ISOSU: Teacher's day in Vietnam - Different way of learning

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Posted: 2/5/08

You may ask me "What is the Teacher's day?" People in Vietnam always say the United States has the best education system in the word.

That is why many Vietnamese families sacrifice their financial situation to save money so they can send their children to the United States for study.

It made me think that the United States would have a big celebration to say thanks to teachers.

In Vietnam, Nov. 20 is the Teacher's Day. This day was set when Ho Chi Minh sent a thanks letter to all teachers across the country for their effort in educating the young generation. Highly respecting teachers is one of our traditional customs for many centuries now.

There was a saying, "the person who taught you even one word is your life time teacher."

I guess this idea came from Chinese Confucianism, from which Vietnam received a strong influence in early history.

In the 11th century, under the Ly Dynasty, Chu Van An, who was the teacher of prince and princesses, was awarded the honest position in the country.

Later on, his name became the name for many schools in Vietnam.

I still remember when I came to school, the first lesson I learned was "first learn manner, then learn knowledge."

For children, "manners" are the ways we behave in family and school. If we disrespected a teacher, they would kick us out of the school.

You may think, "Okay, I can apply to another school then." It is not the case in Vietnam, as it is hard to find a school which could accept those considered to behave badly. If you were disrespectful to your teacher, you had simply decided to stay out of the society.

People from other cultures might think we could have been very scared of our teachers. Well, if I had not done my homework or I destroyed the learning atmosphere of the class, I felt scared and embarrassed.

In fact, schooling time was some of the best years of my life. Although we had around 50 children in one class, our teachers remembered our birthdays, parents' names, home addresses and kept close contact with parents.

We used to sing a song in the elementary school that went: "At home, mother is a teacher, at school teacher is a mother. Teacher and mother are two teachers. Mother and teacher are two kind mothers."

My teachers used to visit our house many times, even in the evening to talk with my parents and me. She wanted to check if my table was the right height for me and if the light was bright enough for me to study.

For us, teachers are real mothers and fathers in school. I could cry - if needed - about anything with them and always received good advice for all challenges I had in my life.

Another example of close relation between school and family in Vietnam is we had a "Contact book," where the teacher wrote her comments about my study and behavior in class that week.

I had to carry home the "Contact book" to show my parents and have them sign to turn in the following week.

Today teachers just need to click in parents' e-mail to inform them about their children's situation. But in the old days, we didn't have Internet or phone, we had PTA meetings every month to make sure that the parents pay enough attention and spend enough time with their kids. Parents also could learn how to educate their children at home so they would not have conflicting education for their child.

We have a system at school which requires teachers to spend few hours per week outside class time to help special students. That means, if you can not follow the class level, they would try their best to help you understand and catch up to everybody's knowledge. On the other hand, if you are an outstanding student, they would send you to a group of intelligent students and give you more challenging courses.

I was in Russian language class and mathematics class in my middle school and high school. They gave us a small amount of money for a meal everyday - although that was an exception in school - it was used to encourage us to study harder. Our teachers helped us win national competitions in those subjects.

To express the respect for teachers, on Teacher's Day, we bought flowers, gifts and went to visit them.

Not only our current teachers, but we also visited all teachers we had before.

Let's imagine: if you had been a teacher for 10 years, you would have thousands of students come to say thanks on this day.

That is why in the week of Teacher's Day, the price of flowers always goes up.

There was a time when we called the Teacher's Day "Flower Giving Day."

Many teachers later expressed they had a very hard time dealing with their house being packed full of flowers.

The trash company complained that they had to work ten times harder than on normal days.

Traffic jams were everywhere because children don't know where their teachers' houses are, and end up just blocking the streets. A few years later, the students changed their minds to express respect for teachers by buying "gifts" for them.

However, there were not many things we could buy, as our parents barely made enough money for the family because they were spending a lot of money on our schooling.

November in Vietnam is the season of oranges, so we chose to buy them oranges. The Teacher's Day then became "Orange Giving Day."

For many years, teachers in Vietnam had trouble because they had too many oranges in their house that week.

Of course, they could not eat them all, but would give some to their neighbors, relative and even friends before the oranges went bad.

Nowadays, children in Vietnam are smarter than us. They talked with their teachers about what to give them, and the thing they would like - the things students usually wouldn't think of.

If you were a teacher in Vietnam, believe me, you would be treated very respectfully anywhere you go.

I remember one time I wore Ao Dai - a Vietnamese traditional costume - on Teacher's Day, just because I had something to do in the company.

But, when children on the street saw me in Ao Dai, they thought I was a teacher.

They ran after me and asked, "Are you a teacher?" They did not wait for my answer and said, "Happy Teacher's Day!"

Well, that was a very nice surprise to me. I replied to them "Thank you, you are very good students," then walked away with a very satisfied smile.

If you are a teacher and have Vietnamese students in your class, you would find them very quiet, but very hard-working.

This is just because we don't have the custom to question or challenge our teachers. Since I came to the United States and started studying at OSU, I have learned that I should ask more questions to be considered a good student. It still will take me years to practice this.

Phuong Nguyen is a graduate student in college of business and a part of ISOSU. The opinions expressed in ISOSU's column, which appears every Tuesday, do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Barometer staff. Nguyen can be reached at forum@dailybarometer.com.