Began this month living at a hotel which was provided by the New Star International English Center. I was there, in that Bac Ninh City, in that country, Vietnam, to teach English. As described in my last Post, I came to Vietnam on Thursday, the twenty ninth of November, 2012. The management, of New Star, had an extra room in their building. But I guess a Buddha shrine is more sacred than me.
Buddha First
I wanted to live there, in that room. But New Star's priorities were on Buddha First. Well, having priorities is better than not having priorities at all. I helped Joy Sanchez & Janice (Not Jenny) a little in and with their children and adult English classes, there, at New Star, from the day I arrived to Vietnam, Thu, 2012-11-29, until Monday, 2012-12-03, that is five days, I think. Well, maybe I didn't help out on Monday, but did have an interview that day. On Tuesday, the 4th, I ended up moving into Papa Foods Restaurant of Andy to work as a janitor, dishwasher, with Chu Quân and other staff while looking for other work. I stayed at Papa Foods until Thursday, the 17th of January, 2013, where I went off to Hà Nội, then Hòa Bình, then Thanh Hóa, and then in February, 2013, went to Saigon until November, 2017, where I returned to America. I met Tyler Capp at Papa Foods during my time there. Andy, Tyler, Joy, and the rest of the crew, saved my life, and I'm putting that mildly. I've failed to tell them that enough. Yes, I was trying to say thank you for the help, but not enough. I should have tried harder to make the time. But most of the time, I was on my computer trying to find new work, so they wouldn't feel too burden with me. That's why I wasn't trying to make the time to really let them know that I was forever grateful for their hospitality.
2012-12-03 - Monday - I had an interview with the New Star manager or director, Jimi. I taught a lesson from a book he assigned me. I thought there would be real students, actual kids, in the classroom, for that teaching audition. Jimi was the only other person in the entire classroom. So, I focused only on tutoring him. I didn't play games, pun intended. I didn't attempt to pretend that I had a bunch of students. So, I began teaching him like my mother would me when I was a kid, born 1985 in Oregon.
I was homeschooled.
Mom taught me English, how to talk. I struggled to talk as good as my five years younger sister, Crystal, until I was like ten years old. So, I was trying to actual teach Jimi. I was NOT treating my time as a simulation. He was my student, in my mind. However, he was also the evaluator, the executioner, the judge, of it all. He wanted me to pretend that I was in a real classroom. By the way, I improved in my teaching skills, during my 5 years in VN from 2012-217. But on this fifth day in Asia, I was still pretty lost. Jimi would use Google Translate to talk to me with. He didn't speak an excessive amount of English language with me in person but wrote a little via email.
2012-12-01 - Saturday - Oatmeal, Kute Chang, Joy Sanchez - New Star
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2012-12-04 - Tuesday - Jimi emailed me, stating that I wouldn't be employed. I was also pushed by the managing couple of the hotel to pay for the room. I thought I was told that my room would be provided by New Star. I had to use Google Translate to communicate with the hotel.
The hotel tried for a while to explain that I had to pay.
The man pointed at a calendar, was counting the days. I understood but wanted him to talk to the school. Eventually, I walked with the woman over to the school. They talked in Vietnamese. Maybe they laughed. I don't know what they said. I know that I didn't pay, unless if they snuck into my wallet when I wasn't looking. I also thought I was promised employment before I departed to Vietnam in the first place. Either, I was guaranteed work, as I thought I was, which would mean they changed their minds to part with me, or maybe they never actually promised that I would teach at their center. Of course, there was language and cultural barriers, walls, separation, between me and the Vietnamese people, generally speaking, to some extent. It is mostly a question of to what extent. There were lots of misunderstanding, miscommunications, because of the language gap and because we were not always on the same page.
I also had a different style of teaching than what they wanted, possibly. I've written about this New Star Story and other like stories many times, online. I've made videos about it. But a lot of my stuff on the web is a mess. I had good intentions, but generally speaking, most of my things are too cryptic, too unorganized, too hard to follow, etc...
