Teaching English in Vietnam

James McKenna applied for a gap year bursary through GAP Activity Projects. The money enabled him to teach English in a university in Vietnam...

"My time in Vietnam began with a TEFL course at the Shane English School. This intense course taught me lots of useful teaching methods. I went on to use many of these skills, and also developed my own ideas and applied these to what I had learnt on the course.

I learnt how friendly and respectful the southern Vietnamese people are. Moving away from the money-driven tourist centre, the people are lovely, outgoing and trustworthy. The citizens of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) are passionate people who apply themselves strongly to their work, and - in the case of my students - their studies. It was interesting to spend time in a poor, communist society with very visible extremes of rich and poor (some of the best cars and jeeps I have ever seen I saw there).

Being a volunteer was amazing. I felt it was a worthwhile experience, not just for me but for the students I taught. Many of them had never been in contact with a natural English-speaking foreigner, and just listening to the way I spoke and responding to someone who was willing to listen to them helped boost their confidence in their own skills. It also gave them a chance to learn about Western society.

I would strongly recommend a gap year to anybody, but especially to students who require a bursary because of their circumstances. Being from a working class family, with both parents retired, I knew this might be my only opportunity to do something like this.

I would say to any young person that this is a chance that should be seized: not only will it help develop your academic and professional career, but it will help you to grow and discover more about life. Many people have told me that my time in Vietnam made me more mature, and seemingly older than my peers. I’m a more confident person now, willing to listen to and compromise with people or situations that I do not fully understand. This will be useful if I ever find myself working overseas, or even with the growing multi-cultural society of Belfast.

I definitely want to travel more in the future. I have a hunger to see more of what is beyond the Western world and to understand societies different from my own.

Without the bursary that I received, I doubt that I would have been able to experience all this."

To find out whether you could be eligible for a bursary from GAP Activity Projects please contact Sarah Massey on 0845 344 7500 or Click here >> to email her.




Name: GAP Activity Projects
Address: 44 Queen's Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 4BB
Click here >> for more info about the placement James did
Click here >> to see all placements with GAP Activity Projects
Tel: 0845 344 7500