You may remember Vin, our driver who took us to Halong Bay..... well, we bagged him a bit and on the return trip he was decidedly demure - noticeably there were no inappropriate jokes.
He also told us that whilst we'd been out lolling on the boat, he slept in his car and was now sniffling. We immediately handed the Immune Defence tablets around again.
I sat in the front and was determined to learn Vietnamese fluently whilst the other ladies popped on head phones and watched movies.
Vin was able to read my phrase book, write notes in my notebook, and converse with me through his iPhone translation app all whilst driving on the highway at what was about 30km per hour. He was going so slow that he kept on having to drop back a gear. If there was ever a break in the conversation, he sped up a little, then I would ask him another question and his foot would pull away from the accelerator. Eventually the head phones came off and protesting voices came from the rear of the vehicle......
Marie: "Can we go any slower?"
Chris: "What's the speed limit here?"
Jenny: "Are we planning on getting home tonight?"
To be honest, I hadn't even noticed how slow we were going. I was just glad he wasn't being a kamikaze driver like the rest of the crazies on the road. That and I was enjoying getting to know him a bit.
He saw that I was trying to learn Vietnamese by reading my phrase book and he said something that I half understood!!!
You are intelligent.
I understood the 'you are' part and he pointed to his temple for the intelligent part..... so he either meant intelligent or mental.
He then told me how loved and well respected teachers are in Vietnam and that he had to leave school in Grade 3, as did his young wife. They have 1 year old twin girls and live 100 kms out of Hanoi in the countryside, so he only gets to see them once a month.
He asked me to come back to Hanoi and teach him English for free.
I told him - Never say Never!
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