My work at Hanoi University of Industry 

I work at the University of Industries Hanoi for about 6 months now. You might wonder, how a volunteer, especially a young one, can work as a teacher at University. Therefor I shortly want to explain my tasks and the main goal of my work there.

At university I am teaching the English-major, first year students. As implemented, they just started university and are therefor very shy. Next to their normal, gramatical-focused classes with their vietnamese teachers, they have an English Interactive Class once a week with me. In this class we focus on speaking and understanding. As a lot of them will later work in the tourist sector, the main goals of the classes for them are to practise understanding and to get used to talking to foreigners. A lot of the students have barely met foreigners before and it is often hard for them to understand us. Also their pronunciation is rather poor.
Based on the pupose, our lesson topics are more every-day-life-oriented and (for us) easy to understand. The material is provided by the university but the “material designers“ are very opened and happy with any changes. Usually I go through the lesson plan about a week before the actual lesson and add some extra tasks, games and clips to make the lesson as interesting and interactive as possible. Through this I try to encourage the students to talk more- and so far the are making a great progress.

If I am not having class, I will usually spent my time in the office/room for foreign teachers. Here is the place to relax and also for doing some lesson preparation. Harry, a vietnamese colleague who does administration and office work (+ extra-curricular activities for the students) works here, and it is always nice to chat a bit. He usually organises the printing out of the hand-outs for the students and is in general the person to ask. I also spent lunch break with him, where we either order a take-away, go to the canteen of the University or a nearby restaurant/food stall.
Every few days I also meet with my coordinator, Mrs. Duyen, to talk about the lessons and the progress of the students. She is very nice, easy to talk to and interested in any feedback.

Overall I am very happy at the university as I have the feeling that my work there is appreciated by my colleagues and my students. The atmosphere is very welcoming, fresh and supportative. It will be hard for me to leave and say Goodbye to my students and my colleagues there.