Are you following me?
Even this post, this article, has problems. I know that. But I'm trying to simplify some of it. I'm trying to outline my life because we all can and should learn from history, from these examples found in life, these testimonies, illustrations, which can be applied to your life as well. You can ponder all about what to do and what not to do, perhaps. So, while in Vietnam, for example, I've spent a bunch of time, maybe too much time, questioning employers, students, friends, Vietnamese, foreigners, others, concerning their decline or inconsistency in regards to integrity, character, reputation, skills, responsibility, morality, in regards to their work, management, how they did their jobs, how they lived their lives publicly, on the Internet, like on Facebook for example, and even offline as well. But I was trying too hard, perhaps. It was not always my place, my job, my responsibility, to do that. Generally speaking, I could have spent more time doing better things. I always try to have good intentions. I generally mean well. But my delivery, how I try to help people, not so well, not so good, so many times in my life. I've failed so often to show people that I was only trying to help. I often appeared to be a crazy person, a monster, a this thing, a that thing. Maybe you think I'm Alex Jones. Some people may have had bad first impressions with me. Sadly, I've ruined too many relationships, opportunities, etc, because I was trying to force things to work, too often. I was acting too in a hurry to get everybody to think like me, to see what I see, to do what I do, etc. By the way, I had a beautiful first Christmas in Vietnam in 2012.
The ugly duckling.
I would always try to teach everybody like everywhere like all of the time. I would try to question whether or not people broke their promises, whether they would be consistent in their beliefs, in their philosophy, their logic, and many different things. But I may have tried too hard, like too often, at trying to teach too many people too many life skills. Blake Webb told me in 2009 that he didn't originally like it when I was doing that, teaching life skills to people, and even to him, in 2007 during Revolution Hawaii, but Blake also said he came to appreciate what I was trying to do later on, like years later. Jeff Walters, who was also there in Hawaii with us in 2007, told me similar things about working with people. Long story short, I've always been trying to help people, teach people, all my life. But it can be counterproductive, potentially, possibly, it seems at least, and generally speaking as well, if you try too hard.
2012-12-02 - Sunday - 03:08 AM PST - Jimi emailed me,
"We spoke to the hotel.we will pay for your stay at the hotel.we will not pay for your taxi money, because we have to send people to the airport to welcome you, but they can not find you there.and we had to pay for a taxi, if I'm paying again, my boss will not agree and said that I cheat. - Teaching about New Star, we need a professional teacher, able to teach well, we will give you a chance to prove it tomorrow 03/12/2012.As now I realize you're new in the teaching process.If you continue to show such us e that can not hire you to work in New star in the near future. - If you tell us that you are capable of independent teaching we will sign a contract and a time that works for you. Test, you will have a job tomorrow afternoon at 15:00 to 16: 00pm, I hope that you will do well. + Textbooks New english File beginer. + Lession: frist lession. + Time: 15:00 - 16:00. + Room: 201. you prepare lessons before teaching for the best results. Vào 23:23 Ngày 01 tháng 12 năm 2012, Joey Arnold [email protected] đã viết."
