The Thai calendar marks the beginning of the current era from the birth of Buddha instead of the birth of Christ. Thus I am 543 years ahead of all of you. And fifteen hours. My New Year's Eve was fairly low key and not nearly as fun as going to First Night, but better than last year. I ended up going to a "cheese and wine" party hosted by the youth pastor of the church I am currently attending. It was good to be out in a different social circle and afterwards I managed to catch the fireworks show down at Ta Pae gate.
And now, to kick off the new year, here is some Oscar Peterson. He is pretty much my hero. My New Year's resolution is to become as good as this. Just kidding, that is impossible. But I hope that this serves as an inspiration to excel in whatever you do this coming year. Best wishes to all of you and blessings on all your endeavors in 2011. Or 2554. Whichever you prefer.
December 31, 2010
December 30, 2010
Thai boxing
Muaythai, or Thai boxing, is a significant part of Thai culture. Like many things over here, it is hardcore. Pretty much everything is legal except for "crotch shots" and there is no protective gear (except for an item related to the only illegal move). There is a scoring system, which I don't understand, but I do know that kicks are worth the most points. It may even be that kicks to the head are worth the most points. Like I said. Hard. Core.
EDIT: Here is an artistic rendition of a rabid leprechaun, courtesy of my brother. Thanks Eric.
Like you, I thought it all sounded pretty violent and so it wasn't a part of the culture that was super high on my list to experience. But then it turned out that one of the FBR guys trains at a Muaythai studio and was fighting a professional match the other night. There were a group of supporters going to cheer him on so I decided to tag along and see what this was all about. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so you'll have to make do without pictures.
The match site was definitely a no frills establishment. There was a small boxing ring (why do we call it a ring when it's square?) in the center and a decent crowd of Thais and faraang (mostly farang) gathered around it. The walls were lined with various vendors and bars, although I didn't recognize them as such until someone informed me that the random people sitting at tables could indeed sell me a beer if I wanted one. Like I said, no frills. We found a corner and watched a few matches while waiting for John's and one of the group explained a little bit about Thai boxing to me. Because gambling is involved (and gambling is illegal in Thailand, supposedly) all Thai boxing establishments are run by the Thai mafia. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I'd paid my admission and there wasn't much I could do. It was rather weird though to be informed that "the guy in the black shirt at our table is a mafia member."
The matches always start with a sort of dance, which shows respect to the opponent and also as a sort of "prayer" for a good fight. During the actual match, there is traditional Thai music which increases in intensity as the bout continues. Unfortunately it also sounds like a cat in heat. Hopefully no Thais are reading this.
Despite all the talk of no rules and kicks to the head, the fights weren't as brutal as I was expecting. In fact, the fights were surprisingly graceful and dancelike in a certain respect. Well, sometimes. There were brutal sections but they don't generally last long. The really good fighters put on quite a show, not that it was staged because it's not, but just that it was like watching a pair of really good fencers or an intense tennis match.
When the time came for John's fight, we weren't really sure what to expect. You have to understand that John is a bit of a character. He has really red hair and a very unkempt beard and this particular night he had styled his hair into a sort of mohawk. The most accurate way to describe my impression of him would be "rabid leprechaun." He looked pretty ridiculous in comparison with all the sculpted, trained fighters who had preceded him and he's a bit of ham besides so he milked the traditional dance before the fight for all it was worth. But once the fight was actually on, he meant business. He positively slaughtered his opponent. It was over practically before it had begun. It was a bit disappointing actually. Where's my money's worth? :-) But our guy won and it was a pretty good time and an interesting cultural experience.
EDIT: Here is an artistic rendition of a rabid leprechaun, courtesy of my brother. Thanks Eric.
December 25, 2010
Merry Christmas!
I've been posting too many videos and I will back off, I promise. But I had to post my favorite Bach cantata for Christmas. Consider my gift to you all. It's also part of my never-ending attempt to convince people that Bach is not boring. :-)
Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland,
Now come, saviour of the gentiles,
Der Jungfrauen Kind erkannt,
recognised as the child of the Virgin,
Des sich wundert alle Welt,
at whom all the world is amazed,
Gott solch Geburt ihm bestellt.
that God decrees such a birth for him.
