Loi Krathong
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| Krathongs floating at the local temple |
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| Two students representing our school during the parade |
This past week and upcoming days are exciting times in Thailand. Last week on the full moon was Loi Krathong, which is arguably the biggest holiday in the country. It's a celebration once a year where Thais come together to thank the water goddess and make wishes for the future. In the north they also thank the sky goddess and send off fire lanterns into the sky. We spent the day at school learning about and making our own krathongs (the floating thing you 'give' to the water). Krathongs are made of all natural materials, usually using parts of a banana tree as the base. It's then formed of banana leaves and flowers to add color and decoration.
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| Krathongs made at school |
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| A small party happening on the beach |
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| My Thai dress for the evening |
The King's Birthday
Just as the excitement of Loi Krathong died down it was time to get ready for the month of December which is used to honor the King of Thailand. His birthday is on December 5th and that day is considered a National Holiday throughout the country. The King's color is yellow, so throughout the month of December we're supposed to wear yellow as much as possible, especially on and around his birthday. This year his birthday falls on a Saturday and the country takes the long weekend to celebrate and honor the King. On Friday we won't be teaching at school, instead we spend the day doing a mix of activities. When I first heard "activities" I pictured games, snacks and maybe a movie, the classic staples on a celebration day in the States. However when Thailand says "activities" it usually involves a lot of prayer, ceremonies and singing. Friday morning monks from the local temple will be coming to our school for the students to give them food (not really sure why, I'll get back to you with details later) and then we will have various ceremonies and prayer time. In continuation of celebration we won't have school on Monday, which is a much welcomed break.
School Pictures
I was bummed when I first realized that school doesn't have air conditioning; most days reach into the high 80s, if not the 90s, and I didn't think I would survive working each day in that heat. Fortunately our school is designed really well and I was grateful to find both ceiling fans and standing fans in most classrooms. Most of the classrooms have more windows than walls which makes for excellent cross ventilation. They usually only close the shutters when the sun is shining directly into the room or when it's raining. The 'hallways' are basically outside. Most of the halls overlook the two story gym that's in the center of the school. The only downside to all of this openness is that it can get extremely loud. The doors to all of the classrooms face out towards the gym, so whenever students are in gym class you can basically hear it from any classroom. Even if you close the door to the classroom there's still an opening above the door that lets sound in. Even if my class is dead silent I'm usually teaching at a notch higher than a normal speaking voice, just so I can be heard over anything that's going on outside of the classroom. But no complaints! I'd rather have a little noise and a nice breeze than a closed off room. |
| Most classrooms have a Thai flag, a framed picture of the King and a small shrine to Buddha |
My school is pretty basic when it comes to technology. During training we talked about making power points and using youtube videos to help with the lessons, and I was pretty bummed when I realized that none of my classrooms have any projectors or computers in the room. I was given a whiteboard marker on my first day and was told to go from there. I've found a way to do the majority of my lessons without many advanced visuals and instead spend a lot of time drawing things on the board and having the students mirror that onto their own papers. It's been frustrating at times because I am a guest in each classroom so I have to follow the rules and wishes of the teacher who's room I'm teaching in. There have been many days when I walk into a room and go to erase the board and the teacher tells me that I can't, because they need that info for the next lesson. In those cases I'm stuck standing in front of 40 kids with literally nothing except my voice, and let me tell you, listening to a foreign language for an hour straight will not keep the kids entertained.
I'm teaching Kindergarten through third grade. This week with my non-kindergarteners I'm teaching about daily routines. I draw on the board and have the kids draw/write the same thing on their own paper. I have them speak out loud everything they're writing but I'm getting the sense that many of the students really have no idea what they're actually writing about. It's also really hard to get some of the students to actually speak English. They already have a Thai English teacher, who teaches them about the English language, but in Thai. So they're already getting an English lesson with her; I'm here for them to hear my accent and practice speaking with me. So although these paper activities can be useful, it's really not beneficial unless they're actually practicing their speaking.
On the bottom of this paper you can see my student's name written out. Each Thai name is usually something extremely long, so parents also assign a nickname along with their full name when the kid is born. Some are random Thai words or nonsense sounds such as po, mai, noom etc. But there are many that have English words as their nickname like king, pink, asia and june.
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| My kindergarteners practicing their English letters with clay. |
My kindergarteners don't follow the same plan as my older kids, I usually just sense out the atmosphere of the room when I walk in and figure out if they'll be better with a passive or active day. Each kindergarten classroom has clay, so this week I've been having the kids make each english letter one at a time while singing the alphabet. We also spend a lot of time drawing animals and practicing their names, and I've recently taught them 'duck, duck, goose', but using the words 'shoulder' and 'head' so they can practice some vocabulary.
It's taken me a really long time to fully get a grasp on this whole teaching situation. I came in with very little experience or knowledge of the actual situation and I struggled a lot in the beginning. We're closing in on week five of teaching, and there are definitely still classes where I have a hard time with he students, but for the most part teaching has become rather enjoyable and it's no longer quite as challenging to make my lesson plans and teach a successful class.
Random Tidbits
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| The spirit houses at our apartment complex |
Most properties have their own "spirit house" which is a shrine put in place to protect the land. I've gotten a few different answers when I've asked about them, but my general understanding is that they're put into place so the spirits have somewhere to land while looking over the property. It's extremely common to give offerings to the spirits in the form of food or drinks, so many times you'll see a bottle of water or some crackers sitting on one of the pedestals. These spirit houses can be seen all over Thailand. These particular ones pictured are at our apartment complex. They can also be seen in people's front yards, on school property and in the parking lots of stores.
- A christmas tree was put up at the mall in Pattaya and the inside of the mall is decorated with giant christmas ornaments hanging from the ceilings. The Starbucks at the mall is playing christmas music and they're selling peppermint mochas. Christmas is in full swing here (at least in the touristy areas) so it was startling to find out that the majority of Thais barely know what christmas is. Most of my students can sing Jingle Bells, and when I say christmas they respond with "ho ho ho!" but when asked what christmas is it's usually returned with a blank stare. Keep in mind that Thailand is almost 100% buddhist, so I wasn't even expecting them to acknowledge christmas, but I find it funny that they learn all about it but don't actually know that it's a religious holiday. Even a few teachers have asked why we celebrate christmas and what we do on that day. The majority of Emily's students believe that christmas falls in the springtime, so I'm not sure if they would even associate it with the decorations on display in Pattaya. I was grateful to see that the touristy areas have a hint of holiday spirit to them and it'll be interesting to see if it grows throughout the month.
- Just as Thai names are long and paired with a nickname, so are many Thai cities. In fact, the official name of Bangkok is the longest city name in the world. Last weekend while driving around with our Thai friend Pupae I asked her if she knew the full name, and she explained that they're taught a song when they're young to remember the name, however she was only able to remember about the first half. To me it sounded like she was performing some sort of chant or telling a really long story, but actually she was just saying the following:
Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit
In Thai it's written:
กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยา มหาดิลกภพ นพรัตนราชธานีบูรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถาน อมรพิมานอวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยวิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์
- Although I'm at school for about eight hours each day, I'm only teaching for half of that. The rest of the time I spend sitting at my desk, usually reading. As a result I'm flying through books, currently averaging 2-3 books a week. So if you have any book suggestions I would greatly appreciate it! Feel free to leave a comment, email me or facebook message me if you've read anything good lately :)
A shot from last weekend on the island of Koh Kham. As winter begins to hit in the States keep in mind that it's always sunny and warm in Thailand if anyone wants to visit :)
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