#17july2015

It’s unbelievable thinking it’s already week 3. Ive been here for almost a month and the time has just flown by at a blazing speed. It really has. Way faster than last year.

             I am extremely proud to say that both my morning and afternoon classes are absolutely amazing. They both are very distinct, however. My morning class is extremely large, to the point where I have to bring in three extra desks and have numerous floating chairs to give everyone a seat, and they include a mix of my old students, Christina’s old students, and new students who don’t understand where these kids get this much energy from. Seriously, those who had me or Christina last year know how to get rowdy and make class a party. This class is also much younger than I would expect at my teaching level; I would say more than half of my morning students are under the age of 16, which makes teaching some more dry topics like poetry tough. But man, if you can channel their energy in the right avenues, they are an unstoppable tide of excitement, youth, and fun. There’s a slang term here in Vietnam that is picking up popularity and I feel perfectly embodies these students. The term is Trẻ trâu, which translates to “young buffalo” who essentially embodies the young and reckless attitude of adolescents who enjoy being obnoxious, rowdy, and loud. I frequently use it as a means of making them laugh or making them motivated, it really is funny how accepting they are of the term. But they’re teenagers, what can you expect?

             My afternoon class, however, did not have the luxury of being able to feed off of returning students like my morning class. My afternoon class began incredibly shy, and incredibly small compared to what I was used to. I had maybe about 22 students in my morning class compared to the 65 average I was experiencing in my morning class, and nearly all of my afternoon students were in college, or had just graduated. It was quite a change indeed. I remember in the first week my numbers actually dropped down to 15, which made me actually quite sad. These older students didn’t have the energy that I could feed off of, and especially since it takes place right during nap time in the US, it was a damn struggle to get them going. I am very proud to say that that number has improved to nearly 50 now, and with them being older students, I am able to go out for dinner with a group of them each night and they get to show me some of the best food in town. They’re also now a lot more willing to go out and have fun afterclass! If there’s anything that BOTH my classes understand, it’s that hungry Ryan is not a happy Ryan.