Tourist: "So how long are you here for?"
Jon: "Well actually I live in Saigon".
Tourist: (thinking - Yeah right, you mean you've been backpacking and decided to stay there for a couple of months) "Really! Wow. You must miss home. When are you going back?".
Jon: "Errr, well I plan to stay in Vietnam actually. I got married 2 months ago".
Tourist: "Oh, so your wife likes it here too?".
Jon: "Actually my wife is Vietnamese".
Pause
Tourist: (thinking - Well......he's quite young so I suppose it could be genuine) "Oh, congratulations!".
Jon: "Thanks".
Tourist: (thinking - You must be a useless git if you have to come to Vietnam to work) "So what do you do here?"
Jon: "I'm a teacher".
Tourist: "Ahh, English?".
Jon: "Yes".
Tourist: "International school?".
Jon: "Um, well, no. It's a Korean School".
Tourist: (thinking - What kind of two-bit outfit is that!) "Really, all Korean kids? In HCMC? Wow".
Jon: "Yeah. I teach them English, Science, Social and Math".
Tourist: "So you're qualified to do that obviously....".
Jon: "Um, well I have a one month TEFL cert".
Tourist: (thinking - I knew it!) "No B Ed?"
Jon (sighing): "No. I just kind of jumped in at the deep end three years ago when I went to Korea. I know what I'm doing in a classroom, don't worry."
Tourist (thinking - not qualified! how unprofessional): "Hmm. So where's your wife now?"
Jon: "She's in HCMC working".
Tourist (thinking - he just went on holiday without her!)
Jon: "Actually we have school holidays now, I'm working part time for a travel guide website....."
Tourist: (thinking - this guy is a pathological liar!). "Oh, that's nice".
And on, and on, and on.
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Welcome to The Final Word, a blog from a British guy living in Saigon, Vietnam since January 2005
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10 comments:
Funny. I cringe, though, at the assumptions people will make about me. I teach English (literature), I'm getting my master's in secondary education, and my goal is teach in real international schools, which only hire very well-qualified, experienced teachers, not backpackers. Here in the US, I am proud to say I'm a high school English teacher, but overseas, the term carries so much negative baggage that I think I'd rather tell people I'm a pole dancer.
Yes Preya, assumptions are not good most of the time, and with some justification as well -- there are certianly some 'characters' in the teaching profession abroad. I mean, coming to school smelling like last nights drinking session when you have to teach kids....hardly savoury stuff.
On the flip side, I have met PLENTY of unqualified yet dedicated, hard working and knowledgable teachers who would make younger, newly qualified teachers look out of their depth.
I've spent some time subbing at one of the international schools here, and to me, I don't see much difference in the teachers there and the teachers I've worked with. Some are good, some are bad, having a qualification just means an individual has the ability of application to study. The real graft is learnt on the job, in the classroom, as I'm sure you'll agree!
I am an overqualified, over-educated xe om :-)
Haha, funny convo...
btw, Chuc Mung Nam Moi!
Funny convo, I know the feeling, but I just had the total opposite as I was sitting here in the internet cafe. A Vietnamese woman came up to me and asked me whether I live here, so I said "Yes." "For how long?" "Nearly a year." Her reply: "Oh wow, only one year?!" hehehe
Just stumbled into this blog. Hilarious rendition of a hilarious conversation!
I'll give that you are a good writer, perhaps even an excellent. However, I have to say that you seem to be very condescending, especially about Vietnamese, Koreans and foreigners who haven't lived in Vietnam. I think you should get over yourself a bit. You really remind me of the typical bro who goes to foreign countries and slams everything around as idiotic. Keep up the good writing but I would attempt to come at it from a different perspective...
Thanks for the advice of 'coming at it from a different perspective' -- at what, my life?
I am married to a Vietnamese woman and she agrees with everything I moan about when it comes to the Vietnamese. I moan about English people. I am allowed to moan about Vietnamese and Koreans as well. The above post was about frustrating stereotypes that people instantly form in their heads when you have a surface level conversation. If you look at the responses to the post, you'll see that all the other readers got what I meant.
Jon,
What do you think I missed about your post? What did they get that I missed? Please explain. Why do you think people instantly have these stereotypes? Maybe some people do? Not everyone does though. Do you? Perhaps...I've read a lot of your articles and the tone is obvious. So yeah maybe you should change your life perspective a bit. It's not impossible and you just might be happier....
how do you know what these people are actually thinking? Maybe you are just projecting...
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