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!!!!

CELTYL, ILA Vietnam

I’m back at work but next weekend I’m going on a two week course called the CELTYL. Previously I’ve done the CELTA (Cambridge English Language Teaching to Adults) but this one, the CETLYL (Cambridge English Language Teaching to Young Learners) is, as the name suggests, tailored to children.

I’m doing the course through ILA, my current school, who offer staff a discount on the price. This will be a good CV booster and I’ll ttake lots away from it. A lot of the teachers that I’m close to are doing it so it will be good to spend time with them and watch each other teach. It starts on 14^th April.

Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island

Just finished our 2 nights and 3 day tour of Ha Long Bay. It was great. The limestone rocks are amazing. There is over 1000 of them in a big area. On the first day we cruised on our boat through the rocks to an amazing cave, which had a great view of part of the bay. We went Kayaking in some Lagoons to watch some monkeys that live on one of the rocks.

Me in Halong Bay

On the first night we slept on the boat in a nice room. The food throughout our time on the boat was really good too. In the morning we went up a big hill on one of the rocks to a Pagoda which gave a great view of the bay. We then made our way towards one of the big Islands called Cat Ba, where we went bicycling and hiking.

View from Pagoda on a hill

Sadly I only took my flip flops with me on the hike which meant I was slipping everywhere and did end up falling over and getting quite muddy, I was ok though. In the afternoon we went Kayaking again and then staying in a cracking hotel on the Island which was quite developed but still quiet, clean and had great food.

Halong Bay

The last day we spent travelling back to Hanoi. We have one final day in Hanoi before we go back to Ho Chi Minh City on Friday. I’m working on Saturday but my friends James and Sarah are continuing to go down the country before flying back to England on 14^th April.

This was a great trip and the best thing I’ve seen in Vietnam!

Hanoi, Vietnam

We arrived in Hanoi on Sunday morning, the flight was at 6:20 in the morning which meant getting to the airport at silly o’clock. Fortunately I only live about 20 minutes from the airport so it wasn’t too bad.

Pagoda on the lake

We got a taxi from the airport to the hotel and settled in then when on a walking tour of the old town area of Hanoi. The first thing I noticed was that the weather was noticeably cooler than HCMC which was nice at it’s been hot recently. The second was the streets are much smaller and it feels more like a big town than city. The third thing was there was no sugar cane man.

Resting place of Ho Chi Minh

We all took in the sites of Hanoi which included the old town, Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum (sadly we didn’t get to see him) an old prison and an old University (The temple of literature) we also took in several Pagodas.

Lady carrying stuff

We’re off to Ha Long Bay tomorrow on a 2 nights and 3 day tour. I’m looking forward to it!