Alleyway traffic

Given how narrow the alleyways in neighbourhoods are, it becomes quite a pain in the arse for motorbike riders whenever a car decides to drive through the alleys. Motorbikes start to conglomerate behind the car or van, forming a slowly creeping snail trail all the way until the car gets to an area that is wide enough for cars to come filtering through the side.

View from the front... looks nice and clean right? Well that's because all of the riders on this side saw the block and just turned around and took another way... Behind the car is another story though...

There is a gap at this section and this bike is waiting for the car to pass so that it can pass it...

... and the influx of closely trailing bikes follow behind...

Talk about patience!!!


To see the view from INSIDE a car, please click here!

How to have a Vietnamese gym

Here are some tips on how to have your own Vietnamese gym:

1. Have a separate area for drinking water.

2.Work out in jeans. 

3. Don't enforce a mandatory shoewear rule. 

4. Sell boiled eggs. 

5. Don't forget the Vietnamese "trà đá" (iced tea).

6. Put up motivating bodybuilder pictures everywhere!

Goodbye class photo: ICI2 D1305F

My Intermediate adult class has finished! It was a nice cozy bunch and all of the students were very articulate in English. Among the students who stood out to me were Nhu, a sweet and intelligent young lady who was very attentive, inquisitive and studious- great ingredients which contributed to her great English language level. I also once noticed she kept a ring of flashcards with English words on them to help her remember words! What dedication! I also won't forget Hung, a very vocal, uninhibited humorous young man whose strong opinion is always overheard during group discussions and doesn't fail to draw controversy from the whole entire class; Luan, a comical witty young man who would not hesitate to refute or challenge your opinion during discussions, including challenging me as the teacher! And An, an incredibly intelligent, reserved young man who thinks very strategically and observes very keenly.

Picture-description Dictation!

I invented a new game! I invented a new game! And I'm very happy about it, and the students were really into it!!!


This one was for an adult pre-intermediate class, and it was to practice the present continuous to describe pictures (for example, She is standing at the back; He is wearing a tie; The girl is eating an apple), and the occasional use of present simple where it is needed (There is a table at the corner; The lady looks sad; It is on the right side). This game is great because it involves a high use of verbal communication, as well as listening and writing. It also requires teams to strategize, and there is time pressure, so that's always exciting!


Here it is:


I divided the class into 5 equal teams of 3 people each. Each round will include one person from each team to be the "writer", and two people to be the "runners". I attach a picture of a painting outside in the hallway on the wall. I tell the runners to stand up and get ready, and on 3, they all run out and scramble to go look at the painting outside. Their goal is to describe the painting in as much detail as possible to their "writer", who writes down this information. No drawings are allowed. The runners can keep going back and forth to look at the painting and continue describing to their writer. I give a time limit of about 3 minutes, and then all teams have to cease.

This is the first painting I used. Since in the last lesson, the focus was on famous paintings, I kept the same theme of famous paintings. I had spoken to the class about the surrealism style of Salvador Dali. This is one of his famous paintings, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1946. 

In the next part, all of the writers are separated from their teams and brought on a panel at the front of the class, facing the projected screen. They are allowed to bring their paper of written description with them, and I hand them each a piece of paper where they will mark their guesses. I show them a document of a set of paintings that are very similar to the painting that was just described to them by their teams. The set also includes the painting that was described to them. I go through the set about 3 times, one by one through each painting which also has a different letter associated with it. They have to guess which one is the right painting that was described to them. They may use their notes. They then mark the letter of the painting on their paper. Each team that guesses the right painting gets a point.

Here is the set of paintings from which the writer has to detect the correct one for the first round:

 

 

 

 

 

 We then repeat the rounds, each time using another "writer" who will have the job of writing down the descriptions and guessing at the correct answer. To make the game more challenging, you can make each round of description shorter. As we were running out of time at the end of the game, I made the last round only 2 minutes.

 Here are the paintings I used for the next two rounds, and the set that goes with them. As you can see, the last round is the most difficult!

This is Georges Seurat's famous Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884

 And here is the set of paintings the writer has to detect it from:

 

 

 

Here is the painting for the final round:

This one of course is from Picasso.... I don't know the name of this one...

And here is the set for it:

 

 

 

 

 

Guess my job!

I always get excited when I invent new classroom games that are effective and successful!

When designing classroom games/activities, I always try to create a good optimal mix of language-practice-opportunity, critical thinking, and of course, fun and excitement. The game should have a clear objective which induces students to become intrigued and try hard to win. For adults, I try to incorporate problem-solving and reasoning in games.



Yesterday, I had an adult class, intermediate level. The lesson was on jobs and personal characteristics suitable for certain jobs. I created a game of Guess Who? for jobs, to be played in the last half hour of class. The students were so into the game and all were equally involved. Too bad we didn't leave a whole hour to play because we had way too little time and we only got to go through two rounds!


Here's how the game works:


The class is split into equal-sized teams. I had 3 teams - two teams of 3 and one of 4. For each round, a member from each team comes up to sit at the front, facing the class, in a panel of job-people. Each of the job-people are given a job. Here are the job cards:

 

They keep their jobs secret from the rest of the class. The goal for each team is to be the first one to guess all three people's jobs. All three have to be guessed correctly, otherwise, they don't win. 

To be able to guess properly, teams have a choice of purchasing any one of the following products on their turn. 

Products:

Yes/No Question           - $1,000

Wh-Question                 - $2,000

Wh-Question (Private)  - $3,000

Make a guess               - $1,000

Pass turn                      - $1,000  

Each team starts with $20,000. Beginning with the first team, a choice is made. If they purchase a yes/no question, they may pay $1,000 to make a Yes/No question to the panel of job-people. For example: "Do you wear a uniform?" Then, each job-person gives their answer one by one. A wh-question allows you to make any short/long answer question with a Wh-question word, such as "Where do you work?" to the whole panel. Of course, the question "What is your job?" is not allowed. A private wh-question allows a team to privately ask a question by writing to one job-person, who answers back by writing. This gives the advantage of the other teams not being able to retrieve that particular clue. This would be strategic if there is a job that seems particularly difficult to guess, and a team may gain headway if they know exactly what kind of question to ask which may provide insights.

Each team takes their turn one by one. Teams record the clues as the job-people give them out. When a team is ready to make a guess, they must wait their turn to "Make a guess". They pay $1,000 and they bet a certain amount of money (which has to be within the balance of the money they have left in their account). They show me their guesses. If all three jobs are correct, they win the money they bet. If at least one is wrong, they lose the money they bet. I let them know how many they have wrong, but not which ones. After a team guesses correctly all three, the round is over, and we start a new round with different panel members, and the next team takes the first turn.

The game was very fun and all the students were focused and in their investigation modes. They discussed between each other which questions were best to ask. The panel members also had fun and tactically and smartly provided their clues. Among some questions asked were "What do you make?", "Do you make a lot of money?", "What qualities do you need for your job?", "Who do you work with?". Some answers were funny too. For the question "Are you the boss?", one member who was a judge answered "Yes. A very big boss."

I will definitely repeat this game for practice about jobs, and this time, I will a lot more time to play!