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February, 2008

Here we go…

Friday, February 29th, 2008

Yesterday I got an email from Omar at Language Link giving me details of Monday - Day One!!

Turn up at 8.30. We will be able to order in lunch, which sounds ominously like there will be no time to even leave the building. Dress Code: No jeans, shorts, bare shoulders or midriffs.

Here we go!

Posted in Pre Course, Hanoi, CELTA | 1 Comment »

Hoan Kiem Lake

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

One of the most famous places to visit in Hanoi is the lake in the southern part of the Old Quarter. Everything seems to converge here - street sellers, cafes, cyclos, tourist shops, tourists…

The legend of the lake goes that in the 15th century Heaven sent the Emperor a magical sword so he could drive the Chinese out of Vietnam. After the war was over, the Emperor visited the lake where he saw a giant golden tortoise swimming. The tortoise grabbed the sword and disappeared to the bottom of the lake restoring the sword to its heavenly owners. The name of the lake Ho Hoan Kiem means Lake of the Restored Sword.

The bridge to the pagoda in Hoan Kiem lake. 

It’s a popular place for wedding couples to take photographs.

It is said that there are still tortoises in the lake. A giant one was found in 1968 and is on display in the nearby pagoda. If you see one swimming in the water it is said to bring good luck. The water is kind of murky though, so I hope tortoises don’t mind that kind of environment.

Looking for tortoises in the lake. 

Posted in Places to visit, Hanoi | 2 Comments »

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

Saturday, February 23rd, 2008

I made an effort to get up especially early to visit as the Mausoleum containing “Uncle Ho” (not Uncle Mo as I had in my head) is only open mornings until 11am. The Mausoleum complex houses the mausoleum itself, a Ho Chi Minh museum, a pagoda and a house.

To get in to see embalmed Uncle Ho you have to first leave all your bags and belongings at the entrance. If you are wearing shorts or a skirt that is too short they give you a wrap skirt to cover you up. Likewise they don’t like you to wear strappy tops. I was asked to take my camera out of my bag and take it with me which I thought was odd as you aren’t allowed photographs inside, but as our “group” wended its way through the checkpoints, we passed through a security X-Ray and my camera was put in a little carrier bag only to go a further 10 metres to reach a shed where it was to be handed in, in exchange for a token. (They then “truck” your cameras around to the exit door of mausoleum where you collect them.) The actual Mausoleum entrance was another 200 metres around the corner and down the street and we were marched around in crocodile fashion by a number of guards.

Despite being an early Saturday morning there were a lot of people there visiting, mostly Vietnamese. Having said that the queue moved quickly. Once you’re inside the building itself you go up and around one flight of stairs, past the uniformed guards every few metres until you reach the inner room where Uncle Ho lies, tastefully lit, with a guard at each corner of his case. Not being allowed to take photographs or linger is the reason the queue moves so fast - you are barely in there for 30 seconds. You have to show respect, by not wearing a hat or putting your hands in your pockets. It was an interesting experience as he is an important political 20th century figure as Lenin & Chairman Mao (who are also embalmed).

Entering the Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh

You are pretty much escorted down the street by guards and once in the building, it takes maybe a couple of minutes before you are out the other side.

Posted in Places to visit, Hanoi | No Comments »

Money

Saturday, February 23rd, 2008

Arrgghhh, it doesn’t help when you are a bit dyslexic with numbers to have to be dealing in the thousands every time you buy something…

Vietnam’s currency is the dong and while you can pay in dollars if you wish, most things are quoted in the local currency. Currently there is around 30,000 dong to the pound and speaking as someone for whom it took a long time to get their head around 2,000 Korean won to the pound and thus being a millionaire every payday, the addition of extra zeros is very difficult. Fortunately the 3X table is an easy one but it still takes a while to process that paying 100,000 in a restaurant is really only around £3 and so there’s no need to gulp in horror at the expense of it all….

The other cool thing is that, like Australia, the newer higher denomination notes here are made of plastic, so a thumbs up for the recycling aspect!

