Movies with the Orphans

I visited the orphanage yesterday with my cousin Hanh Dung and my co-workers Nghi and Nhi. We took a taxi drive out of the busy streets of Saigon to out skirts district 2, “Nha Nuoi Day Tre Mo Coi” which means the house which cares for and teaches orphans. It is adjacent to a pagoda.





I was surprised to see the size of it since it was four or five stories high and teaming with little children. There were many very young children and even toddlers. I can see that the teenagers that were sent to our English class were specifically selected for their aptitude and maturity as compared to the majority of the little children. We were greeted by Co Bao who appeared to be one of the monks from her attire. She was friendly and motherly as she suggested that we show the movie in the dining area.




I had brought along a LCD projector and a DVD player. She then said that there was a separate room upstairs that was cleaner. She then looked upon us to make the decision. I could tell that there was no precedence for this and that we were wining this movie event. I have not seen this “other room” so I asked if we can see before deciding. As we climbed the stairs, we were accompanied by little boys that were precocious yet absolutely adorable.




The room did turn out to be more appropriate since it was open and clean. In our makeshift efforts, we were able to coble together some extension cords and project an image onto the lime walls. The colors were distorted and the little speakers we brought were far from high fidelity but the children were enthralled by Monsters, Inc, the animated movie.




It was in English and most of the children did not understand. The sound was too low to overcome the chatter. The children were engrossed with the physical humor of the characters. The older children would express their own interpretations out loud which were right on target from the images they were seeing.




The children from our English class showed up late since they had another class to attend. They waved at me across the room. Looking across the sea of young children sprawling on the tile floors, it was like meeting old friends.




While sitting on the hard floor, the children just surrounded me and a little boy sat in lap with complete trust. It was quite a heart warming experience. These children needed love and I couldn’t help it but hugged the boy throughout the movie.




When the movie ended, the children politely thanked us and we ventured our way out of the school yard to the streets. It was quite a different world. I can not get over the sheer number of children that are so adorable while parentless.




It was heartbreaking in some ways but I also felt good that they have a place rather than being in the streets. They were being taken cared of. We left that world and emerged back to the busy streets of Saigon. Even within Saigon, it felt as if the orphanage was a different world.

Last Class

The class last night had its own course. We started with pronunciation exercises where the students had a list of words that concentrated in a particular vowel. They would repeat trying to annunciate each word. A common mistake is that the child would not pronounce the last syllable such as the letter “t” in cat. We then progressed to the reader rabbit series with word games. The animation kept the children interested after they did the pronunciation drills. I then continued with our Karaoke and this time, almost all the children sang. Some may have just sung a few words but many tried the entire song. We even ventured into a new song which proved challenging but the willingness to try was a big improvement compared to the beginnings. I think the children know each other quite well so they are able to joke around with each other. They must spend many hours together in other classes or even outside. I sense that they are more comfortable and more outgoing this time. We ended the course with an adventure game that used difficult vocabulary. However, the game aspect and the visual affects kept them intrigued challenged. This is my last class session with them. I will try to share the software with my teaching assistance to see if Ngoc, Nhi, Nghi will continue the course when I am away. It was definitely a worth while experiment. Ngoc told me after the children left that one girl said, during the whole week, she would longed for the couple of hours that we would have together in English class.

Why English?

I think English is a vehicle which can propel these children out of poverty. It is amazing how completely homogenous Vietnam is compared to other cities I visited in the US. To some degree, it is isolated from the outside world because of its lack of economic prowess, yet it is also very connected. I see internet cafés on every other corner. The children that I am teaching can walk down the street and chat with someone across the world. The key for them to make this connection is the ability to speak English. When I am in district one, there are many hotels with new ones popping up each time I visit. Tourism seems to be one industry that is thriving so I think if children can converse; it would be a ticket for new opportunities. Much of the assets in the new economy is intellectually grounded which is very globally portable. If they can tap into this, it could change their lives. Even though these children are so far from anything I know in my world, by my teaching English and connecting to them, it makes me feel that we are more connected in more ways than we realize.

