We had our last lesson with our elementary class today. As it was unassessed we just played games to practice some of the things they have learnt with us these past 2 weeks. One of the things we did was play a board game in small groups and to do this it was easier for them to sit on the floor. Michelle had mentioned earlier that in her experience Vietnamese students really don't like having anything to do with the floor as they see it as being really dirty. Here a lot of people just drop things on the ground and sweep stuff into the gutter knowing people will come along and sweep it all up so I guess there is the assosication of the floor with rubbish. Michelle said that her students in the past have been relucant to sit on the floor and when they did so they would either crouch or sit on things like their shoes or bags so it was quite surprising when it was some of them that suggested we play the game on the floor. The rest of them weren't so keen however so I saw what she meant when they started trying to sit on their shoes. In the end Michelle gave them paper to sit on which seemed to kepe them happy. That was just such a strange thing to see - tell a bunch of students back home to sit on the floor and as long as its not obviously dirty they will yet over here a lot of them really don't want to. I also noticed that some of the students wouldn't even put their bags on the floor - they sit with them tucked behind them on the chair. I guess I'm gonna have to pay attention to things like this to make sure that I don't offend any of the students I teach!