English Summer Project In Ban Cuom village 2015

What did you do over your summer holiday? It was a wonderful time of life for me! I spent two months teaching English to the kids in my village-Ban Cuom, in Ha Giang Province.  It was not too long, but it was long enough to give me an unforgettable experience.

Thanks to the support of the Vietnam Hawaii Friendship Society (VHFS) I had a chance to do this project for the second time in my village, this past summer and summer 2015. This has been the biggest honor and source of happiness for me.

In order to do the project well, I did have to do a lot of planning and organizing to implement the project. The instructional material was designed to be suitable for kids who had not learnt any English before. It contained eight themes relating to a kid’s daily life such as greeting, family, school, birthday, shopping, weather, health, etc.

Working far from home prevented me from informing all the kids in the village about the project to take part in the class. That was the reason why I thought about asking for the help of village heads. My adviser for the project, Dr. Mel liked my idea. After calling for help, heads of two villages, Ban Cuom and Tan Loi were very happy and willing to help. During that time, I often called them to ask about the number of students registered. If the number of students was too small, it meant that the class could not open. In fact, kids in my village had to help their parents to do household chores, look after babies, and graze buffalo. Therefore, the effort of village heads was very important.

When I went back home, I was surprised that nearly all kids in the villages registered to take part in the class. You could imagine how happy I was.

Materials, school things were prepared thanks to my husband’s help. I organized the opening ceremony with the participation of village heads, kids, and kids’ parents to introduce them about the project, and the advantages of taking part in the class. For example, by taking part in the class, all kids would get free books, notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers, colors, etc. They would have a chance to learn how to use a laptop, camera, and recorder. Moreover, they would learn simple English and many English songs, and every weekend they would get candies and small gifts.

After the welcoming ceremony, some gifts sent by the Vietnam Hawaii Friedship Society were given to kids and village heads. All of them were very happy and thankful. They asked me to send their thanks to VHFS and Dr. Mel. Through that ceremony the participants understood more about the project and believed it would be a quality experience.

The project began the first week of June and ended at the last week of July. A friend of mine taught the class at Tan Loi and I taught in Ban Cuom. During two months of teaching, I not only taught English but also held many interesting activities so that each day going to class was a happy day for kids.

Each lesson lasted two hours and a half, which from 7 a.m to 9.30 a.m. After learning the theory, the kids took  part in activities such as playing games (slap the board, Simon says, who is millionaire, etc), learning English songs ( many English songs for kids were taught like the ABC song, finger family, school song, hello: how do you do, five little ducks, etc), and dancing. They really liked doing the “chicken dance”, whenever I played the tape, all the kids stood up and danced to the beat of the music. Moreover, they also had a chance to learn how to take a picture, record their friend’s talks, and use a laptop.

At first, I taught four days a week. The kids really liked class and asked me to teach five days a week. This made me really happy and motivated to do my job better. On the weekend, all kids ate candies and the kids who were good at learning that week got little gifts.

During the last week of July, the ending ceremony and a small party for the kids was held. It was a happy time with the participation of the village heads and all kids. The ceremony had three main parts. First, presents were given to village heads, and kids. Second, the project was evaluated - reporting strong points, weak points and some suggestions for the next project. Last, we celebrated the party - the most interesting part in the ceremony. In this part, kids enjoyed candies, fruits, snacks, drinks, etc. And they sang a lot of songs together and some of them sang and danced in front of the class. They also played many funny games that made me laughed a lot. At the end of the ceremony, we took some pictures to keep lovely memories together. It could be said that the ceremony ended with me and my kids being very happy.

Each project ends with a lot of happiness and new experiences for the kids and me. I know I have to try more to help kids not only in my village but in other places realize that English is not as difficult as they thought and how important it is. I believe in a bright and happy future for them and for me.

By Thao Dang, a teacher of English in Ha Giang, Vietnam