(relaxing piano jazz music)
- What is up everybody?
And hello, my name is Kenny Nguyen.
I am your newest video ambassador for Vietnam.
Where am I at right now?
Currently, I'm in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam,
and I work for a private school
here in the Phu My Hung district.
Now, Phu My Hung district is about 30 minutes
from the center of town, and I currently
teach English to Korean children and adults.
I have a 9:00 a.m. class in about a few minutes,
so I'm gonna start to finish preparing my lessons for it.
So, I'll be here from 9:00 a.m. all the way to 10:00 p.m.,
a long day, but let's see what this day holds.
I'll try to do my best to get in some interviews
with the faculty and students, so yeah, I'm pretty excited.
Aren't you?
Alright, so I'm out of breath.
I just ran out real quick to get a cup
of Vietnamese coffee, and now I am wired.
My students will be coming in here in about five minutes.
I have my PPP lesson plan right over here.
We teach them about the present perfect and the past simple,
and the hard part is, is teaching them the difference
between the two, and how to use it together in English.
So, I have some activities for them.
I got a worksheet for them to fill out, and yeah.
This is a adult conversation class.
It lasts about an hour and 30 minutes.
(relaxing piano jazz music)
- W-H question?
- The W-H question is going to come after people,
after they answer.
Let's all come up with your own W-H question, okay?
It can be in any tense, okay?
If you ask someone, "have you ever visited Thailand?",
they will say, "Yes I have."
Then you would say, you'd choose a question.
"When did you go to Thailand?"
"I went to Thailand last year during my holiday."
Okay?
"Oh, do you like to travel?"
Nice and simple.
"Yes, I do.
"I like to travel a lot.
"I like to travel to many places."
Present simple, present simple, okay?
So, it's up to you to ask the questions, okay?
So, let's give this a try.
- Choose...
(mumbles in foreign language) (laughs)
- [Kenny] Choose something, an example.
- Like (speaks in foreign language) or something?
and then get harder and harder.
- [Student On Left] Have you ever...
Read, read?
- [Kenny] Have you ever read?
- Oh, no (mumbles in foreign language).
(students laugh)
- [Kenny] You would say, "No, I haven't."
Then she has to change.
- Oh, okay.
- [Student On Left] Have you ever...
Read? - Read.
- Have you ever read...
a Korean book by Shakespeare?
(student gasps) (speaks in foreign language)
- No, I have not.
- [Kenny] Okay, change.
(students laughing) No, she has not, okay, change.
- [Student On Left] (mumbles in foreign language)
Have you ever lost your, lost?
Lost your cell phone?
- [Kenny] Okay, good.
- [Student On Far Right] Did you lost?
- Yes I...
Yes, I lost?
- [Kenny] Yes, I have.
- Yes, I have lost.
- [Kenny] Mmhmm?
- [Student On Far Right] Yes, I have,
(speaks in foreign language)
- Yes, I have, I losted...
- [Student On Far Right] Lost.
- Losted? - Lost.
- Lost my cell phone.
- [Student On Left] (speaks in foreign language)
- When? (mumbles in foreign language)
(students mumbling over each other)
Six months ago.
- Alright, so the class has just finished,
and everybody is on their way home.
A few minutes ago, what you saw was
the production stage of the PPP lesson plan.
So, the next class is a intermediate class,
and they will come at 11:15.
So, now I have a little bit of break time.
I'm just gonna grade some homework, get that out of the way.
Thing about the school, I started working here since July,
and I've been having the time of my life here.
What I like about this school is the class size is so small.
It ranges from three to seven students at most.
And that gives me an opportunity
to cater to what the students need,
and just to personalize everything.
I love the interaction with my students,
getting to know them in a more personal level,
and that's the main reason why I chose a small school.
I got a job offer from ILA,
and it is a big private English school for young kids,
and class sizes are about 15 to 20.
And so, I really wanted a chance
to get to know my students in a more deeper level,
and this was a great opportunity for me.
Landmark 81, that is the tallest tower in Vietnam.
I did a video, a YouTube video, about it
a few months ago, so you should definitely check it out.
We are 30 minutes away from class, I've stepped downstairs,
and now I am lesson planning for a few minutes.
Just going over modal verbs with my intermediate class.
I'm on a three hour break before my next class at night.
I'm having a bowl of authentic Vietnamese pho right now,
and cost in Vietnam is relatively low.
This bowl only cost me $3 U.S. dollars.
