Vietnamese Teacher Day…only a few daze away!

For many weeks the atmosphere around the dormitory where I live has been “charged” with activity. It started with dancing and singing about a month ago. Both Phil and I looked at each other and said—“Oh Oh”— because we knew Teacher Day was approaching. We remembered two years ago the increasing noise level and activity that this very important day in Vietnam created.

Two years ago I compared TEACHER DAY to Mother’s Day in the US—everyone honors mothers (or in this case, important teachers). Well, after watching the flurry of activity and noise evolve over the month, I want to reclassify this event. It isn’t like Mother’s day---rather I think it is similar to Homecoming in the US. The entire university has been focusing on upcoming Teacher Day for weeks. One event held last week was "Miss HNUE" (Hanoi University of Education) pageant. It was a very professional event with the real "Miss Vietnam" and a famous playwright and actor were judges. I was stunned by the beauty of this event--AT A UNIVERSITY!! Wow....simply amazing.






So…..let me give you a visual overview of what is going on outside my door. You have to understand while looking at these photos that the noise level is very, very high! These kids can only work when YELLING and SCREAMING at each other. I am amazed because they are very, very quiet in class. Phew not here!


So…to being, let me start with the drummers. This is a photo of about 30 kids sitting on the sidewalk drumming. They start—then yell at each other—and start again. Over and over and over again.



The dancers….. they have a boom box or computer with speakers to play their music. Of course, they have to play the music over…and over….and over again too.









The poster makers. Everyone makes posters for Teacher Day. They will be displayed in the courtyard outside my room next Saturday. I will be sure to post the results of this month-long activity. The girls do most of the work—while the boys yell and chase the girls around. This is a daily activity with the peak “working time” to be around 3-4pm and continuing until about 10pm.




On Thursday I was invited to visit my student’s room to see their poster-in-progress. I was more interested in seeing their room. Twelve kids to a room—three sets of bunk beds on each wall.



There also was a contest last Saturday morning where students competed against each other in topics related to their majors. Geography had an "Olympiad" contest where each class had a team--





My class didn't win...but they were happy anyway!





Back to the US Homecoming analogy
I think the posters are similar to all the “house decorations” that are so commonly done at MU. Instead of just the Greeks, this activity focuses upon the kids living in the dorm. The posters are their rendition of the importance of teachers and teaching in their lives – I think. Everything is in Vietnamese, so it is somewhat difficult to figure things out.

The campus also has departmental activities. Each department selects a team to represent them at the campus level. This is why so much drumming, dancing and singing is going on. Bamboo pole dancing groups, sidewalk drummers and prancing girls in fantastic Vietnamese traditional dress all compete at the department level and the winners then move to the campus level. This big event is next week. In addition, each department invites back its retired faculty members and honors them. So instead of alumni—or graduates returning, it is the old faculty members! Having just joined this exclusive “club”…I like the idea of doing this!

So….this post is just an update of the BIG EVENT occurring next week. I have been invited to the Geography department event to be held on Thursday. The campus-wide event is to be held on Friday…and of course TEACHER DAY, which is on Saturday.

So…stay tuned for more photos! I love these events—but also look forward to the return to the semi-quiet atmosphere around my dorm.