My first day on the job

Here’s a picture of me and a toad. I used it to produce girly screams from a few of my coworkers.

Today I had my first day of classes. I actually taught one impromptu class on Friday, but today was official. But I’ll talk a little about what I’m doing first.

I came to Somboi right as their summer break was starting, so that immediately ruled out any in-class work I could do. So we did a little brainstorming and decided that I could teach my own English class at the administrative office a few times a week. Of course, only if there was enough interest from the students.

We sent the word out, and the first day, 89 students signed up. Over the next couple days, I topped out around 130 students. I also offered to teach an adult class once a week, and I’m not sure how many people will come to that (on Monday).

Basically, they told me that I have any and all resources at my disposal, and I’m in control. It’s been crazy. I spent an entire day typing the students’ names into my computer (harder than it sounds: they were all scribbled in Thai) and dividing them into class. I ended up with 6 classes, and each will meet twice a week. It’s a total of 16 hours a week.

My bulletin board with class lists:

My classroom:

So I had a class of 12-year olds this morning, and 15-year olds in the afternoon. The 12-year olds were great. After they relaxed a little bit, they spoke out and were really interactive. I just talked about the class, how important it is for them to tell me if they don’t understand something, and introduced myself. Then I played a “game” with them where they’d stand up or do some other motion if a statement applied to them. Things like, “Stand up if you like to eat windows” or “Raise your foot if you have a younger brother.” We had a really good time.

The 15-year olds were a different story. Almost everything I tried to say was followed by whispers in Thai and lots of giggling. It was actually really annoying. I’m going to try a different approach on Friday. I think maybe they’d be interested in learning some English songs, and that can help them with phrasing, pronunciation, and vocabulary. We’ll see…

Teaching here is a huge challenge. Last week I asked to meet with some of the English teachers so that I could get an idea of what these kids are learning in class. I found something very shocking: the English teachers cannot speak English! They know the rules (I’m assuming), but our meeting was mostly conducted in Thai because they could neither speak nor understand English.

It seems to me that there is something seriously wrong when an American and an English teacher can communicate more effectively in Thai than English. Especially considering I’ve only studied Thai for a few months, and my Thai is mediocre at best.

Here are a few more pictures of the past week or so.

Me by a river with my boss's friends and family:

The admin office:

My giving food to the monks at the funeral of a person in Somboi:

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the end of winter!

Love,
Alex