I TEACH ENGLISH 2

The simple thing that made me stupid and quit my English classes since grade 7th was how to conjugate which teacher Nghiem- at Phan Thanh Gian high school- a famous one in CanTho- made us crazy. The second thing which kept me going on the rough way was that Agriculture schools had not taught me enough English. Like all others, Teacher Thanh female or teacher Hung Dollar at Bao Loc Agriculture high school seemed to do their jobs simply well but they could never help someone who had not had a basic understanding of English. The third one was that I had learned English for some time then there came the Apr 30th Revolution. We had no English classes until we graduated in 1979. As I moved to Kien Giang to work, there was no one, nor any chance for me to think of learning English until the day I quit working for a company. It was then I would have some free time to take my first English class in April 1989 when I was 35 years old.
Recently, I have always tried to prove that we just put in some words to tell the time more clearly. When all of the teachers make conjugation complicated, I do the opposite. If they have a wish of making a lot of money from teaching, I wish to help my learners a lot and quickly. I can’t imagine the percentage of their successful learners. I can say mine is about 85%. They require their learners to remember a lot. They repeat the uncomprehensive grammartical points. I ask my learners to keep in their minds some simple things. They try to take advantage of their learners while I try to give mine the most they could never think of. They always complain that the students are stupid. I complain that my learners’ previous teachers didn’t help them much or they may have made some mistakes or they may have not found out appropriate ways of winning the hearts and minds of the learners. Despite my age, I have dedicated myself to hard work of building a better understanding of English. From the bottom of my heart, I have been trying to figure out for each of my students an individually appropriate way to go then I hope they can make progress. They treat their learners the way they were not friendily treated
by their teachers. I see my learners as my relatives. I talk to my young female learners a way a father talks to his children. I could go drinking with my male young learners as they were friends of mine. If some learners found me close to them, I made myself relaxed by letting them ask me or telling them some special things of me or my childhood. My colleagues may have thought of me as a weird guy doing some strange things or having such a style of teaching. They’ve kept on showing others the way they were taught to do. I have kept on proving everyone that I would be able to make a diference.
What concerns me is how much my learners can gain from what I’ve spent a lot of time gaining and what can best describe me is likely to be understood. The innocence of children, either the lack of understanding or misunderstanding have made me move forward. What I would like to do is frame out what I think are the key problems that all learners are facing, look at some ways and see how successful they may be at solving those problems. There is clearly an overarching goal of making the skills of speaking achievable to all English learners. So that is a relatively straightforward question, because I kind of know how to have it made.
They have to decide how much they want to do and just like me, once they do, they know how to do it.
That brings me to the second question of where they apply what they have tried.
The lesson that I take from the first issue is that it’s just not about how much they give away but how much interest they get back.
(to be continued)