English conversations

SJ Vietnam often organizes non-formal English classes for Vietnamese students. “Non-formal” means that they’re not held by a teacher, but by a volunteer. Basically, these are a place where Vietnamese students can talk English to each other and improve their skills by having conversations and debates about different topics.

I joined my previous volunteer colleagues and held one of these classes. We were between ten and twenty depending on the deadlines and the school lessons of the students. The classes took place on Tuesday and Thursday for two hours. We held them online or offline depending on the situation of the virus.

Students all joined the class for the same reason: to improve their talking and listening skills. In addition to that, they wanted to meet new people.

“I realized that here is a good environment for me to improve my English skill based on knowledge sharing, funny games, real stories, etc.” Loan

“I hoped that I can improve my pronunciation and communicate more confidently” Bich

“Besides, I want to make friends with people in SJV. I look forward to meeting foreign volunteers. I want to communicate with foreigner to understand more about the country and their people.” Ngoc Anh

The class is a good environment to speak freely and learn some new things in English. We play games, talk about our favorite topics and we get to know each other. It is also a great way to meet new people around a same objective.

“When I joined the class, I had the environment to use my English, I was able to speak more naturally than before. Yeh, I used to be very shy when I communicate in English.” Ngoc Anh

At the end of each lesson we tried to find an interesting topic together, if not I would choose for everybody with the help of Linh, the coordinator. Sometimes the lesson was around some vocabulary and exercises, sometimes it was around a question with some debate.

“SJ Vietnam is a friendly environment which welcomes all students at different levels and situations. In addition, the SJ class is always filled with the enthusiasm of volunteer teachers and a kind coordinator, Linh.” Loan

“It’s very useful for me because when I come here, I can make more friends and learn English. I also have many fun after stressful classes at uni. Thank you a lot!” Khanh

 

Written by Antoine (LMTV)