Sharing

One of the regular commenters on this blog is Tom.  We’re about the same age, and we both share a passion for Việt Nam.  Tom is a professor of education at an American college, and he recently brought four students here to see “the real Việt Nam”.  I matched them up with a group of Vietnamese students – then turned them all loose.  The objective was for the Vietnamese to show off their country to the visitors – and to make friends.  My only admonition was that the Vietnamese could not show them any of the usual tourist stuff, but rather show them places and introduce them to people tourists never see.

I thought readers might enjoy this shot taken at the get-together dinner.  One American student ordered banh khoái (a crepe filled with bean sprouts and seafood covered with peanut sauce) and asked her new-found Vietnamese friend to show her how to use chopsticks.  The two of them cracked up laughing.  It was obvious these students bonded immediately.

The next day was spent riding motorbikes to a village outside Huê, swimming in the Perfume River, taking pictures of water buffalo, and generally having a great time.  I was happy to hear that the father of one of the Vietnamese students went along on the swim time – just to be sure everyone could swim. 

They ate at Huyên Anh (the best bún thịt nương in Huê), they wandered around the An Cựu market, they went atop Vọng Cảnh hill overlooking the river for a picnic, they shared experiences of being university students, visited an orphanage where they distributed food - - and maybe even developed a short “summer love.”   In the meantime, Tom met with various faculty members and officials in the hopes of developing a full-blown student exchange program in the future.

The best and brightest of Việt Nam and the United States.  You’re looking at the future of the two countries.  After seeing them, I know both countries are in good hands.

Comments

[Miss Kitty]

Think they might want to do any faculty exchanges? Wow. Tom and his students must have had a blast.

We're in Hoi An now and moving to Ban Me Thout tomorrow. We reflect a lot about what we see and what it means to these students' future classroom teaching. My students absolutely loved their experience in Hue with the Vietnamese students. They'd love to see them again, but for now it is not on our itinerary.

These students learned lasting lessons about culture and now have a very different point of view about the world.

Thanks Doug - I look forward to building on what you helped me start.
Tom Murray

I forgot to mention in my previous post that one of the Study Abroad goals was to get onto the Virtual-Doug blog. Now we can move on in peace to do good work with orphans, schools and then to teaching English in Thu Duc now that we have successfully accomplished a key goal.

Life is good.

In reply to Kitty, most US Universities have faculty exchanges. They are normally called Visiting Professors. The term can be a semester or a year. Since I'm in education it is unlikely any exchamges would take place due to the significant differences in the two university systems. There are also K-12 exchanges. The high school where I donate time has many International teachers who stay for 2 or 3 years.

I think exchanges in history, sciences, art or languages may be more likely at the university level than education.
Tom Murray

[Triet]

I know I'm a little late to the game, and a little off topic, but I think this exchange is a fitting model for doctors as well (I guess I just have med school on my mind).

I shadowed a surgeon in Hanoi in 2004 who was doing volunteer work, and he remarked numerous times about how much experience he would have gained doing at least part of his facial reconstruction residency in Vietnam -- far more opportunities here than in Southern California.

Both your American and Vietnamese students learned from each other, and from the situation. Moving American doctors out sytematically for a couple months to developing countries like Vietnam could provide the doctors with more opportunity to practice procedures not common in the states and those people a valuable opportunity to get treated by American medical expertise.

[Ai Nhan]

Mr.Doug, I read what you wrote and think about the nice time I had with American students. I had some special emotion when I followed them to Duc Son Pagoda. That's the first time I went to there. I was really moved because of their kindness to Vietnamese children. We shared not only experiences but also love, in which human beings have no differnce.

[HA ANH]

teacher!I want to call you "teacher" instead of mr Doug because I love you in the role of a teacher
Do you know, before you came with us,i did not have much emotion with westeners.My grandfather was a solder ,so i was told many stories about war
My first impression about westeners,so ,was not very good But now my point of view has changed.
when you taught us, we learnt many interesting things . we remember your lectures about "generation gap","table manners"...They were really interesting.
we are sad when hearing you will not teach us next year We know that you are not very well now and you have many responsibilities to complete in your country,in the role of a father and a son .It is a wonderful duty .
Teacher, good luck to you and your family
your student