December 23, 2010
Watch This Video
Every Thursday, Esther and Gax host a spaghetti dinner at their house. It's kind of a hodge podge of their acquaintances, mostly expats, and it's awesome because it means I don't have to worry about dinner one night a week. Anyhow, many of those who come are volunteers with an organization called Free Burma Rangers, or FBR. I've been trying to figure out the situation in Burma for a while and after asking Esther about it she showed me this video that kind of explains it in seven minutes. It's a bit graphic I'm afraid, but I thought it was important to share. The music was written and performed by Esther's daughter and son-in-law.
http://www.freeburmarangers.org/
http://www.freeburmarangers.org/
December 22, 2010
Christmas Activities
It is now officially Payap's Christmas break, which means that the nursing dorm has closed and Sarah and I have moved into Esther and Gax's house until after New Years. The onset of break feels a bit like the calm before the storm to me. There won't really be much to do for the next several days, but once that is finished it will be time to step up to the plate and prove that we're really worth the investment. English classes for Payap staff and faculty are officially scheduled and I'm already itching to get planning for them.
But for now, I've been keeping busy enough with various Christmas and end-of-the-semester activities. The one theology student I have been tutoring took the TOEFL exam this week so we had some intense tutoring sessions in preparation for that. I can't wait to find out if she passed, especially as sometimes felt at a loss as to how to explain English grammar to her!
To celebrate her achievements, I agreed to go to a musical that was being held at her church. It was based on the book Punchinello, which I had never heard of, and also completely in Thai, but she did a great job translating for me.
It's been wonderfully cold. We've just emerged from three days of Seattle weather and I've been eating it up. After parting ways, I headed down to the Night Bazaar in my shorts and t-shirt, enjoying the fact that it was cold enough for me to get goosebumps. I went so far as to duck into Starbucks for a toffee nut latte. It cost me an arm and a leg and maybe a few extra toes but it was so worth it. Walking up and down the streets of the bazaar, underneath the Christmas lights, sipping my latte to keep warm, made me feel closer to actual Christmas than I have in two years.
And yes, there are Christmas lights and decorations around Chiang Mai. Christmas is pretty present here although I don't know how much a part of Thai culture it actually is.
On Saturday, Sarah and I found ourselves going on a bit of an impromptu trip with some of the nursing students. We really didn't know much about it except that Esther was going and thought it would be good if we came too. The only thing I knew about our destination was that it was a three hour ride out of town.
Our mode of transportation was what Rochell refers to as “the World War II buses.” They are these huge garbage-truck looking things with long benches in the back. We crammed ourselves into the corner along with 20 or so nursing students and heaps of luggage. It was actually kind of cool looking out the back of the truck and watching the scenery go by, but the further out we got, the windier and bumpier the road became. By the time we pulled into a gas station for a pit stop, I felt like I had been kicked repeatedly in the back after slamming into the side of the truck so many times.
I ducked into 7'Eleven for some snacks and was casually going about my business when Sarah came running up to me. “Did you see what just happened?” Nope, didn't see a thing. Apparently Sarah had been walking across the parking lot when two men with guns came straight at her, chasing a third. She thought she was going to witness a murder. The men with guns threw the man without to the ground and handcuffed him. It was a drug bust. They proceeded to place a whole bunch of drugs around the man and take pictures as “evidence.” Let's just say I haven't heard awesome reports of the police here. I guess a lot of innocent people are framed and Sarah was pretty frightened by the way the man was treated. Yet another one of Thailand's sobering realities.
And so we continued to our destination, which we had been informed was a rural Lahu village. The Lahu are an ethnic group in Southeast Asia and the particular village we were going to was a Christian one. The nursing students were bringing donations of blankets and things.
We turned off onto a very bumpy dirt road and it was all I could do to remain on my seat. But the scenery was beautiful and the views of workers tending their fields by hand were striking. The actual village was primitive, but not particularly impoverished. There were kids (tons of kids... and dogs) playing in the dirt, but they were all clothed well and had shoes. The home where we stayed had an outhouse, but also had a nice tv set. It was an odd mix of simple living and modernity.
Anyhow, the nursing students put on a bit of a program for the village and we got a peek into village life in Thailand, although Esther said she wasn't sure why that particular village had been chosen as it wasn't as isolated or badly off as others. But it was very interesting. People ignored us for the most part. Actually, even if we had known Thai, it wouldn't have helped because most of the villagers only spoke Lahu. But the nursing students seemed glad that we were there and kept on taking our picture...
