For many months till now, every Saturday and Sunday morning, the Yen Vui eatery, located at 68 Ly Trien, Thanh Khe District, Da Nang, has become bustling with the voices of children who are keen on pronunciation, reading, chatting, singing and more.

‘1,000-VND’ classes have attracted a great deal of attention from Da Nang children, especially those living in financially tough circumstances.

The special classes, with the tuition fee of only 1,000 VND / session sponsored by the Ho Chi Minh City-based Bong Sen Charity Fund, have attracted a great deal of attention from Da Nang children, especially those living in financially tough circumstances.  

The English class named ‘Fun and fun’ opens from early morning on weekends. While waiting for class time, the children are seen gathering to play soccer, read books, and chatted loudly with one another.

‘1,000-VND’ classes open every Saturday and Sunday morning at the Yen Vui eatery, located at 68 Ly Trien, Thanh Khe District, Da Nang

At exactly 7:30am, all the children quickly get to their seats and open their books. classroom manager Nguyen Le Van Khanh, 32, said, the English class is one of the projects sponsored by the Bong Sen Charity Fund with the aim of helping children who cannot afford expensive English courses at foreign language centre due to their difficult circumstances.

Classes started operating from the end of October 2020, with the participation of five volunteer teachers.

Currently, the Yen Vui eatery runs an English class for primary pupils every Saturday morning, whilst an English class for junior high school pupils on Sunday morning, plus a painting class on Saturday morning, all of which run on a weekly basis.

“Most of the children studying here are in difficult and unfortunate circumstances. Therefore, a tuition fee of only 1,000 VND / session / child is charged. Such a low tuition fee is actually a way to inspire the learners avoid inferiority complex and to comfortably study. All of the collected charges will be used to buy paper, pens, paint or organise festive events for these trainees”, explained Khanh.

Huynh Le Vuong Mai Thanh, 32, from Cam Le District is one of the volunteers who have joined the English class as a teacher.

Huynh Le Vuong Mai Thanh, 32, from Cam Le District is one of the volunteers who have joined the English class as a teacher.

Thanh specialises in graphic design, has no pedagogical expertise. Regardless of these, with good English proficiency, and also importantly, her love for kids, Thanh signed up for free teaching to partly support the children to enhance their English skills.

In addition to teaching English vocabulary and grammars to children, Thanh also integrates lessons on kindness, gratitude, and humanitarian love into the class.

In addition to the Vietnamese volunteers, the ‘Fun and fun’ English class also attracted the active involvement by foreign teachers living and working in Da Nang.

Apart from the English class, Yen Vui also opens a painting class which attracts lots of the attention from a large number of children.

In addition to teaching English vocabulary and grammars to children, the teachers also integrate lessons on kindness, gratitude, and humanitarian love into the class.

During the painting class, teachers enthusiastically give step-by-step guidance’s to “first-time painters” on how to appropriately mix colours, use brushes, develop ideas, and identify the structure to the layout of the painting.

The painting class itself gives the great encouragement to the trainers here to paint whatever comes to their minds, in tune with their own feelings.

Doan Khanh Phong, a Year 2 pupil from the Le Quy Don Primary School excitedly said: “I've been studying here since the first day of the class. The teachers are very enthusiastic and supportive. I have also befriended with others”. Likewise, Ngo Minh Huy, a Year 3 from the Huynh Ngoc Hue Primary School, showed his interest in the English class. His vocabulary and communication skills have increasingly improved.

According to Khanh, in addition to the existing English and painting classes, Yen Vui is on the way to seek more voluntary teachers to open maths and soft skills classes in the coming time.

By LAM PHUONG- Translated by A.T