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12 | Eight Easy Steps To Great Teaching Job In Vietnam Step two: feet on the ground | 13

STEP TWO: 2. Take the time to familiarise yourself with the local neighbourhood
– how to get from Point A to Point B, where to find the things you’ll
FEET ON THE GROUND need (or want) during your TESOL programme – stationery shop,
groceries, medical attention, and suchlike.

3. Connect with folks who are enrolled in the same TESOL course
as you, and locals living near where you’re staying. When you’re
W ell done with jumping through that first hoop; it’s now time to turn important than ever.
in unfamiliar surroundings, friends and acquaintances are more

your mind to the second.

Hooray, you’ve arrived in Vietnam. Given that you’re a newcomer 4. Take safety precautions - make sure your possessions and money
are securely stored. Be mindful that Vietnam is a relatively poor
to teaching English abroad, you’ve booked yourself into the Australian country, therefore petty crimes like pick-pocketing, bag snatching,
Government accredited TESOL programme at AVSE-TESOL in Ho Chi Minh and phone grabbing are prevalent. Learn how to cross a road safely
City (or Hanoi). Why? You’ve realised that it’s not enough to be an English – it might seem like an odd thing to write, but you’ll see what I mean.
speaker to teach English. You need teaching skills, knowledge and quality
certification. AVSE-TESOL can certainly help you with all of that, but in the 5. Always remember that you’re a visitor - Vietnam is Vietnam. It’s not
meantime, you have ten days of ‘me time’ in your chosen destination – Ho Australia, the United States or Canada. Local people like Vietnam
Chi Minh City or Hanoi - before your TESOL course starts. Your forward the way it is. They don’t take kindly to foreigners turning up and ‘re-
planning is spot on! arranging the furniture’.

Arriving in Vietnam at least ten days before your TESOL programme
begins is, in my opinion, essential. Vietnam is hot, densely populated,
the traffic is challenging – and local people eat (and do) things that many
foreigners find unusual, unappealing or somewhere in between. So, you
need time to acclimatise in both a literal and metaphorical sense. The
local currency, transport, where to get a decent meal, places (and people)
to avoid and most importantly, from my perspective, where to get a cold
beer are just a handful of the issues that require your attention. By giving
yourself time to ‘find your feet’, you’ll be raring to go when it’s time to start
your TESOL course.

Here are five things you should take care of during your ten days of ‘me time’:

1. Fix your phone - a quick visit to a ‘mum and dad’ phone shop should
be enough to get yourself sorted with a local sim card, phone
number and internet access. There are phone shops on pretty much
every street corner in Ho Chi Minh City (and Hanoi).