Teaching is much better than it’s made out to be. I suppose this mainly comes down to the fact that I’m teaching in the Kingdom of Thailand, rather than the United Kingdom. The 2 Kingdoms are worlds apart in more instances than one.
I’m just over 2 weeks into teaching, and so far so good. Being the first time that I have really done something like this, meant that I was in for many surprises; both good and bad, but mainly good. A lot of this comes down to my particular placement; it seems to fit like a glove; rather than one of those puzzles you find in a charity shop with a few pieces missing (which I find is rather annoying). The school, location, people, and children, have turned it from a good experience to a truly great one. It is still very early days; with four and a half months still to go, anything can happen!
Let’s start with the school. I teach at a Matayom School called Muangsuratthani (secondary to you Brits). It has around 2500 or so pupils whose age’s range from 12 all the way up to about 18/19. I teach about 18hrs a week and teach all the M1’s, M2’s, and some of the M6’s, so I mainly teach the nippers. In all honesty though, all Thai children seem like nippers; compared to their British counterparts they are nothing alike. They all seem childish and innocent; even the 18/19 year olds. It’s hard to grasp that some are actually adults! As an example, the naughty kids in the UK will probably provoke the teacher until the teacher gives up and wants to punch the student in the face; calling him/her names, and just being a rude and cocky git in general; even being abusive and threatening. There is none of this sort of horseplay in Thailand. My naughtiest student probably threw a Digimon card at me; and how did I react? Shout? Kick him out the class? Cane him? (this is allowed here, but I’m not sure on the legality of a farang caning students here, would be interesting to find out though ;-D) No. I threw the card out the window and the whole class roared out in laughter, and then incorporated ‘No Digmon’ into the class rules. The Thai students are pretty good natured, and seem quite happy; they’re like big kids really. They seem to adore the English teachers, and will go out their way to shout ‘hello’ at you, call you ‘handsome’, or sometimes in my case call me ‘Harry Potter’ (with which I respond ‘Jackie Chan’). This respect (well respect in a funny sort of way) is the thing missing from the establishments back in the UK; the students will even ‘Y’ you when you walk past them (put their hands together as if they’re praying at you), it’s still a strange phenomenon to me, but I kind of like it. The teaching bit of it is quite fun too. It is funny when they are trying to pronounce the letter ‘r’ or ‘l’, and they don’t really tend to have the ‘s’ sound on the end of words, hence ‘Flanci’; I look forward to teaching tongue twisters :p.
Location, location, location; all important when choosing somewhere to live. I’m about 700km south of Bangkok, in a place called Suratthani. It’s not the best place in the world, but then again it’s not the worst, I can think of far worse places. It’s ideal for the week; there’s plenty of bars, clubs, and places to eat to keep you busy, but it just hasn’t got that pzaz. Oh well! A short ferry ride away are the beautiful islands of Koh Samui; Koh Phang Ngang; and Koh Tao. All great places to relax by the beach, go scuba diving or party; especially Koh Phang Ngang for a full moon party. As of yet, I’m still to explore these little treasures as I’m low on funds, but come pay day, I’ll be able to have a weekend getaway every few weeks. My apartments a little on the expensive side by Thai standards but dirt cheap when compared to back home (£100 a month for a fully furnished, air-conditioned modern apartment, with a security guard, not that he’s a very good one though). The main thing is I’m happy, so I don’t mind spending that little bit extra. Despite the school only being a 15 minute walk away; it is too hot to walk, especially in the morning. I end up getting to school needing another shower! Talking about showers, did I mention I have hot water, refreshing though it is, I am fed up of cold ones!
There are probably around 60 other farang (foreign) teachers in Surat, who all seem like a good bunch of people; especially the teachers that I work with; Tiggs and Sarah. They have made the whole process of settling in, meeting others, and general day-to-day things so much easier for me. Despite being a little bit older than me; what they lack in youthfulness, they make up for in spirit; both are top notch people. There are a lot of Yanks in Surat. The Brits seem to be outnumbered by about 9 to 1, which isn’t exactly a bad thing, but there’s only so many times you can hear the word awesome. That’s not awesome. However, they too, are indeed awesome, and seem to be a good laugh, especially on a night out. Awesome!
A brief message to my fellow Koh Changers if you are reading this:
‘I haven’t forgotten about you lovely people. Despite not meeting you on a number of occasions already, you are dearly missed. My lack of Baht has stopped me from meeting up with you on the weekends, but give it a few weeks until pay day, and we can celebrate with a full moon party and a good old fashioned catch up.’
Back to the blog….
Well the end of this post really. I will have plenty more to write about shortly and still have some things on the drawing board; so please, be patient, and speak shortly.
No comments:
Post a Comment