Madelyn: Xin Chào and good morning from Hanoi,
Vietnam. Uh, my name is Madeline and I've been in Hanoi for about, uh,
six months of Vietnam for seven, and I'll be doing your Instagram takeover for today.
All right, so this is our front door over here, and this is our big shoe cabinet because
in most, um, Asian cultures, you're supposed to take off your shoes when you come inside.
Shoes. Um, this is my bedroom over here, like I said, a little messy,
um, and not very decorated because I couldn't get, uh, stuff to stick to the wall without
peeling the paint off because it's really humid here. Uh, and eventually I gave up
because I don't wanna lose my security deposit. Um, so we have these cabinets built into the.
Um, drawers underneath down here. Um, and then a fairly nice bathroom that I
have going on here. Uh, and so my bedroom is sort of just in addition to the main studio.
Um, this is my roommate's room. Sorry Shannon. I know it's kind of messy.
Um, and we have a nice little TV and these little shelves and a little table.
This is kind of where both of us do a lot of our work. Um, and like mostly full kitchen,
no oven, which is common also in Vietnam, not to have an oven. Um, and our second bathroom.
So I do live with a roommate. Um, if it's not clear, she's not here right now. Uh, but we met
actually both getting, um, our TESOL certification here in Vietnam, uh, through ITA's partner school.
Uh, and so we met up and we both decided we would come up to Hanoi. Uh, and live
together. I think you could definitely find, uh, a roommate in Hanoi, or Ho Chi Minh City.
You just would need to figure out how to look and it would definitely be easier if
you were already established and kind of had a social network, uh, to work through.
Um, but yes, we've really enjoyed it. We both pay, um, about. with the apartment, rent and
utilities about like $317 or $320 roundabouts, um, in USD. Uh, and we live in a, a fairly nice area,
but not their traditional expat area of Hanoi. So not in Tejo. Um, we're in, uh, Badin,
kind of in a, a very Korean and Japanese area. Uh, and we both really like it. It's been good.
All right, so I'm gonna give you a little street food here in a second. Um,
but I'm headed out to the park today to get some exercise just for like a little run and a walk.
Um, because the air quality is better than usual for this time of year.
Um, this is probably not like a standard thing for most people who exercise here.
A lot of people go to a gym. Uh, but I really like being outside, so I'm headed to the park.
So this is one of the main roads near where I live. Uh, it's a little busy,
but well past, uh, the main rush hour. So this is my favorite park.
Um, there's some gardens over here and the lake as you get over this way.
Uh, and then a playground as you move over here. Um, and there's pretty much no one here because
it's midday and it's raining. So I'm all showered after my time at the park. Um, I'm getting lunch
with a friend. Um, and depending on what we get, I might post pictures here. Uh, and if I don't think
it's like super interesting, I'll post pictures of other food I've had or I eat regularly.
Um, and I work at a language center, so I usually have mornings free. I get lunch, I usually have
an hour or two to run errands, um, or otherwise kill time. And then usually I go in around two
or three depending on, uh, what my classes are for the day and how much lesson planning I need
to do. Uh, and then I'll plan up until about, uh, five 20, which is when my classes start.
And then that my teaching hours run from five 20 until nine 30. And then I do a little bit of
admin after that, like 10 minutes max. Uh, and then I go home. So that's a typical day for me.
All right, so it's three o'clock. I'm wait on a Grab, uh, to go to work. So
Grab is a, a ride sharing app, um, and I'll be taking a motorbike.
I don't drive here, which I can talk about more if anyone is interested. Uh, but
I'm waiting for him to pull up, and it'll take me about ten minutes to get to work.
So this is my teacher room at my center.
Um, there are people here right now, they're just not in here, and we keep, sometimes the
lights off if we're not full because, uh, it saves electricity and money. And this is my
little computer where my workstation is. Um, this is a wall of activities for kindergarten classes.
Um, and yeah, just various cubbies and cabinets where we keep, uh, textbooks,
flashcards, uh, stuff for games and things like that.
So I'm finished up with class and I'm walking home, which is, uh, not a thing that a lot of
people do, but it's doable here, um, in part because the streets are not exactly pedestrian
friendly, but also there are no rules. So as a pedestrian, if you wanna walk places,
you can kind of get away with it. Um, I, when I get home, I'll talk a little bit
about the visa I'm on, um, and probably post the breakdown of my expenses for the month,
uh, and then do a little bit of grading and that'll be me wrapping up for the night.
But it was fun to take over for a day and I hope anyone who watched
and is interested in Vietnam, uh, learned something helpful.
I found my job actually, uh, partially through ITA's partner school where I got
my TESOL certification. So they submitted, um, a cover letter and um, not a resume.
Oh my gosh, I'm blanking on what it's called. Um, but sort of the shorter version of a resume,
uh, to schools on our behalf. One of the managers there helps us do that.
Um, and then you can also submit your own applications. Um, and then Vietnam is a
place where there are tons and tons and tons of Facebook groups and job postings,
um, there. So it's kind of a combination. You can cold call, I guess, or, um, walk in and
submit on your own. But also, uh, there are a lot of resources and there's also.
