Tuesday 31 May 2016

Day 4 (31/5) - Vietnam School Experience- Hung Thang Elementary Private School

We had the privilege of visiting Hung Thang Elementary School in Halong Bay. The school offers the national curriculum and offers full-day schooling. Not only that, it also offers many extracurricular classes. Each student has to pay about $250 a month. This includes tuition (roughly $150 a month), meals, and transportation. This cost is apparently on par with most private schools in Hanoi—a number that is increasing rapidly. The staff is trained in information and communications technology (ICT) and they were required to teach by using IT via the LCD placed in front of the classroom. The school was notable for the sheer joy that emanated from its students throughout the campus and in the class that we saw. 
Introducing PSS to our Vietnam friends :)


Vying for victory!

Playing the games our Vietnamese friends prepared for us! 

1, 2, 3... PULL! 





Playing pick-up sticks with the Vietnam students


Listening to our Vietnam friends presenting to us




5 comments:

  1. NUR DINI MANSOR, IREDYAWIN SABRINA BTE M F, JOEL WANG ZI HUA, WEE YAN DAN YANNI31 May 2016 at 23:31

    We played UNO card game together with the Vietnamese students. The first thing they did when they saw the UNO cards was that they shouted excitedly and immediately wanted to play with us. Secondly, we guided them on how to perform the Macarena and Hoki Poki dance.

    Not only that, our boys challenged the Vietnamese boys in the 'tug of war'. However, it turned out that the Vietnamese boys were very strong in tugging the rope making us fell to the ground! As for the dance, we had to teach them the steps and the dance moves. It feels great that different people from 2 different countries are able to collaborate, cooperate and perform the same dance within a short span of time!!

    From the interaction, we could see that the local students were very eager to participate and play the games that we prepared. Not only were they polite towards us and their teachers, they were also friendly and kind. They forwarded many queries regarding Spore education system. One of the teacher reflected that she like Spore because our country is a safe and clean country.

    From this activity, we must learn how to build greater relationship with other people from other culture and tradition. From good interaction, we are able to bond with one another and foster great understanding. With the differences shared among different races, potential misunderstandings could have been avoided and our country can develop good ties among the ASEAN nations, among which is Vietnam.

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  2. TEO ZHI LING, SANDY, NUR FATINI NATASHA BTE H F, PAGADORA JANSLEY ANNE SALDANA31 May 2016 at 23:33

    We play with them chapteh , pick-up sticks and UNO. We wanted to teach them Maths. However, we discovered that their Math syllabus is different from ours. We also played a bit of takraw with other groups. We found that it is easier to interact with the students because they are able to speak English.

    We learn to appreciate to be born in Singapore and receive Singapore's education. The kids in Vietnam want to study in Singapore as they raised their point that our education is very good. However, we complain that Singapore's education is very stressful. We also felt amazed when many of the Vietnam students were very keen in going to Singapore university.

    From this activity, we should spread and tell the others about the education in Vietnam and the school fees that they have to pay every month. However in Singapore, we have very good education system and the school fees is not very expensive compared to Vietnam. We should also not take the education system for granted as people in Vietnam works hard for their education while the education in Singapore is controlled by the government and we don't have to pay much for it.

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  3. NUR ATIQAH BTE ADAM, NUR QAMARINA BTE JOHARI, LEE XIAN HUI, GOH JOON WEE1 June 2016 at 00:32

    Today, we did origami, played sepak takraw, chapteh, five stones, UNO, tug-of-war, dance, origami paper folding and the sack race. When we arrived in school, we were warmly welcomed by the students there! Three students introduced their school to us helping us further the understanding of the school history and background. After that, we went on to the activities that we have planned for them. The first activity was folding paper origamis. We were not that confident in folding the papers because we were unsure of how to go about doing it. In the end, the Vietnamese students ended up teaching us how to fold paper cranes and I received a paper crane as a souvenir from Ninh. The second activity was playing with the sepak takraw and chapteh. Though it was considered as one of our traditional games, we were amazed at how quickly they mastered it. The third activity was the tug-of-war between the boys of both schools. A few seconds into the game, the rope snapped with a loud sound. The students then offered help to those who fell and helped them up. The last activity we had was the mass dance. We danced to the macarena and did the hokey pokey dance. Unlike the orphanage where we needed to teach the children repeatedly, the students were able to understand and adapt to the dance very quickly and we were amazed by their quick actions.

    We could adopt values of teamwork. We thought that it would be quite hard to communicate or interact with them as it would awkward but the tables turned. We were happy that we were able to easily communicate with the students probably because we actively welcomed them and introduced ourselves. There were games such as the sack race and the tug-of-war that required matches against both schools. During the sack race, we competed against each other for who is the fastest and both parties participated fairly.

    We could inform our schoolmates or classmates about our experience. We could share the activities we did and inform them that although language may be a barrier, but the simplest things that you do could lighten your shoulders from worrying that you would not be able to communicate with the students. Even though we are from different countries, we could still keep in touch with social media and talk to them via messaging through social media like Instagram or Facebook.

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  4. REY CHAM (QIN ZHIXUAN), LEE JUN MIN, JOEL, CHERNICE NG XIN YI, LEE LE WEI1 June 2016 at 00:34

    We played games with the people there, for example, our traditional game-five stones, uno, sepak takraw, chapteh. We also teach them how to dance (Macarena and hockey pokey )and had fun together. We also played the tug of war and had a school tour.
    We learnt to be more bold and brave by stepping out of our comfort zones by learning to speak up and make friends with each other. We also learnt to demonstrate propriety as we took the initiative to play and talk with them.

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  5. YEO KANG EN, ADA, TOH JING LIN, CHERYL, SIAH WEI HENG, CHAN KAI JUN1 June 2016 at 00:38

    We danced together at the basketball court for quite awhile doing hokey pokey and Macarena. We also played some games for example, pick-up sticks , UNO, chapteh , sepak takraw and chess . They also had a game of tug of war with us. They showed us around the school as well.

    Some of the good practices are that the Vietnamese students are polite and kind. This is a good example of propriety, which is also our school values. Their presentation skills were also good as they gave us a brief overview of their school’s history and lesson structure. We were happy that they presented it to us in English, although English is not their first language.

    We can be more polite when overseas student come to our school. This will help to leave a better impression on the visitors. Not only will they have a good impression of Punggol Secondary School, they will also have a good impression of Singapore. Hence, by being courteous and polite, we can help to promote Singapore to our visitors.

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