Our Times Together

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. I want to end this blog with some photos of my students, Kathy, and I.

I would like to thank Mr. Lee and his company for making my trip possible. Many thanks to Nessie Cumur at USPAACC for all of her help.

Thanks Kathy, for being a great partner and for inspiring our lessons with your artistic skills.

And last but not least, THANK YOU my class, for being the BEST students one can hope for.


Photos were taken by Kathy Ly.

End of the Summer

From left to right: Quyen, Yen, Ngoc, Nhi, Thanh, Tri, Nghia, Thanh, Vy, Lanh, Nga, Ngan, Ngoc, Nhu, and Hoang.

Looking pretty at the end of the summer ceremony: Thanh, Nghia, Nga, Nhi, and Thanh (L-R). In the backrow: Lanh, Vy, and Ngan (L-R)

THANH: Our class's awesome dance instructor!

To celebrate the end of our summer program, each class has been asked to do a performance. Our class wanted to do a hip hop dance and sing a song. Thanh, one of our students, is an avid dancer. Thanh is shy in class, so it was wonderful to see him open up as a dance instructor. He rocked!

Our students practiced after class every day for a week. And their performance reflected their efforts :)



Thanh, the forever patient dance instructor.

Lesson on Race and the American Civil Rights Movement

Both Kathy and I come from immigrant families so we share a strong interest in the topic of race. We wanted to do a lesson on race and racism with our students. I was not sure how it would go because few places in the world are as race-conscious as the US.

I had brought with me from the US a copy of "Boycott!" a play about the Civil Rights Movement. It centers on Rosa Parks' defiant act that led to the bus boycott.

Out students LOVED the play and the experience of acting! Even the shyest ones completely surprised us. They put 110% into their roles and did an amazing job.

The play had 8 roles and a "chorus" part so everyone had a chance to be involved. We acted out the play twice with two different casts.

In the photo: Tri (black) plays the mean bus driver. Anh (white) plays Rosa Parks, and Hoang (turquoise) is the policeman who is going to take Rosa Parks away.

"Buy My Peanut Butter" - American TV Culture

A few days ago we did a lesson on the American television culture. One of the activities that turned out extremely well was having the students pick and do a TV commercial for an American product. We scrambled together the following: peanut butter, insects spray, sun block, Heineken (OK. Not exactly American, but foreign), and hand sanitizer.

Everyone did a great job. We feel really proud of them for having the courage to speak and act out in front of their peers in English!


Ngan, Lanh, and Vy marketing peanut butter. We later made peanut butter and jam sandwiches for everyone. The jam was too sweet for them but the pb and bread were well-liked!


Trang, Anh and Yen explaining the benefits of hand sanitizer to the class. Side not: there is a HUGE market for sanitizing products in Viet Nam!



Hieu and Hoang advertising a can of Heinekein. It was hilarious.


Nhu, Trang and Quyen acting out a scene of women who want paler skin (Vietnamese women LOVE pale skin)

Trick-o-Treat à la Vietnamese

Kathy and I have the best class. Our students are intelligent and curious about English. They are also open to learning non-traditional ways, like reading about the history of Halloween and going trick-or-treat. Yes! There was candy involved!

Yesterday, we talked about American holidays and had a small Halloween celebration. We brought color papers and crayons and let everyone make their own mask. Creative energies went wild. We got a one-eyed pirate, an Obama, a monster in inferno, a lion, an angel and more.

We also memorized the trick-or-treat chant.


We left candies with Nina and Teresa's class and our students went there to trick-o-treat. They were very excited!

Students with their masks: pirates, witches, Obama (with a "Fix USA" slogan coming out of his mouth)

Friends of Hue Foundation Orphanage

As part of the summer program our group volunteers at a local orphanage run by the Friends of Hue Foundation. We are scheduled to volunteer every Friday, but most of us go there several times a week.

The orphanage houses about 35-40 children, from ages 6 to 20. Some of the children are orphans. Some still have their families, but their parents are unable to support them due to financial difficulties.

Will, a volunteer from Amherst College, and I signed up to be in charge of the "competition club". Together with Huong and Linh, we brainstormed and organized various kinds of competition: slow biking, potato sacks jumping, watermelon eating, etc. There's interest in cake eating competition as well.

Above: Huong, Linh, and Will untangling a mass of rope for our tug-of-war competition.
Below: The trio is honing their slow bike-riding skill. The winner is one who can bike at the slowest speed.

Above: a friendly soccer game between our group, a French volunteer group, and the boys at the orphanage, who prefer to play barefoot.

The watermelons eating competition was a hit. It got out of control rather quickly when everyone started to dig in. Watermelons are such a remedy against Hue's intense heat.

College of Foreign Languages

I work at the College of Foreign Languages of Hue University. According to my Vietnamese colleagues, the College is expanding and attracting more and more foreign students each year. They are looking to hire a Spanish teacher some time in the near future because there is a growing interest in learning Spanish. It's wonderful news.



