By HA GIANG, NGUOI VIET
“I am six people family.”
“I have, repeat after me, I have six people in my family.”
“I have six people my family.”
“I have six people in my family.”
“I have six people in my family.”
“Good, very good!”
In a makeshift classroom somewhere in Hue, Vietnam, seven to eight children, aged 7 to 12, sat staring at their teacher, Nikki — rather, at her smiling face on the monitor. As her gentle but well-enunciated voice reached the room from the other side of the world, the young faces tensed in concentration.
Students sitting in a makeshift classroom in Hue, Vietnam, learning English being taught over the internet by Nikki, teacher and America for the World’s program coordinator. (Photo: Nguoi Viet, produced from a video clip of the class)
A dream brought to life
Their lesson that day was about “family.” The students passed an iPad to the person whose name Nikki called and listened closely to both their peer as well as to the teacher’s correction. They had to; those foreign words made their tongues so tight and pronunciation utterly difficult.
Toward the end of the session, when they all spontaneously laughed out loud at a funny cartoon character that accompanied a new word, happiness and a sense of victory entered the room. Their laughter brought Nikki close to tears. The board members of her organization, a group called America for the World, had been sitting in front of their computer in different parts of the world, intently observing the class, and shared her sentiment.
United by a vision of building a platform for teaching English over the Web for students around the world, Kevin Tran — founder and leader of the group — and three others had come together fresh out of college, each with their own career still yet to pursue.
It took nearly a year and a half of conceptualizing, exploring, making connections, asking for help, testing different technologies and learning through trial and error before they got this far.
Teach English over the Internet? What a crazy idea!
They had been told countless times that it could not be done, but they were determined to achieve the unachievable. And the sparkling eyes and smiling faces of these youngsters in front of them at that moment were proof that their dream was beginning to come true.
“At this point, America for the World has given about 20 sessions of English classes to three groups of young students from Vietnam. Each class has about five or six students and lasts about one hour and thirty minutes,” Tran said in a recent interview. “One way of measuring our success is the number of students who came back to the class. And almost all of our students came back.”
The face behind the organization, Nikki Dinh — the American head teacher and program coordinator of the group — said she felt such a sense of accomplishment through her teaching. She focuses mainly on curriculum development and the specific needs of students in each class, but she has been involved in discussing the idea of teaching English online with Tran from the beginning. They continued discussing implementation details even when she was sent to Korea for an English teaching assignment.
It was not easy for Tran and Dinh to coordinate efforts being so far away from each other, but the situation also forced them to research and find technical solutions to bridge their distance, and part of that knowledge and experience helped make teaching English over the Web an eventual reality.
“I really like to teach, and I think this project gives me the opportunity to do so. I was born in Vietnam, and I also attended grade school there. Vietnam is a place I still hold dear, and this is the least I can do for the students there.” Dinh said.
Helen Nguyen, America for the World’s program director coordinates activities between Vietnam and the U.S. She said it was hard for her to imagine a program like America for the World while she was studying and teaching English in Vietnam three years ago. Despite her ambivalence, Nguyen joined America for the World, she said, because “What’s important is that I understand the value and potential of this program for students like myself. While I was in Vietnam, I taught English classes and always wished for assistance from native speakers.”
Without the help of Nguyen and Dinh, ran might not have been able to pull together his dream. But without his vision, there would not have been America for the World to start with.
Tutoring always has been part of Tran’s life since he was a young teen. His family came to the United States in 1992, when he was just 6. Seeing his parents work night and day to keep food on the family’s table and to put their children through school, he studied hard and wanted to help financially. Soon, he found himself tutoring his peers while in middle school.
“Tutoring was not just a way of earning a little money. I did it because it felt good helping others to be better students,” Tran said.
The birth of an idea
“One day it dawned on me that college means independence, independent learning to give,” he said. “We all give in different ways, and tutoring for me is the way.”
After creating a few organizations to enable students to reach out to each other, in 2008, Tran started MTN Center, his first tutoring company, in San Diego. His goal was to fund the remainder of college and get his foot in the education world. He gained connections, personnel and tools and soon started to think about helping abroad. America for the World was born.
It was not an accident that the group started its first class in Vietnam. For as long as Tran can remember, his parents told him stories about Vietnam and constantly reminded him to remember his country of origin. They insisted that he “must do something to give back to our community,” he said.
“Every day, my parents always told me, ‘Uống nước nhớ nguồn’, (A Vietnamese expression teaching one to be grateful – literal meaning: “When drinking water, remember its source,'” he said.)
Tran shared his idea with Dinh, who threw her support behind him, and in 2010, Tran made an important trip to Vietnam. There, he explored the idea of reaching Vietnamese students from America, met with school teachers and business owners, and discussed potential partnerships. There, he also met Nguyen, who fell in love with the idea — and him. They married.
With Dinh and Nguyen backing his idea to teach English online, Tran sold his tutoring business in 2012 and devoted his energies to his dream. Now, he and his partners, who also include business representative Xuan Nguyen (who coordinates things on the Vietnam side) – can’t contain their enthusiasm and hope for the future — while keeping an eye on the tough road they face.
Financially, the group is running the program without any monetary backing. The classes are free, and it’s not always easy to find, motivate and keep volunteers. The lack of classroom spaces as well as equipment (monitor, labtop, iPad) limit their reach.
The three groups to take the classes so far are the lucky ones for whom Tran could arrange a classroom and equipment.
“We still have to overcome many obstacles and challenges ahead,” he said.
Information about America for the World can be found at http://americafortheworld.wordpress.com/about/ or by email to [email protected]
To watch a video clip of this class, click here
To watch a video clip of this class, click here
Contact the writer: [email protected]
