Last week two of us from Goducate Headquarters surveyed the possibility of starting a work in Vietnam.
Six years ago, I went to Vietnam to study the potential of sending English teachers to Vietnam. At that time I felt that Vietnam was not quite ready to aggressively promote the use of the English language. However, on this trip I sensed an urgency to make Vietnam an English- speaking nation.
The professor I met six years ago in Hanoi is now the person in charge of a national program to make Vietnam an English-speaking nation by the year 2020. When we met in Danang (Central Vietnam) last week, he shared with us the government’s plan. Much thinking has gone into this plan and substantial funds are already allocated for this project. However, one of the bottle-necks in this plan is the availability of sufficient numbers of foreign English teachers.
Thankfully, Goducate Training Center (GTC) in Iloilo, Philippines, continues to train English teachers who are willing to serve wherever there is a need. My hope is that GTC graduates will be able to help Vietnam to achieve their English-speaking goal. We hope to send our first pilot group of 5 teachers to Danang by September. They will undergo training in Vietnamese culture and language before proceeding to teach in Vietnamese high schools.
Danang, Vietnam’s third largest city, has been chosen to be our “base” because it is less expensive and crowded than the two larger cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Danang is a lovely sea-side city with wide streets, clear blue skies and many energetic young Vietnamese who desire to learn English.
