Tran Thi Linh

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Name: Tran Thi Linh
Position: Vietnamese Teacher
Gender: F
Age: 55

Appearance: Mrs. Tran is a short and thin woman, standing at five feet and weighing a hundred pounds. While she is notably smaller than nearly all the students in class, she has learned to very effectively channel her irritation and can make most students feel that she is looming over them if they provoke her ire. Her hair is graying black, and she wears it in a bun. Her eyes are dark brown. She has very good posture, and politely encourages the same in her students, suggesting that good habits lead to better results on tests. Mrs. Tran dresses well but perhaps a little less formally than one might expect, given the rest of her manner; she favors dresses in bright colors, jeans, and colorful tops. Mrs. Tran never wears jewelry, excepting her wedding ring, which is an understated design.

Biography/Personality: Mrs. Tran is a native-born citizen of the United States, though she was raised by fairly traditional first-generation immigrants from Vietnam. She grew up in San Francisco, and has lived her entire life near the coast. Mrs. Tran embraced her parents' culture wholeheartedly, taking great delight in the language from an early age. As a young woman, she faced some prejudice due to her ancestry and the United States' involvement in the war. This helped grant her a fervor for sharing information about the conflict and about her country, as she hoped to combat what she saw as ignorance on the part of other members of her community.

She still retains her zeal for education, especially as relates to a fairly underrepresented language and culture. Mrs. Tran tries to keep her classes very engaging and interesting, involving the class in discussions and assigning projects frequently. This, however, means that her classes are not by any means easy. She is very dedicated to teaching the language, and expects similar focus from her students. In upper level classes, no English conversations are allowed, though students are encouraged to chat and converse in Vietnamese. Mrs. Tran grades toughly but fairly. She is not afraid to fail students who do not work to master the material. She does, however, have a good sense of humor, and is willing to play along with troublemakers so long as they demonstrate respect for and mastery of the material.

On the rare occasions when Mrs. Tran gets mad, though, the results are frightening. While she is quite difficult to provoke, she works herself into towering rages, and is capable of producing shouts of astounding volume. She will gladly exercise any powers at her disposal when upset, and, though this can be distressing to her students, she knows exactly what the rules are. Over her thirty years as a teacher, she has never been disciplined as a result of complaints against her, though she has had several students transfer out of her classes.

All of the makes Mrs. Tran a teacher students either love or cannot stand. Those who stick in her class, though, tend to learn a great deal.