Level I

Chapter 5
Writing

English | Vietnamese Section

English | Vietnamese
IC3, IT, TOEFL, Best Answer
Self- and Teacher Evaluation

Personal Stories
Xoá đói giảm nghèo

Vietnamese Language Skills:

• Vocabulary for Economic Conditions
• The word “Hết” Usage
• Word Order

English Language Lesson

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Introductory Motivation and Focus:

Read the following Vietnamese proverbs and folk poems about poverty and needy people.

In groups of 2, 3, or 4 students, discuss each proverb and the literal and symbolic meanings. What lesson does each of the proverbs convey?

Máu chảy ruột mềm.

Bầu ơi thương lấy bí cùng,

Tuy rằng khác giống nhưng chung một giàn.

Một nắm khi đói bằng một gói khi no.

Nghèo cho sạch, rách cho thơm.

Lá lành đùm lá rách.

Không ai giàu ba họ, không ai khó ba đời.

Nghèo còn mắc cái eo.

Nghèo nhân nghèo nghĩa thì lo,

Nghèo tiền nghèo bạc chẳng cho là nghèo.

In your groups, write a translation ofthe proverbs into English. Also write an explanation in English of what the proverb means. Your group should work together and agree on the translation and explanation. Perhaps your teacher will want you to share your translations and explanations with the class.

Introduction to Skill(s):

Organizing Ideas: General to Specific

In writing a personal description, you can arrange the information from general to specific. Descriptions often begin with general information and are followed by more specific information. The first sentence gives a general description. This is often the topic sentence.

Ex: Tuan has done a lot of things to earn a living. (General)

- He has worked as a tutor (more specific)

• He teaches a group of secondary school students (more specific)

Using In fact to clarify information

In fact can be used to explain more about the previous idea, therefore, it is useful to use in writing that uses general to specific organization. This transitional word is used at the beginning of a sentence.

Ex: She has worked hard to earn a living. In fact, she has worked 8 hours a day in a restaurant.

Ex: They have helped a lot of poor people to earn a living. In fact, they have built a food processing factory which provided the poor with jobs.

Using the correct tenses

Use Simple present to talk about facts or truth

Ex: He is a poor student but he studies very well.

Use simple past to denote a specific action at a definite past time

Ex: Last year he worked as a tutor.

When he was 18 years old, he started the charity work.

Use the present perfect to refer to an action that happened in the past up to the present and may continue at the moment of speaking.

Ex: This year they have done three jobs (completed)

Since he was 19 years old he has started the charity work (still up to now)

Using since, when, then

Since means ‘from the time that” while when means ‘at the time that’. The time clauses containing the two words can be used with simple past, but the main clauses are used with different tenses.

Ex: He has been in difficulty since he was young

Ex: He was in difficulty when he was young.

Then is used at the beginning of a sentence to indicate an action happening later.

Ex: First he built 10 houses a year. Then he began to build more houses.

Writing Assignment:

Describing someone and their situation. Write a composition about a poor person, who, with the help of the community, successfully escaped from poverty. Or, write a composition about someone who is coping with a poverty situation. Compose blocks of sentences (2, 3 or 4 sentences) that move from general to specific. You may write as many paragraphs as is necessary in order to describe the person and the situation.

Look to the English Passages section for examples. Also look at similar reading passages in the other Level I Chapters 5 in this curriculum for more examples.

Vocabulary: The excerpts below, in the Passages in English section, have words and phrases that may be useful when writing stories about people who deal well with and overcome poverty. The list below is in alphabetical order. Find the words and phrases in context in the reading passages and determine what the meaning of each may be. In some cases, there are synonyms listed.

1. arid land
2. to bring up (to raise, to rear children)
3. to catch chameleons
4. to earn
5. efforts
6. excellent
7. ex-serviceman (served in the military, war veteran, military veteran)
8. farmer
9. golden heart
10. to grow rice
11. handicap (disability)
12. hardship (struggle)
13. harvest
14. housework (chores)
15. to labor (to work)
16. to live on (to survive on)
17. outstanding
18. poor
19. prizes
20. to save money
21. studious (good student, diligent student)
22. successful
23. to tighten purse strings
24. to undergo
25. vision-impaired (blind)

Passage(s) in English:
Below are excerpts about people living with poverty or moving out of poverty.

Reading (A)

Tran Thi Minh Tuyet, a vision-impaired student, passed the entrance examinations to two universities. She was born into a poor family in Xuan Truong Commune, 20 km from Da Lat. Her father is an ex- serviceman, and mother is a farmer. The family live chiefly on farming. Her parents have to labor all day long on their arid land to bring up Tuyet and her three younger brothers. Aware of the hardship her parents have to undergo, Tuyet has been very studious. The result of all her efforts is that she was successful in both examinations to the Social Sciences and Humanities University and the University of Education.

