An English Teacher in Thailand

Being in Thailand and teaching is a very different experience from visiting as a foreigner. So I thought I would write this post to give you a better idea of what it’s really like to live here and get to know Thai students and other Thai teachers. All the stories below are from either myself or other teachers out here that I have met through my TEFL course or at work. Some are funny, some maybe not, but hopefully it will give you more of an insight in to the Thai life.

-         Teacher asks P5 students to name as many items of clothing as possible, getting towards the end and one shouts out G-String.

-         Thai Teacher says to English Teacher- “teacher has small Nom Nom” (nom nom in Thai is boobs) They don't hold back.

-         Teacher asks a Secondary school student to carry all the work books for him, it isn’t until he’s half way down the stairs that he realises he has a club foot and is struggling.

-         Practicing directions by using a game similar to pin the tail on the donkey. One boy and one girl volunteer blindfolded. The other students are directing in English and the teacher realises after a while they are not directing them to the board but in to each other. Then just lets it happen.

-         All Thai kids get called by a nick name chosen by their parents rather than their full long Thai name. However some of them are very random. In my classes I have an Elle, Sarah, Mark and Eve alongside a Pooh, Petch, Brown, Porn, Pun-pun, Poogun and Game.

-         English Teacher says to another English Teacher “Oh I like your skirt” Reply – “I’m not wearing it again I got called sexy today.” “Oh I see.” Being called Sexy Teacher is not a complement it’s a way of Thais saying it is not appropriate for school.

-         English Teacher walks out of the staff room on third floor and 3 students on a push bike ride past, at least they had helmets on!

-          Kindergarten kids playing a game where they chant the vocab word and take a step forward until the teacher changes the flashcard and they all run away as the teacher chases them. Two kids collide and one ends up with a bleeding nose. Home room teacher cleans the boy up and he’s back playing in ten mins, no accident book for the teacher to fill out, all will be fine or as the Thai's say Mai Pen Rai.

-        English Teacher uses a puppet to introduce vocab but scares a kindergarten kid so much she pees on the floor.

-         While doing swimming lesson little nursery boy goes to the bathroom, English teacher goes to find him, He’s done a big shit. Teacher bum guns (this is the water gun next to every toilet that you can use to clean yourself) him down and shoves him back in the pool.

-          Telling a child to “say it in English” and they reply with “say it in English”

-          A student tells an teacher to F**k off, he is taken to the principle who smacks him and tells him off. Then next day the student comes in with his parents, his parents are not happy as the principle smacked him. The principle tells the parents what happened and then the father smacks the kid.

To be continued…..

A Day with the Elephants and so much more!

After a delightful trip to Bali, Sophie and I headed much further north in the world to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand for the build up to New Year. There we met some of my friends from the TEFL course. Because we got a bus ten hours overnight we had a quick nap in the hostel before heading off for the day exploring the city. The hostel we stayed in was amazing, Deejai Backpackers, it had such a lovely, friendly laid back feel to it. There was also an adorable outdoor area, with a campfire, tree house, bar and pool. It was so great I've decided to stay there again when I visit for Songkran in April.

Tom, Jess, Hanisha, Sophie and I hired bikes for the afternoon to adventure around the city. The majority of us were confident riding around on the Thai roads with cars and mopeds wizzing past us. But if you talk to others in the party they may disagree that it was a lovely peaceful afternoon riding around. We passed and stopped off at different beautiful temples and markets before finding a bar to recover in and have a cider (which was delightful as cider is hard to find out here). In the evening we found a cute restaurant for dinner and then had a few drinks round the camp fire.

The next day was Jess' birthday and what a day it was. We wanted to do something very special for her day so we organised a day at the Elephant Nature Park. We all love elephants but not nearly as much as Jess so it was the perfect birthday present for her. Well I hope it was, I think her constant smile throughout the day showed us it was. Having said that we were all smiling the whole day. The elephants were adorable. I had very mixed views about elephant care before coming to Thailand and what was right and wrong and what hurt them and what didn't, but this place certainly told me more than enough about the right way they should be treated. Please check out their website and go visit if you can http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/

Throughout the day we got to feed them bananas and watermelon, walk around the park and explore their home. None of the elephants are tired up or ridden, they each have a Mahout that looks after them and with positive reinforcement keeps them in check, especially the young boy elephants who can be a little naughty. We learnt about there individual stories and where they had come from, some of which were so sad, but so lovely they had now been rescued. The day finished by giving them a wash in the river and splashing them with buckets of water.

That night after a trip to the night market, where I spent too much money on souvenirs, we put on our glad rags and headed out for Jess' birthday. We danced the night away at Zoe's in the Yellow. Zoe's is a cool cluster of bars and dance floors playing music from Thai reggae to main stream chart music, there was something for everyone!

After the night out and a little too much to drink the next day ended up being a very chilled lazy day, we wondered down the street, found a Thai massage by blind people and snoozed by the tree house. That evening we had the pleasure of being reunited with our Thai trainer Rungwit from Koh Samui who lives in Chiang Mai with his wife (Nadine who also works for TEFL Heaven so a lot of us knew her from emails) and their adorable son Ollie. Rungwit put on a lovely BBQ and we all chatted and caught up with the gossip within the TEFL family.

The next day was mine and Sophie's last day in Chiang Mai before our flight back to Bangkok. In the morning with Hanisha we ventured up the mountain to Doi Suthep a beautiful temple on the top and to "find the beauty". As per usual the Thai temple didn't let us down in how magnificent it was, Unfortunately the view from the top overlooking the city was unseen due to it being misty. Nevertheless the trip up the mountain was worth it.

Back in Bangkok, Sophie and I bought in the New Year from my balcony and watched as the city came alive with fireworks. We filled New Years Day with a whistle stop tour of the sites of Bangkok for Sophie to experience before her flight back to Jakarta.


With Love from Thailand xxx