I was born to a family whose members are all business people except me. My father used to be a successful businessman who traveled all around the world from Asia, Europe, America to Australia. After each trip, he told me about the places he had been to and about the people he had met with vivid examples of their culture. From my father, I learnt about the beautiful Singapore city and Copenhagen capital of Denmark whose people are very well aware of keeping their city clean and green, about fast-food and the work-oriented and individualistic people in California compared to the out-going and neighborly people in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. My father has left in me the curiosity to learn about culture of the countries around the world. Besides, my father and my brother were my first teachers of literature who blew in me the wind of passion to study literature, moving my heart with the poem “Me om” by Tran Dang Khoa, “Nguoi thay dau tien” translated from a Russian short story by a Russian writer, “Chiec la cuoi cung“ translated from an American short story by O’Henry. These literary works provoked in me the love for men, the understanding of the people, their culture and the social circumstances in and about which the works were written.
I am now a teacher of English at Haiphong Foreign Language Center under Haiphong University. For a teacher of English, having good knowledge of the culture and society of English speaking countries is of great benefit since such experiences do help to make the teaching and learning of the target language easier, more lively and vivid. It can not be denied that the teaching and learning of a language would fail if the teacher does not have good cultural and social background knowledge to explain to his or her students the situations in which the native speakers use the language or the social circumstances in which the language is used.