Ever wondered what it would be like to spend time with locals, experience the traditional Vietnamese lifestyle, and, on top of that contribute to a good cause? Let me share my volunteering experience in Thôn Tha Village, located in the Ha Giang Province of Northern Vietnam.

How to become a volunteer?

There are many ways how one can become a volunteer. Many organizations advertise opportunities on platforms like Worldpackers or Workaway. However, these websites require a joining fee. While this fee may be acceptable if there are no additional costs, it can become quite expensive if you have to pay a daily fee at the place where you volunteer.
I found this particular volunteering opportunity on Facebook in the “Volunteering in Vietnam” group. There are many similar groups for volunteers that you can have explore. I reached out to Miss Trang via email, and we arranged an online meeting. During our conversation, we discussed the organization’s goals, my experiences, the reasons why I wanted to volunteer, the daily fee, and the required minimal length of stay. At first, I was quite skeptical about the daily fee since, in many Western countries, volunteering often means exchanging your time for free food and accommodation. Paying to volunteer somewhere was a new concept for me – the fee is 3£/5$ a day. Eventually, I decided that the experience I would gain is likely priceless, and if I had spent a month traveling instead it would have cost me far more. Part of the joining fee also goes towards the families living in Thôn Tha, since I love Vietnam and want to support its locals this was what made my decision in the end. We agreed on my arrival dates and I arrived 3 weeks later.

A Day in the life of a volunteer

The volunteering position I applied for involved teaching English to locals in Thôn Tha village. YESD (the organization I am volunteering with) offers classes for primary and secondary school children, as well as evening English classes for adults. In addition to teaching, I also contribute to their marketing efforts by writing blog posts.

I am a late raiser; my day usually starts around 8.30-9.00 AM. I begin with breakfast and coffee, help sweep the house, and then start preparing for classes or researching for blog posts. Since each class we teach has different objectives, I need to prepare lessons plan accordingly. For both primary and secondary students, our focus is on improving their English skills, as they already learn English at school and this is not their primary source of learning. On the other hand, adult students rely entirely on us to teach them English. Some adults start from scratch, while others have some prior exposure to the language. It is important to design classes that are engaging for all levels, while ensuring everyone understands the material. The adult classes primarily focus on training adults to become tour guides for the Ha Giang loop, and improving their general employability.
Lesson preparation can take anywhere from thirty minutes to one and a half hour, depending on the size of a class and the topics we need to target. Teaching times also vary, for the adult and secondary class the length of a class is one and a half hour, whereas, the primary class is two hours long.

The overall time I spend “working” is usually around 5-6 hours. Around 11AM, I begin by creating lesson plans or conducting research for blog posts for a couple of hours. This is followed by an hour long lunch break. After lunch, I dedicate another 2 hours to writing blog posts, followed by hour and a half to two hours of teaching. It is a very relaxed environment that allows for individual creativity in both blogs and lessons, which I truly enjoy.

The actual experience

For the past month, I have been living with the YESD cofounder, Miss Trang – and what a month it has been! I have loved my time here, and have learned so much about Vietnamese culture, Buddhism, food customs, societal perception of women, and so much more.
I truly admire Miss Trang. In the West, it is not uncommon for women to live independently and choose not to have children, but in Vietnam, traditional family values are still quite dominant. Going against those expectations is quite unusual. Miss Trang is very inspiring – she is funny, happy to educate you about topics you might be curious about, and remarkably handy at fixing things around the house. As a volunteer you will share living space with Miss Trang, so be sure to be respectful and tidy. Besides Miss Trang, there is another member of the household who won’t leave your side – meet Kiwi, the cutest little devil.

Apart from interacting with locals through teaching, I also had the chance to engage with them in a more informal way during one of the village festivities. Everyone here is very friendly and welcoming. While there might be a language barrier, there is nothing that some happy water (rice wine) and google translate cannot overcome. Being a vegan during these celebrations was not the easiest as the diet here is very meat heavy. However, I was able to have dinners at local homestays, where they kindly accommodated for my dietary preferences with dishes like tofu and vegetables.

I also had the opportunity to explore the local scenery and cuisine in so many wonderful ways. I joined local guides for trekking, enjoyed sunset walks to the waterfall, petted baby buffalos, learned how to make spring rolls and some other veggie friendly dishes, enjoyed local dishes at restaurants around Ha Giang, and visited the Hemp Fabric making village to buy some souvenirs. I drank way too much Vietnamese coffee, learned to count in Vietnamese from primary school kids, and even mastered driving a manual bike under miss Trang’s supervision. Most importantly, I had the most amazing time. I am incredibly grateful for this experience. Beyond the people I met in this village, I also connected with other travelers, and a Vietnamese volunteer who loves Taylor Swift as much as I do. I truly hope these relationships will stay with me for a lifetime.

This month has taught me more about Vietnamese culture than I could have imagined. Although, I wish I had learned a bit more Vietnamese during my stay – Miss Trang tried to teach me, but I am a lost case with my pronunciation. Part of this is due to my personal learning style, which leans toward formal teaching methods, and part of is just how different Vietnamese is from any language I learned before. Regardless, if you are considering volunteering as an English teacher, I wholeheartedly recommend doing it with YESD. This month has been nothing short of incredible, and I wish for everyone to have such a wonderful experience!