CEFALT

I have the privilege of working for an amazing language centre in the heart of HCMC called The Centre of Foreign Affairs and Languages Training (CEFALT). It is a relatively small centre, with just 2 campuses in the city, affiliated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. My experiences here, teaching both young children and adults, has ironically been a rather educational journey.

A few highlights of my time:

• Attempting to describe new vocabulary words such as: Diarrhoea, Meditating, D.I.Y and Obese to a group of University students, without the use of a dictionary
• A 6 year old student continually insisting that I must be carrying a child
• An extremely heated debate between 2 groups of students as to which was the healthier country, Vietnam or China (some slight animosity there I think …)
• Some very animated games of Go Fish
• Maintaining a consistently high representation of the UK amongst an All-American teaching staff
• Singing Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes to a Hall full of bemused looking parents
• Winning a Kettle in the Tết raffle
• The awkward cultural stereotypes & sexual orientation lesson
• Being taught some traditional Vietnamese folk tales
• Attempting to answer the following, ‘Why are your eyes blue?’ to a 5 year old
• Being introduced to the HCMC Tax System was an unexpected treat …

In all seriousness, the teaching staff at this school are incredible people and the Vietnamese administration team do a fabulous job of coping with us all. For anyone reading this who may be interested in teaching in HCMC, I’d recommend CEFALT in a second, check it out yourself:

http://www.cefalt.edu.vn/ShowContent_en.asp?ID=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2pyXqTgeKI&feature=youtu.be