Now that I have a permanent job in a school, I have to relearn English. Not because I forgot my English, but because most of the staff in the school doesn't speak English at a very good level. Therefore, as I wrote about before, I have to learn Vietlish. In addition, I also need to complete the last syllable of words in my head (becau = because), understand what someone is talking to me about when they change the subject but don't tell me, etc. All of this, especially in a new environment is causing me some stress. Not so much stress as aggravation. Why? Because I'm getting older. And I'm discovering (okay, I realized this many months ago) that at 41 I don't have the patience that I had at 37. Yes, a mere 4 years makes a big difference!

And so, instead of getting fed up and screaming at the person in front of me that they need to pronounce the entire word completely so I understand what the hell they're saying, I just smile and nod. Because smiling and nodding is always the best medicine when you don't have a fucking clue what a person is saying to you.

Language Schools - The Vietnamese Way

I've been on several interviews now for English school teaching jobs and I must say, the Vietnamese ideology of learning a language isn't exactly practical.

Instead of hiring native teachers for every hour of the same class, the schools only hire native teachers for once a week jobs for each different class; the local Vietnamese teachers get most of the hours. To explain, if a school offers a class (any level) three times a week, the Vietnamese teacher will teach it two days and the native teacher is hired for one. This means the student is only listening to native English for one and a half hours a week (Most schools here, like in Turkey, offer 1.5 hour classes.). The reason for this is because the students can't afford the higher priced classes of a native teacher. (Local Vietnamese teachers are paid a lot less than native teachers.) So, instead of cutting the $15-20 an hour salaries of the teachers, or lowering the owner's salary, the students have to pay more to have a native teacher. Which most of them can't. Mind boggling.

In addition to this, the lower leveled classes usually only have a Vietnamese teacher. And from what I've heard, it's normal that they'll speak Vietnamese language in the classroom.

The other problem though, is that because the schools do this, it's difficult to find lots of hours at one school. It's fairly easy to get interviews, and especially if you have a university degree (I don't) it's easy to be offered jobs. But the schools don't give many hours with the job offer. One school offered me 2 hours a week. Another, one I accepted, could only offer me 3 hours (2 classes) a week. It's an advanced level, but because I spoke too fast in the interview, they won't give me lower leveled classes.

So I'm finding it difficult to get any quantity of hours in the schools.

I posted my regular ad for private classes on a few sites, but this will be more difficult to find students from what I understand. Interestingly, I've already met with 2 different people about private classes, and since my ad states "200-300,000 dong" ($10-$15), they assume I'll give them the cheaper rate. But they're foreigners, a lot wealthier than the locals, and they don't like it when I tell them the cheap rate is for the Vietnamese. Go figure.