The Englishman of Phung Hung Street - Part 3

And as I settled into my job as a kindergarten teacher I found myself with 2 more student, very different from the toddlers at Queensland Kindergarten.

I had advertised myself as a private English tutor on a local website as soon as I arrived and waited for the emails to roll in. Within 1 week of placing my advert I had been contacted by 4 locals, 1 a recently graduated law student and the other a Malaysian banker who needed a tutor for her son. I met with the law graduate, Long, in one of my favourite cafes, Highland Coffee, overlooking the Hoan Kiem lake and I became his English tutor and friend very quickly, he was my first Vietnamese student who I could actually have a conversation with an didn't need an afternoon nap or his nappy changing after class.

The location of my first class with Long

Long proved to me very smart, his English was very good and he really only needed practice and some wider vocabulary. We agreed to meet at least once per week. Long will get further mentions throughout this story because he became my friend and would guide me through this crazy city and show me places I would never have found on my own.

My 2nd student and probably my most entertaining was Khalid, my Malaysian student. After I had met his mum and she had interviewed me the next step was to meet Khalid and see how he reacted to me and how we got along. What I can say from the outset is Khalid knows his mind and is a strong personality and likes to drive his mum, the maid and me crazy. It was fun though. He usually made me laugh.  Khalid could speak English very well and was already attending a good school in Hanoi so my role was tutor, friend and big brother, a role I thoroughly enjoyed. It was agreed that I would visit Aisyah and Khalid twice a week and spend 2 hours each visit with Khalid, doing his homework, eating with him and trying to keep him focused on his school work and also let him tell me of his concerns and interests. Not one visit did Khalid not make me laugh. He was usually glued to the TV when I arrived, watching some awful Japanese cartoon though he would argue with me that they were not cartoons but something called anime. To me, as a 42 year old man brought up on Scooby-Doo and The Flintstones, the Japanese cartoons were scary, huge eyed animals and squeeky voiced school girls fighting monsters. Khalid loved them and I often had to stand in front of the screen to snap him out of his trance. One of my attempts at focusing him was to do some drawings based on his animes and then create a story, every week he had to write 1 short page for his story and illustrate it. The 2 pictures below are just 2 of the many that he drew over the 2 months I was his tutor.

Khalid's drawing - 1

Khalid's drawing - 2

So by the end of September 2011 my routine was set, 3 hours teaching Long, 4 hrs teaching Khalid and 11 hrs at the Kindergarten. I was now officially a Hanoi resident.

Sean 

November 24 2012