Colleagues Speaking Vietnamese

Colleagues speaking Vietnamese — and what it taught me about teaching

I coached a foreign colleague through Vietnamese. At first they apologised constantly and feared mistakes. I banned “sorry.” In language learning, mistakes are data. We should be proud to find and fix them.

In my classes I build a culture that celebrates helpful errors and fast feedback. The goal is to discover what you don’t know — you can’t improve what you can’t see.

Lectures vs. practice

Knowledge is abundant online. The scarce resource is human interaction. Don’t spend class time explaining vocabulary or re‑doing answer keys line by line. Flip the classroom:

• Share flashcards and grammar videos for self‑study before class.
• Use class for practice: speaking tasks, discussions, debates, with the teacher guiding and giving delayed feedback.

Students come to class for interaction and coaching, not information they could watch at home.