A Vietnamese like ESL teaching, uh, website, job board as well. There's pretty much, um,
every, every type of teaching job that's maybe an exaggeration. Um, but it's definitely not
just nighttime academies. Uh, that's what I picked because I like having stability.
Um, and I liked there was, there were appealing things about the company that I work for, for me,
um, they're fairly well known, so they're sort of trustworthy.
Um, it would've been a fairly, it's a fairly secure job. I trusted them to help me get
my, uh, work permit. Um, and they also do a lot of like new teacher support and workshops, so that
was really appealing to me. Um, but you can also kind of cobble together a lot of part-time jobs.
You can do tutoring, um, you can work in public schools. Um, and there are sort of
like organizations that will help place you in different public schools. So you might work in
one school full-time, or you can be placed in multiple, like work in different public
school classrooms around Hanoi across the week. So there are definitely a lot of different options.
I sort of answered this one already, uh, but I got my job almost immediately after I got TESOL
certified. Um, and if that's an option for you, I really recommend it, especially if you're nervous
about making the move. Um, because coming here to get certified helped me kind of get my feet
under me in the country and meet people and make connections, um, and sort of get used to things.
And then also as I got all the knowledge from my TESOL certification, I almost immediately got
to turn around and apply that. Um, so it really worked well for me and it kind of helped me be,
uh, more confident. Um, and so yes, I finished my certification. I actually left myself about
three to four weeks to travel, and then I started working almost immediately after that.
I would say yes, probably. Um, but it's definitely not necessary.
Um, it, it really helps to have some connections here and to kind of know what Facebook groups to
be trolling and which jobs are gonna be more trustworthy. Some places will be,
um, more quick to hire you if you're already here. Um, and in general, uh, you're probably , a lot
of people end up doing a visa on, uh, over at some point, um, while they live here anyway, um,
so coming here and looking and then going out and doing one is not really that unusual. Um, but I
think it's, my sense is that it's definitely also possible, especially with some of the big language
center companies, um, to get a job before you come. And that's definitely, uh, doable as well.
I did do that quick budget breakdown, but I wanted to add like a couple of quick things.
Um, one is that one of the reasons my travel expenses are so high is
because I've done two visa runs. Um, which again is not, two, is really not standard.
Um, and some of that was actually because I was in the country when I got hired.
And some of it is because of some like turnover in HR, the company where I work.
And then some of it is because, um, in the sort of like, reopening post covid. So there
was covid and then there was like, the reopening, uh, visa requirements here have gotten a bit more
complicated. Um, and so our HR department also has trouble navigating that. Uh, and so I've spent a
lot of money there. And then I also, um, had to add like pretty much an entire winter wardrobe.
So I've spent a lot more than I would say you have to. But then I also know a lot of people who
spend a lot more just because they enjoy having a more, um, comfortable lifestyle. So in conclusion,
this just depends a lot on where you live, um, how often you like to go out,
you know, like, do you like to go out for drinks and, you know, dancing and eating.
Um, you know, do you drive your own motorbike? Although actually, depending on, uh, again,
like how often you travel, uh, taking grab and owning your own is sort of renting your own,
um, is, is fairly equitable. Owning your own over the long term will save you. Um, so yeah,
it just really, and then I know people who live in much nicer apartments than where I live.
Um, so it's all kind of a, a cost benefit. You know, like if you eat street food and
you're willing to sort of settle for less, you can save a tremendous amount of money.
Um, but also if you wanna live comfortably and really enjoy your life,
you might, uh, save less, but be able to stretch what you have, uh, pretty far.
So for someone who's 25, uh, I've maybe bounced around a lot. I only worked a little bit before
covid hit, so I've done event planning. I did covid case management at a university
for a while, so I did contact tracing and I would call and notify kids that
they had Covid and then like helped them do symptom tracking and stuff like that.
Um, and then I helped run quarantine housing in the same place. Uh, and then after that job I,
I left with fairly high stress and also became less necessary over time. And then I moved into
doing childcare work, so before and after school care with the YMCA. Um, so that's kind of helping
kids with their homework, um, playing games and kind of helping keep them entertained.
Uh, for parents who need an extra hour, you know, before or after, school before they could come and
get their kids. Uh, and during school I worked in outdoor education, so that's kind of where some
of the non-traditional education comes in. But I think what this question might actually be getting
at is, um, do you have to have been a teacher or have tons of experience with kids or in education?
And I would say no. Um, I think it's really important to get TESOL certified. It's fantastic
if you have that experience with education or with kids. It makes it, I think much easier to
get your feet under you as a teacher. Um, and in order to be a good teacher, you should kind
of care about educating yourself, you know, what does it, um, how does classroom management work?
What's gonna work for you? Um, what are some of the fundamental strategies for teaching English?
Um, but I think you can have done a whole lot of things before you arrive
at this point. And there are a lot of skills, um, that can be leveraged from
other jobs that also work really well in ESL and in education in general.
