Throughout the pandemic, the schools would be open, then shut, then open again for a long stretch, then shut. The final school closure was nearly a year long, and by its end, I had left Vietnam for England. However, I remember the last day of teaching. It was a Friday, and I taught both Pre-K and K. Ga Ga's formal name is Minh Chinh, but in Vietnam they refer to children by their pet names for the first few years until grade school (and for life within their families, evidently!). Ga Ga means 'little chicken', or I suppose 'chick', and he was an absolute character. As I was a contracted teacher, I would come in to teach hour long lessons in phonics, and STEM. I wasn't the homeroom teacher, so was a little more relaxed with my demeanor (Ga Ga also liked to greet me with 'I'm Pie-derman!' then throw his hands down as if shooting webs at me... and yes, I would fire back - not hugely professional). Ga Ga was in Pre-K and he was about to turn four! The school had a special birthday parties for students, and I was looking forward to sharing cake with him. Sadly, on Sunday evening we were told yet again 'more cases, schools will close for a couple of weeks'. I groaned - many of us had lost patience.
I digress. The other day I came across a video of Ga Ga. For homework, the students had to send me a short video of doing the sound of the week, and the action. I have a video still on my OneDrive of him as a three year old saying sweetly 'Today's sound goes like this... SSSS SSSS. The action goes like this....' then he lifts up a little plastic gun, points it at the camera and squeals 'peww! peww!'.
Ga Ga
Throughout the pandemic, the schools would be open, then shut, then open again for a long stretch, then shut. The final school closure was nearly a year long, and by its end, I had left Vietnam for England. However, I remember the last day of teaching. It was a Friday, and I taught both Pre-K and K. Ga Ga's formal name is Minh Chinh, but in Vietnam they refer to children by their pet names for the first few years until grade school (and for life within their families, evidently!). Ga Ga means 'little chicken', or I suppose 'chick', and he was an absolute character. As I was a contracted teacher, I would come in to teach hour long lessons in phonics, and STEM. I wasn't the homeroom teacher, so was a little more relaxed with my demeanor (Ga Ga also liked to greet me with 'I'm Pie-derman!' then throw his hands down as if shooting webs at me... and yes, I would fire back - not hugely professional). Ga Ga was in Pre-K and he was about to turn four! The school had a special birthday parties for students, and I was looking forward to sharing cake with him. Sadly, on Sunday evening we were told yet again 'more cases, schools will close for a couple of weeks'. I groaned - many of us had lost patience.
I digress. The other day I came across a video of Ga Ga. For homework, the students had to send me a short video of doing the sound of the week, and the action. I have a video still on my OneDrive of him as a three year old saying sweetly 'Today's sound goes like this... SSSS SSSS. The action goes like this....' then he lifts up a little plastic gun, points it at the camera and squeals 'peww! peww!'.
Legend.
Dolly.
That was my grandmother’s nickname her entire life. I loved that nickname, because she used to tell me that she looked like a doll as a baby.
I am not one to love names of people, but nicknames tell me so much about a person. I love the ones that someone else gives you.
Whenever I hear this name, I think of her and my heart is full.