The Challenges of Teaching in Rural Thailand

The Challenges of Teaching in Rural Thailand.

The Challenges of Teaching in Rural Thailand

First and foremost, I adore my students (who are mainly hill tribe and local Thai development workers) – they are so forgiving and accommodating and make teaching so worthwhile. Just the other day in class, I managed to make my face black via an inadvertent brush with the whiteboard eraser and I didn’t know until the front row of girls started giggling and one very kindly handed me a cloth to remove it, which only ended up making it far worse. But hey-ho – the show must go on, even if the teacher looks like one of the black and white minstrels.

Beautiful surroundings.

So I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t do change too well; I remember when I first came here, I got used to teaching in one of the meeting rooms, despite the whiteboard having protracting wooden feet that I’d forever be banging my bare feet against or tripping over; it was predictable though and I knew where everything was: power outlets, stationery, water cooler (you get my drift) but when I was asked to switch to a much larger room last-minute, panic set in and so my pre-planned activities using technology went straight out of the window.

An example of rural emergent language.

Actually since that moment, I have seen a lot more merit in ‘teaching unplugged’ a term used by Scott Thornbury and Luke Meddings which uses a materials and technology light approach to ‘uncover the hidden curriculum’ and exploit the emergent language produced by the learners. Having used this method, I would describe it as ‘structured winging it’ but it is great if you are confident enough to deal with the grammar points that arise, which often really stretches my brain or just telling them “we’ll come back to that next week”, giving me time to do my homework.

Lesson planning is a somewhat time-consuming task here mainly due to most coursebook materials being completely unsuitable for my learners. For instance, they can’t really relate to ‘Mike and Hannah at the disco’ so it has been necessary to re-write the content to make, for example, asking and answering questions for personal information a little more relevant by using names and places that are local and familiar. It’s good for me because it really requires me to picture the learners being able to engage in the activities, rather than just picking up the course book and watching the blank stares as they learn about flying to Europe or Disneyland which in reality will never happen for them.

Even the course book guy looks surprised..

As a result of this, the learners are often treated to bespoke jumbled-word sentence making activities, meticulously prepared by yours truly only to have them blow all over the classroom as soon as someone turns the fan on. I don’t worry about it any more – I just let the learners scrabble around to find the elusive words. It adds to the fun.

So today, I’m just about to start teaching my class of agricultural technicians when I get called outside because the project’s truck has broken down with gearbox trouble. It’s an ageing Toyota pick-up and in my flip-flops, I managed to ram it into second gear, navigate the farm buildings and lurch off down the lane, eventually making it to the mechanic’s place a few kilometers away. Had a lift back to class, where I was joined, as usual, by the farm dog who sat at my feet as I gave a spelling test.

* please note – I don’t wear these shoes to class. I don’t wear any shoes.

I actually like this particular classroom as it is usually used as a laboratory or office but it’s gradually changing into a centre for education. It’s better than holding classes elsewhere on site (namely my living room) because I get too many interruptions, the last one being smoke wafting through the window grilles due to one of the staff lighting a bonfire outside as I was teaching one-to-one. I was doubly annoyed because I’d just hung my washing out as well. If you think the bonfire wasn’t bad enough, try teaching pronunciation while a builder is using a disc-cutter in the adjacent building.

Never mind. I thought it was bad teaching outdoors in Cambodia while a guy was doing some welding but it seems that my days of teaching under adversity are not over just yet. In fact, I’m somewhat miffed seeing as my CELTA course didn’t prepare me for any of this. Maybe they should throw in a few distractions…

Nevertheless, my classes continue… now where did I put that whiteboard eraser?

What do you have to contend with whilst teaching? Do leave a comment – I’d love to hear your experiences!

Reference

Meddings, Luke, and Scott Thornbury. Teaching Unplugged. Surrey: Delta, 2009. Print.

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Face-to-face with scorpions and snakes in rural Thailand

The class inspector

To be completely honest with you, there are some things that when I arrived here, I didn’t react too favourably to: I’m talking, of course, about lizards, geckos, tukets, scorpions, frogs and snakes plus a plethora of weird and wonderful surface and airborne things.

Just the other day, I was quietly sat in my living area doing a spot of lesson planning and I had a visit from a skink, which is of the lizard family. Judging by the look of the guy in the picture, I don’t know who was more surprised, him or me!

My point though is this – three years down the road and I am slowly becoming more accustomed to sharing space with these kind of visitors. Lizardly-speaking, I have to say that although I’m amazed at the beauty and intricacy of these creatures, they can still be annoying.

For instance, the onomatipoeically-named ‘tokay’ gecko is a thing of beauty and does a good job of eating insects that start appearing at dusk, but its unique loud squawk it makes (seemingly until it runs out of breath) is not what you want to hear coming from your ceiling in the dead of night. Aesthetically pleasing as they are, they are quickly caught and dealt with by the locals, due to the disturbance they cause (and also because they indiscriminately poop on the floor).

Frog in the bog.

Frogs are great though; I have two living in the bathroom, one of which likes the pipe under the sink and the other actually prefers the toilet bowl, so obviously I need to make sure I’m not absent-minded when needing to spend a penny in the night!

That’s a nice pair of legs, pair of legs, pair of legs, pair of legs..

Now, these visitors are all pretty harmless so I’m now going to move on to some of the more unwelcome visitors, firstly the centipede. Now, I’ve never really taken to these, mainly because they just remind me of your bog standard earthworm, only with lots of legs. I don’t know why but one of the guys who lived here before me tried to pick one up and got a nasty, poisonous bite for his efforts and I recently heard of another woman who was bitten on the foot as she slept, causing excruciating pain and an inability to walk for a week.

Scorpion in my bag

Penultimately comes my second-most disliked visitor: the scorpion. Yes, the big ones can be particularly nasty but more commonly found around the house are the smaller ones and I’ve had two within the past week: the first was on the bedroom wall and the second, well, it was on the floor in the bathroom one night and how I failed to step on it is a mystery to me (not for the first time either, I hasten to add).

Now this one in the photo, unbeknownst to me, had hidden in my bag and while I was packing for a long journey and it bit me on the finger, which felt like having a red hot needle poked into the end of it. Actually, I had no idea what the pain was – I knew I’d been bitten but it wasn’t until I’d got to my destination and unpacking my bag, that I discovered the culprit.

Last and very much least – yes you’ve guessed it – snakes.

Cobra

OK, so this year has so far been relatively snake-free although today I did see one in the road that had been run over and there was a large one on site last week that disappeared under the meeting room before staff could catch it. But it was my encounter with this fella that, I think, was the only time in my life whereby I quite literally thought my days were over. You can read about it here: scorpions, snakes and monsoon rains

Coming face-to-face with that cobra (pictured above) in my bedroom was without doubt the scariest moment of my life but on reflection, it was a fear that I realize I’d had for a long time, even though I’d handled a snake in a safe environment before. But what are the chances of it happening again and how has it impacted my outlook on living in the jungle?

Well, in a way, I’m glad that it happened when it did because I’m more aware of what’s out there now; potential entry points have been sealed and I do take more precautions now, even if it’s just checking for Freddie the frog in the bog before using the toilet and making sure there aren’t any scorpions on the floor.

So that’s it; and I’ll just leave you with the words from Shaw Taylor who always ended  a well-known UK crime TV programme by saying:

“Don’t have nightmares – do sleep well”.

Have you encountered any unwelcome visitors? Do leave a message, it’s great to hear from you!

Materialism, Sustainability and the Middle Way

Materialism, Sustainability and the Middle Way.

Materialism, Sustainability and the Middle Way

I was just reading another satirical post from The Daily Mash which consistently seems to raise its fun-poking benchmark. This time, the article was about ‘a new lifestyle magazine for men who shun material possessions’ complete with an accompanying picture of a monk.

Although probably not intended, this particular piece actually inspired one or two thoughts. In reality, it is easy to be seduced by those TV adverts for that new Ducati or BMW, or the latest autumn collection from your favourite retailer. Top that with a desire for a bigger, better house and holidays to even more exotic places and you get my drift about those being more of a pull than a call to any kind of modest, spiritual life.

For me, it’s motorcycles, football and exotic places that captivate me most and over the years, being drawn away from the UK for various assignments certainly fueled the latter. As the call to live abroad grew, I realized that I’d have to loosen my grip on some of these things or I’d never step out of the comfort zone into what I knew was going to be a much simpler way-of-life.

Nowadays, living on a farm in Thailand, I have observed a gradual change in my outlook: a couple of years ago, I did a module at university on the Sufficiency Economy, which is about how the King of Thailand advocates for what is called the ‘Middle Way’, an approach to living which encourages sustainability which can be applied by both families and businesses alike. However, judging by my visits to Tesco Lotus, I admit that I am not quite living off the land just yet, but I hope I’m heading in that direction.

Interestingly, this Middle Way of living (enough to live on plus a little extra without pursuit of extravagance) doesn’t necessarily apply to rural life here but is an ethos that seems common sense wherever we may be. In essence, it’s not necessary to have to up sticks and move to the other side of the world in order to refresh our life’s perspectives but admittedly by being here, I’ve slowly started seeing the pay-off of joy and peace that comes with surrendering the trappings of material desire. The slow withdrawal of focus from the never-ending pursuit of ‘stuff’ and ‘experience’ has lead to increased contentment which in turn frees up the investment of resources and time into that which matters most – people.

