Fast forward to Turkey. The rest of the Jet Set Zero cast are active members on the couchsurfing site, using it both to find places to stay and hosting other travellers. Still, I resist. Finally, I’m sucked in because of the great information on local parties and events that it provides – namely, the party that we ourselves are throwing to celebrate Hallowe’en and our Istanbul departure.

What do I find when I join? A well-organized site dedicated to helping travellers find a safe place to crash for the night. There is also the all-important social networking, too – you can arrange (or be invited) to grab a coffee with someone in order to meet new people or get information on something you need to know about. My joining was reluctant but it seemed like time.

Now we’re in Saigon. The couchsurfing network here is awesome, tons of people use it and there are daily posts about getting groups together to go see stuff or questions about how something works in the city (ex. sights, areas to stay, etc.). I liken it to a very social, specific model of Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree, of which I’m a huge fan.

And what has it done for me? Well, when I look back on things, it’s actually done a great deal for me here in the city:

1.) It helped me get my job. I had just started to send out emails to schools looking for work, when I realized that the task of finding a job here was a little more daunting than I had originally realized. So, I put a post on couchsurfing titled “I NEED A JOB!” Immediately, people responded with different ideas. One of those was from a teacher at Cleverlearn Language Centre (where I am now employed), who gave me the name of the HR person to send my resume to directly and also to say that I was a friend of his. That was my foot in the door which got me the interview (which obviously got me the job).

2.) It helped me find my motorbike. I had scoured the tourist strip looking for a motorbike to rent but I knew I could do better price-wise. So, I put up a post about wanting to rent one and a fellow couchsurfer responded that he knew a woman that was renting a brand new one for cheap, and they’d make any minor repairs or adjustments that were needed along the way for free. Met up with this gentleman and now I have my sweet ride for cheap!

3.) It’s helped me widen my social circle. I check out the Saigon group posts fairly regularly, and there is always something going on. I am quite okay with inviting myself along to a potluck dinner or party of someone I’ve never met, in order to meet new people. It’s especially important if you are new to a city and need a way to get started socially.

So thank you, Couchsurfing. You provided me with fellow couchsurfers who were able to hook me up with a job, wheels and friends. Now, it’s up to me to keep the Couchsurfing karma going by providing advice and assistance to others!

It’s hard to find a French teaching job in Ho Chi Minh City. I know English is THE popular language at the moment. But I really thought that there would be more opportunities for French-speaking people. Viet Nam was a French colony for a hundred years, for crying out loud! Despite that, the young generations have totally given up on the French language. So far, I have only met one 30-year old man who is fluent in French, and two other people who know a few words.

View of Ho Chi Minh City area from a plane.

From what I’ve heard, many more people speak or understand French near Hanoi, in the northern part of Viet Nam, especially the elders. Nonetheless, I have decided to give it a try.

I have knocked at every door I could think of to be a French teacher or tutor for toddlers, children, students or adults. Here’s a list of what I’ve been doing over the past week and a half:

-E-mailed almost every international college here in Ho Chi Minh City
-Dropped off a résumé and talked to the assistant director of two Vietnamese universities that teach French
-E-mailed and dropped off a résumé at IDECAF (Institut d’Echanges Culturels avec la France)- where I also left an announcement for French tutoring.
-Contacted AUF (Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie)
-E-mailed two French schools for expatriates’ children. One said they are not hiring at the moment. I haven’t heard back from the other.
-Answered a post on livinginvietnam.com for a position at a new French language school. During the interview, I was told the school won’t open until February (!)
-Got a few tips from couchsurfers, which confirmed what I already knew. It was nice to have some moral support from them though.
-Went to the French consulate to ask if they needed more staff, or if they could offer some advice. I specifically asked ”le service culturel” and ”missions UBI France.” They had nothing for me. ”Three months is too short,” they said.
-Checked out the French chamber of commerce and industry’s (CCIFV) Web site. All job offers were for at least 6 months, in the field of engineering or environmental management.
-E-mailed the consulates of Singapore, Malaysia and Japan to ask how I could get in touch with their communities in Ho Chi Minh City. I was pretty desperate at that point. I remembered someone telling me those expat communities send their children to the French schools. I thougth they might be willing to hire a private French tutor for their children. But, no answer to my e-mails so far.
-Checked out the French library: they were very nice and helpful but are not looking for another staff member
-E-mailed a French kindergarten to ask if they need another staff member.
-Asked a French bakery/restaurant. They were actually looking for a waitress. A full-time job there pays $67/month. ”Vietnamese pay,” as they say. That wouldn’t even cover my monthly rent. Needless to say, it can’t be an option.
-Asked a couple of libraries. I quickly figured that not speaking Vietnamese would be an issue.
-Asked a bookstore. As I was trying to explain to the cashier that I wanted to talk to the manager, I suddenly heard a few words of French behind me. A Franco-Vietnamese couple from Hanoi! The Vietnamese lady explained to the cashier that I was looking for a job and got me an interview with the assistant director of the bookstore-who spoke English! I am so grateful to them.
-Posted my resume on learn4good.com and vietnamworks.com and answered several job offers for teaching and administrative/media work

Conclusion? No luck so far. French teaching/tutoring jobs are scarce.