(Adapted from Life Inspiration – by Minh Ly, Saigon Times 37-’99 (414) Sep. 11, 1999)

Reading (B)

Bui Ngoc Nha, a high school student, was outstanding for his studying and helping his friend. Born into a poor family of five people in Nui Thanh District, Quang Nam Province, Nha was an excellent student from grade 1 up to grade 8. Mr. Nghiem, Nha’s father said, “He’s very busy with housework but he is studious. As soon as he finishes work, he sits at the desk to study. We have a piece of land to grow rice but the harvest is not enough for the five of us. So, we have to tighten our purse strings to save money for the children’s schooling.” Besides doing the housework, Nha usually goes to catch chameleons to sell to restaurants for some money. All his notebooks are prizes from school and bought with the money he earns. Nha is known also as a student with a golden heart. He leaves home early every day to drive his handicapped friend five kilometers to school on his bicycle.

(Adapted from Great Deed in Daily Life – by Ngan Ha & Hoai Nhan, Saigon Times 32-’99 (409) Aug. 7, 1999)

Reading (C)

At 20, Uyen has finished high school but isn’t sure what to do next. “I don’t want to go to school,” she says. “I want to work and earn the money more than study.” Her mother notes Uyen doesn’t want to work with her hands but without more schooling it’s not easy to find other employment.

The retail positions that are a standby for American teenagers can be competitive, sometimes requiring foreign language training or other specialized education in Vietnam.

Positions that bring in more money may have hidden costs.Thuy once landed a job selling cosmetics. The salary was higher than she could make at Mai [Handicrafts (an NGO run by social workers)], but she worked from early morning into the evening as well as weekends. The money she made went for new clothes and cosmetics she needed for the position, for food because she had to eat lunch on site, for transportation to get there and back.

After two months, Thuy asked to come back to Mai Handicrafts.

My [Thuy’s mother] concedes the university may be out of reach for Thuy but pushes for some sort of further education. It’s not clear what the Nguyen family or Thuy herself is pushing for.

When My suggested art school, Thuy shied from the notion, saying it is for the rich and what would she do afterward.

After work, she helps her mother clean the house or watches television. Some nights she goes out with friends. She doesn’t have a boyfriend and tells My she wants to wait to get married, that she wants to make something of her life.

“I said if you want to change your life, you have to study. I said if you want to have a good boyfriend, you need to be a good girlfriend. That means you have education, you have good work. At least you have something stable,” My tells her.

Thuy holds her plans close. Sometimes she says she will go to school. Sometimes she says she won’t.

Right now, she says, she must earn for the family.

(from City of Hope, City of Dreams, Mennonite Central Committee’s Family Stories: Volume 2, 2003)

Exercises and Activities for Comprehension and Analyzing Content:

Read the following story of a woman who rose from poverty to financial success. Then do the exercise that follows.

Paragraph 1	Pham Thi Ngoc is a woman who changed her past-life of shame and grief into a new, more glorious success story. In 1977, the 30-year-old Ngoc sadly left her husband and five little children behind in Saigon to go to the Bao Binh Forest in Long Khanh District, Dong Nai Province. She was expelled from the house by her husband—always drunk and gambling—who seized the right to rear the children and possess all the property.
Paragraph 2	In the new land, Ngoc started cultivating. First, she grew maize and rice. She learned farming from other farmers, agricultural promotion centers, books and newspapers. Ngoc did her farm work but also worked as a hired hand for money.
Paragraph 3	Her farm expanded gradually. When having money, she bought more land for cultivation. She bought a jeep to transport goods to sell in Saigon for higher prices. Today, Ngoc, the poor woman who was a servant in her youth, and was ill-treated by her husband, has become an example of success. (Adapted from Farewell to Hardship – by Do Ngoc, Saigon Times 28-’99 (405) Jul. 10, 1999)

Exercise #1: The first paragraph of the story is broken down for you identifying the general to specific organization:

(I) General: Pham Thi Ngoc is a woman who changed her past-life of shame and grief into a new, more glorious success story.

(A) Specific: In 1977, the 30-year-old Ngoc sadly left her husband and five little children behind in Saigon to go to the Bao Binh Forest in Long Khanh District, Dong Nai Province.

(a) More specific: She was expelled from the house by her husband—always drunk and gambling—who seized the right to rear the children and possess all the property.

Create a general-to-specific outline, like the above, for paragraphs 2 and 3.

Exercise #2: Organizing Ideas

Arrange the following sentences into one paragraph by numbering them from 1 to 10

_____Hien is a poor but strong-will student.

_____Hien has done different things to help support herself and her father.

_____Ever since the ninth grade, she has sold iced tea and done the cleaning to earn a living.

_____She was born to a poor labor family but she has tried to work hard.

_____She has saved nearly enough to pay tuition for one year.

_____Last year, she also worked as a babysitter.

_____This year she has also been admitted to the two medical colleges in Hue and Dalat.

_____Although she has had a difficult life, she studies very well.

_____In fact, she passed the university entrance exam last year, but she missed the chance because her father and she couldn’t support her study.

