Peter Ross

January 16, 1981 | Male | By

ESL Teacher at ILA Viet Nam

Viet Nam

Years of Experience:
10 years
Highest Level:
Director
Education:
Associated Degree, Advanced Vietnamese, Vietnamese Language at HCMC University of Social Science and Humanities
Custom Fields
Languages:
Japanese
Ethnicity:
European

Contact Info

Summary

Growing up in the PNG highlands, my father a theologian, my mother a concert pianist, and me the youngest of four siblings debating at the dinner table, were key formative influences for me. The highlands introduced me to adventure into far flung places, comfort in a world surrounded by multiple languages and cultures, and a love of reading about other lives and places. Spontaneous mealtime debates taught me to listen and reason. My mother’s music gave me mine.

IMMERSION
Years later it was lap-swimming that concretized a key life concept for me: deep immersion. In those days, I swam two kilometers. Toward the end of that distance, I had left everything else behind, and become a fish-like object propelling itself through the water. Environments for deep concentration are taken for granted in the West. They are how we learn. In the Far East, they are rarely part of daily routines and must be sought after, heavily impacting what can be achieved.

ANOMALY
Thirty years’ association with Southeast Asia beginning in my late teens is what my goals revolve around today. Mastering two tonal languages, Thai and Vietnamese, to the point my hairy, white exterior has often been queried as to which of its parents was Asian, is no small feat. Yet the anomaly is a good indication of the turmoil beneath the veneer of a West that “accepts” difference, and an East that “rejects” it.

VALUES
As a Thai and Vietnamese to English translator, editor of English, and teacher and researcher of language, history and culture, I give the best my abilities allow and my situation inhibits. I have an artist’s bent for perfection, even at the cost of my own time and effort when the task calls for less. I have a scholar’s desire for clarity and understanding, knowing many things can be built without them but none that will last. And I have the adventurer’s thirst for the new, ever wanting to go where no man has gone, while knowing the law of life that the financial rewards go those who come after.

Experience

ESL Teacher

ILA Viet Nam

Technical Writer

December 2008 - Present ( 15 years 3 months ) | Vietnam

- Worked for 7 years for a Top 40 Foreign Invested Company in Vietnam
- Taught classes and private English as a Second Language courses to Vietnamese, Lao, Chinese and Korean students aged from Kindergarten to Adult from beginner to IELTS and TOEFL accumulating around 2000 hours of ESL teaching experience
- Developed engaging, high-quality handouts and interactive computer-based activities involving still images, sound, and video using Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, Visual Basic, ABBY FineReader, GIMP, Paint, Audacity, Windows MovieMaker, SubtitleWorkshop and Active Inspire to improve students' accuracy and fluency at all levels
- Worked as a Language Level Placement Tester for all ages, and an examiner in mock tests for Cambridge and IELTS
- Develop computer-based pair-testing prompts for young learners
- Took part in a range of special event activities for students and staff at Christmas, Halloween, and Tet.
- Undertook regular on-the-job training, attended conferences, and engaged in professional reading to improve my teaching knowledge and skills

Director - Translator

Amway Vietnam Co., Ltd.

Director

October 2006 - November 2008 ( 2 years 1 Month ) | Vietnam

- Prepared and negotiated paperwork for business investment application for proprietary limited company in Vietnam, including reading (in Vietnamese) relevant laws such as the Publishing Law, Business Law, and Investment Law
- Carried out basic steps for setting up company after licence approval, including with the Tax Department and negotiated and worked with accounting outsourcer to carry out all tax and other government required reporting (e.g. Bureau of Labour, Bureau of Statistics)
- Purchased, tested, and used CAT tools and other software relevant to translation
- Completed translation of one book-length work of junior fiction from Thai to English, published by Mekong Press in 2015
- Translated two Vietnamese short stories in cooperation with the Vietnam Writer's Association and Charles Waugh for publication online and in book form
- Co-translated the translation of one Vietnamese short story into Thai and translated miscellaneous short stories and poetry for authors in Thailand, particularly in conjunction with Pajonphai Publishing
- Edited poetry translations for a collection by Vietnamese poet ViLi in cooperation with the Vietnamese Writer's Association
- Coordinated necessary paperwork for dissolving of proprietary limited company

Skills & Expertise

Education

HCMC University of Social Science and Humanities

Associated Degree, Advanced Vietnamese, Vietnamese Language

2007 - 2007

Additional Notes:

Six months full-time study at the Faculty of Vietnamese at Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities under Nguyen Van Pho and others.

The Australian National University

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Study of image schemas in Thai

1995 - 1999

Activities and Societies:

Cooperation on tone language research

Australian National Unviersity

Bachelor Degree, Thai Language and Linguistics

1988 - 1991

Activities and Societies:

Thai Students Association, Hong Kong Students Association

Additional Notes:

Pursued a course of study in Southeast Asian Languages and Culture and became interested in image schemas in Thai

Certifications

Advanced Vietnamese

at University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City

Languages

Vietnamese (Professional Working)

Tok Pisin (Limited Working)

Thai (Fill Working)

French (Limited Working)

Publications

Book - National Teaching Workshop, Griffith University, Brisbane , 30 September 1993  
An Integrated Computer-Video Approach to Learning Non-Roman Asian Scripts
Summary:
Review of issues relating to development of multimedia materials for learning foreign language scripts with application to Thai.
Book - Mekong Press , 31 July 2005  
Summary:
Translation of award-winning junior fiction by Thai author "Khemachat" about an overweight boy growing up in culturally diverse northeastern Thailand.