Nonetheless, I still need a pick-up truck, a small house and a dog.

Is that alright?

(c) Copyright – Danny.L.Young All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Article Source: http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/media/new-lifestyle-magazine-aimed-at-men-who-shun-material-possessions-2015052998679

Podcast: Working and Studying in Thailand

Podcast: Working and Studying in Thailand.

Podcast: Working and Studying in Thailand

Hello! Have a listen to my podcast about working and studying in Thailand. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or comments.

Podcast: Visa Renewal Trip Chiang Mai to Laos

Giving Presentations – A Survival Story

Last week, as part of my degree program, we had to interview another teacher as part of an exercise on reflective practice. In it, we had to delve into their background, natural abilities, classroom approaches and how they happened to find themselves studying here in Thailand. Here’s an excerpt:

He could hear footsteps outside the college restroom cubicle door and someone calling his name. They banged on the door but the door was locked and no-one knew if anyone was inside or not. Those four walls were giving him the security he desperately needed; all he had to do was bide his time and then he’d be free. Sure enough, about 30 minutes later, all was calm: he unlocked the door and quietly slipped out of the building, into the car park and drove off, leaving academia far behind him.

It was many years before he again set foot in another learning environment. During that time, people had identified some leadership qualities in him but again, certain scenarios added further fuel to the fire of fear and they never materialised.

As he got older, he felt that opportunities were passing him by as he battled crippling anxiety. Preferring job roles and tasks that required minimum contact with other humans, his potential remained dormant. He naturally connected with people but how could he convey his message of hope whilst psychologically disabled?

Realizing that he wanted to go to university, he took action. He sought help both practically and spiritually and slowly but surely, he started to come back to life as he applied some of the principles to his life. Inspired by some of his more learned colleagues he’d met working with an NGO in Thailand, he signed up for university in Bangkok.

Although daunted, he’d paid his deposit so there was no going back now. Amazing what some intrinsic motivation can do. After bolting out of the starting gate, he soon encountered his first hurdle:

Giving presentations.

Presentations are part and parcel of tertiary education – if you can’t do them, you won’t get through. End of story. All those fears started to seep back as he anticipated his first public speaking attempt in about 15 years, in an I.T. class during which he had to give a Powerpoint presentation to a class of about 40 peers. Nervously, he survived and with input from a mentor, is now meeting the challenges of presenting and aims to improve every time.

For some, it’s a breeze, others simply don’t care but he so wants to be at ease with this whole public speaking thing.

He still gets the butterflies. The prospect of getting feedback from mature students can sometimes be less than encouraging – but he survives and is determined to improve every time.

“Who is the interviewee?” I hear you asking yourself.

Well, the person I interviewed..

…is me.

 

Have you overcome any public speaking or presentation issues? If so, I’d love to hear from you below.

Teaching English in Rural Thailand

I’m just sitting here in the adobe house (partly made from clay) on a farm in the north of Thailand. I share it with a Karen (hilltribe) guy and the sounds of the birds and wildlife around me provide an ideal opportunity to reflect on things.

I guess wildlife includes the scorpion that welcomed me upon my visit to the bathroom (which I dealt with, this time without getting bitten).  Still based in Chiang Mai, the journey here is around 200 km which I do by motorcycle through the region’s mountainous twisties and the more time I spend up here, the more it trumps Chiang Mai’s pollution and traffic jams.

At the moment, I’m here four days-a-week working with the mainly Karen staff, to develop their English language proficiency as the onset of ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) looms. As part of my degree program (BA TESOL) I’d been looking for something similar to an internship where I could put into practice that which I am learning, so the foundation I volunteered for a couple of years back have kindly invited me back on board. They are doing very worthwhile work in this region developing and promoting sustainable farming practices and methodologies to increase food security.

The technicians are very knowledgeable, so for them to now have the opportunity to communicate that knowledge across the ASEAN region, is exciting for all concerned. Not least for me, as the English language is now even more important as Thailand slowly comes to terms with its need to improve. It is exciting inasmuch as I have free reign to develop a specialized English program, so each learner has been individually assessed and classes are tailored according to their developmental goals. It requires a lot of preparation with very limited resources so it is sometimes quite challenging.

The classroom is actually our small communal area, so we study around the dining table and I use a chair to prop up my mini whiteboard. I have a couple of level appropriate coursebooks and the internet is pretty solid so I use my netbook for interactive exercises.

Of course, the local food is cheaper than Chiang Mai and there are no Westerners here at all although there are a few in the nearest town, about 20 minutes ride away. The locals are very friendly and can see that my Thai has improved (albeit marginally) but the only downside is the farms accessibility in monsoon season but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Are you either working or have plans to work in rural Asia? If so, please leave a comment – it’d be great to hear from you.