To be succinct, the last 11 days have been challenging for me. They have been challenging, but also different and rewarding... they're why I came here.
Last week was my first week of teaching in the classroom, and Lee and I are both teaching all grades in Matthayom 1-6 (which is like US school grades 7-12) as well as a wide range of learning levels within each grade (/1 is the best, /8 is the worst). I am happy to report that the first week went smoothly overall, less one minor incident involving a small but very loud 14-year-old boy yelling inappropriate words in my last Friday class... but as someone back home said, boys will be boys. My class experiences ranged from my Matthayom 5/2 class understanding me so well that I was able to make jokes with them, to the lowest level Matthayom 1/8 class not being able to understand when I wanted them to ask their partner what his/her name was. I have quickly realized that the real difference in how and what I teach is not in their grade levels, but in their learning levels. I have also found that teaching English has not felt so different from teaching group fitness classes back at home - you have to be "on" the whole time, and while this takes a lot of energy, it feels great at the end of the class when you feel that some of the kids may have really enjoyed the class. Doing this 4 times a day with some rowdier classes, however, really took a lot out of me last week, and on top of that I was left with almost no voice by lunch on Friday. I sounded suspiciously like a man, and I had to make it VERY clear to my students in the afternoon that I was sick and had no voice, lest they mistake me for a ladyboy.
One of our friends from orientation who doesn't start teaching in Samut Prakan until the 15th came and visited us in Dog Town for the weekend! Coincidentally, it happened to be probably the best weekend to be in little ole DT because there was some buffalo racing festival going on. The highlights included a huge techno party with Chang on tap and AMERICAN music every night down the street from the school, food stalls with french fries and chocolate frosted donuts, and an all-day street event on Sunday including takraw tournaments, muay thai boxing, a talent show, and of course buffalo racing. We missed the buffalo racing, but I'm sure it was gnarly. We had a really good time experiencing these different cultural aspects in our little town, and even better sharing it with one of our friends!
Back to the classroom on Monday - my voice was starting to come back, but my throat was also starting to feel awful, but I taught anyway. It was also much warmer outside, and since we don't have A/C in the classrooms, at several points I got pretty frustrated with trying to tell the kids to be quiet with a raspy voice and sore throat while sweating profusely. Lee got sick on Tuesday (main suspect: fried cashew chicken?) so we both took a sick day. It's quite terrible being sick and away from friends and family, feeling lethargic from many days of mental exhaustion coupled with not enough exercise and perhaps inadequate nutrition ("pat" means fried and "pak" means vegetables, and they always seem to think i say "pat"), and also being disconnected from everyone due to internet failure in our apartment. We coped by getting a couple movies (Robin Hood and HP & The Half-Blood Prince) and taking it easy.
Things started to turn up on Wednesday - we were both feeling much better and returned to school. We went into town to run errands in the afternoon, and on the way back there was an OUTDOOR AEROBICS CLASS going on with the instructor on a big stage at the outdoor jogging track. I couldn't believe it. I hurried home, threw on my sneaks and ran back to the track and caught the last 10 minutes of the class. The music playing was very high energy Thai or maybe Korean pop, and the instructor only used visual cues but was still energetic nonetheless. After some confusing exchange and hand motions with the ladies in the class, I was able to decipher that the class was at least every Wednesday at 6:00. Boom. On Wednesday, I was also able to get into the "English library" at school (one cabinet) and obtain a few Harry Potter books. Boom.
Today, however, may have been one of the best days so far in DT. The school didn't classes today and tomorrow, but we came in at 8 so that I could help an M. 2 girl prepare for an English speech contest, and so that Lee could help an M. 3 girl prepare for a spelling bee. My student had written and memorized a page and a half-long speech about the environment, and I helped her with some of the grammar, content flow, and pronunciation. The tougher words for her to pronounce were "variety", "surroundings", "first" and "waste" - the first two because Thai people tend fo emphasize the last syllable in every word, and the last two because "st" is a difficult sound for them to pronounce. I felt that my native accent was very helpful for her, and it made me glad to feel needed there. In the afternoon, I went on a 3-mile run for the first time since leaving the U.S. which made me feel more like my old self. I also found out that the aerobics class is Monday-Thursday every week, which makes my life even more complete. In the evening, Lee and I tutored some kids - well, he tutored a brother and sister that were 25 and 30 years old, while I tutored their adorable 8-year-old little cousin. His name/nickname is Mammoth, so you know he's a badass. He was extremely shy at first and I was worried that he didn't want to talk to me, but after about 15 minutes I realized that this kid was more advanced in English than at least 60% of my Matthayom students, and he's in Pratom 3 (like 3rd grade in the US). He did really well at the reading and speaking exercises I had prepared for him, and we played several games of Categories towards the end of our hour-long session. I also learned from his older cousins that Mammoth is the Scrabble champion in his school, and that he will be competing in a Scrabble tournament in Bangkok sometime this semested. BAMF. We will be tutoring this group 3 times a week starting next week, and I am really looking forward to it. Lastly, I figured out how to say correctly pronounce the name of my new favorite dish in Thai so that people don't look at me like I'm crazy when I try to order it. It's "pak piao wan gai", which is chicken and vegetables in some delicious sauce over steamed white rice. After dinner, Lee and I rented Quantom of Solace - we are probably going to go through the DVD store's entire English DVD collection by the end of December.
It's 3 a.m. now; I couldn't sleep but I suppose I'll try because we have to be at school at 7 a.m. to go judge some English contests or something. Until my next imsonia episode...
No comments:
Post a Comment