2012-12-02 - Sunday - 04:49 AM PST, I wrote to Jimi:
"Tôi bị lừa.Tôi đã nói rằng tôi sẽ có một chuyến đi từ sân bay.Không ai đến đón tôi.Tôi bị buộc phải trả tiền cho một chiếc taxi.Tôi nói rằng máy bay của tôi hạ cánh vào buổi trưa.Máy bay của tôi hạ cánh tại 12:05 pm vào ngày tôi đến và phải mất một nửa giờ để có được ra khỏi máy bay.Tôi đã phải chờ đợi trong một dòng.Một anh chàng phải nhìn vào hộ chiếu và thị thực của tôi.Tôi đợi thêm nửa giờ cho hành lý của tôi.Khi tôi thực hiện nó ra khỏi sân bay là khoảng 13:00.Đây là sân bay làm việc như thế nào.Các bạn đang giả sử để biết các sân bay làm việc như thế nào.Nếu bạn muốn được đối xử như các chuyên gia, sau đó bạn cần phải hiểu thế giới hoạt động như thế nào. Đó là không công bằng mà tôi đã phải trả tiền cho một chiếc taxi. Có vẻ như Janice đã bị mắc kẹt tại sân bay trong sáu giờ khi cô đến sân bay. Tôi không phải là mới về giảng dạy. Tôi có thể dạy. Tôi biết làm thế nào để dạy. Tôi là chuyên nghiệp. Tuy nhiên, bạn cần phải hành động chuyên nghiệp là tốt. Nó không phải là chuyên nghiệp để nói dối nhân viên tiềm năng như tôi. Bạn nói rằng tôi sẽ sống tại trường. Bạn nói rằng bạn sẽ đón tôi ở sân bay. Đó là hai lời nói dối rồi. Đó là hai tội chống lại bạn. Trung học chuyên nghiệp phải trả cho vé máy bay của nhân viên họ. Người sử dụng lao động chuyên nghiệp không nói dối với giáo viên của họ trả tiền."
2012-12-02 - Sunday - 08:21 PM PST, Jimi responded:
"We never cheat our teachers.you ask ms Joy and Janice.we were told to pick them up and we did.with ms Janice, we have confusion about her day to Vietnam and we could not pick up on time. When I was in the airport, I could not find you there, I have called ms Joy asked your phone number but she did not.and I have not been able to contact you in order to know when you come to Vietnam. On accommodation, we have created the conditions for teachers free accommodation, electricity, water, internet is free, the ones that we're not supposed to do.because we have to pay for them, when you come to Vietnam as you can see, we do not want you to stay in school.but it's absolutely not qualified to, no bed, no air conditioning, no electric fan ...we have to take care of your health and to your hotel, although it's more expensive if you are in the center. if you are in the center we will not have to pay the hotel add 250.000VND per day.you did not understand our kindness. - about teaching.we hired you to teach us as a professional teacher, capable of teaching independently, we do not need tutors, it is not necessary. The interview you told me that you can teach, but the reality is the opposite. I was the one who cheated you have no teaching ability, all students attend classes all reflect that you teach very rambling, unscientific and they did not like it. - you should re-think what I should do, do not focus on criticizing us.We are very favorable to you.I hope you can do your job well. If you can not teach independence, we will not be able to hire you, then you will have to take care of your life without any help from us."
2012-12-01 - Saturday - Papa Foods - Chu Quân, Tyler, Joey, Others
2012-12-03 - Monday - 07:56 AM PST - I responded:
"Tôi có thể dạy các lớp học.Những gì bạn đang nói là không đúng. Dear Jimi, bạn chỉ sinh viên giả của tôi trong lớp học phỏng vấn của tôi ngày hôm qua.