20 Floors Up and Still Honking

We don't get to too many luxury hotels - only when we have to attend a meeting at one of them - but Sunday night one of Nancy's friends invited us for coffee at the Summit Lounge on the rooftop of a place she used to work. At twenty stories above West Lake, there were no mosquitoes, a nice cool breeze and still the omnipresent honking of motorbike horns coming from hundreds of feet below.

But it was nice and we enjoyed spending the time with them. The menu prices made me think that we're not going to be seeing much of the place though.

Can't take credit for the photo. We were there later in the day when it was dark and they didn't come out. I stole this one from http://www.flickr.com/photos/marvincouldwell/441795840/.

I Used to Speak Vietnamese

It's not been a good language week for me. And it's only Monday.

Saturday night one of my classes invited Nancy, me, Robyn, Rick and Karen to dinner and karaoke to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival. (I think Rick may have been the impetus behind it.). Karaoke is far from my favorite activity, but I'd like to get to know this class better and this was a good opportunity. An existential side benefit was the deep meaning of singing, "When I'm Sixty-Four" now that the words are starting to have a whole new meaning for me.

We met up with the students in front of the school and walked over to a restaurant along the lake for some fried rice. Along the way I was chatting with some students and realized that they were having trouble understanding me. Now, I've always known my vocabulary was limited, but my pronunciation used to be "pretty good for a foreigner." I do not want to be that guy who thinks he can speak well but no one can understand a word he's saying!

So, I need a new plan. I've been meeting with a young couple once a week so I can help them with English and they can help me with Vietnamese but that's really not enough. Once things get settled with the schedule at school...

It's a lot easier to teach a foreign language than learn one.

Connecting Old Friends With New

Last night we had a small party to introduce some of the friends of last year's teachers with this year's incoming teachers. A lot of food, a little singing, some pictionary, and a stab at Catch Phrase. Nancy has more pictures posted at her Picasa page. It's been really nice to be back at the same school and reconnect with people from last year - a little more like our UTP experience.

Where's Your Flag?

That's what a rather eccentric old woman asked me when I got home from a meeting at the Academy yesterday afternoon. September 2 is Vietnam's "Fourth of July" -- the anniversary of the day back in 1945 when Ho Chi Minh read Vietnam's declaration of independence from France. As on all the other national holidays, most of our neighbors fly the flag.

"Tell your landlord to get you a flag!"

I didn't call the landlord, but the conversation did shed a little light on one of those still-unanswered questions I've had: Should I display a flag on holidays to show respect or would it be too weird since I'm an "outsider"?

Nhập gia tùy tục is a proverb which has pretty much the same meaning as the English, "When in Rome...."

Maybe I should get a flag.

Class of 2012

You don't have to travel overseas to experience a culture gap. The Beloit College Mindset List is published every year to make people feel old - I mean, to help professors understand that some of their references may not be understood by the incoming freshmen. Here are some highlights from this year's list:

Most students entering college for the first time this fall were born in 1990. For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

• GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
• Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
• Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
• Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
• Students have always been "Rocking the Vote.”
• Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
• College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
• IBM has never made typewriters.
• There has always been Pearl Jam.
• Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
• They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
• Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
• Caller ID has always been available on phones.
• They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
• Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
• Soft drink refills have always been free.
• They have never known life without Seinfeld references.
• Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
• The Hubble Space Telescope has always been in space.
• There have always been charter schools.

If you want to see the whole list, you can find it at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2012.php.