The big pink church near my house.

The picture in this blog is of a big pink church near my house. It chimes like Big Ben every hour (very useful for telling the time when lying in bed) and has a special chime at 5pm and 9pm when it plays a pleasent tune. Then it goes quite until 4:30am when it goes mental. It bangs and clacks for about a minute which frequently wakes me up. I've no idea why. It's also got a big statue of Jesus in its car park which I'll get a photo of soon.



Big pink church near my house

Not much else to report really. I'm still working hard but am now halfway through 2 x 10 week courses at my school. After this time I'll be able to go on holiday for 10 days. At the moment its either the middle of Vietnam or Singapore. I think I'd rather go to the middle of Vietnam as I can get a 10 day holiday there for the price of a 3 days holiday in Singapore but I'm not in any rush to make a decision.

I'm not sure I'll be going to Hanoi to watch Arsenal in the middle of this month now. This is for a number of reasons. firstly, getting tickets has been a pain and they don't go on sale until a week before the match which seems a bit weird. Secondly, they'll probably put out a very weak team as its very early pre-season, thirdly, I'd need to take time off work and finally I want to go on holiday at the end of July as well.

Apart from all this I'm keeping well and enjoying my work. It will be two years that I've been In Vietnam on 17th July! I can't believe how fast it's gone.

Rainy Season 2013

Rainy season has started in Vietnam. I quite like the rain here. firstly because it removes the humidity all be it fore only an hour or so but also its spectacular. I got caught in a rain storm the other night on m way home from a coffee shop. It was so intense it was like a shower so I had to wait under an umbrella for it to pass. There were lightening flashes all over the sky, it was great to watch. I got a short video of it which I’ve attached below. I wasn’t when the rain was at its hardest falling but still good. It’s also fantastic to watch people riding their motorbikes even though the weathers so bad.

Not much else going on. I’m trying to get tickets for the Arsenal vs. Vietnam game in Hanoi in July which isn’t providing easy. The Arsenal websites not very helpful and getting Vietnamese people to help search on the net isn’t proving very fruitful either.

Cho Tan Dinh market near my house

21 months teaching - not much else happening

not much to report I'm afraid. I'm working hard and I've got a quite nice settled schedule. I'm still working 22 hours a week at ILA and 4 hours at a kindergarten. I'm teaching a new IELTS class which is not really teaching English but more getting the students ready to take an IELTS test which will allow them to study at universities overseas. It's challenging, like anything new, but great experience and very good for the CV.



Bar 5 on pasteur street. The most fun you can have for $6



In 3 months time I'll have 2 years teaching experience which with the variety of different things I've been teaching (children, adults, IELTS, level testing and lecturing) It will open doors to other places. However saying that I still enjoy what I'm doing so i'm no rush for a change.

I need to get out more and take some fresh pictures. The one here today is of one of the boozy darts sessions in the 'all you can drink for $6 between 3pm and 7pm bar'. It did used to be $5 all you can drink but inflation has spoken and forced the price up.

Two years since I left England

Today is two years since I left England. The first year went quickly but this one has gone even quicker. It was two years ago, 17th May 2011, I got on a plane to fly to Bangkok. I'm still enjoying my work and living in another country so think I will be away for more years to come.

Work is going well. I'm getting even more experience teaching something called IELTS (the international standard of grading student) asnd level testing new students on their speaking ability to put them in the correct class before starting at ILA.

Out with friends on Sunday night.

Socially things are good. I've still got some good friends although some more., who started the same time as me, are leaving this week which is sad.

Some good news is that Arsenal are coming to Vietnam in July to play the Vietnamese national team in Hanoi. A group of us Arsenal fans are looking to get tickets to go an see them. This will give me a chance to visit some other places such as Sapa and Ninh Binh around Hanoi. Arsenal will be the first premier league team to visit Vietnam!!!

So things are moving along nicely. Rainy season has started which is pretty cool to see. We've had some excellent thunderstorms.

ILA Summer School

So, its been a few weeks since I finished the Cabridge YL-extension and I'm back to work. As I said the course was very good and I'm able to put into practise what I learnt.  In a few weeks time my school will be starting its 'Summer School' which means extra classes for me over the next few months.

The 'Tiger' Team

To launch this event ILA held a staff 'launch day' at a sports centre close to the school, there must have been about 500 people in attendance. This is a very Vietnamese thing apparently, the start of the event involved chanting my schools name several times and watching some choreographed dancing with ILA flags, it was funny and reminded me a bit of the events we used to do at the Bank before the credit crunch minus the excessively expensive champagne, food and celebrities RBS used to bring along.



The winning team



There were a number raffles and competitions. The main competition was a team event. In the weeks running up to the event all our centres had to enter teams of 5 into this competition. There were a total of 23 teams (115 people) that took part in three events, the first was answering questions, the second was making a square with rope blindfolded and the third was putting up a tent blindfolded.



On stage (and TV) collecting our winnings



The great news is our team won the whole competition. We only missed out on the maximum of 240 points by 6! We won the tent putting up race (I guess scouts came in handy!) and answered all the questions correctly. We won a big hamper and brought glory to my centre.

With our prize

It was very hot day and the sports hall had no air conditioning as you can imagine it was a very sweaty day.

One other piece of news is that since I've started this blog I've had a number of emails from people asking me about teaching English and living in Vietnam. I received one a year or so ago from a woman who I gave some advice. Today I met her! She is living in HCMC and working at ILA. It turns out I've been going to Vietnamese lessons with her for the past month or so. I'm not sure if the chat with me influenced her decision in an way but its quite a nice thing to happen.

There are some more photos below of our team at the ILA Summer School launch day.

Team 4 looking happy after winning the tent race

Messin' around and putting the tent down

Finished Cabridge YL extension for young learners at ILA, Vietnam

Yesterday was the last day of my Cambridge YL extension course at ILA. It's been a very stressful busy week but very rewarding  and I've learnt loads. In the 10 days of the course I've completed 6 observed teaching practises, attended 20 hours of workshops and watched about20 hours of other people teaching.

The days have been long, I've been starting at 6am and getting home at 9pm. Most of my lessons were pretty good. Below is a picture of a comic I made for one of my classes. The aim was for them to write their own comic.... they loved it!

We all went out to celebrate last night, it wasn't a late one as most people were knackered. I'm back to work tomorrow. I'm looking forward to using what I have learnt on this two week course. I'd recommend it to anyone whose teaching young learners in a second language.

Cambridge YL extension at ILA, Vietnam - End of week 1

So I'm halfway through the first week of the Cambridge YL extension course at my school, ILA. I thought I was doing a CELTYL but it turns out they don't do that anymore but this course, the Cambridge Young learner extension, is its replacement and an extension course to the CELTA that I did nearly two years ago.

It's been a tough week. There has been so much work to do, with assignments, input sessions and three lessons in the evenings whilst being observed. It's not hard, just really intense an stressful, just like the CELTA. Some people were close to cracking yesterday, which is amusing to me in a funny way.

Although it's been a tough week I've already learnt so much. I've got some great ideas and great feedback which I can take forward. Check out this art project I did in one of my classes below. We were teaching them about the weather and this helped reinforce the learning giving them some much needed speaking practise. Just to think two years ago I was doing boring Banking and now I'm making this cool stuff.

Possibly my greatest art achievement....ever

So, this weekend I have 3 assignments to finish, a lesson to plan and I have to go and watch two hours of other teachers. I can't wait until next Friday!!!!