Saturday, June 29, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
Wai Kru Day and Judging in Chonburi
One month in and I am still adding to the list of the unexpected and inexplicable at any given moment. On thursday morning we walked to the usual meeting place for the two thousand student assembly carried out with military precision each morning.
Instead of the regular assembly, Thursday was Wai Kru or teacher's day. All around the country schools celebrate this day with ornamental flowered sculptures that are presented to teachers by students who also kneel before their teachers while photos are taken. Our school has about five hundred teachers so the ceremony was very lengthy. After the flower ceremony ended we waited one hour for a line up of Buddhist monks in the striking orange yellow robes to lead some chanting from a raised platform on the stage where they sat cross legged each holding between flattened palms a string that connected them all.
Around lunch time students spontaneously approached teachers with flowers, surrounding them and bowing down to the teacher who bestowed a blessing, or so I could gather. Some teachers found two students kneeling down beside them and would touch their head and whisper some words. It was all very touching and a great difference from the more distant respect shown teachers (when they are shown respect) in the west. Suffice to say I didn't have to bless anyone which was well and good, this informal ceremony was between the beloved and well-known Thai teachers and some of their most adoring students.
Towards the end of the unusual day I was told that I would be leaving at 5:30 the next morning to Chonburi, a town about 200 km away to be a judge at a contest some of the students were entered in.
It was very last minute. I had helped a student prepare three speeches that week. One on Science and Technology, one on language and the third on education and career. She did very well under the circumstances and I hope I was able to help her instead of overwhelming her with my ideas about inserting a quote from the astronaut Chris Hadfield into the technology speech.
At the school in Chonburi I met a great number of other foreign English teachers! One by the name of Don who, being originally from Lake Tahoe, was very open about his past experiences. I think we were all a little desperate to talk without a language barrier, although the Thai English teachers I met there were also refreshingly easy to talk to. Don had a music store in California that Robin Williams and Alicia Silverstone dropped into from time to time. Then he was a fisherman in Alaska. Talking to someone who had been to Vancouver and sailed the waters around B.C. made me feel like I was home again for a little while. He retired in Thailand, got bored and started teaching three years ago. Most of the English Teachers I met had been in the country for more than three years. I was the freshest by far. It was encouraging to meet others who had made this their home away from home. Most of them were guys in their thirties but then I met Tracy. A tall brown haired Albertan from Medicine Hat who had taught in Korea for twelve years and was living close to my school!
She extended an invitation to me to visit her school if I was in the area and we both shared an immediate excitement to meet another Canadian, and one from Western Canada at that.
I judged five students who individually gave a five minute speech on one of the three topics. The one who won had studied in South Africa and probably had an unfair advantage, but it was inspiring to see these young teenagers go up in front of us judges and speak in a foreign language about education or technology or language.
Amazingly one of the contestants had studied in Vancouver and another was on her way to live there. If I have done anything hard in my life it must be nothing compared to the sacrifice these few lucky students have when they leave their families to learn English.
I was given a free lunch and felt very much like a professional throughout the day. A welcome change from working in the checkout in Victoria feeling the weight of a very unusable (there) degree and the lingering student loan or kick-in-the-pants that got me there.
Around lunch time students spontaneously approached teachers with flowers, surrounding them and bowing down to the teacher who bestowed a blessing, or so I could gather. Some teachers found two students kneeling down beside them and would touch their head and whisper some words. It was all very touching and a great difference from the more distant respect shown teachers (when they are shown respect) in the west. Suffice to say I didn't have to bless anyone which was well and good, this informal ceremony was between the beloved and well-known Thai teachers and some of their most adoring students.
Towards the end of the unusual day I was told that I would be leaving at 5:30 the next morning to Chonburi, a town about 200 km away to be a judge at a contest some of the students were entered in.
It was very last minute. I had helped a student prepare three speeches that week. One on Science and Technology, one on language and the third on education and career. She did very well under the circumstances and I hope I was able to help her instead of overwhelming her with my ideas about inserting a quote from the astronaut Chris Hadfield into the technology speech.
