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CNexpatesl · Joined: 27 May 2015 Posts: 194

I'm teaching somewhere in the North at one of the big training centers. My students range from young ages to teens. They are all pretty much very obnoxious and unruly, and misbehaved. I thought kids in China were bad. This place makes China look like a paradise; makes Chinese kids look like little angels. They are loud. Very loud. They come into the class and scream at the top of their lungs, literally. Yelling "OIIIIIII" and other things in Vietnamese. The staff doesn't care. They let them do whatever they want to make mommy and daddy happy. Teenagers who should be more mature are very disruptive and obnoxious. They act up during class, yelling, insulting the foreign teacher in Vietnamese and laugh about it.

This place is a nightmare, and I want out. I can't imagine I'll last long here. Why doesn't anyone warn prospective teachers about how bad it is here? It should be in the FAQ at the top of the Vietnam section. Seriously. I have NEVER experienced anything this bad in China in all my years there. I never would have come here if I knew it was this bad.

psychedelicacy · Joined: 05 Oct 2013 Posts: 180 Location: Beijing

kurtz · Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 518 Location: Phaic Tan

bule_boy69 · Joined: 05 Mar 2007 Posts: 158 Location: Jakarta

1st Sgt Welsh · Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 3:18 am Post subject:

yurii · Joined: 12 Jan 2017 Posts: 106

Sorry to hear of this experience but isn't it rather the school than Vietnamese students as a whole? Wouldn't it be a bit like me trying one particular French cheese for the first time and saying yuck, all French cheese is horrible. Yes, you could try all of it and indeed hate it, but how do you know?

I'm sure some countries have a bad reputation in terms of behaviour though, so, you got me curious and I happened to see this list based on the following statement:

% of students who reported that the teacher "never or hardly ever" or "in some lessons" has to wait a long time for students to quieten down

https://asset.keepeek-cache.com/medias/domain21/_pdf/media1294/206212-pmmvqja6v1/large/1.jpg it's only OECD countries and sure is quite limited in its question but can provide some useful info. From this I don't think we can start analysing the country's development or wealth and relate it to behaviour. Anyway, according to this list the best countries for being quiet when the teacher is about to speak are:

1. Japan
2. Kazakhstan
3. HK
4. Romania
5. Korea
6. Azerbaijan
7. Thailand
8. Albania
9. Russia
10. Peru

And the 10 worst:

1 Argentina
2 Greece
3 Finland
4 Netherlands
5 France
6 Luxembourg
7 Chile
8 Norway
9 Tunisia
10 Qatar

yurii · Joined: 12 Jan 2017 Posts: 106

CNexpatesl, have you tried getting them to line up outside the classroom and can only enter when quiet? What I do in the middle school where I teach is they line up and when they're all quiet (or not acting the fool and so on) they can enter. If some mess around when they walk in I'll get the whole class out again or if when they sit down and one messes around before even taking out his books I'll tell him to take all his stuff and leave the room and enter properly. They hate that as having to take ALL of their possessions is a real pain.

I found with some classes if I don't make them line up in advance they enter too chatty and it's not a good start (I teach in France). But maybe these students in your case wouldn't pay attention or even refuse and if staff don't care the battle is already lost. If that's the case: urgent meeting with management?

By the way, some of this teacher's videos are good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u086rr7SRso&index=3&list=PLLgNlYqmIEbe21LtyOpdYitalBQokwhDK

sigmoid · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 1276

To some degree it depends on the school, but the fact is with VN's developing economy and growing middle-class, the majority of today's VNese city kids are really quite spoiled by their parents and relatives.

The other problem is they really do seem to study too much in regular school and be under pressure to get good grades, pass the entrance exams, etc. So, when they get to English class, they're really ready to explode.

The English schools are also benefiting from the economic progress because every kid MUST study English and the parents are willing to shell out big đồng. And the big selling point for most schools is that English classes are FUN. All our foreign teachers are "active" and "not boring". They bring ukeleles to class and sing songs, they play games, they make balloon animals, they turn flips and are a laugh a minute!

Naturally, the most commercially-oriented schools pack them in; some kids may even have to share a chair. This of course leads to a mob mentality amongst the kids, and it doesn't matter if a kid can't speak English or has serious behavioral/mental problems. Their parents paid the tuition fee, so they're in your class.

Anyway, what the Sarge said is all you can do. Shop around and check out some other schools that have smaller kids classes and/or can offer you some adult (very rare these days) and/or IELTS classes. IELTS is the other big market after kids because most VNese want to study abroad, so they MUST have a good IELTS band score. Becoming an IETLS guru is the main way to avoid teaching kids.

bule_boy69 · Joined: 05 Mar 2007 Posts: 158 Location: Jakarta

sigmoid · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 1276

ExpatLuke · Joined: 11 Feb 2012 Posts: 744

Painting in broad strokes aren't we? 1 experience, with 1 school, in 1 town, with 1 type of students = ALL Vietnamese students?

I wonder what generalizations people make about your entire country after just meeting you.

Anyways, you're going to get bad students anywhere. I had a fairly bad experience teaching in a private school in Hanoi, but found some students who were gems amongst the entitled brats. After moving to Danang, I found Vietnamese students to be the most respectful and fun students I've ever had.

I'd say there's a bigger problem with your school than your students. Get out now... no reason to subject yourself to that psychological abuse.

Action · Joined: 16 Jan 2017 Posts: 17 Location: Philippines

With regard to the OP's dilemma with ESL students I have observations of my own to share.

We are loosely called "teachers", mostly based on the premise that we can speak our native language better than anyone else. (God forbid anyone gets around to challenging this).

In fact, for the most part, many of us are little more than a presenter. Simply a guide to facilitate the progress of the institutions "syllabus" within a given time frame by engaging students participation.

Having taught all ages of group classes of most Asian nationalities, I often had cause to question whether bad behaviour related to my particular skillset?

My experience improved when I managed to engage the majority of students attention.
This is not an easy task, but pre-reading the textbook from a students viewpoint and continuously varying my preparations to maintain the students engagement worked.

There are many personalities among students, these are the tools we can use to manage (divide and conquer) classroom behaviour!
The adage "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" springs to mind, lol.

Even troublemakers can be engaged, just discover their interests and patronise them orally during class, this weakens their position as class clown since I was now sharing 50% of their casual speaking time.

Once a few students become engaged we can defend them and build our fragile alliances based on praise relative to their previous worst behaviour.

Happy days Laughing