Now, in other areas of Ho Chi Minh City,
it's gonna be much more cheaper.
This is Phu My Hung, this is kinda like the
"Little Korea" of Ho Chi Minh City,
and there are lot of foreigners that live here.
So, prices are relatively pretty high.
But back where I live, District 6, I live with my family,
and bowl of pho would only cost me about $1.30.
You never, in my opinion,
you can never break the bank here in Vietnam
if you spend your money wisely.
For English, right here is my workstation.
This is where all the teachers meet
and hang out and just lesson plan.
Over here, we have books.
Now this school, we teach everything from IELTS
to conversational English, to math, to science,
and American and British literature.
Let's take a look at some of these books.
IELTS, I-E-L-T-S, do you guys know what that is?
If you don't know, IELTS is the assessments test
for many high school students who
are about to go to university.
The minimum score to get into most universities,
a five point five, and the highest score
you can get out of the test is nine.
We teach this, and this is our main priority, just so that
we can get these students into a higher level education,
and into the university of their dreams.
And every week, we also have a shared reading class
for the mothers and the high schoolers.
You guys know, we also have a school bus,
which is arriving right about now.
Yeah, we're gonna go check out a classroom right now.
The teacher is named Helen, and she is from the U.K.
She's currently teaching grammar
to the younger elementary school students,
so let's take a look.
(Helen speaking)
Oh hello, guys!
- Now you should try to say it, you got that?
- And you should see, hear, look,
sound, feel, taste, and smell.
- [Helen] Excellent, well done!
Okay, yeah and you read what it says
under "See, Hear, and Smell" please.
- We use see, smell, and hear to talk about
the sights, smells, and sounds that we notice.
We usually use "can" with the verbs of sensation.
Head, headphone...
- Headphones?
- Yes. - Or earbuds?
You can get the small ones
(people talking over each other)
- I know, earphone.
- Yeah, earphones, headphone.
- Hear him shouting.
- [Helen] Good. (speaks in foreign language)
- Oh no, he doesn't look angry, he looks scared.
- A goat, hat, a lamb, a woman, a boy.
Good girl, well done.
- And then you see a cat playing with a toy.
(kids laughing)
- [Kenny] Oh god, look at you guys.
The madness after class.
- I'm seven years old.
- [Kenny] Good, where are you from?
- I'm from Korea.
- [Kenny] Korea.
How long have you been living in Vietnam?
- For seven months.
- Awesome.
- [Kenny] Thank you (laughs).
I love doing YouTube when I have free time.
What do you want?
You're gonna break my wallet, Sungbin.
(laughs)
So, what I like about teaching at this school,
is that you can take kids to the convenience store,
and it's alright with the parents
and the director of the school.
So, it gives me a good chance to
really get to know the students
outside of school. - Kenny?
What's up?
You sure you want water?
Soda, no soda?
You are healthy, you are healthy!
To buy two things at the grocery store
or at Circle K, or Ministop, and you bought how many?
(Sungbin giggling) Six!
You just made Mr. Kenny poor.
To sum up the day, that was a day in the life
of me teaching English at my school.
Like I said before, I've been here for about five months,
and I've been working here for only about four months,
if I can remember correctly.
Right now I'm currently working here 27 hours a week.
And I'm also getting paid $20 U.S. dollars per hour.
And, you know...
I have so much student loans.
I owe around $30,000 U.S. dollars,
and a year ago in the States, I was actually struggling.
And I was barely making the minimum payment,
believe it or not.
But ever since I came to Vietnam,
I have been shelling away so much money,
and this past week, I have actually paid
about $6,000 U.S. dollars to my student loans.
At this rate, if I keep going
and if I keep saving money, I will be debt free
within two years versus 15 years, back home in America.
But, yeah, a part of it's not really about the money.
The other part of it is making up
for lost times with my family here.
I actually live in District 6 in Ho Chi Minh City.
So, here, living in Vietnam, it's giving me a chance
to make up for lost times with my family here.
I live with my family in District 6,
and it's a family I don't really know much about,
so it's exciting to get to learn about
my culture, the history, and making it up
for lost times with the family members
that I never really spent time with.
And all in all, I get to send home money
to pay my student loans, so everything is working out
perfect in Vietnam, I couldn't be happier.
That was a day in my life, here at
(speaks foreign language) Academy
in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
I hope you guys enjoyed the video
and I hope to see you back here on another ITA video.
Alright, I hope you guys have a wonderful day.
Bye-bye.