Hoi An

Still in Central Vietnam a bit south of Da Nang, we have been staying in historic Hoi An, a small, picturesque city with narrow streets and well-preserved colonial and pre-colonial buildings. There are many tourists here enjoying the city and its restaurants and hotels, the nearby beaches and other excursion possibilities. Our first day we took a tour to My Son to see the ruins from the Cham Empire that thrived here 1000 years ago. The ruins lie in a beautiful jungle valley at the foot of a mountain about 55 kilometers from Hoi An. The ruins are impressive with many beautiful carvings. We also saw many bomb craters and the remains of some of the temples destroyed from U.S. bombing. The Vietcong had used the area as a staging site for attacks on U.S. and ARVAN forces.

Last night, I visited a school (The Hoi An Foreign Language Center) located in a high school and observed an English class of about 25 students. The teacher asked me to introduce myself to the class and I learned that at least half of these students, aged about 18 to 24, worked in hotels and restaurants. The students exhibited a high level of English language ability and asked about my religion and about the economy in the U.S. I briefly discussed religion in the U.S. and told them that my religion is love of nature and helping other people.

After that, the teacher and I worked together with the class on a grammar exercise from their book. This lesson was a cloze exercise (fill in the gaps) about the writer Daniel Defoe and his great work "Robinson Crusoe". The teacher helped the students analyze the syntax of sentences and asked them what kind of word (noun, verb form, article, etc.) was needed to fill in the blank. This exercise was very difficult even for me and sometimes the teacher and I differed on the correct answer. We left time for students to attempt to find the right word to put in the blank, but usually we had to help them find the correct word. In a couple of instances the teacher asked me to come up with the correct word, which was challenging. The teacher seemed to know more about English grammar at this advanced level than I do.

Although the teacher had told me before class that he used a communicative approach to teach English, today's class offered few opportunities at real communication and didn't seem to relate to their lives. The teacher told me that the students were preparing to take an exam, and that the exam included oral communication as well as reading and writing components. The class is taught three nights a week.

When I came back two nights later seeking to attend another class, the teacher asked me to practice oral interviews with the students. He had me ask students one by one personal questions regarding their work, studies, families, free time activities, language abilities, and future plans. He asked me to correct the students' mistakes when they tried to answer my questions. I proceeded to go around the room asking individuals questions spending several minutes with each student. Due to the background noise from outside , the chatter within the classroom, and the lack of clarity in students answers (students not speaking loudly and clearly and their pronunciation problems), I found it difficult to understand some of the students. Many of the students already had jobs in hotels or restaurants as waitresses, desk clerks or maids. They said they liked their jobs but had little free time. Others were full-time students and did not work. I continued with this exercise for about 40 minutes and then excused myself to go have dinner.