The language teaching workcamp (Nov 19 – Dec 2018) was held in Ho Chi Minh city (Vietnam), a vibrant and crowded city full of life and motorbikes. Our first two days were welcomed by Khai, the local representative from Volunteers for Peace Vietnam (VPV). In our group, we have Maya and Ben from Luxembourg, Olivia from South Korea (middle at the front in picture), and Rose from France (left at the back in picture). Khai showed us the way to travel from the Peace House, where we stayed, to the Pagoda where teaching is given. We also get to enjoy some sightseeing to check out historical monuments and local food.

Our typical teaching day started at 8am in the morning with two consecutive 1.5 hours classes followed by a long lunch break at Pagoda, and another 1.5 hours class till 4pm. The Pagoda offers free language courses for French, English, German, Korean, Japanese, Chinese (From Basic/Beginning to Advance). I was given the chance to join the English and Chinese classes. We have students ranging from 11 to 62 years old. Our classes focused on speaking and conversation. We often picked a topic as the main discussion point for the class. Topics covered included presentation on our country of origin, sharing on our favourite movie and art piece, recycling and how to reduce the use of plastic, discussion on YouTube and media, how to define success (money = success?), and learning pronunciation by singing and role play. We also included some games in the class and the Hangman (word guessing game) was our all-time favourite.

All in all, it was a great experience. I am particularly touched by  student’s high motivation and eagerness to learn,which contributed to good sharing sessions and interaction in the class. Last but not least, I treasure the moments with all the volunteers especially the random chit-chatting with a glass of Vietnamese ice coffee!

A group photo of all volunteers both from SCI and AIESEC together with master Sifu: