Teaching English

Over the last week and a half I have been teaching English at a local school right next to Mckean Hospital where Emily is doing her medical elective.

The school has 800 students and the class sizes are huge. I haven't had a class that is smaller than 35 students, the biggest being just under 50!! In the first few days there I discovered so many things that broke from the teaching conventions I'd learned back in Australia. For starters the classroom sizes, way to big to have any real education occuring. I think the perfect ratio is one teacher to 15 or 16 students. Then they use rote learning, okay, in some cases it may work, but basically its relying too much on the collective intelligence of the class not the individual students knowledge. So too many students slip through the cracks, especially in huge classes of students. I was also shocked by the public shaming of students when they didn't know something, if a student couldn't answer the teacher would get the whole class to tell him "what he did wrong". I also saw physical manhandling of students and one teacher had a cane at hand ready to use. She didn't use it but told me it could come in handy if i needed it.

Okay its not all bad, the children are lovely, altho in one class they were literally climbing the walls (its no wonder the teacher called them little monkeys- to their faces too!). But almost all are very polite and cheerful and get excited having a new teacher in the room. And most are receptive to learning and playing the various English games I have managed to remember.

The English (or Engrish as they say-confusion of 'l' and 'r') knowledge here is extremely varied, in one class you could have a kid who knows nothing and another who is nearly fluent. I also find it strange to see the teachers giving them words that as a class they can say but individually they don't have clue what the word is. They are using terrible American text books that have no relevance to their lives at all. Have also discovered some amusing Thai mutations of English, e.g. "heeling shoe". Can anyone guess what this might be? I discovered this one on the "3th" of January, another little amusing Thai English-ism. They also have trouble with "Seth", the "th" sound being difficult for them.

The teachers here are great, and the Principal is a lovely cheerful lady with great English who trys to teach me Thai words. She says amusing things like during lunch when she heaps chilli onto her food "Chilli makes me sexy!". Today she put her arm around me and said "this is my son". She has also taken a liking to Emily who came and helped me teach (Em's a natural teacher). She sent me home the other day to look after Emily who was sick, and gave me the next morning off to make sure she was okay. I have also befriended the high school English teacher Narin, a great little Thai man, the same age as me and with great English. We get along well and i hope to stay in contact with him.

Tomorrow is my last day. While its been fun it'll be good not to have to do the long 40 min ride (early in the morning!) it takes us to get there. We have to get through crazy Thai drivers, pollution and some bad roads. Em almost got totally bowled over today by a girl on a motorbike who didn't notice us at all! She didn't even stop to see if Em was okay.