Bangkok Blogger|Tales from Thailand

After a few lessons and some attempts at self-teaching I have decided to start taking proper lessons and have enrolled at a Thai language school.  We are having two one hour lessons a week which should help us get more familiar with the language.

After the first two lessons we’ve realised how little we know!

Going to have a go at learning to read the Thai script in my own time too as it would be good to be able to read all the signs and menus.

This Thai alphabet soundboard looks like a good resource for learning the names of the letters.

Due to the tight immigration rules in Thailand teaching English is pretty much the only job a foreigner can get out here without jumping through major hoops.  Thanks to this there are many many people out here working as English teachers at Thai schools, language centres and universities.

I wasn’t too keen to work as a teacher in Thailand but I knew my options were limited so I started a part-time job teaching ICT in English at a Thai secondary (or mathayom as they are known out here) school.  I got the job through an agency and the contract was for one term.   I was relieved to hear from the agency that it was a good Thai school and even had air-con!

I arrived on my first day to find myself in a large classroom in front of 35 14 year olds.  Each student had their own computer and I had one at the front that was connected to a projection screen.  That first lesson lasted for two hours and was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done.  The kids weren’t interested, I had no means of discipline and our lack of a common language didn’t really help much.

After a few more lessons like that the end of the day had arrived and I left a dejected, broken, former shadow of myself vowing to quit and not go back.

Over the weekend with time to think it over I decided to go back the following week and try a different approach.  But I finished my day in the same mood vowing never to return.

But I stuck with it.  It didn’t get any easier overall although some lessons were easier than others but as time went by my expectation of what teaching would be like changed and I no longer had the idealistic thoughts of it being fun or making a difference.  I was just there to try and teach to the few who were interested and keep the naughtiest kids from disturbing the rest of the class too much.   Once I’d become resigned to this it became more easier to get through the day.

Eventually the contract was up and I walked out for the last time (hopefully).  I will look for some more teaching work but will be looking for jobs in language schools where people actually want to learn rather than at schools teaching adolescent teenagers!

To all the full-time permanent English teachers in Thailand earning 35,000 a month, I don’t know how you do it but I salute you!

Since coming to Thailand I’ve been reading lots of books about the land of smiles.  Some have been fiction and some have been non-fiction accounts of peoples’ time in the country.  One that I finished recently was Farang: Thailand Through the Eyes of an Ex-pat by Dr Iain Corness.

It is a collection of short stories written by a guy from Australia and England who moved to Thailand during the latter part of his life.  He doesnt get up to much but I learned a few things from some of his tales and it is very easy to read.  There is also a part 2 if you liked the first one.

I’d probably recommend it to people who are yet to reach Thailand or have only just got here as some of the topics covered you will quickly discover for yourselves!

Its an easy read and you do learn a bit so you can’t really go wrong.

To view the list of other books about Thailand click here today.