They might call me "Teacher Em" at school, but I feel like I'm doing way more learning than the kids are. I'm learning about Thai language, schools, food, and people, in interesting ways and in surprising places. And every day I teach, I learn more about how to be a better teacher, which is pretty important to me.

The kids seem to be warming up a bit. There are still some "deer in the headlights" moments when I call on a student who has absolutely no idea what to say, or maybe even what the question was, but that may have more to do with learning a scary new language, and less to do with that funny-looking teacher asking the question. We've added "Head and shoulders (... knees and toes...)" to the song lineup, though "The Happy Song" still tops the charts. "The ABC Song" (which - come on, admit it - some of us still have to hum in order to alphebetize things) was an abysmal failure. Needed actions, I guess. We still play a lot of games, and the younger ones do a fair amount of coloring, but we're starting to slip in more of the serious business of phonics, spelling, reading and writing. Particularly with the older students, the gap in ability levels is difficult to overcome. A few in each class read really well (they mayhave had some private tutoring, which is common here with any family that can afford it) while for others who have maybe just transfered from a public school, my class may be their first introduction to formal English education. This is making reading and writing activities very interesting. How we learn a new language, and in particular how kids learn a new language, is fascinating. Even when a lesson or activity is a total flop, I learn a lot that can be applied to the next lesson.

Between classes, we hang out in the office planning lessons and putting together materials on the computer. It's a family-owned and run school, with the mostly toothless but sweet (and non-English-speaking) patriarch always puttering around building, painting, or fixing something. His wife teaches Anuban (kintergarden), his daughter is the secretary/receptionist, and his granddaughter is an Anuban student who likes to hang around Pitt and me and learn new English words. They're a nice family and have been having a good time introducing me to new Thai goodies. Today Ann (the secretary) bought me 2-ft long piece of bamboo stuffed with sweetened sticky rice. Pitt explained that after adding the rice, water, and sugar, they roast the bamboo over a fire, then hack away the outer part of the bamboo. What's left can be peeled down in strips, exposing the yummy rice inside. Who'd a thunk it?

I've also developed a taste for jack fruit, which Im now completely in love with. There's a little market a minute's walk from the school that sometimes sells it. Jack starts out watermelon-sized, covered with thick, spikey-looking skin. Then someone cuts it apart, and out come these tastey little nuggets of fruit, each with a pit inside. I think someone local must just wait for the fruit to fall, and when it does, it translates into about ten full baggies of fruit for sale, each with about 15 pieces. If I don't see them first, someone in the office usually buys a baggie for me.

When Pitt was sick last week, Tor from the Smart English office was my assistant for a couple of days. She's really sweet, but her training was as an accountant, and she feels a bit out of her league as an English teacher. Between classes she was so patient and helpful teaching me Thai words... and she really wants to work on her English... so we've started meeting up for a lesson-swap in our free time. It's amazing how much faster you learn when you have someone to help you practice and focus, and (gently) explain when you don't have it quite right. I also went out and bought some of those preschool style trace-the-letter-then-write-it books of the Thai alphabet. I've decided that I should at least try the reading and writing end of Thai, and it's supposed to really help your pronunciation. For a little taste of it, Learning Thai the Easy Way has some nice introductory material. So... you can see what I'm up against. I can't even write my own name yet, but I'm practicing.

While Trevor was here, I bought a fish (two, actually, but one didn't exactly make it). Right now fishy's living in the bottom one of the 2-gallon jugs I buy my water in, but come payday he's getting a dee-luxe 15-gallon palace. And maybe a couple of friends. When I walk into town on the weekends, I go through a little pet market, where a cluster of vendors offer up fish, turtles, birds, rabbits, hamsters and mice. I recognize some of the fish from my aquarium-keeping days back in ND, and it's funny to think about having to have a heater for them, and all the care I had to take to keep my "tropical" fish at the proper temperature. Here you could throw them in an outdoor pond and they'd be fine. I lot of what I had in my tank were probably native to Thailand. My fish (no name so far) has proven a very poor roommate substitute after Trevor left - we (Trevor and I) both wish we could make those visits happen much more often. Maybe a turtle would help. (Just kidding. Although they are the cutest little turtles...)

I've started tutoring two university students twice a week, and that's been interesting. We got off to a typically, comically Thai start. Pitt mentioned that P Noot had a relative whose daughter needed a tutor for a couple months. I said I would be interested, and suggested Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour. Pitt said she'd tell them. Monday rolled around, and she let me know they'd be fetching me at quarter to five. Um... Tuesday? No, Monday and Thursday. Okaaaaay. Gib (my student) arrived to pick me up before 5, and we went to her house, where we were met by the other two students (What other two students?) for a two-hour class. It all worked out ok, and I ended up with two students total in the end, for two hours twice a week. It's tough to shift geers into the finer points of subject/verb agreement and pronunciation after small-kid, big-energy classes all day, but they're nice girls, and it's also nice to make a little bit of extra money. I actually ended up having Thanksgiving dinner with their family. Although they didn't really know it was Thanksgiving, and it was fish curry and rice on the menu.

If you were to summarize it on a schedule, my day-in day-out here sounds fairly routine, and completely devoid of outdoor recreation, which is usually a big part of what I enjoy. I go to school, come home, study or do class prep, read and go to bed. On the weekend I do more of the same, meet with Tor, and maybe go to Jim's place for a movie and a beer. Trevor's been hesitant to tell me about all the fun stuff he does - floating the river, going mountain biking, camping on pristine white beaches... because he doesn't want me to feel bad. And don't misunderstand, all of that sounds pretty darn fantastic, and I am a little jealous of all the outdoor fun. But I don't think I'd trade where I am right now. I'm loving what I'm doing, and looking forward to learning more.

Labels: teaching, Thailand