At the school in Chonburi I met a great number of other foreign English teachers! One by the name of Don who, being originally from Lake Tahoe, was very open about his past experiences. I think we were all a little desperate to talk without a language barrier, although the Thai English teachers I met there were also refreshingly easy to talk to. Don had a music store in California that Robin Williams and Alicia Silverstone dropped into from time to time. Then he was a fisherman in Alaska. Talking to someone who had been to Vancouver and sailed the waters around B.C. made me feel like I was home again for a little while. He retired in Thailand, got bored and started teaching three years ago. Most of the English Teachers I met had been in the country for more than three years. I was the freshest by far. It was encouraging to meet others who had made this their home away from home. Most of them were guys in their thirties but then I met Tracy. A tall brown haired Albertan from Medicine Hat who had taught in Korea for twelve years and was living close to my school!
She extended an invitation to me to visit her school if I was in the area and we both shared an immediate excitement to meet another Canadian, and one from Western Canada at that.
I judged five students who individually gave a five minute speech on one of the three topics. The one who won had studied in South Africa and probably had an unfair advantage, but it was inspiring to see these young teenagers go up in front of us judges and speak in a foreign language about education or technology or language.
Amazingly one of the contestants had studied in Vancouver and another was on her way to live there. If I have done anything hard in my life it must be nothing compared to the sacrifice these few lucky students have when they leave their families to learn English.
I was given a free lunch and felt very much like a professional throughout the day. A welcome change from working in the checkout in Victoria feeling the weight of a very unusable (there) degree and the lingering student loan or kick-in-the-pants that got me there.
Monday, June 10, 2013
In The Classroom
Before I came to Thailand I somehow had gotten the impression that I would be teaching one class of fifty students per day. After I arrived I realized that number had grown to four classes of fifty bringing my total student jurisdiction to a whopping 750! As this is a public school, not much difference from your average jungle around the world; they are boisterous, unruly and adorable. Most speak barely an ounce of English but yell out "Good morning Teacher!" with such regularity that I am beginning to understand that, here in Rayong, that is somehow what I have become.
In Thailand we use a microphone to be heard above the din. Well, to be fair, some classes are better than others. In one class the students couldn't seem to stay in their chairs and spent some of their time lying on the floor. I find, more and more, however that if I am able to keep them occupied by singing "Head and shoulders, knees and toes" for example, they can be pretty attentive. It's harder when the microphones don't work and you have to yell or when you can't find chalk or the microphone chord doesn't reach. Those classes can wear a newbie like myself down. I'm just grateful I don't understand the jokes they are almost certainly making about the Farang teacher as I walk the halls.
No tattoos and no pants allowed for females. One of the first days I tried on fifteen or so dresses with an audience explaining "Suey!" or beautiful. Nice but I also felt like a spectacle. You can't get around it if you're a visible minority. I am only one of two white teachers at the school and I don't see too many others buying their chicken feet or squid at the local market either. A vindicating example of my otherness was the nickname a teacher, whose nickname is Apple, bestowed on me the other day. I am Pai Keow meaning rice leaf, because of my white skin. I like it.
I was given a textbook for two out of the three grades I have to teach. Teaching materials are a godsend when you have seven hundred and fifty pairs of eyes looking at you every week. The third grade is textbookless but I have been given a subject to teach them. The subject is alarmingly vague. I am told I should be teaching "Sufficiency Economy." This is the brainchild of the Thai King (remember no criticism allowed). I have been told to "Try" by the English teacher who sent me those original e-mails. The ones that like a chess game, put me here.
I am trying, I am.
In Thailand we use a microphone to be heard above the din. Well, to be fair, some classes are better than others. In one class the students couldn't seem to stay in their chairs and spent some of their time lying on the floor. I find, more and more, however that if I am able to keep them occupied by singing "Head and shoulders, knees and toes" for example, they can be pretty attentive. It's harder when the microphones don't work and you have to yell or when you can't find chalk or the microphone chord doesn't reach. Those classes can wear a newbie like myself down. I'm just grateful I don't understand the jokes they are almost certainly making about the Farang teacher as I walk the halls.
