Work

　　1.Do you work or study?

　　I graduated a few years ago and I’m now in full time employment.

　　2.What is your job?

　　I’m currently an English teacher working for the British Council in Ho Chi Minh City.

　　3.Why did you choose that job?

　　I was previously a lawyer and found it to be really stressful and never had any free time, so after quitting that job I thought teaching might be the complete opposite of being a lawyer, you know not as stressful and more time off.

　　4.Are there lots of English teachers in Ho Chi Minh City?

　　Oh yes! There is a such a big demand for English as a second language here and it’s also quite a cheap place to live compared to many other big cities in Asia.

　　5.Do you enjoy your job?

　　Most of the time. It’s very rewarding to be able to help people every day and the students here are very hardworking and fun to teach, but you sometimes have lessons that do go so well and the money could always be better.

　　6.Do you get on well with your co-workers?

　　Yes, fine. I don’t really see work as part of my social life, so I don’t socialise with them, so I suppose I could be more friendly, but it’s just my nature to be a bit colder with colleagues. I think it’s more professional to be that way.

　　7.What was your first day at work like?

　　There were lots of teachers starting at the same time as me, 10 I think, so we all had a big induction day. The more senior teachers ran workshops with us to familarise us with the different systems they had and then we went for a team dinner in the evening.

　　8.What responsibilities do you have at work?

　　All of the teachers main responsibility is to plan good lessons and then teach them to the best of our ability. On top of that we have several admin. tasks to carry out like mark homework, fill out attendance sheets and write reports.

　　9.Would you like to change your job in the future?

　　Yes, as I said before, I like working by myself, so I would like to be my own boss. I’m currently developing my own website, so if it’s successful I will leave teaching and work on it full time. This will also give me more time to work on other projects.

　　10.What is your typical day like in work?

　　I normally have 2 or 3 classes in the evening and I start the day by doing all the planning at home. This normally takes between an hour or two depending on the lessons. I then take the rest of the day to spend with my family, before going to work around 3 to print off my materials and then I teach all evening.

　　11.What would you change about your job?

　　As with most English teachers, we have to teach what is on the curriculum and this can mean that you are teaching some things that are quite boring or not very useful for your students, so I would like to have more freedom to teach outside the syllabus.