On January 12, classes 98 and 99, English teachers of Le Van Tam Secondary School, together with Megan and Kathryn, teachers from Monash University, Australia, went on an excursion by the first-ever Ho Chi Minh City’s waterbus. The trip was a great opportunity for students to practice communicating in English with native teachers while exploring the city from an unfamiliar point of view, and for the teachers to have memorable moments of their stay at the school.
After gathering at the bus station, the passengers got on the bus and enjoyed a 30-minute ride along the Sai Gon river, from Thanh Da to Bach Dang Station. Arriving at Bach Dang Station, everyone then had one hour to spend on chatting, having breakfast and taking (lots of) photos, before moving to the next, and also final, stop of the excursion.
The Ton Duc Thang Museum was only a few minutes’ walk away from the station. With helpful information and explanation from the tour guide, who spoke fluent English, the teachers and students went on to learn about a piece of Vietnam’s history through the stories of Ton Duc Thang, a former president of the country. To wrap everything up, the teachers organized a small quiz session for the students to recall what they’d just learned and get themselves a few small prizes.
In short, thanks to enthusiastic participation of both teachers and students, the trip was a great success in terms of integrating learning and experience. Hopefully, such trips would be organized more frequently so that students could be encouraged to learn more and do more outside of their classrooms.