Speaking of which, I did take a few pictures, which will probably show the experience more adequately than my trying to write about it. So I'm just going to post them and call it good.
But for now, I've been keeping busy enough with various Christmas and end-of-the-semester activities. The one theology student I have been tutoring took the TOEFL exam this week so we had some intense tutoring sessions in preparation for that. I can't wait to find out if she passed, especially as sometimes felt at a loss as to how to explain English grammar to her!
To celebrate her achievements, I agreed to go to a musical that was being held at her church. It was based on the book Punchinello, which I had never heard of, and also completely in Thai, but she did a great job translating for me.
It's been wonderfully cold. We've just emerged from three days of Seattle weather and I've been eating it up. After parting ways, I headed down to the Night Bazaar in my shorts and t-shirt, enjoying the fact that it was cold enough for me to get goosebumps. I went so far as to duck into Starbucks for a toffee nut latte. It cost me an arm and a leg and maybe a few extra toes but it was so worth it. Walking up and down the streets of the bazaar, underneath the Christmas lights, sipping my latte to keep warm, made me feel closer to actual Christmas than I have in two years.
And yes, there are Christmas lights and decorations around Chiang Mai. Christmas is pretty present here although I don't know how much a part of Thai culture it actually is.
On Saturday, Sarah and I found ourselves going on a bit of an impromptu trip with some of the nursing students. We really didn't know much about it except that Esther was going and thought it would be good if we came too. The only thing I knew about our destination was that it was a three hour ride out of town.
Our mode of transportation was what Rochell refers to as “the World War II buses.” They are these huge garbage-truck looking things with long benches in the back. We crammed ourselves into the corner along with 20 or so nursing students and heaps of luggage. It was actually kind of cool looking out the back of the truck and watching the scenery go by, but the further out we got, the windier and bumpier the road became. By the time we pulled into a gas station for a pit stop, I felt like I had been kicked repeatedly in the back after slamming into the side of the truck so many times.
I ducked into 7'Eleven for some snacks and was casually going about my business when Sarah came running up to me. “Did you see what just happened?” Nope, didn't see a thing. Apparently Sarah had been walking across the parking lot when two men with guns came straight at her, chasing a third. She thought she was going to witness a murder. The men with guns threw the man without to the ground and handcuffed him. It was a drug bust. They proceeded to place a whole bunch of drugs around the man and take pictures as “evidence.” Let's just say I haven't heard awesome reports of the police here. I guess a lot of innocent people are framed and Sarah was pretty frightened by the way the man was treated. Yet another one of Thailand's sobering realities.
And so we continued to our destination, which we had been informed was a rural Lahu village. The Lahu are an ethnic group in Southeast Asia and the particular village we were going to was a Christian one. The nursing students were bringing donations of blankets and things.
We turned off onto a very bumpy dirt road and it was all I could do to remain on my seat. But the scenery was beautiful and the views of workers tending their fields by hand were striking. The actual village was primitive, but not particularly impoverished. There were kids (tons of kids... and dogs) playing in the dirt, but they were all clothed well and had shoes. The home where we stayed had an outhouse, but also had a nice tv set. It was an odd mix of simple living and modernity.
Anyhow, the nursing students put on a bit of a program for the village and we got a peek into village life in Thailand, although Esther said she wasn't sure why that particular village had been chosen as it wasn't as isolated or badly off as others. But it was very interesting. People ignored us for the most part. Actually, even if we had known Thai, it wouldn't have helped because most of the villagers only spoke Lahu. But the nursing students seemed glad that we were there and kept on taking our picture...
Speaking of which, I did take a few pictures, which will probably show the experience more adequately than my trying to write about it. So I'm just going to post them and call it good.
 |
| The road to the village. |
 |
| The village center. |
 |
| The house we stayed in. |
 |
| The Christmas program. |
December 19, 2010
Classical Music PSA
I've decided that these should be weekly. Or at least continue on a regular basis. So this week I'm posting my favorite "carol" from Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols. Enjoy!
