I survived the first day of my course! There are 6 of us doing it - there is a Scottish woman who has been living abroad for years in places such as India and Singapore and currently lives in Malaysia, an Australian woman who has been teaching in Hanoi for about 6 years, then 3 American students who are in a similar situation to me. We started the day with a lesson in Vietnamese. It was more to demonstrate to us what it is like being on the receiving end of a lesson conducted wholly in the target language, particularly if you are at beginner level and so haven't yet got to grips with the basics of the language. If I stay here I'd quite like to learn Vietnamese but I reckon its gonna be pretty hard if today was anything to go by! It's all about tones and has nothing in common with English at all. In contrast, when I was learning Spanish and German I could try and relate what I was learning to English to help me remeber it, and as the languages are similar to English in that it's all about stress and itonation rather than tones like in Vietnamese. This was a useful way to start the course as it let us see what it was like to be on the recieving end of the lesson and let us see which techniques were good and which weren't.

In the afternoon we met the group of students who are going to be our guinea pigs on the course and observed an hour of one of the trainers teaching them. For the second hour of the lesson we were in charge but we mainly did getting to know you games so it wasn't too challenging. My first proper bit of teaching will happen on Wednesday when I have a 40 minute slot. Thankfully for this first week we get a lot of guidance from the trainers so the lesson is pretty much planned for me and I just have to deliver it.

3 of the people on the course are staying at a hotel right by the language school, one is living with his dad out in the suburbs and the woman who has been here for 6 years has somewhere she is renting. I am about 30 mins (maybe more!) walk away from their hotel which kinda sucks in that I don't know anyone right by me. I don't think I want to move though as I love my little hotel. I have massive room with really comfy bed, there is a bath in my ensuite rather than just a shower plus I have really decent aircon, a TV with a few watchable channels and even a balcony. Its slightly cheaper than the hotel the others are staying at and even taking into consideration that they get breakfast included plus don't have to pay for transport it still works out cheaper here. I really like this part of the city now, plus I am beginning to find my way around without needing to consantly refer to my map so I'm reluctant to move. The guys running this hotel are really nice too. I also get the daily adventure of travelling to the language school each day. I walk back in the evenings but don't want to walk there in the mornings when a taxi is so much quicker. I am trying to psych myself up to try out a motorcycle taxi as it is dirt cheap (not that a taxi is particularly pricey - it cost less than£2 for the journey!) but I don't think I'm brave enough just yet! Still, I didn't eat alone tonight anyway as in the restaurant I went to one of the staff came and sat with me for most of the time I was there - she was a student and wanted to practice her English! I've also joined randoms for meals a few times in the past so I do get human interation beyond the course!