A Vietnamese High School Class

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:56 am

I have been meaning to put this up for sometime...

My main job is teaching in a Vietnamese high school. I work with sophomores and juniors. I was told, when I took the job in January, to teach the class using the same methods that I would teach in America. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work so well... Let me go over some of the differences... Prepare to be shocked... You might have heard that Asian students are "more polite" than North American students... This is true in college... But in the high school, no.

1. Students are assigned to a classroom, where they stay for the whole day, except for gym class, which is done together. Classes are held either in the morning or afternoon on Monday through Friday, with a study period for the other half of the day. All classes meet on Saturday morning. The weekend is Saturday from 11:30 am through Sunday.

2. Each grade is divided up into approximately 15 classes. These classes remain the same for the students' three years of high school. If a family moves during the school year, it is encouraged for the student to stay with friends or family so the educational progress won't be upset.

3. There are two recess periods during the class schedule. During this time students play games, run around in the classroom, and buy snacks, which they are allowed to bring into the classroom. Since it is the students' classroom and not the teachers', no teacher is allowed to forbid the students to eat in the classroom, even during class time.

4. The class begins ceremonially. The teacher enters the classroom and the students rise. However, they don't usually stop chatting to each other until the classroom is over (I have watched this in other teachers' classes... I don't allow chattering in my class, much to the students' anger.)

5. Consequently, most teachers buy a public address microphone. The students don't stop talking, so the teachers lecture, knowing fully well they will be ignored.

6. Students routinely do homework for other classes and read novels during instruction time.

7. Attendance is taken by the students. The students take attendance for themselves only at the beginning of the first period of instruction. The students take attendance for the teacher and the teacher has to give the student in charge of the class an excuse if he or she was absent... (Really!)

8. Students may enter or leave the class any time they want. No pass is necessary.

9. The only way to fail a class is not to show up. Showing up for a class for most of a semester (over half the days) means a student will not fail, unless he is beligerent with an administrator (with a teacher, OK). Less than 1% of Vietnam high school students fail anything.

10. Tests may only be given on assigned test days. Pop quizzes and surprise tests do not exist.

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I am interested in hearing what you think about this.

Jsaxm · Post by **Jsaxm** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:44 am

Wow, that is pretty unreal. It really seems as though the teacher isn't really given much power to actually teach. You are expected to show up and if the kids want to listen they can, but if they don't there is nothing you can do about it nor does anyone care.

It kind of sounds like America where some of our rude kids will be disrespectful and not be quiet during class. At least here you can write them up. I think the only difference is that in Vietnam it sounds like the kids run the school where here in America the kids still do run the school, but they use their power through mom and dad or their family lawyer. I would be damed if someone told me it was the kids classroom and I couldn't tell them not to bring food in, and I sure as hell wouldn't tell my drum major why I wasn't at school, haha!!

And just think, you get to experience all of that, plus an extra work day of the week. You have my sympathy man, haha!

AzhlackDMPiccolo · Post by **AzhlackDMPiccolo** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 12:22 pm

that's crazy.. so does the parents care about any of this?! I remember back in my parents' days, they'd be punished (severely)

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 7:59 pm

Let me do a little more explaining:

I teach high school 7-4 on Tuesday, 7-5 on Wednesday, and 7-11:30 on Thursday. I teach at a university 8-4:15 on Monday and Friday. My Mondays and Fridays are great. I don't teach on Saturday.

The parents know about it because they did the same thing.

The same can be said about schools in the rest of Indochina (Laos and Cambodia) and Thailand.

Kind of a shock, eh?

Jsaxm · Post by **Jsaxm** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 8:08 pm

Yeah, complete shock. Well, your schedule sounds a lot better than I originally thought. At least you only have to be around those crazy kids a few days a week and not six days like I thought, lol.

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 9:44 pm

One problem I have is movies. Movies, such as "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," are seen here. They think that's the normal way a high school runs. Any time we hear something on the news about a school shooting, the kids don't believe a word I say... well, some of them...

"High School Musical" and "High School Musical 2" didn't help either. The Disney Channel is one of the few means of communication that we get the same time as the rest of the world. Some students think that the reason why Americans don't do homework in class is because they aren't given homework to begin with.

Here is another problem we have:

Vietnamese is a very difficult language. I speak several languages and tried to learn Vietnamese when I came here (15 months ago). I have gotten nowhere. My best teacher is the manager at the Pizza Hut at the Diamond Plaza Mall (near the high school where I teach) who won't give me a menu until I spout out three new sentences to him in Vietnamese. Anyway, foreign teachers are expected to speak slowly. We native Southern Californians speak three sentences for two sentences of a Texan. That's too fast, because they think the Texan is too fast, too. So I have had to learn to slow my speech down to about 2/3 my normal speed. (I once spoke so slowly some of the students forgot what I said... so this slowness thing does have limits!)

Oh, if I didn't mention it... my language of instruction is English...