Observing the madness!

ESL teaching in Thailand

In the past, my alarm clock and I have had an agreement, I get to snooze as long as I like and it stays intact.  This agreement has now been terminated - that reminds me, I need a new alarm clock.  Anyhoo, the 06.30 rise in the morning has me flattened, and it’s only been two full days of work so far.  Oh dear.  On the bright side it’s a fun place to be so I’m getting more cheerful in the AM.  Coffee helps.  Can you believe they drink it with ICE in?  Sacrilege!  Whatever the temperature, it’s cappuccino all the way.  At 35 Baht a cup I’m not even missing my Waitrose loyalty card.  Work starts at 07.30 when the teachers prep for their first lesson, then we go to the school yard to play with the kids who, I’m sure, must eat speed for breakfast.  Following a brief greeting and playtime the teachers and students gather to sing English and Thai songs, including the Thai National Anthem.  These little dudes know all the words, as young as two years old.  Reluctantly I have to admit that I am multiples of their age and I cannot get past the first line of mine so already I’m infinitely impressed, and feeling optimistic of their capability...it’s mine I’m doubtful of now!  First lesson is approx 09.00, then another before lunch and one after.  The rest of the afternoon is used to plan lessons. 

I spent my first day at work being introduced to the kids who had a myriad of pronunciations for my name.  I’ll settle with anything as long as they don’t cry or tantrum.  I am yet to receive my tantrum control training…what do you mean it doesn’t exist?!  I observed as one of the more experienced teachers, a young American girl with the patience of a saint, gave her lessons for the day.  I was surprised and relieved at the level of English these little tots have after just six months* of school.  Already they can follow simple instruction, say their names, where they live, the days of the week, numbers, colours and the alphabet including vocab for about half the letters.  I feel a little more at ease now.  I had visions of being surrounded by bored frustrated screaming toddlers who had no idea what I was banging on about.  They’re like sponges and already have mopped up so much English.  At the tail end of the day I left the school feeling all warm and fuzzy at the students’ excitement at meeting me, and I bagged myself a little hug too.

That evening I accepted an invitation to the ‘Big C’ shopping mall, of which there are two in the city.  A colleague who lives in my building wanted to see what route worked best and, the general motto amongst the ESL teachers is “safety in numbers”.  It’s far easier to brave a new part of town with a buddy in tow, not for security issues but for fear of getting lost!  We decided to try out the Songthaews, which are, for all the world, pick up trucks with two benches in the back for passengers.  They operate like buses and are colour coded to signify their route.  But there’s no formal timetable or route map that you can pick up (this ain’t no London Underground!) but at 10 Baht (20p) a trip you can hop on and off and see for yourself.  We found ourselves at the Big C following a confusing journey through rush hour and brought much delight to the High School kids on their way home from school, they even got a chance to practise their English on us!  People here are very eager to help and trade some English for Thai, which will be a great way of learning it when I do attempt to study it.  I’m still working on remembering my four minute long route to work though so bear with me!  After a two hour shopping spree I left, my arms filled with bedding to make the rock hard mattress slightly more comfortable.  If I’m going to be looking after these mini balls of energy I’m going to need a good night’s sleep.  
  

One of the things I’d heard before departing for Thailand was that Thai people stare quite blatantly at farangs (white people) especially in areas that don’t get a high volume of tourists.  In Nakhon Sawan, there aren’t many of us so staring is inevitable, also being yelled at to say hello.  It  probably takes a while to get used to, I’ve been ok with it so far as I had read about it and I know that it’s all in good spirit.  I guess on a bad day, when I’m feeling moody (lack of coffee/sleep/hugs) I might think differently.  Right now the people of Nakhon Sawan have made me feel very welcome so the odd stare and shout here and there is just fine, especially if just to say hi.  How many times has it happened back home that someone I didn’t know wanted to get my attention just to say hello?!  T’would be a shameful world if that was regarded as a bad thing.  So, tired and sweaty from a shopping trip in the humidity I grabbed a Pad Thai from a nearby cart and, blinkin’ hell, it was GOOD!  I’m going to shut up soon about how cheap the food is but for now, the Pad Thai was 30 Baht (60p), just incase you were interested.  Trust me, when I start earning and thinking in Baht I will stop bragging! 

By the second day of observing classes, and jumping in to help out now and again, the kids are becoming more familiar with me and are saying my name unprompted.  There are so many of them though so it will take me longer to learn all their names.  In Thailand people have official long names but also they have nicknames, which are one syllable names that are chosen at birth and may have no significance to their actual name, eg a baby may be called Rain because he/she was born on a rainy day.  As far as I know, it comes from a Buddhist belief that if spirits come for the baby they won’t recognise him/her.  So, all the kids have short names and I’m hoping that will make them easier to remember.  I need to be more wily than those darned spirits!  Otherwise I will gain a reputation for being forgetful and I’ve already got that rep in the west.  In the east I want to be known for something a bit cooler.  I got very close to earning a reputation for being clumsy on my first couple of days, I put it down to temporary jetlag induced dopiness but I’m pretty sure I got away with it.

Tomorrow is Friday, I’m intrigued to see what the weekend will bring.  There has already been a suggestion of drinks on Saturday evening, when all the teachers can hook up.  Some work alternate hours teaching evening and weekend classes so Saturdays are best to catch everyone.  I’m looking forward to meeting everyone and having a relaxing well deserved (even if I do say so myself) drink to celebrate my first week down without being sick, getting bitten by a man eating centipede, getting run over by a Tuk Tuk or making a child cry…well, one but I hear she’s a crier anyway and they don’t count.

* Correction:  The kids start at a pre-kindergarten stage, which is basically like daycare, and complete just the first semester of the year, so at the stage described above they've actually had approx twelve months of schooling.  Still pretty impressive though, huh?

Images: Sinéad Millea