So you want to move out of the backpackers and into a nice place like mine! Hehe, it's a nice place... The easiest way is to check out the classifieds on the New Hanoian website, there are tons of expats and teachers looking to share accommodation!
You can easily find second hand furniture to make your place nice. However, most apartments and houses come with furniture already, usually fairly tacky Asian armchairs and coffee tables.
The real estate market in Hanoi is very erratic. "Investors" (speculators) have built too many "high end" "luxury" residences, that most Vietnamese people cannot afford. Many are renting luxury abodes for much less than they would like to foreigners willing to pay higher prices.
A 4 bedroom apartment in Ciputra can be had for $1000 when the original asking price from any real-estate agent would be $2400. A three bedroom can be had for around $800. Agents usually ask for one months rent in advance.
Be careful in Hanoi when choosing property as there is an enormous amount of construction in this town! You don't want to end up with a jackhammer next to your ear at 6am...but mostly this cannot be avoided..as my poor friend Mal found out moving to three different houses with the same problem!!
Good luck!
I'm saying goodbye to Alley 209 Doi Can and packing my backpack... again.
My next place will be the fourth house I've lived since July. Still searching for a place to plant my roots I suppose...I was never one for share house living.
From the start I've lived around the Ba Dinh area. It's only 15 minutes to the city and best known for the distinct mausoleum, rollicking Ete bar and the many language schools.
I'll be sad to leave this three storey gorgeous French style home. My room is on the ground floor and if you've read the post about my 'bird's nest' bedroom on Van Bao street, you'll understand ground floor living is a nice change.
http://happylittlefeet.blogspot.com/2008/08/home-in-hanoi.html
The house is surrounded by fir trees with a pond in the center of community style housing. Huge turreted French houses with gabled windows rise above it. It's all very peaceful and safe.. geez and I'm moving from here in to an ex brothel!?
I move into my new apartment in TWO days, gosh, I am very excited. I've been dreaming of the space since January. Lots of work needs to be done, but I've always loved a fixer upper! Plus, it's located above the Buddhist meditation center. I'm looking forward to many good vibrations floating up through the floor.
But for the meantime, it's packing the stuff one seems to accumulate so quickly, contacting the taxi tai company and figuring out how one moves furniture out of an alley that cars and trucks can't squeeze down...
Please wish me luck. Moving house in Hanoi, you NEED it!
Taxi Tai - 04387313131
(Trucks are ordered by dimensions (meters) large and small, and be aware, they don't speak English.)
Age: Teen - Adult
Level: Intermediate
Type: Pair Work
Grammar: General
Question Time is a great way to get natural speaking flowing, enhance student talk time and get students thinking about English in a practical way. Ss work in A/B pairs.
I usually hold this session at the beginning of the class as a warm-up activity to get ss speaking from the outset. Create between 10 - 20 interesting, wacky, weird, controversial questions relating to a theme or grammar point. It can be anything - honesty, aliens, health, dreams, politics etc (Give ss a print-out in the previous lesson to take home or write them on the board).
Your questions can relate to your lesson theme, grammar or be general. Tonight our topic was generic and my questions were on 'change' and its various meanings.
E.g.
- How would you feel about a change of government?
- What do you do when a beggar asks you for change?
- If you buy a faulty product in Vietnam, can you exchange it?
- If you could change one part of your life, what would it be?
- What are some changes that might be good for our planet?
- How do Vietnamese generally view sex-change operations?
Quickly review each question and explain new words, idioms or concepts. Remind ss to ask each other follow up questions - WHY? HOW? WHEN? WHAT?
Then, pop them into pairs to ask questions in the order they find most interesting. (Be sure to 'hover' unobtrusively and correct pronunciation as you go.)
After 15 mins or when the energy drops, as a take-up, go around the class and ask a few ss their opinion on random questions.
Be aware, the more controversial the questions the more discussion (with a capital D) will ensue, which is GREAT, but makes this section go for longer.
And I say go with the flow! I've learned some amazing things about my students and their feelings and thoughts about their country and the world. Plus, discussions are more natural when ss are personally involved in the subject.
My class has passionately discussed China's one-child policy and how they feel about Vietnams two-child policy, sidestepped into censorship, tiptoed over same-sex marriages and careened into corrupt cops..haha, that one was fun..
It's a great way for students to relax and it ensures they clamour to be understood in English!
Hmm, happy Year of the Ox everyone.
I guess post Tet, this post should be about Tet..an adjective packed piece about the tranquility of Hanoi's eerily quiet streets, the customs and intricate rituals for luck in the new year. Visiting incense smothered pagodas overflowing with prayers, scoffing traditional cakes, the free flowing red wine..(sorry, not traditional, just me.)
.. but instead, I'm going to talk about myself and my job.. again... hehe...
Isn't that what a blog is for? To talk about yourself??
Anyway, concerns about narcissism aside, I have a new job. Yes, another one added to the list of lawyers, executives, kids and teens. It's temporary, with a contract offered in few months, but it's been such a fantastic experience.
I'm working in an international kindergarten and taught my first session with the 'TIGERS' class. My 8 tiny students are just are 20 months - two years old, of various nationalities, Dutch, Swiss, Vietnamese, Japanese and French.
Having already taught ESL at a Vietnamese kindy classes has helped with my confidence, but real kindergarten is so different. There's much more eating and napping and crafts and outdoor play...I'm in heaven. I'm yet to learn all the developmental aims for my age group. And it's a learning experience for me.
Each class involves arts and crafts, singing songs, painting animals and learning the alphabet, colours and about the natural world and a nap! I'm also the art teacher.. and I totally dig that.
The pay is terrible, but ending a day's work with an enormous smile, covered in hugs and kisses is a PRECIOUS thing!
So you want to move out of the backpackers and into a nice place like mine! Hehe, it's a nice place... The easiest way is to check out the classifieds on the New Hanoian website, there are tons of expats and teachers looking to share accommodation!
