Travel to Teach: Thailand and Vietnam Combination Stay Volunteer Story

Anouk, 28, Holland

From Thailand to Vietnam, A Volunteer Story

Unbelievable, the past three months have gone so quickly I hardly can believe my volunteering period has come to an end. Looking back at it I honestly can say "it's been an experience I never ever will forget", I really loved every second of it!

When I arrived in Nongkhai I had no idea what to expect. There were a lot of volunteers when I arrived in August and everybody was running around to their schools or other activities. The first day I settled myself in the pink dorm and spend the rest of the day biking around Nongkhai to get myself orientated. And soon as I began to recognize all the street, wats and shops, I thought by myself: "this feels good". My school was Wiengkham, a primary school in Ban Wieng Khuk, a small village nearby Nongkhai. I was picked up by the director everyday. As we drove to school we had very interesting conversations. Although he hardly spoke any English, we managed to talk the half an hour during the trip to school. The school was wonderful, the teachers were very friendly and each day we had lunch together. At school I taught from grade 7 up until grade 12. So the children were from 12 till 18 years old. Before I came here I was afraid if I was able to teach English. But the level is so low, that my basic English was more than enough. And classes were a lot of fun, my goal was most of the time to let them speak up in class, because Thai students are really shy. So I tried to combine 'the serious stuff' with a lot of games and singing.....and the students loved it. So did I.

I also got introduced very quickly to the famous disco 'BarNana's'. Nongkhai has really nice places to eat and go out and I had a lot of fun with the other volunteers. But after 5 weeks I was up to a change....so I decided that I really wanted to teach in Vietnam also and Travel-to-teach was so flexible it was arranged within a few days.

Vietnam
So within a week, after a short trip to Lao, I arrived in Hanoi....what a difference! From laidback Nongkhai to the worldcity Hanoi. I really was shocked by the crowdedness of this city, not forgetting the millions of motorbikes. But after a few days I got used to it (except crossing a street was still a big adventure) and I really began to appreciate the beauty of the city. There were so many beautiful sights to see in Hanoi, so I think I visited them all when I wasn't teaching. And I really could enjoy just sitting somewhere at one of the lakes and looking at all the Vietnamese people doing their daily life things. My second shock was arriving at the school, I was going to teach in a primary school (Lomonoxop school), so I expecting really cute shy little kids. Cute they were, but shy?? Hundreds of questions were asked to me as soon as I entered the playground. What a difference, same as in class. Normally when I asked something to the children hardly anybody would answer any question by themselves, but overhear at least ten hands popped in to the air, followed by 'me, me, me'. Although I was teaching in Vietnam kids of 8 or 9 years old, the level of them was the same as I taught 15 year olds in Thailand.

There were many differences between teaching in Thailand or Vietnam, but one thing still was the same....they love playing games or singing song! I have been teaching in Vietnam for 4 weeks and the rest of my time I traveled around to see more of the country. Hanoi is in the North and you can easily visit places like Halong Bay and Sapa.

Namsom
Back in Thailand I decided to go to Namsom for my last three weeks of teaching. Here I have been teaching in Tamsom school, a primary school. Namsom is so different from Nongkhai. In Namsom there are no tourist and hardly any other foreigner, so within a day the whole village knows you. You really can't bike over there without a constantly 'hello, hello, hello' of all the children. It was really fun being back to the shy Thai students and in Namsom people look even friendlier than in Nongkhai, although I never thought that would be possible. The thing I really liked in Namsom is that you really got to know the real Thai way of living. Also the dorm and staying there with the other volunteers was really relaxed and fun.

People always ask me what I liked the most: teaching in Thailand or Vietnam? I honestly can't tell, because both were so different. I really am glad to experienced both cultures and see both countries. And now I am packing my back again to travel more around Thailand and maybe some other country. I'm going to miss them all, the other teachers, the other volunteers, the T2T-staff, but most of all my kids. No more....'Good morning, teacher'!

Email Anouk Fouchier

Mini Gallery: