Serious question to all you starving college students.

Leaning a little too hard on the cell phones, not that I don't remember why, but this needn't be such an occupation.

"Please take out your cell phones."  (pause)

"Turn them off." (pause)

"Anyone using a cell phone during this class will be asked to leave" (and be hyper-embarrassed)

Done.

I'll be teaching some village kids in a few days, they probably won't have phones, smart or otherwise.

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

I have some serious questions to ask all you "starving college students" (meaning POOR students who can't afford the 5 - 8 million VND tuition at the language centers.):

Why do you want to study Conversational English? 

If you can speak it on a passable level, what will you hope to accomplish for you, your family, and your country (Việt Nam)?

If someone were to guide you an hour or two a week (Sundays), what will you give in return? (the wrong answer is money)

What program/book would you most be interested in following?

Are you willing to turn your cell phones off for a one to two hour block during a lesson? 

Will you be willing to give it to the guide for safekeeping?  (If not, will you get mad if the guide grabs it out of your hands because you totally are rude and disrespecting the guide by talking on your phone while your guide is teaching and would you be mad if the guide smashes it on the ground? 
Wait, you're poor, what are you doing with a smartphone anyway?)

THD you always ask the tough questions.

However, if I were a poor starving student I would want to study conversational English to hone my skills in a tough labor market as a way to distinguish myself from the rest of the poor college students competing for the same jobs

Hopefully the long term goal is self improvement, but then again I am not a poor student so what do I know

If not money then are you suggesting a barter system be employed? Hmmmm what can a poor student barter with?

Does the kama sutra qualify as an English language study guide?

Ok now we're getting to the meat of the issue; the ubiquitous and dreaded cell phone. To my mind this is the crux of the topic as I have seen several posts regarding this issue. I think if this singular issue would be adequately addressed me thinks the other issues will become self resolving.

[Moderated: Unnecessary]

Curiously, what's the purpose of this post?

I am not qualified to answer your questions - I guess, but as I WAS a (poor) student, so, just answer from personal view of a local without caring what you think of:

"the 5 - 8 million VND tuition at the language centers"

Aibiet150204: how long for the course at the language centers and which centers cost you 8 mil VND???

"Why do you want to study Conversational English?"

Aibiet150204: being able to communicate with foreigners. English is global language now.

When you can converse English, you feel confident for travelling everywhere (at least in my case); but wait, I got lost in Beijing once 5 years back because nobody there spoke English.

"If you can speak it on a passable level, what will you hope to accomplish for you, your family, and your country (Việt Nam)?"

Aibiet150204: earn as much as strong foreign currencies such as USD, Can Dollars, Euro, AUD, etc... for better life of MINE.

"If someone were to guide you an hour or two a week (Sundays), what will you give in return? (the wrong answer is money)"

Aibiet150204: well, if it is supposed to be poor students, what do you expect them to give you? FREE SEX?

If I were the student, no more than a VND10k bánh mì and VND7k black coffee. That would all be a meal of the day - like, instead of eating 3 meals per day, I would take 2 only and would give you 1.  It IS a huge amount of a real poor student.  What more do you expect?

"What program/book would you most be interested in following?"

Aibiet150204: when I started studying English, I got some Streamline books but did not feel it was useful. So, actually I do not follow any book/program as I studied myself.

"Are you willing to turn your cell phones off for a one to two hour block during a lesson?"

Aibiet150204: if I am truly interested in something, I would be willing to do that just to focus on such thing. So, the answer is YES.

"Will you be willing to give it to the guide for safekeeping?"

Aibiet150204: if it is a smart phone - properly NO - how can I trust the guide that I can receive back my phone? Otherwise, why not? The VND200k mobile phone now like no one wants anymore.

"... and would you be mad if the guide smashes it on the ground?"

Aibiet150204: ABSOLUTELY - hey, don't tell me it was a smart phone, I will kill that guide!

"Wait, you're poor, what are you doing with a smartphone anyway?"

Aibiet150204: bunch of things to do with a smartphone: play games, surf web (like expat-blog), check Facebook, Skype/viber chatting, texting, checking emails, etc...

Hey, wait, are you asking as thing happened to you today? If so, sounds like you ARE a very sensitive guy, and easily get angry at things/person that are not satisfying you/your request?

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

Are you willing to turn your cell phones off for a one to two hour block during a lesson?  This is a serious question.  Will you be willing to give it to the guide for safekeeping?  (If not, will you get mad if the guide grabs it out of your hands because you totally are rude and disrespecting the guide by talking on your phone while your guide is teaching and would you be mad if the guide smashes it on the ground?  Wait, you're poor, what are you doing with a smartphone anyway?)

I wonder if starving college students get mad when the guide totally is rude and disrespecting students by talking on his phone while he is teaching.

Is the guide willing to turn his cell phone off during the lesson?

My teacher told me a story that has happened to her. She used to ask her students to turn their cell phones off during the lesson, and she often teachs the older people (from 28 - 40years old). One of her students who has a 5-year-old boy, someday that boy had an accident and her neighbors tried to call her but... you know, she turned her phone off. After the class had finished, she turned her phone on and got lots of miss calls, then she called them back and.. she couldn't go to the hospital to see her son before he died.
From then on, my teacher never asks her students to turn their cell phones off.

There are lots of ways to show respect to the guide.

But there's no need to turn our cell phones off in this case anyway.

As a general rule woman I can hold my breath longer than a woman is willing to be separated from her cell phone.

funnybear92 wrote:

My teacher told me a story that has happened to her. She used to ask her students to turn their cell phones off during the lesson, and she often teachs the older people (from 28 - 40years old). One of her students who has a 5-year-old boy, someday that boy had an accident and her neighbors tried to call her but... you know, she turned her phone off. After the class had finished, she turned her phone on and got lots of miss calls, then she called them back and.. she couldn't go to the hospital to see her son before he died.

A probable story.
...But that probably SAVED her life or some other's who are on the road.
There is airplane mood in most smart or unintelligent phones today.
BTW:
lots = uncountable
many = countable

ancientpathos wrote:

As a general rule woman I can hold my breath longer than a woman is willing to be separated from her cell phone.

To anyone that says they can't live without their cellphones, I counter with, what did your mother and your grandmother do before it was invented?

aibiet150204 wrote:

Curiously, what's the purpose of this post?

...

Aibiet150204: well, if it is supposed to be poor students, what do you expect them to give you? FREE SEX?

.

That is utterly offensive .  I'd laugh it if you were an American guy saying it but you are not.  You are a Vietnamese woman and talking like that is an insult.  I am not that kind of a guy.   

I am the "guide" and the purpose of my post, if you are too blind to figure it out, from "since I'm a sucker for Charity projects", is for me to gauge interests from students who can't afford English lessons at a language center.  If they will meet me halfway, I am willing to sacrifice a trip from Vũng Tàu to Hồ Chí Minh City to teach Conversational English.  I am already doing it here in Vũng Tàu at a temple.  But I don't want free-loaders or people taking advantage of my kindness; Some people will take advantage of anything "free" and be ungrateful for it. 

I am someone who gets very annoyed when I sacrifice my time and material to do volunteer work for somebody and they are ungrateful.  Using a phone when a teacher teaches is one such act.  Paying students can text, play games or sleep in class if they don't give a crap about what the teacher teaches, but at least the teacher is compensated for such rude behavior.  To do that to a volunteer would be a slap in the face. 

By asking "What will you give in return? (the wrong answer is money)", I want my students to think about charity....freeloaders just take take take.  A poor student can always give their TIME as I have to those who are less fortunate.  Meaning they will in turn volunteer several hours to help tourists or to teach what I taught them to smaller kids. 

Thanks for messing up my day with your FREE SEX comment.  I feel so cheap and dirty.

THD!
I don't think your target posters will answer for these 'difficult' questions
Also they cannot sign out from yahoo chat and Fakebook!

Don't blame her
It's part of exchange program!
May be it's new thing for you but that's a fact. For new generation 'virginity' or 'sex' is not an important thing. Who care those 'items' if they can be fluent in English and get a white guy (yes, they only prefer 'white') to immigrate to a foreign country?

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

Thanks for fucking up my day with your FREE SEX comment.  I feel so cheap and dirty.

I agree with Tran Hung Dao.
If i don't have money...I will learn by myself. There're have many ways to meet foreigners and talk with them not only learn language. If i were a foreigner i would feel stressful when i meet someone just because i have to teach them my language or exchange language..
Anyway: If my English is not good...how can i exchange language with foreigner??? How can i teach them Vietnamese?
I think learn English or any language is not only focus on the lesson...We can learn anytime and anyway...Google.translate is the strong tool to learn new words and pronunciation. It will take time but i think it's good when a person can learn new language with the patience and good attitude.

I taught myself programming from books and earned millions; I taught myself physics from books too. 

Languages are different, you have to practice, practice, practice

charmavietnam wrote:

Don't blame her
It's part of exchange program!
May be it's new thing for you but that's a fact. For new generation 'virginity' or 'sex' is not an important thing. Who care those 'items' if they can be fluent in English and get a white guy (yes, they only prefer 'white') to immigrate to a foreign country?

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

Thanks for messing up my day with your FREE SEX comment.  I feel so cheap and dirty.

I am not like others and to imply I teach free for sex is asinine.  By the way, I downscaled my anger from a super typhoon to a tropical depression....edit your quote.

charmavietnam wrote:

THD!
I don't think your target posters will answer for these 'difficult' questions
Also they cannot sign out from yahoo chat and Fakebook!