Đó là Thứ hai, ba giờ chiều.Bạn là sinh viên duy nhất trong lớp và đó là lý do tại sao nó xuất hiện như thể tôi là một gia sư. Bạn phải hiểu rằng bạn là sinh viên duy nhất trong lớp và tôi chỉ có thể giúp bạn nếu bạn đang đấu tranh với tiếng Anh. Bạn phải hiểu rằng thử nghiệm của bạn và phỏng vấn của bạn khả năng giảng dạy của tôi là không công bằng và bạn đang sử dụng nó để có được những gì bạn muốn. Bạn chỉ muốn nhìn thấy thế giới thông qua các thiết lập của riêng bạn của đôi mắt. Bạn không biết những gì tôi có thể làm. Các lớp học thực sự là khác nhau hơn là chỉ có một học sinh. Thêm vào đó, bạn không hỏi tôi để giả vờ rằng tôi đã có một lớp học đầy đủ của học sinh. Tôi dạy bạn trong lớp học bởi vì đó là những gì bạn làm khi có chỉ có một học sinh trong lớp. Bạn phải hiểu rằng bạn nói rằng bạn sẽ trả tiền cho tôi $ 800 United States USD cho tháng đầu tiên. Đó là một hợp đồng tự động. Tôi đã nghĩ rằng tôi sẽ được trả tiền, nhưng bạn nói dối về điều đó. Bạn nói rằng nếu bạn thích tôi, bạn sẽ trả tiền cho tôi 1.000 USD và tôi hiểu rằng. Đó là một điều khoản có điều kiện. Bạn nói rằng nếu bạn muốn tôi sau đó bạn sẽ tiếp tục trả tiền cho tôi. Mà bắt đầu với một lời hứa. Bạn hứa sẽ trả tiền cho tôi và hứa sẽ để cho tôi phòng để sống ở miễn phí. Bạn đang mất tiền bằng cách trả weh Khách sạn." 11:21 AM PST, I added, "Đắt hơn nhiều cho tôi để ở tại trung tâm như phản đối đến khách sạn?Bởi vì tôi không yêu cầu một chiếc giường.Tôi không yêu cầu về nước.Tôi không yêu cầu cho máy điều hòa nhiệt độ.Tôi đã không hỏi cho những việc này. Nếu tôi đã yêu cầu tất cả những điều đó, sau đó bạn sẽ phải để buộc tôi phải ở tại một khách sạn, nhưng tôi thì không. Bạn nói rằng bạn đang làm một điều tốt đẹp bằng cách cho phép tôi ở một khách sạn, nhưng nó chỉ là tốt đẹp nếu tôi nghĩ rằng nó là tốt đẹp. Tôi muốn nghỉ tại trung tâm, như trong trường của bạn. Bạn đang nói với tôi rằng nó sẽ có chi phí nhiều tiền hơn để cho tôi ngủ tại trường, trung tâm của bạn. Tôi mạnh mẽ không đồng ý. Nó sẽ chỉ chi phí nhiều hơn nếu bạn thực hiện nó chi phí nhiều hơn."
2012-12-03 - Monday - 06:54 PM PST - Jimi emailed me:
"I do not feel for you to teach a class of us, so I want to have a try to test classes.Normally we do not do so, you may be asked Ms. Joy and Ms. Janice.They do not need to be taught to try because they qualified teachers to teach, and in you I do not see it. I said will pay you $ 800 for the first month. that's true but you have to teach English to our students. and you did not do that. I said will pay you $ 800 for the first month. that's true but you have to teach English to our students. and you can't do that. I want you to teach us, but our students do not want that.all complained about how your teaching, they think you are not a teacher, they do not learn anything from you. We have considered teaching schedule for you, but after that the share is absolutely not true of you on facebook. My boss decided not to hire you to teach at our center. I'm very sorry to announce that we have for you the favor, but you do not appreciate it that slander us. We will pay for your hotel and end on 12/04/2012. Then you have to take care of your life. About the woman at the hotel when looked at you and said, "singapore" it is not an insult. They thought you are singpapore, and thus does not mean anything bad. They also do not intend to claim your money because we have to pay for them."
2012-12-06 - Thursday - Mom - New Star
2012-12-06 - Thursday - 10:00 AM PST - my mother, Marilyn Mitchell, shared what I wrote, as follows: "'The Embassy of the United States did call the New Star English Center of Bac Ninh, Vietnam. This language school told the embassy a bunch of lies which prevented any retribution. The school told me previously that if I did contact the embassy that they would sue me for fraud & damages. I only want people to know two things. That is it. I am not begging for compensation. But the school is dishonest to their employees and that is morally and legally not fair or right, no matter what country you live in. I will not let these kinds of people bully me around. Are you with me or will you let people continue to get away with such murder?' This was written by my son, Joey Arnold, who is currently in Vietnam." Cuong Tran.
