Infinite Altitude: 2015-09-26 Sat 8 PM OI JA:
By Joey Arnold
I had a headache today. It resided after I took some pain reliever pills. I interviewed one student today at FYG in District 1 of Saigon. We plan to open some classes soon. Two classes twice a week at 6 PM on Mondays and Fridays starting October 2nd. I should write these daily reviews daily. I write about myself sometimes but I tend to get lost in other things and don't. I don't do this enough. I get too consumed and buried by things like the hate I get from people all over. When I get disliked and criticized on Facebook, I tend to copy and paste the comments to my blogs. But then I end up not writing down my own thoughts on the matters at hand which is what is fundamental and more important. I forget how to write to myself like I use to back when I was ten years old in the year 1995 in the United States.
At the 23/9 park, I talked to an older American Vietnamese man who I thought liked me. He is short, has glasses, is bald, and gave me some canned food once to help me. He has googled me and saw comments about me on Facebook. He said that I have a bad reputation, which I already know. He talked about gossip, the rumors that I was homeless at a pagoda, where I punched a monk, where I am vulgar, where I say naughty words, or when I stole from the Circle K store which led to police coming to stop me. I was not homeless and I was not living at the pagoda. People at the pagoda where threatening to punch me. I paid for that pack of noodles at that store but the police still tackled me to the ground like we were playing American football or rugby. I did write a comment that said "Have sex with me at the park." But that was for fun. But people got offended and called me sick like Michael Jackson. There are many things I can say about these things. There are many bad rumors about me going around that are not true and that is too bad.
He said that people looked down on me because I am not perfect, because my English is not formal enough, that I talk too slangy within the depths of street English. I give people real English but people prefer book English. They also prefer British English over American English.
He said that people don't like me as I have a dumb phone instead of a smart phone. It also seems that my clothes are old maybe but I don't think so. He told me to adapt to the culture and to the market, to the customers, in Vietnam. He said that Vietnam is not America but I disagree. It is or it can be at least more American and I only want to do what I want to do. He walked away after that and he was disagreeing with me. He pretended to like me but does not really like me.
I love Vietnam and I hope the best for it.
I may not ride my bike to the private classroom near Nguyen Trai in District 1 of Ho Chi Minh City because I have to take it to his house and walk back to the room and I don't like that.
I need to have better perspective and I need to write more. I talk to Peter at the park after talking to the older man and I told him about what the man said. Peter is a Vietnamese. Later, I sat next to the older American with glasses who once corrected my English by saying that I shouldn't say like go to the park or maybe went to the park or something. I disagreed and said that it depends on the literature style that I'm using as an editor he should have agreed but he got the Vietnamese to hate me more back in maybe May 2015. Today, I sat next to his group and there was like Quyet and Tram and Rex and the girl with the glasses and the guy with the English word guessing from pictures game on his smart phone which makes me want to get a smart phone even more.
Should I teach at FYG or not? I am not sure. Should I walk there or take my bike? Not sure.