Tonight will be the last formal lesson. Although, arrangements has been made for Friday for me to visit their temple to show them Ice Age, the animated show. So far, the children have come to my office for me to teach them English. It should prove interesting to see a glimpse into their world as I visit the entire school.

Boys and Girls

We went through the lyrics of the “Animal Friends Songs” from the PBS programs for kids. The children repeated each line in unison after I read each line. We then went over the meaning of the words of the song at http://pbskids.org/zoboo/karaoke/themesong.html.

I then turned on the Karaoke version and plugged in the microphone. The song played and the bouncing ball went across the words as I attempted my best rendition of this children song. A few lines in, I noticed no one was singing. It felt like telling a joke that no one laughed. The tempo was very fast and I could barely keep up with the words so the children did not have a chance. The song ended in a word “Yeah!” and that was the only part that the children were able to utter. We repeated the songs and they were able to join in. I tried several times to entice one child to the microphone but everyone shook their heads. Stage fright must be a universal fear but one of the boys who was writing down the lyrics said next time he would try to sing.

There were only two boys in the class among 13 children. It made me wonder why this is. I will visit the entire school on Friday so I will get a larger sample but I have several theories. My theories are not scientific but it is just a guess. The children I do see on the streets are more often boys so perhaps the boys are not on the schools and orphanages but on the streets. I also wonder if it is that boys and girls are judged differently from a poor family. If a poor family is going to give up a baby due to economic disparity, a girl could be a more common choice. I don’t know the real reason, but am grateful to teach the children. As they took off, the bus was late. I came down and the children were still standing in the street corner. I waited with them as they referred to me as “thay giao” which means teacher. The formality shows respect which is nice but I never always refereed to myself to them as “anh” which means older brother. The little bus came and as they all climbed on, and waved, I felt like the luckiest guy in town.

Teaching Experiment

It is interesting to try out new software on the children to see how they learn English. I had thought that individual learning is preferred since they can go on their own pace but when I project one lesson on the wall and have the whole class say the words together, they also seem to really like that. In trying to spice up the lesson a little, I am going to try some children Karaoke songs in the lessons later today. I will try to explain the meaning of the words first and have them repeat it before trying to sing it. The tempos of the songs are rather fast so I will see if the children can keep up and if the experiment will work.

Idea Inception

From my first visit to Vietnam and subsequent visit, I am reminded of the vastly different world that I live in when I tour the streets. An example is when a couple of months ago, I came to a busy intersection of Saigon. The sea of motor bikes slowed down to a crawl and I was able to see the children on the sidewalks. There was a child who seemed less than four years old without any parental supervision crying on the street corner. There were no parents or even siblings that seem to help this child who did not have proper hygiene and clothes. Before I was able to process my feelings, the chaotic mass of traffic pushed on. The image of the crying child haunted me repeatedly as other incidences of seeing homeless children.

I wanted to do something but did not know what. I had the idea of brining used corporate desktop computers from my clients in the US to the schools of Vietnam. I think education can change. There are many computers that get updated and many times thrown away so it would be good to put it to use. However, the customs at the Saigon airport would not really allow me to bring anything into Saigon without paying taxes and doing a lot of paper work. I then thought about brining the educational computer software to Vietnam since this is light and easy to carry without custom issues. I can therefore use English teaching software and then teach the children myself. It seemed like a far fetched idea at the time but I went with it anyways. I brought my LCD projector and laptop to demonstrate the software and then have the children practice their English on PCs. When it actually happened and I was helping those children use the software and practice speaking English, it was a great feeling.

There was a spirit of the children that was wonderful to be a part of. I was planning to purchase some DVDs this weekend and use my projector to show a movie to the children for fun. I am also planning to do a children book drive to bring books back to Vietnam on my next trip to give to these children. I realize that my small effort can not affect the larger systemic inequality of my world and the world of these children but if I can affect just to one child, I feel that it will be worth it.

