Eat Healthy! - Việt Nam

Teachers

 

If you are reading this you are probably an English teacher in Vietnam (or another country in Asia) or you are teaching to an Asian community in an English speaking country. So most likely you've experienced that considering students' cultural needs and habits not only keep their attention but also strengthen rapport.

 

How many times have you had to do extra work to adapt your lesson plan to your students needs because the English textbook you're using focuses primarily on Western cultures? Learning English is difficult enough for Asian students without them having to struggle to do the activities that refer to actors, films, musicians, objects, foods and customs that they are unfamiliar with. Adapting lessons to the Asian student means countless hours of extra preparation (finding images, changing text, adapting activities, etc) for English teachers worldwide.

 

A Solution...

 

This site offers FREE materials to make your lesson planning easier AND make the classes more captivating for the students! It will be an ongoing project, adding new resource packs as time goes on.

 

Why start with Food and Nutrition?

 

One day in class I showed a photo of a typical greasy spoon breakfast. More than half of the class thought it was healthy and the rest were unsure. The association of the West with prosperity and a better way of life leads to logic such as "if the rich people eat it, then it must be good for you".

 

As Asians increase their disposable income, many aspire to adopt the Western lifestyle, without realising the health risks that accompany it. Asian diets in general have been lauded for being healthy (3) and for being the reason that non-communicable diseases are lower than in Western societies.

 

As Benjamin Franklin once said "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Obesity and diabetes are a rapidly growing problems even in a country like Vietnam. You may have noticed a rise in overweight students in your classroom, especially if you teach in a private school in a city. We should acknowledge that as Westerners and teachers the students (usually!) look up to us.

 

If we as teachers show that we value their traditional diet by using images and text related to their dietary habits and needs rather using the Westernised focus found in many books, it can help them value their current diet and stop them from developing unhealthy eating habits that will be harder to change in the future.

 

Aims of this site:

 

• To distribute FREE culturally appropriate resources that complement lessons related to food and nutrition in popular English student books while reducing lesson planning time.

 

• To provide English teachers with nutritional information appropriate for Vietnamese students which can be used to field questions or stimulate class discussion.

 

• To provide students with further information, practice materials and an opportunity to ask questions about nutrition