Don't worry, my target market isn't going to compete with your English school or any Expat's private tutoring sessions.

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

That is utterly offensive .  I'd laugh it if you were an American guy saying it but you are not.  You are a Vietnamese woman and talking like that is an insult...

Okay, first of all, I apology.  I dont like to be insulted as well as dont want to insult anyone.  So, I didnt mean it, and so sorry for making you feel I was insulting you in my comments.

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

I am not that kind of a guy.

I dont know you. And all the guys I have know so far is THAT KIND of a guy. So, how I am supposed to know you are not that kind of a guy? Your posts just cannot confirm who you are...

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

I am the "guide" and the purpose of my post, if you are too stupid to figure it out, from "since I'm a sucker for Charity projects", is for me to gauge interests from students who can't afford English lessons at a language center.  If they will meet me halfway, I am willing to sacrifice a trip from Vũng Tàu to Hồ Chí Minh City to teach Conversational English.  I am already doing it here in Vũng Tàu at a temple.  But I don't want free-loaders or people taking advantage of my kindness; Some people will take advantage of anything "free" and be ungrateful for it. 

I am someone who gets very annoyed when I sacrifice my time and material to do volunteer work for somebody and they are ungrateful.  Using a phone when a teacher teaches is one such act.  Paying students can text, play games or sleep in class if they don't give a crap about what the teacher teaches, but at least the teacher is compensated for such rude behavior.  To do that to a volunteer would be a slap in the face. 

By asking "What will you give in return? (the wrong answer is money)", I want my students to think about charity....freeloaders just take take take.  A poor student can always give their TIME as I have to those who are less fortunate.  Meaning they will in turn volunteer several hours to help tourists or to teach what I taught them to smaller kids.

There are 3 things here:

(i) Better you explain clearly in your first post what you expect to get in return from the poor students.  If so, I was not assuming and insulting.

(ii) What meaning of "charity work"? I thought (and my style) that when you are "ready" to do charity works, you do NOT expect something in RETURN. Am I wrong? So, why dont you just throw away your ambition and kindness without caring what you will receive in return?  Once people receive your kindness, there are many ways for them to share the kindness to show respect to you.

(iii) Ha, see, you feel angry when people say something "not good about your" and is it okay for you to tell other "stupid"? Great! Having read several your posts on this blog and what I can understand is you got problems with the bad thoughts about Vietnamese people (special girls!!!) like "I am cheated by the Vietnamese girls, they pretend they love me but actually they only love my pocket/wallet, my white colour skin, my US citizenship", "Vietnamese people asked me for my money because they think I am a walking ATM machine", etc... Well, dont you think this is a nice way to express your thoughts about Vietnamese people/girls? If you dont like us, just stay away! You feel upset because of bad experience you have got so far? Feel Vietnamese people are untrustworthy? You are a smart guy and understand well that not all of us like that (okay, I admit, a lot of Vietnamese people like that, but again, not all).

So, how am I supposed to know what KIND of guy you are?

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

Thanks for messing up my day with your FREE SEX comment.  I feel so cheap and dirty.

I would prefer you skipped using "edit button" this time, keep the word "fucking" just to show how angry you were.

Anyway, I do need to be careful in posting my comments.  Thanks for teaching me this.  I will also need to be careful in discussing with you later on.

aibiet150204 wrote:

So, how am I supposed to know what KIND of guy you are?

aibiet, I don't know THD. I have never met him. But I do read most all of his posts. You can tell a lot about a person by how he/she presents his/herself on a blog or otherwise - at least I can. From reading THD's many posts here, I would conclude he's "not that kind of guy", and would not insinuate otherwise. Of course, regardless of what I think of anyone here, I try my best not to judge or insult anyone - at least not intentionally. So let's all put this behind us and try to get along, before someone else gets banned from the blog.

saigonmonkey wrote:

aibiet150204 wrote:

So, how am I supposed to know what KIND of guy you are?

aibiet, I don't know THD. I have never met him. But I do read most all of his posts. You can tell a lot about a person by how he/she presents his/herself on a blog or otherwise - at least I can. From reading THD's many posts here, I would conclude he's "not that kind of guy", and would not insinuate otherwise. Of course, regardless of what I think of anyone here, I try my best not to judge or insult anyone - at least not intentionally. So let's all put this behind us and try to get along, before someone else gets banned from the blog.

Yes! Thank you very much for saying this. I will definitely try my best.

saigonmonkey wrote:

aibiet150204 wrote:

So, how am I supposed to know what KIND of guy you are?

aibiet, I don't know THD. I have never met him. But I do read most all of his posts. You can tell a lot about a person by how he/she presents his/herself on a blog or otherwise - at least I can. From reading THD's many posts here, I would conclude he's "not that kind of guy", and would not insinuate otherwise. Of course, regardless of what I think of anyone here, I try my best not to judge or insult anyone - at least not intentionally. So let's all put this behind us and try to get along, before someone else gets banned from the blog.

Salutations are in order.

No good deed goes unpunished THD. I learned this a long time ago. Even knowing this, I still practice random acts of kindness.

saigonmonkey wrote:

aibiet150204 wrote:

So, how am I supposed to know what KIND of guy you are?

aibiet, I don't know THD. I have never met him. But I do read most all of his posts. You can tell a lot about a person by how he/she presents his/herself on a blog or otherwise - at least I can. From reading THD's many posts here, I would conclude he's "not that kind of guy", and would not insinuate otherwise. Of course, regardless of what I think of anyone here, I try my best not to judge or insult anyone - at least not intentionally. So let's all put this behind us and try to get along, before someone else gets banned from the blog.

Well said saigonmonkey.

I don't know what kind of guy he is either but when I showed up here I got attacked, when my friend started posting here he got attacked, I've seen others show up and get attacked.  I make a joke about shaving my head and I'm told I've insulted all bald men everywhere .. The Clique indulges in vicious and snide insults and goes at me for failing to recognize "good clean fun."

Cliques are so seventh grade.

But, just as an empical observation, not pointing fingers or taking sides expressed of implied, pretty much every time there is some ugliness and hostility on here, THD is in the middle of it.

aibiet em oi!
I don't know anyone here personally but I can (if others try they too can) understand what kind of personalities are others from their posts
About THD, I can say clearly that his intentions are good and he never try to insult others if possible
So try to understand each others rather than word fight!

Aibiet could have PM THD and we all will be none the wiser what transpired between them. Wouldn't that be a better option than such wide exposure?

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

ancientpathos wrote:

As a general rule woman I can hold my breath longer than a woman is willing to be separated from her cell phone.

To anyone that says they can't live without their cellphones, I counter with, what did your mother and your grandmother do before it was invented?

Meanwhile back on subject.
    My adult students English was that bad at first, they would have been completely wasting their time in my class without their Smart Phones, Google translate would get a 2 hour work out every time.
   But I still agree with THD, they should show more respect, ( or more likely will power ), and refrain from using them in class.

I've seen some horrifying answers from Google Translate, I always used a dictionary, software or dead tree.  Guy says he operates a crane, you end up answering with a word about a long-legged fishing bird.  Pronouns can be first or second person.

ChrisFox wrote:

I've seen some horrifying answers from Google Translate, I always used a dictionary, software or dead tree.  Guy says he operates a crane, you end up answering with a word about a long-legged fishing bird.  Pronouns can be first or second person.

I've learn't only to try and translate a few words at a time, ( still with limited success ), those cheap Viet - Anh E dictionaries are useless, ( only one word at a time ), but ok for a VN translating an English word.

bluenz wrote:

Meanwhile back on subject.
    My adult students English was that bad at first, they would have been completely wasting their time in my class without their Smart Phones, Google translate would get a 2 hour work out every time.
   But I still agree with THD, they should show more respect, ( or more likely will power ), and refrain from using them in class.

So what's the subject?  If I am going to volunteer my time to teach you, then you need to volunteer equal time to learn from me.  If I half-ass teach you, then you can half-ass learn from me.  Alot of hidden time that goes into a teacher's lecture time often involves preparatory time.  A passionate teacher will review/assess their method so the student can learn well...but it's not a one way road.  Students need to meet the teacher halfway as well. 

So ex-nay on the phone-aye or else don't come to my class.  And I will enforce it like they enforce the no-phone rule at the US Consulate...you turn in your handheld devices.  If it's too important for you to let go, then obviously my class is less important so why are you here?

May be, a gentle reminder at the beginning of the class will prevent the cultural misunderstands and deflated egos.
I am sure we once were ever too ready to show off our latest toys, be it a talking watch, mobile, the latest mobile, a flashing bike or a racey sports car.
Never make the mistake of stating the obvious!
We have heard that common sense are sometimes uncommon. Or have we forgotten?

hELLnoi wrote:

We have heard that common sense are sometimes uncommon. Or have we forgotten?

What has not been taught cannot be forgotten. Modern society decrees morality and commonsense be replaced by one's own self interest.

hELLnoi wrote:

We have heard that common sense are sometimes uncommon. Or have we forgotten?

It's a nonsense phrase used to salve the bruised egos of the uneducated and one should never use it.

There is knowledge coupled with reason, or there is guesswork, and there is no continuum between them.

i wouldn't try to escrow the phones.  They're worth too much to their owners.  When I go before the class I will devote a few hours to, I will simple say to turn them off.