My next step is to check my e-mails and hope for a few replies, and to redefine my job search strategy. I have been looking into teaching because it provides interaction, cultural insights, and you also feel useful by helping students. I would rather do that than sit in an office all day.

But I know there might be other opportunities than teaching. So, I’ll look into those, including working in fancy restaurants. And I’ll also consider teaching English.

* * * * * *

ENSEIGNER LE FRANCAIS A SAIGON N’EST PAS GAGNE!

C’est difficile de trouver du travail en tant qu’enseignant de Français, à Ho Chi Minh Ville. Je sais bien que l’Anglais est LA langue du moment. Mais je pensais vraiment qu’il y aurait plus d’opportunités pour les Francophones. Le Viêtnam était une colonie française pendant une centaine d’année, quand même! Malgré cela, les jeunes générations ont complètement abandonné la langue française. Pour l’instant, je n’ai rencontré qu’une seule personne parlant couramment le Français, un monsieur d’une trentaine d’années rencontré lors de notre croisière sur le Mékong. Et deux autres personnes connaissant quelques mots de français.

J’ai ouïe dire que beaucoup plus de Vietnamiens parlent ou comprennent le Français à Hanoï, dans le nord du pays, surtout les anciens. Cependant, j’ai tout de même décidé de tenter ma chance.

J’ai donc frappé à toutes les portes imaginables pour être enseignante ou tutrice de Français, que ce soit auprès d’enfants en bas âge, d’adolescents, d’étudiants ou d’adultes. Voici une liste de mes occupations journalières des dix derniers jours:

-Envoi de candidature spontanées à presque toutes les universités internationales d’Ho Chi Minh Ville
-Rencontre avec les directeurs assistants du département de Français de deux universités vietnamienne
-Envoi de candidature spontanée et déplacement à l’IDECAF (Institut d’Echanges Culturels avec la France), où j’ai aussi tenté de poster une annonce de tuteur privé de Français
-Prise de contact avec l’AUF (Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie)
-Envoi de candidatures spontanées aux deux écoles françaises de la ville, où les élèves sont surtout des enfants d’expatriés. L’une m’a dit qu’ils n’embauchent pas en ce moment, l’autre n’a pas répondu.
-Entretien d’embauche pour un poste de professeur de Français dans un nouvelle école de langues- qui ne sera pas ouverte avant le mois de Février au moins!
-Prise de contact avec le réseau couchsurfing de Saigon pour avoir des tuyaux, mais rien de nouveau que je ne savais déjà. En revanche, c’est sympa de voir qu’on se sert les coudes entre expat’.
-Visite au consulat de France en quête de conseils. Mais non! Ils n’embauchent pas. Le service culturel et UBI France n’ont rien à proposer: ”Trois mois, c’est trop court!”
-Consultation du site internet de la Chambre Française de Commerce et d’Industrie du Viêtnam (CCIFV). Toutes les offres concernent des emplois à long terme (plus de six mois) pour ingénieurs ou ceux qui travaillent dans le management de l’environnement.
-Tentative de rentrer en contact avec les communautés expatriées de Singapour, de la Malaisie et du Japon via leurs consulats respectifs, pour proposer mes services de tuteur privé de Français. Aucune réponse pour l’instant.
-Petite visite à la librairie française, très aidante mais qui n’embauche pas.
-Envoi de candidature spontanée à une crèche-maternelle française.
-Petite visite à une boulangerie/restaurant français qui, ça tombe bien, a besoin d’une serveuse supplémentaire. Un temps plein est rémunéré 45€ par mois. ”Salaire à la vietnamienne,” me dit-on. Ca ne suffirait même pas à couvrir mon loyer. Inutile de le préciser, ce n’est pas possible!
-Brèves visites à deux bibliothèques universitaires. Ca devient vite évident que ne pas parler le Vietnamien constitue un obstacle à ce genre de travail.
-Visite à une librairie: je tente d’expliquer à la caissière que j’aimerais voir le manager, quand j’entend quelques mots en Français derrière moi. Un couple Franco-Vietnamien d’Hanoï! La femme, Vietnamienne, prend alors les choses en mains. Elle explique à la caissière l’objet de ma visite et m’obtient un entretien avec une assistante du directeur, qui, elle, parle l’Anglais! Un immense merci à tous deux!
-Mise en ligne de mon CV sur learn4good.com et vietnamworks.com et envoi de ma candidature à plusieurs offres d’emplois dans l’enseignement et le secteur administratif/médias.

