Need New Student Information

newguy · Post by **newguy** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 2:31 am

Help!!! I'm just starting out my elementary school teaching career and I have a new student who has recently immigrated from Viet Nam. I need to find out about any valuable information that may be helpful with making him comfortable in his new environment. I don't really know a whole lot about the culture in Viet Nam and what traditions they hold. What would be most important information to obtain in relation to the new student's culture and what's the easiest (and fastest) way to get it?

thanks,
the new guy

sita · Post by **sita** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 1:16 pm

Hi newguy!

I suggest you have a look here:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destination ... a/vietnam/

Best wishes
Siân

newguy · Post by **newguy** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 4:11 pm

thanks for the info sita. i was able to find a little bit of similar information on vietnam and it looks like any bit of information i can find will be useful. would it be helpful, or more confusing for the student if i were to try to learn some of the language and use it periodically? that's assuming i could learn even one word! :0

--newguy--

Lorikeet · Post by **Lorikeet** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 5:48 pm

I don't know what the situation is in the area you are teaching. (Are there many Vietnamese around? Is this student the only one? What kind of support system does the student have?) In my experience, learning a language is not something you can do in a couple of weeks. ;

I don't think there is any danger that you are going to confuse your student. I started learning Chinese when I started teaching adults in Chinatown. I never became fluent, but I was able to use some elementary phrases, and best of all, my students knew I was trying to learn like they were, and responded positively to my efforts. In addition, I became better aware of some of the differences between the languages. There was never a danger of them successfully communicating with me in Chinese since I wasn't really fluent, but there was a lot of goodwill. So I'd say do whatever seems right to you.

tedium · Post by **tedium** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 10:46 pm

what age group(s) would be most likely to recognize that sort of effort?

hamster80 · Post by **hamster80** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 5:26 am

I work as an ESL para at an elementary school, and we have pair of sisters from Viet Nam. While I don't speak any Vietnamese, when we come across a vocabulary word that gives them trouble, I have them teach me the Vietnamese word as well. For the rest of the lesson, I try to use the word in both languages... I haven't had much formal ESL training, so I don't know what the official opinion is on this strategy, but it's been working very well with these girls. They take great pride in their language, and this helps them to make the connections between the two languages. I've also used this with my Spanish-, Nuer- and Arabic-speaking students, with similar success.