_____She said her dream was to become a doctor to help the poor, and she would continue to find a part-time job to support her life and to pursue her study.

(Source: Tuoi Tre http://vnexpress.net/Vietnam/Xa-hoi/Loi-song/)

Exercises and Activities for Developing Content of Student Writing:

Freewriting Exercise

Write quickly, without worrying about grammar, spelling, or punctuation. Write anything that comes into your mind as you read the following questions. Don’t think about the quality or try to edit as you write; just write down as many thoughts as you can for several minutes.

• What are your living conditions? (For example, how much do you/your parents earn in an average month? What things do you do without? Can you afford things for convenience or pleasure?)
• Are you poor or rich?
• Who do you know that is poor? What are the circumstances that make them poor?
• Can the poor become rich?
• Do the poor need help? What sort of help do they need?
• Do you know any poor person who has succeeded in overcoming poverty? Write about that person.

Exercises and Activities for Building Skills:

Exercise #3: Simple present, simple past and present perfect tenses

Read the paragraph and put the verbs in brackets in the correct tense

Le Van On is a conscientious farmer, who has given a lot of help to poor people. He ________(be) born to a poor farming family in Chau Thanh District, Ben Tre province, so he ________(understand) the living conditions of the poor. When he ________(be) 31 years old, he ________(begin) to help other poor farmers build palm-wood houses. First, he________( (build) from 5 to 10 houses every year. Then since his living conditions ________(become) better, he ________(start) to increase the number of houses. In fact, he ________(build) 30 houses a year for poor people who ________(be) hard working. Until now, Mr. On ________(finish) nearly 600 houses for the poor. He ________(spend) a lot of money to buy palm wood for the houses, but he ________(feel) happy with his contributions. He ________(think) that helping the poor with housing________(be) the best way to reduce poverty. As those who are dead ________(need) a tomb, so, too, the living________(need) a house.

(source: Adapted from Tuoi Tre Newspaper- 1-11-2003)

Exercise #4: Since, When, Then

Combine the following clauses, using since, when or then appropriately.

• The Fund for the poor was established. It has received contributions in cash, labor and items from numerous organizations and individuals.
• Some 180,000 families in the Mekong Delta have escaped poverty. Poverty reduction programs were implemented.
• He received help from the Fund. He felt very happy.
• The Red Cross distributed the money. It was given to the victims of Agent Orange in three districts in Quang Tri.
• Khmer’s living conditions have improved. The Government allocated more money for them.
• They set up a new factory. They looked for workers.
• They founded a charity association. They raised the funds for it.

Exercise #5: In Fact
Use In fact where appropriate in the passages below:

1. Last year Hien passed the university exam. Her neighbors collected money to help her with the tuition, but still the cost of tuition was beyond her reach. While her friends started the school year, Hien began to look for a job.

2. Hien’s father had to work very hard but could not earn enough money for her study. He tried to borrow money from many people. He has borrowed a lot of money with high interest to support his daughter’s study.

3. Nguyet seemed to be always busy with her work and study. She has never dreams of spending time with friends. She never thinks about what she’s wearing or how she looks.

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Exercises and Activities for Incorporating Skills into Student Writing:

Read what you have written during the freewriting time. Do parts of your freewriting fulfill the writing composition assignment given to you earlier in the chapter? Does it give you ideas of what to write about?

Getting your ideas written down: When you have decided on who you will write about for your composition, take some time to freewrite again thinking specifically about the person you are writing about and about their situation.

Organize your ideas: Select some sentences and ideas that you like from your freewriting. Can some of the sentences be arranged in a general-to-specific order?Are there some sentences that you can expand on by writing more specific information?

Use the skills taught in this chapter: what tense are you writing in? Are you using words such as since, when, then and in fact?

IT Exercises and Activities for Developing Ideas:

If you are still having trouble finding someone to write about, use some search engines to find stories. Words you might google could be:

• Rags to Riches
• Development stories
• Poverty eradication

If you want Vietnamese stories, add “ Vietnam” to your search.

Writing First Draft:

Hopefully, by now, you have groups of sentences in general-to-specific order. Which groups of sentences are related to each other? What order should these groups of sentences be written in? How many paragraphs should there be? This is one way that you can start putting your composition together.

Editing Process and Exercises:

1. Check the structure of your paragraphs. Does each paragraph have a topic and concluding sentence? Does the body of the paragraphs support the main ideas?

2. Check the order of your paragraphs. Is the person you describe and their situation explained in an order that makes sense? Do you use general-to-specific organization?

3. Check spelling, punctuation and capitalization.

4. Read your paragraphs aloud. Are there awkward word choices? Is the grammar correct?

5. Have a friend read your composition. Does your friend understand what you are writing?

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Writing Second/Final Draft:

Using the corrections found through the editing process, re-write your paragraphs and turn them in to your teacher.

 

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