EFL Teaching in Vietnam: Weekend Soccer Match

What an absolute hoot!! I have just staggered home from a morning of soccer with the kids from the English school.

I didn’t think it was necessary for Sen to do this activity.  How wrong could I be? It turned out that this was just what the school, Sen and I really needed. We had soooo much fun :)).

Sen booked a small soccer field for an hour. It was a first class facility within walking distance of the school.

We turned up to the miniature field a bit too early, so Tina, Thu and I went and explored a nearby abandoned French army barracks building. We took some pictures, decided it was haunted and barely escaped with our lives!!

Maybe I will let the photos do to the talking.

The girls were quite reluctant to play until I showed them how to ‘shoulder’ the boys out of the way!

There are very FEW public spaces for Vietnamese kids to play. No wonder they appreciated the activity as much as they did!

So the next time your students say “Teacher! teacher! Game please?”, may I suggest soccer.

 

EFL-teaching-in-Vietnam-Christmas Party with High School Students.

On Thursday the 23rd the English School had its first xmas party. The classroom has been decorated for a month now, so it was simply a matter of folding away the chairs, blowing up the balloons, down loading some Christmas music, and ordering in the pizzas.

We started the fun with the food and drinks. Some of the kids had never tried pizza, and thought it was yucky. I noticed they ate it anyway.

Next came the singing competition. We were delighted to find that Hanh has an exceptional voice, and her diction was spot on.

Next a game (this took a lot longer than we planned, but the kids seemed to enjoy it so we let it run). About 30 balloons had been blown up. Inside each balloon was a line of The Night Before Christmas, which we had been studying for the past week. The party was divided into boys vs girls. They had to pop the balloons (bedlam), find the lines, and then paste them in order to make the finished poem. Extra mayhem resulted from each balloon being filled with confetti.

The party wound down with Sen presenting a gift and a card to each student.

The card was The Night Before Christmas poem. I had shortened the story, simplified the lines, and added illustrations for meaning. If any EFL teacher wants an e-copy (for next year) just send me an email paulsstuff@fastmail.fm .