So I chose Vietnam, um, for a couple of reasons. I have always been interested in, um, teaching
and teaching English. Um, I, and traveling. I knew that I had, um, fairly substantial student
loan debt, which, um, if I wanted to be able to keep paying that and, and not, you know,
have to put my loans on hold or go into forbearance, um, I needed to pick a country
where I thought I could make enough above the cost of living to keep paying towards my loans.
And that pretty much left me with, as a first-time teacher, uh, Vietnam, China,
or South Korea. Um, you can make a lot in the Middle East,
but generally you have to have more experience or higher education degrees. Um, I know that's
not exclusively true, but it, I got the sense that that was,
um, generally true. And so I chose Vietnam, um, because I had heard from people who'd visited.
It was beautiful. Um, there are a lot of places, especially around North Vietnam that I was really
interested in traveling. And lastly, just kind of, of the options between Vietnam
and South Korea and China. Um, I had the most interest in traveling around Vietnam, and then,
um, I had sort of, read some stuff about just like work culture in general and expectations.
Um, and I won't deny that I, after some other jobs that I'd
had in my life. Um, I wanted to have a little bit more work life balance.
Um, and so I, it was appealing to me in Vietnam to be able to, you know, work those 22 hours and
then even with lesson planning, hopefully come in at a little less than, than 40.
Um, and still be kind of meeting the expectations there were with,
um, work and, and what I needed to get done. And, uh, and that's been mostly true, so I, I kind of
stand by it as a choice. So this is a fun one for. Um, pros. The food is incredible. Um, people in
general are very kind, although there, and I think that's really true of lots of places you move.
Um, although in general there's sort of more, there's a more open feeling in South
Vietnam. Uh, people in North Vietnam tend to be a little bit more reserved.
Um, um, a pro and a con. Uh, Vietnamese is really hard to learn. Um, I'm still not good at it. I
try really hard with my kids' names and still, even like today I heard, um, one of my TAs like
say a kid's name, and I was like, oh, that's not how I've been saying your name for five months,
So, you know, I have those moments fairly often. Um, so I guess a pro is you because it's such
a hard language. The expectation is not that you're going to learn it. Um, and in the big
cities, you can really get by just speaking English. Um, but the con is sort of that, um,
um, yeah, so the con I think is that it's sort of, um, hypocritical is a really strong word,
but I would like to learn Vietnamese, and I'm sort of coming to the realization that that.
Uh, getting particularly competent in it is maybe not realistic,
um, which makes me, I don't know, it feels a little bad sometimes. Um, other pros,
it's super cheap. Um, there's not really good public transportation, but Grab is very
reliable except when it's raining. And when it's raining you can take the bus or, um, get a car.
And, uh, if you like sort of the daredevil experience of driving a motorbike in the
traffic here, that can be awesome. Um, cons. The main number one, and I, I'm not sure how
many people are aware of what a problem this is when they move here. Uh, Hanoi has like
horrifically bad air pollution, um, and it's not year round, but in the winter it's pretty severe.
Um, and it kind of sucks . And last con, I think I've maybe implied this,
um, but the, uh, visa situation here, uh, and this has been, I, I'm not sure that this is a universal
experience, but it's certainly, I've encountered a lot of other people who share this feeling.
Um, the visa experience here is really frustrating.
Um, I did a lot of research before I moved and after I moved when I was trying to get my work
permit. Um, and there's really like nowhere on the internet in English that you can find guidelines
that leave you like a hundred percent confident that you understand what's required of you. And
my HR department did not help nearly as much as I wish they really could have.
Um, and I found that process to be expensive and frustrating.
Um, , but I think that can really be true of visa processes, you know, anywhere you go in
the world. So I don't know that that's specific to Vietnam. Uh, two more pros. , I felt like I went
too heavy on the cons there. And I do like living here. Um, it's, Vietnam is fairly low crime.
I know it comes in like very high on, um, the list of good places to solo travel as a woman.
Um, and that has really been my experience. I feel incredibly safe. Uh,
I traveled from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, like on overnight trains with a ton of luggage.
Um, and I've really, the whole time I've been here, almost never felt genuinely unsafe.
Uh, which is pretty amazing. Uh, so that's a huge pro. Both like the ease of that travel and
then just the kind of the comfort of existing. Uh, and then also the expat community in Hanoi,
Ho Chi Minh, and also kind of in Da Nang is, uh, Da Nang is really, uh,
robust. Um, and so it's really easy to make social connections and meet cool people.
All right. It's 1:00 AM here, um, so that's gonna be it for me for the night. Uh, I know
that sounds bad, but because I work, uh, night hours, I've sort of slid
into a slightly more nocturnal schedule. Um, but I've enjoyed answering your questions.
Um, and if you have any other ones, please feel free to reach out.
Like I said, especially about, um, visa stuff, but really like anything about living in Vietnam.
It's awesome to be able to sort of pass on knowledge that I wish that I had had.
Um, so definitely you don't hesitate. Um, and thanks for listening.