Although this is the fourth week I have been at MVCC, I have
not felt homesick or lonely. Here I feel very warm in such cold weather, and I
am interested because I have learned some new things.
Two weeks ago, I went to Alison Doughtie’s office and I saw
that she had a cartoon on her office door. Her students went there and took a
photo of this cartoon and then they wrote something related to it. After that,
they handed in it to her. Then she read the writing and corrected the mistakes.
I like this idea. By doing this, students improve their writing skills and they
have a chance to use the target language to express their feelings and ideas.
As a result, they felt that learning English was really meaningful to them.
Until now, at KGCC, I have not had opportunities to do this with my students.
In the future, when I go back to Vietnam, I will use this approach to help my
students to improve their writing skills. I think this is a new lesson for my
teaching.
Last week, MVCC held a reception to welcome me. This was a
big present that I received from MVCC. I would like to say “thank you” because
MVCC gave me a chance to be here to learn something new, to share, and to make
friends with everyone. I felt very happy because everyone gave me a warm
reception. Here, I saw some female teachers wearing “Ao dai,” the traditional
dress of Vietnam. When I saw them, I felt very happy because I knew they wanted
to make me happy. On that day, I regretted that I couldn’t take a photo with
all people in the reception; I just took photos with some people. And I didn’t
have much time to talk to them because I had to attend the College Senate
meeting.
At the reception
That same week, I also saw the dismantling of a ceremonial
sand mandala in the library. This is the first time in my life I have seen anything
like that, and I liked it very much. It was wonderful. I will share it with my
students and my colleagues when I go back to Vietnam.
I also learned about tipping at restaurants during a market
tour with some international students. Frankly, in Vietnam, I had never taught
my students about tipping when eating in a restaurant in the U.S. because I
didn’t know why we should leave a tip. Last week, I went on a market tour with
some international students and we ate in a restaurant. In addition to enjoying
the new food and meeting new friends, I now understand why we left a tip. When
I go back to KGCC, I am confident that I can explain tipping to my students.
Four weeks is not long enough, but I learned many things
that will be very helpful in my teaching and my life. I was especially happy because
I met and made friends with many people. That is a very valuable part of my
trip to MVCC.