First entry for my new English blog

Hi there!

Recognise me? Yes, this is the same bloganhvu, the same blogger, but this time it is in English.

If you know me, then you know that I used to be an English teacher. I taught at the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature for about 20 years after I graduated from the same university, and then I left. It will be 10 years next year since I left it.

Since then, I have lost the opportunity to speak English everyday, albeit broken English of some kind. Practice makes perfect, and because I don't speak everyday now (I still read, and sometimes I translate - mostly from English into Vietnamese, rarely the other way around - but that is not like speaking everyday), I find myself slowing down considerably when it comes to speaking with a native speaker. Maybe my age adds something to it, too!

That is why I agree to take up a class teaching Linguistics to a group of students - English graduates who are or want to be English teachers. It's a post-graduate diploma program, offered by Ha Noi University in Ho Chi Minh City. I am hired by them - part-time of course - to teach those students.

So this entry, and this blog, is intended with these students - who I will meet this afternoon - in mind. So that they can come and read, if not comment on, what I write. And I hope to write much, even though I have two other blogs that I need to keep.

Two other blogs? And this one, too, which makes three? Good heavens, I hear you say. Yes, I love writing, I love language, and I love English. If you don't believe me, you can go to my two other blogs and see. I write regularly, and ... long, I warn you!

Well, so good for now. I hope to see you hear often, and to read your comments on what I write.

Have a beautiful Sunday!

Oh, I almost forgot. The URLs for my other two blogs are:

1. bloganhvu.blogspot.com. This blog is for me to write about life, about poetry and language, about what I read, what I think, and about people that I love (or ... hate, but I rarely do that, you can take my word for it :D). I love this blog, and my friends love it, too!

2. ncgdvn.blogspot.com. Hard to remember, huh? Let me tell you how to remember it. "ncgdvn" is actually an acronym for "Nghiên Cứu" (research) "Giáo dục" (education) "Việt Nam" (Vietnam). So, again: nc (research), gd (education), and vn (Vietnam). This is where I write about education, and about my profession now (in which I have been involved since I left USSH at the end of 2003), that is: educational measurement and evaluation, and quality management in education. Boring stuff, huh? I hate it myself, but I guess it's useful in a way.

Well, go there and see for yourself, if you can read Vietnamese. If not, use google translate, and you can get the gist of what is there. Then come back here and discuss things with me, why not?

Yeah, why not? I love blogging!