Vietnamese & Vietnam

Yesterday, we had a scavenger hunt. It was fun. We got 300.000 VND to find 5 places, buy some fruits and banh with "u" and "ư." We got sầu riêng, bánh chưng, măng cụt, dứa, bưỡi. Ưe also had to interview people and take down information and create a presentation for the next day. Very clever, engaging, interactive, and gives the students ownership (I think a lot about teaching styles). However, I was surprised at how resistant some people were to answer our questions. We found out that they thought we were from competing companies. Also, employees from large companies don't want to take responsibility for saying something wrong.

I'm super impressed with the Vietnamese Language Studies school and how organized and prepared they are. The lessons are really engaging and they also rotate teachers which keeps the class stimulating. We got readers today and multiple agendas. We did an activity where she had cut out the vocab words, and another activity where she taped questions around the room. Very engaging, and I'm very excited to improve my Vietnamese. We took a placement test yesterday and I got placed in the intermediate class, VASI 2. I did pretty well on the written test, so I'm pretty sure it was the oral part that brought me down. That's the thing I want to work on the most...being able to speak in Vietnamese naturally without thinking too much.

People in the program are mostly grad students. I'm the second to youngest out of 12 participants, my roommate being the youngest. I'm excited to talk to them, hear their stories, absorb their lessons, and experience things with them. They all seem like a great bunch. Also, a HUGE MAJORITY seem to be taken...married, engaged, bf/gf, seeing someone. However, we don't go out as much like I did in EAP. Our rooms are on different floors...I finally compiled a list today of who is in what room. I'd like to hang out with them more to get to know them, but at the same time, they all have their own lives writing papers, dissertations, Skyping with boofaces, and I wanna respect that.

I want to explore more of the city on my own to get a map in my head of the surrounding area. Right now, I feel like I'm wasting a lot of precious time in Vietnam in the hotel room when I could be talking to locals and practicing my speaking skills and exploring more of the city, but not sure how to approach it yet. All on my to-do list.

I find that I am still careless with my words. Or rather...I think it and I speak it instead of thinking of a better way to say it. Advice from my businesswoman mom. Still I catch myself every now and then just bluntly saying things that don't seem like the best things to say in that situation...I could have thought it over more.