My teaching partner, Kathy Le, is a student at UCSC. We have between 20-25 students. We co-teach every morning and hold office hours once a week. Kathy likes arts and has a lot of creative ideas to incorporate arts into our lessons. I am excited to work with her.

We are assigned to the beginner's class because our Katherine, our program manager, thought that I would be able to use my Vietnamese in class if needed. We are impressed with our students' English so far. I don't think I will need to use my Vietnamese much!

Hue's colors

For my friends in France :)

Compared to Hanoi and especially, Saigon, Hue exudes tranquility. The traffic is less hectic; the people seem less abrasive and hurried in their manners and speech. The Hue accent has a unique charm to it. Some local words are expected to sound harsh, yet the way people speak is surprisingly soft and quiet.

I bike everywhere in Hue. My favorite streets are Le Loi and Doan Thi Diem inside the Imperial City. Le Loi parallels Song Huong (Perfume River) and is lined with tall, leafy trees, some of which are hoa phuong vi, a red flower that symbolizes summer in Viet Nam.

We had a welcome dinner at the top of a hotel with some officials from Hue University.

Caught the sunset just in time!

We begin teaching tomorrow!

The building where we teach is partially under construction. To get there, we have to jump over a ditch, cross two small canals on shaky wooden boards. I had the pleasure of testing it out this morning. Let me just say that having short legs is disadvantageous sometimes.

Hue (at last)

After a 13 hour train ride from Ha Noi, we arrived in Hue. We got tickets late so all the sleepers were sold out. Fortunately, there were still "soft seats" in air-conditioned cars. The ride went by amazingly fast because we slept most of the time. We passed by a lot of rice paddies, some mountain ranges and orchards of guavas.

We will be living this summer in a dormitory for international teachers. It's a 15-minute bike ride from the city center. On our first night here, we rode around together. It was SCARY! Imagine cars, vans, trucks of all sizes, motorbikes, cyclos, bikes sharing a not-big-enough route. To top it all, there were people who would not go on the right side of the street. It was a near miracle that no one got hurt.

Here are some photos of our place.

Our functional ceiling-fan.

My bed. There is a balcony where we dry clothes and watch cows graze in the morning.


















Me and my sexy ride. My helmet is for riding motorbikes so I do get a few stares and comments for using it to ride a bike. Vietnamese don't wear bike helmets!

Hanoians (People of Hanoi)

Hanoi has so many colors and feels which I find difficult to capture in photos. The city is crazy busy yet there are also wonderfully serene places.

Hoan Kiem Lake is one of those. It is well-loved and used by locals and tourists alike. Groups of women would gather at early and late hours to exercise. Anything from hiphop dancing to tai-chi. One night, I saw a woman in her 60s swaying her hips and buttocks in a very suggestive way. She looked like she was having a blast dancing with her friends. It was liberating to watch.

Mom and daughter playing batmitton on a sidewalk while cars and mopeds whiz by!




A woman in conical hat walking two chihuahuas. Since when did Vietnamese people start to walk their dogs? Talking about globalization.


Huyen, a friend of a friend and a native to Hanoi, took Katherine, Molly, and I out for "banh da" at a street stall.

Hanoi's colors

An antique house built in the 19th century for a rice merchant. It's located on Ma May street.

A shellfish and fruits stand by our hotel.

Umbrellas on top of Nola's Cafe, next to the antique house!

Huyen took me to drink fresh coconut juice at Bluebird cafe (Chim Xanh). It has so many windy staircases!

Bun oc (snail soup), a specialty of Hanoi. Less than dollar a bowl and heavenly delicious.

first impressions

I have been in Ha Noi, Viet Nam for nine days. Summer rains are cooling the city down significantly. Unpredictable tropical rains. Pouring one day, drizzling the next. Days before my arrival, Hanoi went through a heat wave, reaching 40 degrees Celsius daily.

I am finding myself surrounded by sounds, smells, tastes, and sights which were once very familiar to me and are now becoming familiar again. In some ways, I am home.

Home has changed a lot. My first trip back was in 2007 and it is only now, while realizing this trip, that I begin to understand the immensity of the culture shock I'd exprienced in 07. There was much confusion and frustration then. This time, however, things feel different. I am able to approach the people and situations here with more patience and open-mindedness. I no longer think that every local is out to rip me off or cheat me. It is a good change.

Hanoi straddles between poverty and modernity, the uber rich and the dirt poor. Some people rent flats that cost thousands of dollars a month while others cram in tiny living spaces. Our group stays in the Old Quarter, which is ancient, beautiful, and touristy. I notice however, that nearby high-end establishments, from fancy coffee shops to expensive Vietnamese restaurants, are filled with locals. Poor Vietnamese families live on roughly 200 dollars a year. A meal in the Old Quarter typically costs about 2-5 dollars.