Posted in Hanoi, Blogroll | 2 Comments »

Somewhere to stay…

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

The CELTA course centre in Hanoi doesn’t help you out with finding or recommending accommodation. Fortunately Hanoi is full of hotels and guesthouses that don’t cost the earth so finding somewhere to stay is not really a problem.

The Old Quarter is definitely the most popular place to find a hotel. It’s the tourist centre of the city and every street it seems has at least a couple of hotels on it. I found somewhere to stay in the northern part of the Old Quarter, which now that I know the language school is in the southern part of the city, seems like it’s going to be a good walk every morning and night, but… the hotel owner is really friendly and the room I have is big for one person. I have free internet and breakfast and it feels very safe and secure. The going rate for budget guesthouses seems to be around the $10-15 mark.

The street around the corner from my hotel.
Hang Vai is the street for buying bamboo ladders.

Posted in Pre Course, Hanoi, Blogroll | 1 Comment »

Hello Hanoi! First impressions

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

For all the sadness at leaving Korea, I can’t tell you how how happy I am to be out of the cold weather!! Although Hanoi at this time of year (Feb) isn’t entirely shorts and t-shirt weather, it is soooo much warmer than Bundang. When I arrived, the hotel owner was bundled up in jackets and scarves, complaining how cold it was, while I was feeling overdressed in jeans and a fleece. I’m always the first to complain about the cold, so that made a really refreshing change…

So, safely ensconced in a hotel in the old quarter of town; my new home for the next few weeks or so, I set out to explore…

The first thing that hits you (and you have to be careful to make that a non-literal expression) is the traffic . There are just so many people all out and about on the street at the same time. The roads are packed to bursting with motorcycles, bicyles, cyclos, taxis, cars, people. They truly seem to be the life and soul of Hanoi, everything happens on the street… Ground floor houses for the most part are converted into cafes, shop fronts and businesses. A short walk down the road will involve stepping in and out of the road as you try to dodge the mass of parked motorcycles, and the groups of people sociably gathered to talk, eat, or work on the pavements. Crossing the street takes a bit of nerve at first, but when in Rome… do as the Hanoians do and put your best foot forward. There seems to be a kind of give and take on both sides… if you hold your nerve and calmly keep walking, making it clear which direction you’re going in, the traffic accommodates you and neatly manages to swerve around you at the last moment. It helps that there are less cars than motorbikes, as swerving a car out of a pedestrian’s way is going to cause no end of trouble.

You definitely need to develop some kind of 360 degree owl rotating swivel neck to keep an eye on the road…

Posted in Pre Course, Hanoi, Blogroll | No Comments »

Saying Goodbye

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

After having already spent a year teaching in Korea in 2005, I returned to Korea from Australia 18 months ago (while I waited to see if I was allowed an Oz visa) and at first taught at a Montessori kindergarten in Suwon. After 6 months, still waiting for a visa, I changed jobs and went to SNFL: Seongnam Foreign Language High School in Bundang. Totally different experiences but I learned so much from both of them. With this kind of job, to be successful you have to be utterly honest; half the battle is gaining the trust of your students. Pre-schoolers aren’t going through any of the angst of teenagers and you know their reaction is intuitive and straightforward. If they like you, they really like you. High school students have a lot going on. They have so much stress from studying and exams, and figuring out their future plans, but if you are honest and show that you respect their ideas and opinions rather than imposing another set of rules on top of everything, that can go a long way to establishing a good relationship.

It’s been great in Korea, I’ve been looked after pretty well. I’ve been lucky with the jobs that I’ve had and the people that I’ve met. I don’t intend coming back, I think I’ve spent enough time here, but you can never say never! It is time to go somewhere else and try something new. That is a huge reason for me to do the CELTA. My teaching experience up til now has been mostly focused around kindergarten - high school. I’ve taught adults, but not to any great extent and it will do me good to get my head around that methodology.

But it is still sad to leave…

Three of my favourite students came to say goodbye..

