Nguyen Chi Thoai had a challenging childhood but never surrendered to his circumstance and has now become an English teacher for street children.
Young English teacher Nguyen Chi Thoai conducting class
Thoai was born in 1988 but now he is studying at the ninth grade level at an Adult Learning Centre in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City. He does not hold any English certificate but his language and pedagogical abilities convinced Tran Minh Hai, Manager of the Future Project at District 3 in Ho Chi Minh City, that he was fully qualified. Thoai started teaching English for street children as a part of the project in January.
In 1999, when was only 11, after being beaten by his father one night, he decided to leave his family in Bac Lieu. Thoai made his own living by doing many various jobs such as collecting trash, selling lottery tickets, shining shoes, serving at restaurants, repairing motorbikes and was sometimes left begging for food.
Thoai said that those difficult times helped him to understand the value of money, how to use it, as well as how to save it. He will never forget memories when he had to eat bread, which was passed by a truck after being hungry for many days or when he had to eat noodles for an entire month to save money.
In 2003, he was admitted into a Children Patronization centre of Ho Chi Minh City. He got a job working from 6am until late in the evening. He realised that he needed to study to have a better future and studying English could pave the way for him. He attended an English class at Tan Binh District.
However, his studies were postponed after 4 months because he had to find another job. Then, he worked for a restaurant in District 1 where he had the chance to practice his English and resumed his studies at an Adult Learning Centre in Phu Nhuan District.
He took every opportunity to try to practice his English and studied hard.
Now, he has become an English teacher. Before going to bed, Thoai often things about how to help his street students to study English better.
He does not have enough time for his own studies during the day so he often studies at night. In 2009, he won the third prize in an English contest in a non-formal education system. Thoai aims to achieve a high school degree, then try to win a scholarship to improve his English or to get an education degree to continue teaching street children.
Nguyen Chi Thoai teaching his students to pronounce English words
