Since I gave a teaching recap after my first day and my first week (and talked a little about it during my recap of my first three months in thailand) I thought it is about time to talk in more detail about it – now, almost 4 months after becoming a teacher in Thailand.

Working with students

teaching in thailand - interaction in english class

Working with students is really great. Not just because of the fun part, but also because of the fact that you really can influence them. Try to give them something valuable on their way. Of course it kinda hurts when you see that students simply ignore your advice or that they are simply to lazy to make something more out of their current situation – but that’s the way it is. You can’t teach & reach everybody. You have to try your best and be glad & thankful for those who are listening. Those who are listening will carry your message further….YEAH I know this sounds quite stupid when talking about teaching, but shut up, that’s what I think right now. So cope with it!

In the beginning it was quite hard to get students to tell their real opinion. Usually they only say yes and amen (not literally of course. buddhism!) to everything a teacher says. But after some time most students understood that it is ok to say NO if they do not understand something or if they have problems with something I said. Classes are not a dictatorship, they are similar to Thailand: A democracy – with a king

But back to the students. As already mentioned in many posts here or on facebook I really love them. Most are very polite, friendly and happy to talk to me. Some more, some less. Of course. But, as everywhere, there are obviously students that are just lazy and not interested in anything. Guess that’s normal and I try to take it not to personal. Even though it gets me thinking sometimes. But mostly it makes me to try harder and to improve my teaching. Hope that works out most of the time.

What makes me really happy is when students talk to me after or outside class. Not only the formal ‘good afternoon teacher, how are you?’ but also about their daily life, my daily life and so on. And what really puts a big smile on my face and makes my day everytime it happens: When students see me outside normal teaching hours and greet me by shouting ‘Saschaaaaaaaa’ followed by some small talk. When they do this, they really seem happy meeting you. It’s not like ‘damn, the teacher. let’s play nice…’ – they really seem to like each other. Same vice versa. Teachers are usually quite happy to see students outside the classroom at concerts or other events. At least that’s my opinion. Maybe I am wrong and don’t understand the formal thai politeness or mistake it as real happiness. But right now it feels really good. Lets keep it that way

Success Stories

teaching in thailand - class at UVC

As mentioned above, there are not always success stories in class. Sometimes students simply don’t want to put effort in your subject or don’t like you or whatever….sometimes you simply can’t help. But quite often you can. And when success stories happen, this gives an extra boost and motivation for the upcoming classes and the work that goes along with each of these classes. Right now there have already been some of those success stories and I will not name them all, but just to give a few impressions:

In each class there are usually some students who speak English quite well and act as translator in a case of emergency. This is quite good for the beginning of the classes when students are not used to my talking, my accent and my speed but sometimes also leads to laziness since the other students rely on the ‘translator’ (would be a great movie title: ‘the translator’…). When the translator is not in class you first suspect the class to become hard and difficult but right now it never was. Right now, last example last Friday, I experienced that as soon as the translator misses some other student takes that place. These are usually students who like my class (obviously, otherwise they wouldn’t care) but have only been to shy to talk much until now. When there is nobody else who talks first, they take their chance and really improve significantly within a short period of time. That’s really impressive and happened, so far, in almost every single class I had this term. Fascinating.

Another example of a success story is told quite easily and short: A student who wasn’t that good in English and has always been told that he can not speak English with foreigners started to speak more and more each class since I always urged them during games to talk. By the end of the class he still is far away from being one of the best but at least he tries to talk and tries to remember what we learned at class. Right now he is doing an internship at the airport and told me, when we met for dinner the other day:

teacher: because of you I was able to talk to foreigners at my internship and help them. thank you so much. 3 months ago i could not talk to foreigners…

What else can you think besides: YEAH!

Another short success story: Last week some classes really started joking. In English. That is a success for me because when I came here classes were used to learn everything by heart. Textbook, reading, learning, test. Done. I try to teach speaking, conversation. How to use English in everyday life & at work. Now that some of them are starting to joke (and I don’t mean those students who already have been able to speak English quite well)  shows me that they start to understand how to use the most important Farang language.

My first class - they had to cope with my first steps as a teacher. Learned a lot from each other. Thanks for your patience

Right now we (all of my classes) are working on the next success story. I hope it can be told after the current school term ends. But so far I have to say that taking the step to Thailand and turning into teaching was the right thing to do and that I am looking forward to the next 7 months of my teaching adventure in amazing Thailand.

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