One of my friends, Jennifer Pableo, was supportive.
2012-12-28 - Friday - 12:14 PM PST - Brent Groth emailed me:
"Perfect, I'm going to try and send you $10 dollars now and see if this works. I checked my email this morning at 9:00 a.m. and didn't see this, but now I do for some reason. I like the information page you sent me. Are you going to send this out to people, do you suggest I make one of these. How are you using this information. Should I put this on Craigslist adds for web building, etc. Again, I will try to route you some money for a test drive to see if it does go through. I will do that now. Let me know if it wire if it does."
2012-12-28 - Friday - 06:58 PM PST - Brent Groth emailed me:
"I signed up for a personal Twitter account like you suggested, I added a couple things to the site, I wrote to You Tube support twice(For the just MeaOmnia name), I appeared at Free Geek to let them know I'm still determined to help there, and I sent, and learned how to wire that $10 to you, so hopefully that went through. I also saw that you have a HI5 account, I signed up for one as well, but don't really fully understand what kind of service it is yet. I wanted to get more done today, but I had to balance it out with other things I had to do as well. Over the weekend I want to get adsense down pat, but that may be difficult to figure out, I also want to get video editing, photo editing, and gif editing down as well. By Sunday I hope I can have this figured out. Just to note, we haven't talked about security for awhile, or raising the file mb/gb storage for the site. We can maybe revisit these things later. I need to figure out how to use plugins. This is all for now, I'm still at it for awhile tonight, and back at it tomorrow."
2012-12-29 - Saturday - 03:56 AM PST - I emailed Brent:
"The money did not get into my U.S. Bank... We should put up ads on Craigslist for all sorts of things. 10:26 AM PST, Brent returned, "I thought I got the plugins back on the builder, they are there for me. They are not active on the site, but they show on the builder for me. Do they show for you, and if they do shouldn't that be an indication that we can activate them. I did wire that money yesterday, it should have gone through($10.00), but again this is my first time sending money this way, so there may have been a complication.. I will call them, or check my account to see what happened, and get that $10.00 through.. From what they said, there should have been an email that went to you to receive that money, and certify that it was you. So there should have been an email from Wells Fargo presenting you the acceptance of the money. I'll back track, and double check to see what happend. Craigslist, good idea, I was thinking the same thing. We could advertise to help people build websites, we could try and recruit people who want to volunteer and help us out, we can also just maybe try and advertise the site to get the word out. If we do get some building jobs, this may really help us get some learning in for our own site. I will make some posts on craigslist and see what I can get. That's a good idea."
2012-12-29 - Saturday - 10:51 AM PST, I emailed Brent:
"Yes. I received an email from Wells Fargo, but I would need to set up an account with a different bank or something. I opened up the email, clicked on a link & it gave me options to set up an account with Wells Fargo or Bank of America. But my bank is the U.S. Bank. It is possible to wire money directly from one bank to another bank. What you did was close but it was not exactly what I wanted. Please remember that you cannot simply wire people money with just my email address and phone number because wiring money directly from one bank into another bank requires more sensitive details than just merely a phone number and email address because phone number and email address are not the passwords or gateway into throwing money into my bank account."
2012-12-03 - Monday - JA, Joy Sanchez, Student Girl - New Star
Published in December of 2018 - By Oatmeal Joey Arnold - @JoeyArnoldVN
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2012-12-01 - Saturday - Joy & Joey - New Star - Bac Ninh, Vietnam
JSA-OJA-L4OJ-GYJO-WOLBI-ABC-TSA-VN-HCM-OJAWALL-PST-LMS
2013-01-17 - Thursday - Hanoi
2013-01-31 - Thursday - Museum - Hoa Binh - Under Hanoi
2013-05-02 - Thursday - Moved to Q.Binh Thanh, HCM
2018-12-20 - Thursday - 10:28 AM LMS - 2012, December
Published at 10:55 PM Thursday Night