Bilan: pas beaucoup de chance pour l’instant. Les opportunités pour enseigner le Français sont rares.

Prochaine étape: vérifier mes e-mails en espérant avoir reçu plusieurs réponses, et redéfinir ma stratégie. Je me suis concentrée sur l’enseignement pour l’instant car l’interaction avec les étudiants me plaît. J’aime aussi l’idée de me sentir utile, en aidant les étudiants à progresser. Et je préfère ça plutôt que d’être assise derrière un bureau toute la journée.

Mais c’est vrai qu’il n’y a pas que l’enseignement. Je vais donc y regarder de plus près, restaurants ”huppés” compris. Et peut-être vais-je aussi tenter d’enseigner l’Anglais.

Usually, getting jobs is supposed to be fairly simple – show up to a school, make a year-long commitment, and bam! you’re in the classroom dishing out some English and raking in some money.  Most ESL markets are afflicted with some teacher-school antagonism.  Schools change schedules, pay late (or not at all), and can just generally puppet teachers around.  Teachers have an unfortunate habit of disappearing before their contract is up, often without warning, and mysteriously just after payday.  Needless to say, it’s a bit of an unstable environment, and generally, it’s the students who lose.

The job search could have been much easier if we had just folded ourselves into this vicious cycle, taught for 3 months, and split for the next country.  However, I think that would have been disrespectful and dishonest, and this isn’t the message we want to give about traveling.  So it was agonizing to explain that we are only here for 3 months – in almost every interview, that prompted an “Ok, great, well we might have some classes opening soon, and if we do, I’ll give you a call…”

The job search was frustrating for many reasons, but this was one of the biggest.  It’s a principle we chose to stick to, and it didn’t come without cost.  At the end of the day, however, it’s more accurate to the story we’re trying to create and the message we’re trying to tell.

Basically, I finalized my cover letter and resume, meticulously emphasizing my experiences and credentials that might make up for the fact that I don’t have a TEFL certification.  I hopped down to a nearby internet cafe to print all the documents I might need, then walked to a pharmacy that mysteriously doubled as a copy place.  The copier was ancient, stained yellow, and spat out ink-speckled copies on thin cheap paper.  All in all, the slow machinery made this trip far more of an endeavor than I anticipated, although everyone I met was extremely nice and polite.  Given all the smiles and their obvious patience with the language barrier, it was hard to stay frustrated.

I also printed out a list of school addresses, pulled from a handful of internet sites of varying reputations.  Turns out that we couldn’t find a searchable map of Saigon, so the addresses were relatively useless without knowing nearby cross streets or drawing on local knowledge.  We opted for the latter, renting a Vinasun taxi at an hourly rate to drive us around to all the addresses.  Well, by “renting a taxi” I mean consulting the ad hoc council of taxi drivers that assembled to understand our request and provide us a price quote.  Again, I’m astounded at the patience of so many people in the face of a language barrier.  My Vietnamese vocabulary consists of basic basic words, and my fumbling attempts to use them are met with either besumed but benign laughter or genuine applause.

At any rate, the taxi drove us from address to address, with our camera crew following along to document the adventure, or as it turned out, the misadventure.  The first 3 addresses no longer belonged (or never once belonged) to schools, and the stares I got as I wandered around in my slacks and white dress shirt were thicker than the sweltering humidity.  It felt as if all the gazes clung to me like the moisture that constantly collects on my skin.

We finally navigated our way to a couple schools, where I filled out some applications, dropped off the cover letters and resumes, and had a couple brief interviews/conversations.  Despite all my efforts into crafting this resume, I think I basically boiled down to 2 primary characteristics: I didn’t have a TEFL degree and I was only staying for 3 months.  Little else on my resume seemed to matter, though obviously the search is just beginning and these impressions could prove short-lived.

So the first day of physical visits was disappointing, and I returned to Pham Ngu Lao heavy hearted…and also exhausted.  Jet lag woke me up at 4am and my own concentration had kept me from eating.  Hopefully tomorrow will bring some better results, and I will shift my approach.  I’ll update as the process unfolds.