So I actually signed my written contract with the school yesterday. Here’s the deal: New teachers are supposed to start on a one-semester (three-month) “probationary” contract. Then, if everything works out, they get a one-year contract. Then, if things are still good, they are eligible for a three-year contract after that.

So, after this first, probationary semester, I expected a one-year contract. Well, as I posted last week, when I had my meeting with our department director, he told me that I would be getting a two-year contract. Sweet, right?

Well, yesterday, he brought me the physical, written contract to sign, and it is actually for THREE years!

A couple of my friends who started teaching with me also got three-year contract, so I’m not sure what is going on. I halfway expect that they will approach us, tell us they made a mistake, and ask us to tear up the three-year contracts to be replaced by a one-year contract. (In which case I would agree – even though they’re technically bound to the three-year contract, they can always fire you for cause. And insisting on keeping the three-year contract that they gave you by mistake would certainly give them incentive to find some cause to fire you over the course of the next year!)

But as of right now, I am signed up through June 2011!

Other news: Going to look at a new house this morning at 11:00am. Our landlord at my place in Phu My Hung is trying to raise our rent considerably and we’re not interested, so will be moving out when the lease expires at the end of June. One of the German girls already moved back to Germany anyway.

Also, I am ready to move back into the city anyway. As nice as it is to live so close to the school down here in Phu My Hung, and as much as I dread the commute (probably about 30 mins. each way), I miss living in the city. Phu My Hung is just kind of boring after a while, and I tend to be lazy about driving into the city so I feel like I’m kind of isolating myself down here.

We had our Commercial Law final two days ago. Overall, it went well and I think that the students felt it was a fair exam. One snafu: When we were preparing for the exam in my class, I went over an old final exam with our class. (We post old midterms and final exams on the intranet here so that they can practice.) Well, I misread one part of one of the questions and told them something that wasn’t technically right. (For you legal wonks: I misread a contract in the question as being still executory and told the class that a contract had been frustrated, when in reality the contract had been fully executed so frustration was no longer an option.) Ordinarily, no big deal – I just made a mistake on one issue on one question in class. BUT, strangely enough, that question was recycled for this final exam by the folks down in Melbourne (who write our tests here). So, although I haven’t started grading yet, I am 100% sure that my class analyzed that issue based on frustration. Here’s how I handled it: I am going to grade the answers to that question myself so that I can make sure that my students don’t have points deducted for analyzing frustration. It wouldn’t be fair to penalize my students for a mistake that I made. I think it will be okay.

My other final exam, Business Case Studies, which I won’t be teaching anymore after this semester, is today at 2:00pm. One funny thing: We held a two-hour review session for the BCS students on Monday. During that review session, I wrote on the board about 15 or 20 concepts that “might be important to learn for the final,” and encouraged the students to write the outline down. Yesterday I got an email from a student that said, and I’m paraphrasing: “I was at the review session on Monday and I remember that you wrote some stuff on the board. I didn’t know that it was important so I didn’t write it down. Can you email it to me?” So this student didn’t bother to write it down over the course of the two-hour review session, but now wants me to take the time to type it all up and email it to him. I almost have to give him credit for the sheer audacity of his request, but I politely declined and suggested that he get the material from another student.

But here’s the best email I’ve gotten from a student. One day in class last week I jokingly told my Commercial Law students that Wednesday (when they took their final) was going to be their “doomsday.” They didn’t know what “doomsday” meant, so I wrote it on the board and told them to look it up in Vietnamese. (I’ve been told that it translates to ngay xet xua.) Anyway, a couple of days later I got this email:

“Dear Henry,

As you know that on Wes day I will face with the “Judgment day of Law” so i wish that before being executing (x_X) you could do me the last favor that is giving me the last and final appointment on tomorrow at 2pm!
Please accept my last request, sir, please!(^_^)

Best regards
Bao

Ps: if you do not accept it I will sue you under the “Jungle Law”!”