#ryangoestohue

Sitting in the airplane, headphones in, staring at the wings as we ascend into the clouds. The wings reflect the light of the clear sky, decorated with spots of clouds and the wing seems almost transparent. And then it hits me: it’s over.

ETA4 2015 is over, and man was it a ride. Same program, but a completely different feeling from last year. It’s hard to really encapsulate all the emotions I have been feeling the past couple days as I’ve spent my last moments and meals in Hue, but I can say that it was not easy. I’ve become so emotionally attached to the people I’ve met this year – students and TAs. I don’t know why, but this year, I’ve even become emotionally attached to the person I am able to be while I am in Hue. A teacher, a mentor, and a friend.

It’s a life style that I will miss. I’ve told a few people already, but back home in the US, it’s a constant fight to balance so many different aspects of my life. School, work, entrepreneurships, athletics, and extracurricular activities. Between all of those personal obligations, I find myself spreading myself too thin all too often, as if I rarely get the time to just sit down and enjoy a meal or conversations with some good company. But here in Hue, being a part of ETA4, I have one job. One goal, one purpose to my being there. And that is ensure that whoever decides to come into my classroom receives not only an education that is fun, but an experience and advice that they will be able to take with them for their entire life. In Hue, I am able to dedicate 100% of my being to this cause and it has become something I truly love. I don’t feel myself spread too thin (except when hanging out with my students), and I don’t have anything on my mind other than how to make this experience the most enjoyable and memorable for them. I really do love what I am able to do here and the impact I am able to have on these students because I see the growth that they all go through. Becoming more confident has been a result of participating in ETA4 since its inception in 2008, but this year I decided to introduce to my students various social justice issues that I feel really helped open their minds as people and citizens of this Earth. More on that later~

This summer, even though I had many more students than last year, I feel closer to them. Even though my morning and afternoon classes are almost complete opposites in personalities. We have the young buffalos of my morning class, younger in age but with plenty of energy and enthusiasm to compensate. A rowdy bunch of adolescents that will be crazy and hard to control, but will always say or do the darnest things to put a smile on your face. MY old buffalos of my afternoon class, college students who are actually there to practice English. Receptive of most things I say and understanding of why some boring parts are essential to the games and activities we play later in the lesson. Both classes reflect different personalities, but I love them both the same <3

Sometimes I do things in Vietnam that I really just would not be able to explain if I was doing it in the US.

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.

This past Thursday I taught about University life, comparing Vietnam and the United States. We also had a discussion about GPA and it’s importance, and I surprised many of my students with my opinion on the topic: it’s not important. I told them my perspective, how it’s about the wholistic value of a person from intellect, to physique, to leadership ability, and ability to empathize with others. Anyway, I told them about my life back in the states as a student, athlete, and leader with a part time job, and was asked the question: Why do you choose to come here and teach when you are not getting paid, when you could be back home working and earning money?

It was strange, because no one had really asked about why I was here while understanding that context of my life. So naturally I had to give them a different answer. After giving it some more thought, here is an extended answer:

I work 11 out of the 12 months in a year. I study nearly 9 months of that year. I am a fulltime committed athlete 7 months a year. Fraternity leader, and budding entrepreneur on top of that. This is the one month a year that I get to live a completely different lifestyle than what I’m used to. This is the one month a year where I truly get to have no filter for my weirdness. This is the one month a year that I feel myself making a difference for so many lives outside of my own. 

Here in Hue, the culture and the atmosphere is so drastically different than in the US that I have to portray my personality differently. Here, I am looked at to be not only a leader but a teacher for these students; not only in English but in life. Here in Hue, I don’t have to worry about engineering, physics or calculus. I don’t have midterms or exams to worry about, or when I have time for lunch or any of that. All I worry about when I’m here is how I can make the absolute best lesson plan that is not only fun and engaging but informative and constructive to their English speaking skills. Most importantly, what life lessons I can teach that these students will take with them for the rest of their lives. 

This lifestyle here in Hue is so drastically different than what I have in the states that it’s difficult to imagine the other whilst living through one. Right now, I can’t be more proud of my students and how much they’ve grown in only two weeks. I can’t wait to see where they are by the end of this program, and that is the reason why I am here. 

Jesus, these past two days I’ve changed my shirt 6 times. Nearly every chance I get I switch a sweat drenched shirt for a clean one, only to quickly soak up another within minutes. It’s ridiculous. It’s been nearly 42 Celcius out here these past three days (About 110 F), and if that wasn’t enough on it’s own, I’ve been dancing so much. 

 Yesterday, we went out kareoke-ing for a friends birthday, and of course when you kareoke you have to sing the songs that get everyone up and having a good time. Yeah perfect, except when the room itself gets to just become a mini sauna for the night. Then today, while we were supposed to have sports day, it turned into dance day and of course being the life of the party I am, I made it my job to make sure as many people were dancing as I could. Being goofy, throwing the lasso, asking pretty girls and small children to dance with me; I love to dance here to poppy ass songs and make a fool out of myself. It’s a great feeling letting everything out there and having everyone else do it with you. The only problem is the buckets of sweat I drip when I dance in 42C weather - even if it is under the shade. 

But you know what? You know what? Completely worth it. I’m going to keep dancing even if I’m terrible and I do wack ass moves, because it makes people laugh and it let’s them have fun. They have fun when they see this goofy ass American dancing like a lunatic, and of course they want to join! I love dancing with my students because it further blurs the notion of authority they think I have over them. AS a teacher, they think I am superior somehow, but what I reallty want to teach them is how to be comfortable with themselves and have a good time. I think that’s worth the sweat for sure.