Children at the Thien Tam Orphanage at the free English class
According to director of the project, Vo Nguyen Hong Lam, the idea for the project came when they visited the Thien Tam Orphanage and saw how keen the disadvantaged children were to learn English. As head of the Foreign Languages Department at Nha Trang University, Lam decided to do something about it.
"I think our students and me can do more than just give gifts to the children here," she said. "And luckily many students have participated in this activity."
The class was started in October 2021 and had to be run online for some time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The teachers are mostly students of the Foreign Languages Department at Nha Trang University and some are high school students.
One of the English students Nguyen Dinh Nhat Truong said that he did not have many chances to practice oral skills at school and so this class was very helpful to him.
"My speaking skill has improved a lot since I took this class," the eighth-grader said. "The teachers are very good and enthusiastic."
The orphanage owner, Nguyen Thi Kim Lien said that she was so happy that the children here could study English for free.
"I know that many children here want to study English but they understand our difficult condition so they've never asked for extra English courses," Lien said. "Then we were all happy when the university students came to offer help. Our children have become more confident in both English and communication skills after attending the class."
Project director Vo Nguyen Hong Lam said that besides teaching English to about 30 children aged between 6-16 at orphanages in Nha Trang, they were also organising free English classes for some 200 students from ethnic minority groups at the Khanh Hoa Provincial Boarding School.
"We have 29 university lecturers, 100 university students and 200 high school students who have volunteered to participate," Lam said. "We hope to receive more support to better run the project."
One of the volunteer teachers, Nguyen Thi Thien Ly, said that most of the classes are organised on weekends. Each class has a teacher and an assistant.
"I decided to join the project because I want to share my knowledge with disadvantaged people, especially children," the teacher said. "And I'm very happy that my efforts have been well received and are helpful to others."
