"Can I see your license and registration, ma'am?"

It had to happen sometime. Yesterday I had my first run-in with a traffic cop.

I was at a busy intersection, made an illegal left turn, and then saw the cop standing on the sidewalk. He stepped in front of me and waved me over. I was tempted for a second to go around him and hit the gas - I heard sometimes cops can do little more than throw their batons at your retreating head - but I'm glad I didn't. Turns out some cops have their own motorbikes nearby and are only too happy to give chase.

So I parked my bike, promptly fell into a muddy ditch (the bike toppling onto me), was helped up by the cop, and then stood there awkwardly as he asked me for my papers. In my head were the words of wisdom offered by my friend Hai, a fellow American Viet Kieu: "DON'T SPEAK A SINGLE WORD OF VIETNAMESE!"

"Can't I just say a little, enough for them to know I'm not-"

"NO! NOT A SINGLE WORD OF VIETNAMESE!"

I got the...editiiiiiiiiiiiiiing blues

Does this make any sense to anyone else or is it just me?

In an article for a recent Vietnam Investment Review, pre-editing: "According to the report, education and formation sector will renovate managing mechanism and educating method on orientating standardisation, modernisation and socialisation as well as further improving teaching and studying quality."

I knew it. It's just me.

There's a kid next to me...

...playing this game where President Bush is hiding behind his desk in the Oval Office with what I suspect is an AK-47 (although hell if I know), shooting at a seemingly unending number of masked, armed terrorists who appear at the doors and behind the couches. It's called Bush Shootout!

Skin color

I wrote an article for Nguoi Viet 2 from Vietnam. Nguoi Viet is a Vietnamese-American newspaper based in Westminster, Calif., which has the largest Vietnamese population outside of Asia. Nguoi Viet 2 is their weekly English version.

Anyway, this article is about the preference of some English schools for white teachers. Some of my Viet Kieu friends (interviewed in the article) have had problems getting hired or getting the same pay. Although I didn't have these problems, I did have one class that complained to the school about me, for no other reason than that I wasn't white. I wanted to drop the class, which I was teaching with a white Australian man, but the school told them to give me a chance. I can tell you it absolutely sucked walking into that classroom afterward, thinking that at least some of the students didn't want me.

But I found out later that a guy who I considered the class leader had challenged the dissenters to give one logical reason for dropping me when I was born in the States and was a native speaker. So they kept me, we got along, and they eventually asked that I be the class's sole teacher. One of my friends now teaches some of the same students, and he told me recently they were complimenting my teaching. "Maybe they want you back," he wrote.

Anyway, the article's below.

http://www.nguoi-viet.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=38361&z=19