Relieving Stress

English Club Meeting at Bach Khoa University
“Relieving Stress”

21st October

Today we went over again to Bach Khoa University for English Club meeting. The topic today was on “Relieving Stress” since mid term examination is just around the corner. Also there is a Women Day celebration and it was so sweet that everyone has a gift for all the girls in the club. : ) On women day, it is hard not to feel special. There are gifts for women and everyone is extra nice too

Meeting was interesting and I think Daniel have the most fun of all. He was selected to act in a role play and I think he really acted quite well. Truong was the main lead in the first role play when he had to persuade his friends out to play with him despite having exams just round the corner. Scenarios were simple but their aim is just to let students use English in a fun way.

Then there is also sing along session! Like usual, English club in bach Khoa ended with singing as everyone just love to sing. But I realized it is a good way to train pronunciation. And even the shyest person can just sing along too, so it is really a good way to train English too. In fact, Daniel got so inspired that he is going to hold an English Karaoke session with out club.

I think it is a successful meeting and the objective is met. Through all the fun we had, it gave us a break from our work, my Vietnamese and ISMs. If only my Vietnamese lessons can be this fun too! I am sure I will pay attention in class then without always wanting to fall asleep P
-shi lei

Today was another guest meeting to ITEC, or Information Technology English Club at Bach Khoa University, the focus being on dealing with stress, at first, we got into groups to discuss what stress is about and what are the various methods to deal with it, following which, there was a play in which each group had to send a representative to act as a stressful person while the other groups had to act out ways to help the person destress.

My group's task was a student who has having stress from studying for her exams. It was quite hilarious in that some of the ways we suggested was to go for a picnic , where there was a foreigner native English speaker (myself) who can teach you, and who is handsome as well. Another situation discussed was if a Father was in a bad mood, how would you persuade him to lend you money to buy a present for your girlfriend, which the other groups came up with a many reasons, most of which has elements of respect for the Father, something Vietnamese culture has a great emphasis on, the values of family respect, even in the midst of stress and this is something which I have learnt about Vietnamese culture. Overall I would say their English is really of a commendable level and it was a very interesting discussion.

Apart from that, as it was Women's day, the 3 women present at the meeting were role played as princess, and we would be contestants to see who could get the hand of the 3 princesses , we played games such as guessing the names of English songs, and seeing who was the best singer in English songs. It was fun, certain English songs are very popular among the Vietnamese students, and although I lost the singing round, not because of my voice I would think, but because the other contestant was more sincere in his song. I lost with a vote of 1 to the rest of the students present. Sincerity and Faith being shown by the Vietnamese student contestant competition against me, some of the values that Vietnamese treasure and believe in a great deal of.

I had a very enjoyable time, and I learnt alot from this session about Vietnamese culture, in terms of dealing with stress, receptivity of popular culture in English music and personal and relationship values of love and sincerity which Vietnamese people hold highly, a key aspect of family values.

Cheers
Daniel Foo