It was hot and wet like I had never experienced before. One week in Ho Chi Minh City, and my head was spinning from the influx of culture. But I was about to begin a journey of discovery that started with just one step—a step into a classroom to teach English.
Before reaching the classroom, there was a fearsome journey of finding my place in one of the most densely populated cities in the world. I arrived in mid-August, which meant life was dictated by monsoonal rain that only made the city seem more chaotic.
Having only a hotel for the first week, I was literally living out of a suitcase. My mornings were slow as I recovered from the night before—nights filled with a bit too much indulgence. Afternoons usually ended with meeting a fellow expat and relaxing over a few beers.
Getting an Interview
On day six of confusion, I was sitting with a fellow Australian who happened to mention that his company was looking for teachers. Having completed my TESOL back in Australia, I thought, I suppose I could give it a go. One email and one day later, I was on my way to a major road near District 4 to meet with this “big company” in the ESL industry in Vietnam.
Arriving at the building, it appeared that the big company was somewhat smaller than they claimed. With only about ten office staff, they serviced 40 or 50 schools across greater HCMC, and most of the work was rather basic.
The interview started in the middle of the office at a desk with a woman who said she was the manager. She tried to emulate classroom scenarios in the middle of an office with phones ringing and people speaking in Vietnamese. It wasn’t the best induction into teaching.
After 30 minutes of discussion, she thanked me and said she would be in touch. This was my first interview as a teacher, so I walked out of there believing it was 30 minutes of my life wasted. But it was the start of finding a new career in Vietnam. I was wrong to think otherwise.
Having left the office around 10:30, I got back to my hotel around 11 a.m. With not much to do, I watched some TV and did the usual scrolling while lying on my bed in a room the size of the average bathroom.
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My First Class was a shock
Around 1 p.m., the phone rang. I was in shock because I’d only had this phone number for a few days, and only a select few friends—and this ESL company—had it.
I answered, “Hello??”
A woman’s voice quickly replied, “Hello Raymond, this is Trang. We met this morning.”
Shocked, I replied, “Oh, yes, hello!”
She quickly and bluntly said, “OK, I want you to go to a school in District 1 and teach two classes. The first is Grade 1 at 1:35, then a Grade 3 class at 2:15. I will text you the address. The teacher will show you what to teach. Can you do it?”
Totally perplexed by what was happening, I just said, “Ummm, OK.”
And there it was… I had just become an ESL teacher in Vietnam.
By the time I got off the phone and pulled myself together, I realized I had less than an hour to prepare, find my way to the school, and be ready for whatever it was I was about to do. I had been a businessman for 20 years and hadn’t walked into a classroom since leaving school in the 1980s.
Being the early days of Google Maps, navigation for a first-timer was a little harder than it is today, but I found my way to the school with five minutes to spare before the start of classes.
Totally out of my depth, sweat running down my back, a woman appeared in a green áo dài just beside the entrance. “Are you the teacher for Grade 1?” she shouted over the noise of the passing traffic.
Before I could even get a reply out, my reactive body language was enough for her to throw a photocopy of an English book—one I had never seen before—into my hands and drag me to the classroom.
My First Class in Vietnam
Sheepishly, I waited outside the room with 40-odd six-year-old children all gazing out the window at this towering foreign figure staring back at them. I’m not sure who was more afraid at that moment.
In a flash, the classroom teacher, an older woman in a dark áo dài, walked out and said, “They’re all yours. Have fun,” as she walked off to the sanctity of the cool staff room.
I took that first step into the classroom and looked left at 80 eyes peering at me. Then came the noise of chairs banging as 40 children jumped to their feet and bellowed, “Good afternoon, teacher!”
OK! What do I do now? My mind was blank. How do I teach children? I never expected to teach kids. I was trained to teach teenagers and adults. What am I doing here? But beyond all the questions was one fact: for the next 35 minutes, I had to make it up and make it look good.
And look good is what I did. I dropped my dignity. I went from a senior manager in a suit sitting in an office in Australia to a floppy goose jumping up and down, making children laugh as they learned to sing the ABC song.
To be honest, apart from the ABC song, I really don’t remember what I did. Maybe I don’t want to remember. But I do remember the children laughed and they learned. And at that point, I got what it really meant to be a teacher in Vietnam.
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The Value of Teaching in Vietnam
Being a teacher is not about academic excellence. Being a teacher is about instilling confidence to use every skill that child has to their best ability, and to show them new skills that will become lifelong lessons. And it doesn’t matter if they are six or sixty years old—your job is to instill confidence and communication ability.
Over 11 years have passed, and I have now experienced everything teaching has to offer. I have taught every grade from 1 to 12, IELTS, TOEIC, and a range of adult and business classes. And the one thing that remains true in every class I’ve had is that every student comes with some ability—and it’s my job to make it better.
I realize now that I didn’t start teaching for me. I started teaching because I had something to offer the children and adults of Vietnam. I had a passion to offer myself to make a few lives just a little better and, if nothing else, to bring some joy to the lives of people who deserve it. I think my teaching has achieved all this and more—and I have many more classes and smiles to come. The journey continues.
