Villajuan Posts Her Final Blog From Abroad
July 02, 2013 | Women's Tennis, Academic Services
July 2, 2013
This is the final installment of Cardinal women's tennis player Stefanie Villajuan's blog from Vietnam.
It's been a week since I have been back from Vietnam. Looking back on the whole experience, I am extremely happy that I had the opportunity to do it. To be able to say that you went to another country to teach young preteens is something special that nobody can take away from you. When I first arrived in Vietnam, I had no idea what to expect. I knew that I would be working with 7th and 8th graders, but I did not expect to make friendships and also learn the art of appreciation.
I had been to the Philippines a few times before, so I figured going to Vietnam would be no different. The meals are pretty similar - you have rice with every meal. I was not, however, prepared for the culture shock as much as I thought I was. The lifestyle in Vietnam is very different from the United States. The Vietnamese way of transportation is by motorbike. Although it seems as only two people can fit on a motorbike, they find a way to put up to four people on, including children! By American standards, that is nowhere near safe, but it is considered the norm there.
The working habits are different. While a majority of Americans leave the house at around 6 a.m. to drive to work, many Vietnamese do not need to leave their homes. They own small convenience stores or restaurants that are located in their garage which is in the front of their home. If they have no customers at the moment, they usually sit outside with their families and wait for someone to come. As an outsider, it looks as if the Vietnamese are just waiting for life to pass, and they have no urgency to go anywhere or do anything. However, this is how they live on a daily basis.
Learning and understanding about the cultural differences would not have been possible without the Vietnamese coaches who worked with us. I have come to appreciate their friendships as they have taught us the importance of patience. The language barrier between American coaches and the children was extremely difficult. Luckily, we had the Vietnamese coaches there to translate what we were teaching. We always had to make sure that we didn't talk too fast or say too much at once, otherwise it would get lost in translation.
Coach for College was an absolutely wonderful learning experience. Although it was nerve wrecking at first, I would not do anything differently. The experience itself is irreplaceable, and I am truly fortunate to have been a part of this experience.
Coach for College is a service learning program that brings together US student-athletes and Vietnamese university students to teach academics, sports and life skills at summer camps to children in rural Vietnam. Each participant co-teaches life skills classes throughout the camp to her team of kids as well as one sport and one academic subject to the teams. Each site offer sports-learning camps during the summer that help improve psychological well-being, educational attainment and job-related productivity for disadvantaged youth in developing countries, currently Vietnam. The program uses sports to bridge divides between countries, cultures and athletic rivals.
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