Hanoi - Teaching English

Arrived Sunday night, met everyone. Monday morning had breakfast (egg bahn mi at a local cafe) then we were taken round the city, see some sights and in the afternoon had a look at some places. On tuesday, orientation continued and we saw the place where we would actually work. Actual work started on wednesday, a guide was hired to take to and from work every day for the first week, after the first week we had to make our own way. I recommend volunteers plan to visit somewhere over the weekend as there isn't a lot to do unless you want to play 200 games of ping pong. Ha Long bay is good if you find a decent trip organiser. Hoi An is beautiful, I would save going there for the last days of your time in Vietnam like I did because you don't want to go back.

About teaching english, I was lucky to have a placement at a great kindergarten with inclusive teachers and kids who were mostly easy. My hours were 8-4 with a break from 1130-1430. Teaching entailed joining in with the students and singing nursery rhymes. Also had to housework in the classroom, sweeping, cleaning, setting the tables up, putting the tables back. While the break sounds good, unless you find something to do, its very boring and trying to sleep in the day, as the teachers and kids do during nap time, only makes you feel more tired. So you need to find something to do in those 3 hours.

After work each day, we came back and relaxed in the apartment lounge and then after dinner (provided by the organisation) we would usually go out to a bar.