I am an English teacher by default. I was made in the USA and I speak English. Our mission this month has been to go to coffee shops and to simply speak with Vietnamese people in the hopes of building relationships. When I heard this was our ministry for the month I wanted someone to just give me a reason why this wasn’t just “busy” work. Turns out all around the world, and especially here, the Vietnamese desire so badly to learn English, because for them it means more respect and better jobs
…a better life.
To be able to talk to a foreigner, even if it’s about nothing at all or a little bit of everything, they couldn’t be more thrilled.
Talking seems easy enough, eh? No suit and tie, no fancy curriculm, no clever topics of discussion were required of us. We simply showed up and interacted. A lot of the times we conversed over Uno.
And I love it. Other days, person after person cycle through the café just waiting for their turn to jump into the conversation. It’s like we can’t stop. There is no need for clever topics because they’ll keep the conversation going with question after question until your mouth goes dry. Sometimes we have to tap out.
We have found the key to building relationships and teaching English when conversation makes you want to just lose it….
Pop songs.
[My teammates Jon and Drianna leading the set. ]
Seriously, they may not be able to speak well but they darn well know the lines to every recent hit. Occasionally we throw in a worship song. In a closed country, there are blurred lines as to what we can and cannot say about our Savior, even once the relationship is built, but a little singing never hurt!
[I do not have a musical bone in me, however, I took one for the team and joined the performance. Couldn't let my sweet Vietnamese friends down. And bonus, they don't actually care what you sound like (lucky for me), they just want you to belt the songs out so they can join in!]
It didn't always feel like we did anything of value but when I look back I realize we made a lot of friends. It was like our own little fan club. We cherished them and taught them. We showed them that foreigners care about them and that our lives are not entirely different. And now we're handing those relationships off to the next group of World Racers who show up next month and to the contacts here who can continue to invest in their lives. So as ridiculous as some of the pop stars can be at times (hello VMAs), I owe their music a big thank you for bridging the gap!
