Research for PHD
I started a distance PHD in applied linguistics at the
University of Birmingham in June. My focus is on applying cognitive linguistics
principles and research to teaching English classes, and I’ve been working with
a brilliant professor named Jeannette Littlemore. She is so positive and
encouraging. For the first 12,000 word paper, I’ve developed two 8-week courses
on Metaphor and Idioms. So, all I was missing was the students, which I figured
would be easy to find here.
And boy, was I right. I asked the other English teachers to
let their students know about the class and posted flyers at the university,
but at the beginning of the week, I only had three or four students signed up.
Since I needed around 50 students total for two groups, I was worried. Then, on
Thursday I told my writing students about the class and one of the students
posted the details on Facebook. I received hundreds of emails, and by Friday
evening both classes were full. The class is for 3rd or 4th
year students at Hue College of Foreign Languages, but I got emails from
freshmen, sophomores, students from HUE College of Medicine, Hue College of
Economics, high school students, teachers at other colleges, and so on. The
good news is, I have the students to test my materials on, even if I had to
spend hours replying to all the emails!
Birthday Party
Last Saturday I went to a friend’s friend’s birthday party.
There were a lot of couch surfers there, and I ate so much birthday cake! Everybody
was supposed to bring a snack or drink, so I brought my favorite new Vietnamese
snack, jackfruit chips. I think I ate almost all of them myself though. It was
a lot of fun, but I was glad that I had ridden my bike there myself when I saw
everyone riding their motorcycles after drinking – one girl even fell over on
the motorcycle while waiting for everyone to get ready to leave. Definitely
safer on the bike . . .
When I returned to the dormitory late (at 11:30), the
security guard proceeded to lecture me about staying out late in Vietnamese,
even though I had arranged beforehand with the receptionist to return between
11 and 12. It was my first time staying out past curfew in a month! I felt like
a child . . .
Government Shut-Down
So, I'm here on a fellowship with the US state department, but I'm paid through a grant with Georgetown, so the shut-down doesn't affect me. However, I think about my former colleagues back in Texas and know that if I were still there, I would be staying home this week. I hope for everyone's sake that Congress can get its act together soon!
News
So, I'm here on a fellowship with the US state department, but I'm paid through a grant with Georgetown, so the shut-down doesn't affect me. However, I think about my former colleagues back in Texas and know that if I were still there, I would be staying home this week. I hope for everyone's sake that Congress can get its act together soon!
News
The university informed me that the local news station would
come to film me and my class on Monday. There are other foreign teachers here,
but they are from other countries in Asia – I was told the university wanted
someone who “looked foreign” – a.k.a. someone white. When classes were canceled
because of the monsoon, I felt relieved that I wouldn’t have to do the filming.
Of course, it was only a short reprieve – they rescheduled for Thursday. They also interviewed one of my students - I told him not to say anything bad about me, but it's all in Vietnamese, so how should I know? The translator told me, though, that the student said when he found out I was going to be his teacher, he was so excited he couldn't sleep! How cute is that?
It’s
supposed to air on the local news station next week – if I get a link for the
video online, I will certainly post it here.
 |
| "Che" - It doesn't always look this pretty, especially when you mix it up, but it always tastes delicious! |
Vietnamese Sweets
Anyone who knows me at all knows I have a HUGE sweet tooth. This
week I discovered an ice cream place about ten minutes from where I live – I had
seen it before, but I think I was afraid to go because I couldn’t read the
menu. (I only know the word for ice cream – “kem” – which I learned very soon
after my arrival in Vietnam!) This place may be my downfall, because for about
$.35, you can get either three small scoops of ice cream topped with dried
coconut, peanuts, and sauce, or something called “kem bo,” which I believe
contains icecream, ice, dried coconuts, peanuts, and sauce in a glass and is
mixed together with a spoon. Delicious!
Another favorite treat is called “che” and it’s basically
fruit mixed with some kind of sugary liquid (I believe it contains coconut
juice, but I’m not sure) and ice. It’s also served in a glass and mixed up with
a spoon before eating. Yum!
Trip to Hanoi
Next week, I’ll be visiting Hanoi. One of the other fellows
had to resign suddenly, and I’ve been asked to cover his seminar for government
officials. They called me Tuesday, and I got permission to miss classes for the
next week at the university. Of course, I have to make-up all the classes when
I return, so it’s actually a lot of extra work for me. But, I heard my
Vietnamese co-teachers in Hanoi are really nice and professional, and I think
it will be a good change of pace. More on that in a later post . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment