Graduating with a major in Hotel Tourism Management in Thailand, instead of applying for work in reputed hotels, Tran Ha Duy, a young man from the coastal city of Da Nang, decided to teach the Vietnamese language to Thai students. Currently, he is a teacher at the Nongbuapittayakarn school in Nongbualamphu province.

The job of teaching came to Duy entirely by chance. Duy describes it as "a special fate, job seeks him rather than he seeks it."

After finishing four years of university in Thailand, Duy continued to study his master degree at University of Udon Thani Rajabhat in the province of Udon Thani. At that time, Nongbuapittayakarn School needed a Vietnamese teacher and his friend introduced him to the school. "I spent nearly a week to think about the offer and decided to accept. The reason I took the job was to earn additional income, but it was also an opportunity for me to improve my speaking and presentation skills and wanted to apply my strengths with a new job,” Duy said.

During the first days of teaching, Duy faced many difficulties. The Vietnamese language had been added into the curriculum for only two years, so there were few textbooks or supplementary teaching materials.

To prepare for the first teaching hours, Duy experienced sleepless nights studying teaching methodology and referred to the Vietnamese teaching curriculum on the Internet. To help students love the Vietnamese language and to understand more about the country, apart from just the classroom hours, Duy often organized exchanges, sharing more about the culture, traditions, lifestyle and working style of Vietnamese people.

Overcoming the initial difficulties, the new teaching methods adopted and Duy’s attractive communication skills, students have quickly responded and he becomes loved by local students.

Duy said that despite being a more difficult language to learn than English, the Vietnamese language has always been enthusiastically welcomed by students here. The Vietnamese language is also the first and only foreign language of the ASEAN region selected at the Nongbuapittayakarn school./.

( VNF )