Left to Right: Jin-Yeop, Me, Ho-Sang and Dong-Jae.

Posted in Korea, Blogroll | 1 Comment »

Why Hanoi?

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

I applied to do the course in Hanoi. When I was in Australia in 2006 I applied and was accepted onto the course at Latrobe University, but lack of numbers meant they had to postpone it, and my lack of visa meant I had to leave the country unable to take a later course.

I did think about doing the course while I was in Korea and heard that the British Council in Seoul ran it, but again my timing was bad. I popped in one day to enquire only to find out that they had just finished the One Course that they ran per year and would have to wait until the next year to do it.

Once I knew that I would be leaving Korea a whole new area of options opened up, one of them being Vietnam. You can do the course here in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh city. Same course, just run by different schools - Hanoi’s is through Language Link and International House run the one in HCMC. All the people I spoke to about this recommended Hanoi - not necessarily from experience of doing the course, but for the city.

Other factors came into play also, it was definitely cheaper to take the course here and Vietnam was a country in SE Asia I hadn’t visited yet.

Hanoi sounded like a fascinating place. An interesting mix of colonial French and Asian culture and history. Somewhere that you can get pho from a street stall and then sit in a European style cafe and eat French pastries.  No contest really…   How does it always end up being about food…!

Posted in Pre Course, Hanoi, Questions, CELTA, Blogroll | 2 Comments »

Native teachers goodbye!

Monday, February 18th, 2008

On my last Monday in Korea we went out for lunch together. I wasn’t the only native teacher leaving SNFL: it was a goodbye for three of us. After lots of umming about where to go, we ended up in a Korean restaurant in Jeongja, 5 minutes from Sunae. I’d been there once before when Tiger (Korean teacher) took me for lunch and as you can see from the dishes on the table it was typical Korean style, many many dishes for everyone to share. The really cool thing with this restaurant was they didn’t just bring the food to the table, they brought the table to the table. Everything was laid out, presumably in the kitchen, and then the staff wheeled out a table top and slid it onto the table that was in front of you. It was a great place to go for a goodbye meal as there was a little bit of every Korean dish I liked: fried fish, noodles, spinach, pajeon (a kind of pancake), soups….

Native teachers together!

From left to right: Yoshimi (Japanese teacher who is leaving to go to Russia), Ting Ting & Lili (Chinese teachers), Me, Mario & Josh (English teachers), Guido (German teacher who is off to teach at a university) and Honma (Japanese teacher). Tiger (Korean teacher) is taking the photograph.

Posted in Korea, Blogroll | No Comments »

CELTA pre-interview task

Sunday, February 17th, 2008

The application form for the CELTA courses is about 10 pages long. Pretty much most of the training centres will be asking the same kind of questions, but obviously it does vary according to which centre you apply to.

The Hanoi application basically consisted of 9 “tasks” or sets of questions and essays, such as:

Look at the verb in bold in the following incorrect sentences. For each:
a) Correct the tense, using the same verb given.
b) Name the correct tense.
c) Say what the meaning of the correct tense is.

Example “I read a book at the moment.”

and

Explain the difference in meaning and/or usage of the following pairs of words, in language an Intermediate level student would be likely to understand.

Example: Skinny / Slim

and

Pieces of language can be categorised grammatically, and also functionally, i.e. according to the job they do. What are the functions of the language items below?

Examples:

“Would you like a cup of coffee?” An offer
“If only I hadn’t missed the bus.” Expressing regret

and

Think about your own experiences as a language learner, and/or your experiences of communicating with non-native speakers of English. What problems do you think learners are likely to have with the English language? Write at least 150 words in continuous prose. Your answer could comment on some of the following: grammar, vocabulary, listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Just to give you some idea.

It’s not really a test, in fact you are encouraged to use books to help you out. The difficult thing is not not knowing the answers or why a certain sentence is grammatically incorrect, it’s more really in how to express the answers coherently and working through the reasons for the grammar error or explanations as you would have to for language learners.

Posted in Pre Course, CELTA | No Comments »