Goodbye Party

_{2013-06-04 - Tuesday - Trip to Dalat - We were in Dalat for four days, until Friday. This was the last thing I did with the Trung tâm Ngoại Ngữ Tân Văn that I worked for as an English Teacher from March to the end of May, 2013. Some of the staff encouraged me to pay money to go on this trip early in June. So, I paid the money for a not-paid vacation. The hiring staff of that school - (website here) - said that they didn't have work for me for June as it was summer. They told me to contact them in July, the next month. On the surface, that may be true to some extent. There was probably less work, less classes, less students, which means a decline in the need for teachers like me. Some people continued working, continued teaching. I was not given a new monthly work schedule for June like I was given in emails for March, April, and May, those three months. So, I signed a six month contract and they broke and violated that contract halfway through it. Had they not broke my contract, according to that contract, they would have had to begin giving me a raise, more money per hour, according to what they said and according I read in the contract. Other foreign teachers have said that this is what schools do in order to scam and take advantage of teachers, Americans, foreigners. At the time, I didn't really know how many teachers have had similar issues, problems, with their employers and potential employers. Like most things, for my life, for what happened to me, it's a long story. They told me to contact them in a month, as in the next month, after June. So, I contacted them in July and they said they still didn't have work for me. They told me, again, to contact me the next month, in August. So, I then contacted them in August and they said, again, still, yet again, like a broken oatmeal record, that they still didn't have work for me. Then they said that they already hired too many teachers and that is why I could not work, because I didn't sign a new work contract with them, even as I already did in February of 2013, even as I was already on the monthly payroll, even as I was already hired in February of 2013, even as I was already working for them, teaching for their schools, for three months already, they still said that they hired too many people even as they didn't officially fire me verbally or on paper. I was teaching in Vietnam from 2012 to 2017 and I only taught with Tan Van during those three months - 2013 - March, April, & May, and I was never actually fired even to this day in 2019, as far as I can tell. So, the Dalat City was like a goodbye party. But I didn't know that at that time.}

Field Photo

_{2013-06-07 - Friday - The Field Photo - I think this first photo, above, is from our last day, Friday, on our way back from Dalat to Saigon. We stopped at a few places.}