On Friday, I will have been outside the United States for exactly 8 months. It's hard to believe as it feels like time has either completely flown by or crawled at an excruciatingly slow pace. What's even crazier to think about is that I'm more than halfway finished with my program and I only have 4 more months before I head home. For that reason and probably a bunch more I haven't though about, I'm prepared to be much busier this semester, both at school and on the weekends. I want to make sure I hit all the spots in Thailand I want to go to (within reason, of course) as well as make sure I make the most of my situation at the school. As a volunteer, I'm given almost free reign to do whatever I want with the students. While it bothered me for quite some time, as I prefer to have structure than to be making my own schedule, it's turning out to be beneficial with my group of students this semester. I came 'wanting to make a difference,' as I'm sure almost everyone else did, but it's nearly impossible to see the difference with 500 students. So I've taken that idea back a notch and hoping that I at least influence some students' interest in studying English. This means making my English class fun and engaging while trying to put some educational value into it.
One of the things we've been doing recently is tongue twisters, and they're a huuuuge hit. It also manages to get almost the entire class engaged, which is a struggle for me sometimes. One of the favorites is "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" It's one of those sentences that's fairly easy for an English speaker to say quickly and clearly, but it's difficult for ESL students. I'll read the sentence slowly for the students, have them repeat it and checking their pronunciation, and then say it really fast for them. Immediately the class explodes into cheers or laughter or incredulous faces. It helps in class for them to see my acting silly or making mistakes, because it means that they're able to, too. In Thailand, as far as I can understand it, making mistakes causes you to 'lose face' which you never want to happen. One of the hardest parts of class is getting the students to participate because they are 1) nervous speaking English in front of a native English speaker and 2) they don't want to be wrong.
I'm trying to spend more time on the English floor but recently it's truly been too hot for me to stay up there after I'm finished with classes. On cooler/breezier days, I'll just hang out with the other Thai teachers or any groups of students that are wandering around. I've started tutoring one of the Thai English teachers in conversation three days a week and it's a blast. Yesterday we worked on spoken English, and understanding native English speakers, since they speak so fast - things like 'wanna', 'gotta', etc. A couple of the new Thai English teachers were around and we had fun just joking around. They say a word in Thai, Isaan, Lao or some other Thai dialect and have me repeat it. I never know what I'm saying and I'm always saying it wrong as made clear when they are nearly on the floor laughing. It's a good time though and I'm always surprised with how much time has passed when I'm chatting with the Thai teachers.
Last weekend I went to Sakhon Nakhon (one of the neighboring provinces) with Haley, Tew (English director of the school Haley works at as well as a member of the family Haley lives with), and Nan (12 year old girl, another member of the family that lives with Tew). We picked up another teacher along the way and then had lunch at the pizza company! It apparently is the place to go on holidays/ weekends. Tew saw about 7 of her old students, we ran into Caitlyn (another volunteer) who was with a family we know from Nakhon Phanom, a teacher and her family from my school, and a couple other teachers Tew knew. Afterwards, I saw several teachers from my school in Big C (the huge department store...sort of like Thailands Target), and then 5 of my M.6 students eating lunch. I hardly ever see that many people when I walk around Nakhon Phanom! Haley and I got some pepperoni pizza, which was wonderful. I also accidentally ordered this seafood loaded pizza when I was trying to explain what kind of crust we want. oops, got lost in translation. Turns out no one really like seafood either! I ate a piece as I was the one that actually ordered it and the rest we took to go. We had a good time shopping around Big C and then it was back to Nakhon Phanom. The rest of the weekend was fairly quiet and very relaxing.
Next weekend I'll be helping out a couple of the other volunteers with an English seminar that one of the teacher's we know is helping to organize. I'm not quite sure what it entails yet, but it usually means some games or songs. The following weekend is a joint birthday/ early 4th of july celebration party with a couple us volunteers have grown close with over the past few months. It's a Western guy and his wife, and while I actually have never met them, I've heard they're awesome people and they offered to host a party for us. It's the little things that sometimes hit you the hardest, like being away from home on the 4th of July for instance, or missing someones birthday. I've been okay for the most part, but these get-togethers and parties are always very welcome and a wonderful chance for us to check in with each other. It also feels 'normal' in a way that teaching and living here doesn't, if that makes sense. And then, it's off to another area for an English camp at a temple the following weekend! I'll be taking pictures for sure and I've still got to add the ones from Vietnam and Cambodia so I'll try to be a bit better about posting. It's off to lesson plan for the rest of the week. Until next time.
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