No tattoos and no pants allowed for females. One of the first days I tried on fifteen or so dresses with an audience explaining "Suey!" or beautiful. Nice but I also felt like a spectacle. You can't get around it if you're a visible minority. I am only one of two white teachers at the school and I don't see too many others buying their chicken feet or squid at the local market either. A vindicating example of my otherness was the nickname a teacher, whose nickname is Apple, bestowed on me the other day. I am Pai Keow meaning rice leaf, because of my white skin. I like it.
I was given a textbook for two out of the three grades I have to teach. Teaching materials are a godsend when you have seven hundred and fifty pairs of eyes looking at you every week. The third grade is textbookless but I have been given a subject to teach them. The subject is alarmingly vague. I am told I should be teaching "Sufficiency Economy." This is the brainchild of the Thai King (remember no criticism allowed). I have been told to "Try" by the English teacher who sent me those original e-mails. The ones that like a chess game, put me here.
I am trying, I am.
Life in Klaeng, Rayong or What I Wish I knew
A week and a half ago I arrived safely in Klaeng district, in Rayong province, situated on the southeast coast of Thailand. That being said I am nowhere near the beach, one of many adjustments I have made in the past few days.
With adjustments have come many valuable lessons I will never forget in any future English Teaching endeavors or adventures I may choose to pursue, or not, it has been one hell of a week and a half.
The days leading up to my departure were a blur of emotions and errands mingling together to make the time race by. Before I knew it I saw the elevator doors close, tearing me away from my very handsome boyfriend for at least half of one year, one year if it turns out I'm Thai enough.
It was tough to leave home. There were some tears but the Greatful Dead took me through a lonesome ferry ride and I practiced deep breathing I learned in yoga classes. I was on my own, heading to Hong Kong first then Bangkok. The potential reality I had given only sidelong glances to a month ago was coming true. Most of my moves had been cursory. An e-mail here, a resume there, soon the moves started to pile up and like the chess games I usually lose it was not long before I was backed into a corner putting all my earnings into a plane ticket. Don't think for a second that moving across the world to be an English teacher in a foreign land suggests that I am courageous or brave; ignorant and foolhardy would be more appropriate. On to the adjustment phase.
Arriving in Bangkok was a rush. Suddenly the air was hot and thick, everyone has black hair and speak a foreign tongue. I seized upon my only link here, the small boned Thai woman in a floral pink shirt holding a sign saying, amazingly, my name.
We arrived at the school, where bronze statues standing in a pond adorn the sign reading "Wittayasathaworn." The female statues have very pronounced breasts, there are also some half-human half-dragony looking creatures from a famous poem from this region I have not yet read.
Our house is five minutes walk from the basketball court and boxing ring where teenagers play past dark every evening. The basketball court has a five foot high picture of the king and queen of Thailand on either side of the hoop. It is illegal to say anything bad about the king here and his picture is on the side of many buildings and in every classroom against a shiny tinfoil background.
One of the first things my eyes did spy in our free accomodation was a five centimeter long lizard hanging onto the wall with it's sticky toes. I was enamored to see the first one and a little queasy when I saw my fiftieth somewhere near the ceiling above my bed making it's clicking noise.
Other animals new English Teachers coming to Thailand should be prepared for that may enter the house are geckos, scorpions, snakes, frogs and hundreds of winged insects if it is about to rain. None of these creatures are blinked at by locals, after all us humans are bigger in size and they are more afraid of us, or so I have been told. Here's a tip, if there is a frog in your bathroom, sweep it into a dustpan and hold the broom over it while you take it outside. Here's another tip, don't bother putting the gecko outside because he actually lives with you, for good. Don't leave the light on when it's about to rain or you will have to run through a swarm of darting winged insects one inch long. That night, maybe it was the third, I left the light on and retreated to my screened in bedroom. Leave the scorpion alone or, if it poses a threat, ask a team of pick up soccer players to bash it to death with broom handles as some American co-teachers reported. This second option is less buddhist in principle but might help you sleep at night.
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