by Paul Hoffman, Greenheart Travel Teach Abroad Participant in Thailand
Just when I think everything was going good here at Kachanapise School in Thailand, I have a day like today. Not a bad day, but not as good as normal. I realize I’ve only been teaching a short time (about a month) and I don’t have a teaching background, but during the first three and a half weeks of teaching – I felt great!
There was a connection between myself and my students. They paid attention (for the most part) and I felt like they understood what I was teaching. They participated! They spoke English when I asked them to speak. They had that certain look in their eye that showed that they “got” it! As a teacher, when they “get it”, it makes you feel good.
Today I’m teaching one of my Matyom 1 (the spelling of this word is up for debate… as it’s a Thai word, all I can do is hope that this spelling in English is somewhat close) classes. It’s basically a seventh grade group of students and we are talking about animals. These kids know their animals. They can name more animals, in English, then most kids in the U.S. It’s amazing!
I hand out an exercise sheet that has pictures of animals and they write in the correct name for each picture in English. (Then we do a series of questions where I ask them if they were to become an animal, what animal would they be and why – etc, etc….) After they wrote in the answers, we were correcting the worksheet as a group and all the students were saying the name of the animal out loud for each picture. We go through about half of the 15 pictures and a girl in the second row puts up her hand, so I stop the in-class correction and call on her. She asks me (in very good English) what sport I like to play.
My eyes blink a few times. I’m dumbstruck. I’m baffled. I’m speechless. Are we in an episode of Twilight Zone? Did I just cross into a parallel universe? This girl and I – are we in separate worlds?
A few silent seconds tick by as I try to make some sort of connection between in class correction of pictures of animals with the names written in and what sport I like to play….
After my brain tries and fails in developing any kind of connection, I tell her it’s a good question and I’ll answer it after we finish today’s lesson on animals.
So, the moral of the story: Don’t get too complacent. Don’t think that things are always going smoothly and wonderfully. Don’t ever assume that each student is “getting” it and they are with you every step of the way. Don’t let yourself fall into (and stay in) your comfort zone because you may be flung back into reality via the Twilight Zone!
Here are a few more “you know you’re in Thailand when” realizations:
Only in Thailand!