#3

What is the first thing come to your mind when you heard someone who sits next to you in university has a baby? Nothing is special, right? And if that guy still has not engaged or married? Sounds like western lifestyles, huh? Perhaps, you have seen that situation several times in movies or films. Yep, I have. Months ago, I had chance to see it in the real life with real people who are close to me.

On a sunny and beautiful day, not so important and relevant, he told me “Hey man, I’m going to become a father”. At first, I thought that he was just kidding because we usually tell jokes all the time. “Me too, in the next many years, LOL”. “I’m serious, man. I’m going to have a daughter”, he said. I stopped laughing after hearing that. Being a father at the age of 22, what the fuck. I imagined that if his daughter follows her dad, he would become a grandfather at the age of forty-something. “How can it happen like that?” I asked. “Before she flew to the US, you know…”. “You are a badass.” I told him. Now, you can picture the scene. My fellow was going to be a father but his girl who was about to give birth was in the US. Moreover, they are not married and even about to break up.

Eventually, she did give birth two months ago. I met him at the coffee shop in our campus since I’d like to congratulate him with a cup of cappuccino. I could see the happiness in his face which was very different from that in the period of time before his daughter was born. He showed me the photo of his baby. “Doctor said that giving birth at her age was unsafe and might lead to illness or something like that for the child. But as you see, she is as beautiful as an angel”. To be honest, I have no idea how a baby is beautiful since I think all of them are cute. He was over the moon and I could feel that by his facial gesture and voice. He had not been so happy like that before. Perhaps, with a man, becoming father is the greatest moment ever in his life.

He also told me that he would try to find a good job and earn enough money to visit his daughter as soon as possible after graduated from uni. Before that once-in-a-lifetime moment, I considered him as a playboy who flirt girls by girls. I remembered his favorite sentence: “From now, I will not flirt girls anymore, at least till tomorrow”. But now, all he wants to do are for the sake of his daughter. He changed.

I just think that no one else is as lucky as this guy. What if his girl did not settle in the US? That would be a real nightmare for him and his girl. She could not go to college with a baby in Vietnam, for sure. I do not mean about whether there is any rule or regulation that prohibit a student like that to go to college. But I think you get my point. Besides, their parents would not suffer from “neighborhood” and narrow-minded people. How about the child? Apart from lack of care of father, she has a chance to have American nationality, to master English, to receive one of the best education in the world, many but just name a few.

I do not know what will happen in the future but that guy and I agree that everything has its pros and cons. It happens for some reasons but you better think of the positive things and go for them. Life will be much easier. How terrible something could be, it still has a bright side.     


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Extra teaching should not be banned .

                In Vietnam, teacher is not a well-paid job especially teachers at elementary or secondary schools. Moreover, teachers who teach "unnecessary" subjects like Geography, History or Biography might not earn extra money to meet their needs as ones of other “important” subjects do. Specifically, they might not take extra classes to have more money.  This leads to one issue that is received endless controversial about whether or not teachers should be allowed to teach students outside of classes. In my opinion, extra teaching is necessary for students to cope with enormous workloads and theories, even parts of them are impracticable.

                There are some reasons why there are some parents who disagree with extra classes? Firstly, with my own narrow knowledge about economy, “extra teaching” is so-called supply for the demand of students and their parents. Some who thought that “extra teaching” should be banned may look at my above argument in a reserve way which like “teachers are people who demand students who supply their money and time to show up at their classes”.

                What are the reasons lead to that perspective? Those may argue that the teachers impose unethical influences on students to come to class. These influences might be not conduct lectures fully in term of content, try to put too difficult questions in exam papers, etc. with the objective of making those poor students aware of the importance of attending extra classes. I have to admit that some teachers has applied those unethical strategies, but not all. Parents whose children are “victims” of those may make sweep statement that “extra teaching” is kind of the only way for their children to get through subjects. Moreover, there is also another part of parents who are subject to extra teaching -another way for teachers to make their living? The point in common of these parents is that their children are intelligent, hardworking and find no difficult to get through all the courses. Hence, those parents do not send their children to extra classes. So, what are the differences between students who join extra classes and who do not? They are marks and class performance. It sounds logical and common sense, does not it? However, it is not that simple. The point is students who attend extra classes perform better than ones who do not join extra classes but the reason is not rely on knowledge but in the way the teacher makes exam paper. Attend-extra-class-students take the better results because they are quite familiar with questions in the exam. This is unfair for students who do not attend extra classes.  Those teachers has damaged the positive side of extra teaching.

                So, why do I support extra teaching? Actually, my mother is a teacher and she also has students attending her extra classes. (You might think that this writing is bias because of my mother’s extra classes). When studying at high school, I had extra classes for four subjects which are Math, Chemistry, Physics and English. The reason was partly for  getting through the subjects and other part was preparing for the university exams. Many students might agree with me that without attending extra classes, high school students might not pass the university exams. The reason is not all about the students themselves. It is about the gap between what teachers are able to teach and the load of knowledge the exam papers requires.  Teachers cannot change the way they teach as they are not allowed. Therefore, extra class is the best solution for both teachers and students narrows the gap.

                The government has recently enforced the rule of banning teaching outside class with many unacceptable reasons. However, no matter how strong it is , extra teaching is still there because of the needs of students. The government should  manipulate and decrease the workloads in each grade to the level where students feel unnecessary to join extra class. That’s much better than banning. 

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Reasons why I decided to come up with this blog page.

               Long time ago, exactly when studying at high school, I always asked myself "what I really like, what I can do as an interest". I like a lot of stuffs ranging from motorbike, handmade goods to sports. But for some reasons I can’t go along with each of them for the long time.

               Take sports as an example, I’m just a little bit proud of saying that I can play a wide range of them. First of all, table tennis that I has played when I was at elementary school and had spent a bunch of money to attend training classes. Secondly, football which I love playing it the best. Next, basketball which I took a 3-month training class during summer many years ago. Another one is badminton which I recently have started practicing, not training 2 years ago. Last but not least, it is swimming that I have many chances and much time to practice. Interestingly, I used to learn how to swimming in pool but spend most of time going swimming on beach. Da Nang has such a beautiful beach which is well known around the world, so I try to enjoy it as much as I can. By the way, my dad goes to beach every single morning and I feel very jealous since I have to live in a not-seaside city like HCMC. 

                 Back to the point, so what are those reasons? It is all about money. I’m just kidding but I cannot deny the important of money in pursuit any hobbies and interests. For example, I love speed and needless to say, I’m a crazy fan of “Fast and furious” and “Need for speed” series. You guys might come up with an assumption like “This guy is eager for a super car or at least a sport one”. However, I’m a realistic person so I just dream about a hand-clutch motorbike like CBR or Kawasaki. As I said above, it’s all about money and I have to work hard and keep waiting. Wipe the money out because I really hate talking about money. Another reason that is quite subjective is physical. I’m shortsighted and that is absolutely an obstacle for everyone who play any kind of sports (maybe except for ones that do not require physical move). Shortsighted does not allow me to enjoy the game since I used to get accidents with the glasses. One more thing is having ideal partners who share your interests in common. My best friends who do not love speed and football as I do like playing badminton. Unfortunately, I just treat badminton as doing exercise, no more. To be honest, I’m on my way getting fed up with badminton. In real life, I has witnessed how vital ideal partners play the role in helping each of them get along with their interest.

                 To sum up, I think there are many objective factors that affect the pursuit of interest. When waiting for ideal partner, I should come up with another interest that I can fully control it : writing. I used to write diary when I was in secondary school and the last diary I finished is more than a year ago. Now, I innovate myself by writing in English.

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