My name is Ngan. I was born on 22th November 1995. Now I’m studying External Economics at Hanoi Foreign Trade University. My hobbies include reading books, listening to music and learning languages. I’m also deeply fall in love with cute animals like kittens and puppies. At the moment, I’m the sub leader of Hanoi Teaching group of Volunteer House Vietnam.
As most of members of VHV, what encouraged me to join VHV was the respect and admiration towards the founder of VHV, Ms. Vo Thi My Linh. I was strongly impressed by the way she expressed her ideas and opinions and raised her voice about social matters. She is truly the representative of young people who dare to risk and to do everything without caring about what others may think about her. When I know about her project that gives underserved children the opportunity to learn English, I thought it was very meaningful. Without any hesitation, I sent my very first email to VHV and asked to join the Teaching group as I simply wanted to help teaching students with my English skills.
Luckily, I was chosen to be the sub leader of the teaching group. My responsibilities are to set up the teaching schedule for the 2 classes of VHV, to help the leader – Ms. Phuong Thao to run the team when she is busy and to do some small tasks related to Teaching group. I also act as a teacher and a teaching assistant when in need. So I join the class once or twice a week and have the chance to talk and know more about the students, especially the students of Class 2. In general, all of the students are very eager to learn English and cooperative, and have an inquiring mind. Sometimes, they are not attentive, fight with each other in class, and draw doodles instead of listening to teacher. Therefore, we have to resort to some games to draw their attention and also help them to remember the lesson. Now, the first question they ask when the class begins is: “Is there any game today?”
As to coordination, it’s really new experience to me. I learned to manage and assign tasks to teachers and teaching assistants. Sometimes, they inform me about their inability to join the class just half a day advance, so it puts me in a worry about looking for teaching subsitutes. There was a time when all of the teachers and teaching assistants were busy and could not go to class, but we didn’t have enough time to inform students’ parents. This made the kids and I feel bad. After this incident, I think over about how our team operates and try to find out a better solution.
After joining VHV, becoming the teaching group sub leader and going through ups and downs with this organization, I have gained many experiences and had many chances to meet and learn from many interesting people. Besides, I also improved some skills, such as leadership, time management, and teaching skills. All are very beneficial to me.
It was said, the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. So to young people who aren’t sure of or don’t know what to do with their free time, let’s volunteering, let’s get out of your comfort zone and seek for new amazing experience. Believe me, you will definitely receive more than what you give.
Kim Ngan Nguyen – sub – leader of Ha Noi Teaching group
