After a nice bowl of noodle soup, we headed across the street to Cozi for some drinks. They have a very good special of 3 Leo beers for 100 Baht. This special seems to run every day. We had a great time getting to know each other. The three of us are going to be in Viet Nam for our posts. Some for a year, others for two years.

Olivia wanted to brainstorm ideas for possible jobs she could do to earn money on the side while volunteering. Of course, this was going to be in addition to her food stall that she wants to start. I only agreed to give her more ideas if I could work at her food stall when I visited Hue. Here was our list of potential jobs:

1. English Tutor
2. Bartender
3. Hotel Receptionist
4. Radio DJ
5. Voice-Over Work
6. Open a Wine Bar
7. Weekend Tour Guide
8. Vietnamese Soap Opera Star Playing the Mute Girl (I would play the Viet Kieu with long hair)
9. Movie Star
10. Cover Band Singer (and Guitarist, when we learn how to play the guitar)
11. Model (we think Candice has the jump on us with this one)

As you can see, we know how to brainstorm. Maybe it was the Leo talking. Either way, those are pretty darn good ideas if you ask me.

You: “Do you think these are…?”

Me: “Yes, they are.”

After looking into our future moonlighting jobs, we talked about life in general- family, music, relationships, food, and a big part of our lives now: VIA.

The past near two weeks in Chiang Mai has been really great. Everyone here is simply amazing. It seems that we’ve found our flock to fly with. Everyone seems to be here for themselves, but to give all of themselves in this endeavor. I think a lot of times we grow accustomed to the status quo within us and over time we don’t even recognize it. You know what? I should have blogged this the night I came home from the bar because it was really good and I now can’t remember everything we talked about. I just remember the feeling. It made me feel really good about everything- myself, my friends, VIA, and this next part in my life. You’re just going to have to trust me on this one.

rice
with
pork
Korean
style
twenty
Baht
so
so
good

tea
cold
also
known
as
bubble
tea
only
ten
Baht

Our lesson was to cover conversation listening, split into five 15 minute sections: an ice breaker, 2 conversations & 1 activity, repeating the conversations to use with another activity, having the students brainstorm conversational questions, and a writing assignment. Throughout each section, the students were asked to participate in various ways such as small groups or pairs.

It was good to see what my teammates had in mind for their lesson. It exposed me to ideas that I either forgot or didn’t even think about using in my section.

Below is feedback from the instructor and our VIA peers that observed. The bold represents items that I felt personally needed improvement on my part.

1. The classroom setting could be intimidating for students since there are five of us teaching and ten of us observing in the back
2. Many students chose to speak in Thai during the assignments
3. When no one responds to a question posed…
   1. Call on them by name
   2. Have them discuss in pairs or small groups and then respond by calling on them
   3. Call on the most confident students first
   4. Split the class into teams to compete and have them answer as a team
4. Check for understanding of instructions
5. Have students play out the dialog instead of it always being performed by the instructors
6. Keep teaching language simple and brief
7. Pace yourself; no need to rush
8. Prepare the board ahead of time
9. Don’t write in ALL CAPS (apparently, Thai students are taught to copy everything that is written in ALL CAPS)
10. Address errors (either speech or writing) at the end of class as issues that came up for improvement
11. Use follow-up questions to encourage students to dig deeper

Oh, I had this crazy jet-lag-induced dream last night that involved Blade, guns, vampires (I was either becoming one or running away from one), some special vampire woman that didn’t want to be a vampire anymore and wanted to die in the sun but she didn’t because it was tied to an earlier part of the dream about her mother dying and it turned out that she was the reason for her death. Totally weird. It was a long dream and I woke up thinking, “I should write this down.” It was pretty cool. Like watching a movie.

Tonight, some of us are going to watch Harry Potter. That’s right. Harry Potter.

Update: Harry Potter was O.K. It seemed like a rushed job and those guys are getting really old.