Learning More than English

The children arrived at the office before I arrived back from dinner once again. They were very eager to learn as they waited for my instructions. I couldn’t do it without Nghi and Nhi and Ngoc who has arrived early to help the children. Nhi and Nghi are colleagues at my office and Ngoc worked in the office next to ours.



We started the lesson with the simple phonics software intended for children 4 to 8 years of age. Although the words were simple, it emphasized on the pronunciation and the difference between consonants such as the hard “c” in “cat” versus soft “c” in “circus”. The children liked the repetition and the software allowed them to replay things as much as they liked. Some children were very serious about taking notes and seem to be very intent on learning the language. Others were just having fun and laughing as the played the game in much the same way that they would in the play ground. The carefree spirit of most of the children was contagious and brought laughter upon myself as they puzzled their way through the games.



We progressed into more challenging games which tested the children on common use of English. There was a choice of American and British English. I instructed the student to choose American but some did choose British. It had lessons such as in directions, prices and clocks. These lessons began to stretch the abilities of some of the children’s ability to decipher the meaning. I encourage them to repeat whatever they hear. The words spoken in the software is annunciated with great clarity. These lessons prove to be difficult for some to repeat.



The bus which drove them did not arrive so we ran over 2 hours. Teaching pass 9 at night, I concluded the lesson. But the two boys suggested that we continue to study all night. Their excitement amazes me even after a long lesson. This time, they were not accompanied by the nanny so the oldest child who was about 19 was the adult. We concluded the course by going over words that we did not understand. I explained in Vietnamese to the best of my knowledge with some trepidation. Ngoc stepped in to fill in the Vietnamese. I myself am a student as well, learning Vietnamese and the appreciating the amazing spirit that these children possess.

First English Lesson

The group of children was already waiting at the gates of the office building when I arrived at 6:50. We had planned for a 7 pm class. They were very talkative kids speculating saying that “ong chu” which is the boss or owner has arrived. There was a large group of what seem to be 10 year olds with little white shirted uniforms. I directed them up to the class room not knowing what to say really. It seems like all the prepared elegant greetings escaped me since my Vietnamese is pretty weak.



They all sat down to next to the computers since I had arranged two seats next to each PC. We had planned for 12 kids but some how there were about 14 since there were extra kids on one of the PCs. The school master accompanied them and she spoke very little. She was dressed all in gray in a traditional Buddhist monk uniform. I know very little about this orphanage but apparently, it is a pagoda which was operated by Buddhist monks to teach and help these children.



I have stood in large group to give presentations before but this was different. The children had this eager anticipation as they looked upon my instruction. I started out in English knowing that it was going to go over their heads explaining that I wish to emphasize on teaching the children on speaking rather than reading and writing but that will also be part of the course. I then uttered my best Vietnamese in translation so that the message is communicated. I shared with the children that my Vietnamese is not very good but I will try my best to get the message across. At the same time, I will plan to speak English because I want them to hear as much English as possible.

I have never really used Reader Rabbit in a class room setting before. I then used my laptop and LCD projector to display the big cartoon on the white office wall. The kids were wowed by colors and the sounds. I did not realize that there was an entire dialog that the cartoon characters went through so I was not able to give instructions. After a minute or so, I turned down the volume and tried to explain the purpose of the game. It was pure improvisation since I had no idea how to teach children English using software. It sounded like a neat idea but when the rubber meets the road, it was quite a challenge. I then had them start and it seemed that all hell broke loose. Several of the PC did not have the volume turned on so there were on sound. Once PC did not even have the software installed. I had to scramble and called one of my team member for a password to then install it. On one level, it seemed like a disaster, but on the other hand, the kids were having fun and they were very patient.

The children are brilliant. They are witty and pick up the slightest subtle of speech. In my confirmation on their work, I say “uh hmmm”. This is slightly different from the Vietnamese and universal “a ha”. They would repeat my little mannerism. The really took upon the speech of the software too. The software would ask them to repeat a word for them to say it correctly. At first, I thought they would be bored after repeating it once. Rather, they would repeat it many times trying to capture the subtle difference trying to perfect the pronunciation. These are brilliant children.


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