Fall Schedule

As the sun sinks slowly into the western sky, a second week of teaching comes to a close. I've been given two reading classes and two listening classes, all 4th year students. Half of the students have had me before so I'm hoping that will lead to some good connections. I'm trying to get all their names memorized and that's a pretty big task when you have a class with four people named Ha, three named Trang, two named Mai and two with exactly the same name (first, middle and last). Fewer names to memorize, I guess, but then you have to learn who's who. Fortunately, like people the world over, they tend to choose one place to sit and sit there every class.

The classes have been enjoyable and they seem to be tracking with the material so far - even the minority students who have had much less English and really struggle with the advanced coursebook.

That's the quick version of the teaching update.

100 Things

This really has nothing to do with teaching EFL but the prospect of moving to a new house, combined with a recent newspaper article, got me thinking again about living simply. Ever since reading Ron Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger more than 30 years ago, the idea of living simply has really appealed to me. That's not to say I didn't poke at the iTouch at Best Buy this summer or spend time online to find out if you can read a Kindle in the dark (you can't). But, it has made me think more about my stewardship of the other 90%. As my family tires of hearing me say, "You can only spend it once." Living simply allows me the freedom (or maybe it's the pleasure) of deciding the best way to spend it. I like that.

Chasing links from the newspaper article, I found a 2-year-old Time magazine item about people trying to cut their personal possessions down to one hundred things. (The article, How to Live With Just 100 Things, doesn't actually tell you how.) It seems to have originated with a guy named Dave Bruno. It would be tough for me to whittle things down to 100; in America I easily had more than 100 tools! But, once we get moved I think I may do an inventory and see what I can live without. Maybe I can get to five or six hundred?

I'll be back soon.

It's been a long hiatus with the summer travel. Now life is in an uproar because, in addition to the usual beginning of the semester stress, we need to move to a new place. Soon I hope to get back to contributing substance to my blogs but it won't be for a while. Stay tuned. You might even hear about some of the opportunities we checked into this past summer.

Rules

The sign says, "No parking area"

Vietnam has a decidedly un-American approach to rules. I've been in the USA for a couple weeks now and I've already noticed that - from turn lanes to grocery lines - most Americans are sticklers about rules. Admit it, have you ever counted the items in the cart in front of you at the express checkout lane?

In Vietnam, most rules are followed if 1) they are convenient and 2) they make sense.

But even that general rule is subject to change. For example, the city of Hanoi has been (sporadically) enforcing a rule to keep sidewalk vendors off the sidewalk for the last year or so. That's inconvenient for anyone who's used to buying food from the vendors and it doesn't make sense to take a source of income from vendors in a society where unemployment and underemployment is so high. Personally, I think the vendors gives Hanoi much of its character.

Rules are different even within the same country; elementary students in NY aren't expected to use "Ma'am" and "Sir" like they are in the South. Being able to adapt is important. It's what Paul said about becoming "all things to all men."

Locks of Love, Long Bien Style

About 3 years ago, padlocks began mysteriously showing up on the fence on Long Bien bridge. Most of them belong to young couples and were placed there as symbols of their love.

First, the couple finds a good location. Some have been known to measure the fence so they can be sure to buy locks that fit. Then they return with their steel locks, intertwine them, and snap them onto the fence. The last step is to throw away the keys as a sign of their commitment to each other. The couples believe the locks will bless their love and keep it alive.

Some locks have saved relationships. A 21-year-old student said that she and her boyfriend put their locks on the bridge two months ago. After a big fight, they were ready to break up,

"But then we went back to the bridge and saw our locks there. Through all the scorching sun and pouring rain of Hanoi, they are still holding onto each other. We immediately found a way to solve our problem. It's better then therapy."

from Vietnam News Service, 23 March 2010.