December 14, 2010
Shopping in Thailand
As with everything else, shopping in Thailand is an adventure.I think I've mentioned before the difficulties of shopping when you can't actually read the packaging.The other day I was looking for stain remover for my laundry (sweat stains are an unfortunate reality here) and was terrified of accidentally getting bleach. I mean, many things have English on the packaging (if you can find it) but apparently not the laundry supplies.
Thai marketing is also pretty entertaining. Case in point, I needed a mug for coffee and tea. This is what I found.
As far as actual food is concerned, If you're not getting food at a street vendor or a restaurant, which is what I have to do about 75% of the time, the place to go for groceries is Carrefour. It's a challenge. I get so disoriented there. There are at least two sections for everything (possibly more). The two I'm aware of are imported and domestic. Two cereal aisles. Two dairy sections. Two produce sections. Price comparison is really fun this way. It's like a relay race.
Carrefour has a huge area in the middle of the floor devoted to rice. And allow me to introduce: the soy sauce aisle.
One thing about Carrefour that I have yet to experience but can't wait to witness is that apparently the employees do a dance routine at a certain time of the night. Although maybe that is just the other CVs taking advantage of my gullibility.
And Carrefour isn't just for groceries. It's more like Wal-Mart. In fact, it's kind of like the French Wal-Mart. Except that's changing now and it's being taken over by something else. In any case, I was rather surprised to discover apples bearing the Washington sticker. They were the same price as all the others, so I went for a taste of home.
Anyhow, just a few tidbits of my everyday life here. Also, I have finally managed to take a few snaps of campus. If you're interested in seeing what that looks like, click here.
December 12, 2010
More Music
Whiskey is the alcoholic beverage of choice in Thailand and I have recently become obsessed with the Punch Brothers. I decided those were good enough excuses for this.
December 11, 2010
Classical Music PSA
I went to Payap's Christmas concert today. Not quite the same level as Whitworth's Christmas Festival Concerts but still wonderful. And it reminded me of how much I love Vivaldi, which I am now going to force on you for your own good.
December 10, 2010
Theology Department Christmas Party
The Masters in Theology student I am tutoring invited me and the other volunteers to the department's Christmas party. It was a pretty good time. Apparently our performance at the Christmas service went over well as we were asked to sing again. :-) After which we were given a box of snacks.
December 4, 2010
Thailand is a weird place
Living in Thailand is kind of like living on another planet at times. There are occasions when I can't help asking myself: is this place for real?
For instance, last weekend several people decided it would be fun to go to karaoke. I groaned inwardly. Karaoke is not my favorite, but I decided I needed to be more social so I went. I was told we were going to "the" karaoke place in Chiang Mai. This place was not a traditional karaoke bar. Instead, you go there and rent private "booths" with their own tv and sound system and perform for your friends. Well, I'd never heard of that before but I supposed that it made sense.
The karaoke place was located in a mall. With that single word "mall" I have conjured up in your mind a certain image. Scrap it. Well, not all of it. I guess the best way to describe the malls here is "funhouse style." Organization is... lacking. And the logic of the buildings' layouts escapes me. There is generally a plethora of escalators which lead to floors that have a random smattering of shops and occasionally to nothing at all. To get to the karaoke spot we went up a couple rounds of escalators and then took an elevator up a few more floors which I found really disorienting because none of the buildings in Chiang Mai seem that high. Then we went up another flight of stairs that kind of went in a circle and through an empty hallway. It was super sketch. By this point there weren't many other people around except for when we passed some boys doing aerobics. Like I said. Bizarre. Once we were in the hallway it really felt like I was in some sort of carnival maze. Certain areas didn't have any lights on which added to the Twilight Zone creepiness factor.
We finally made it to the spot and were told to choose a room. They all had themes like "outer space," or "night club." We chose "under the sea." The attendant led us to a door which, upon opening, revealed a tiny room decorated with what looked like spray-painted foam to look like it was underwater. "This Love" by Maroon 5 was playing, but with a Thai singer singing the lyrics! (In Thai of course). It took us so off guard that we burst out laughing.
There were two microphones and everyone took turns choosing songs from the playlist to sing. Yes, I sang one song. However they didn't have the greatest selection. Plus every song had a music video playing on the tv along with the lyrics and since we were in the water themed booth our videos often featured women in scandalous bathing suits. It was hilarious but also really awkward.
The most astounding thing about the whole evening to my mind is that absolutely none of us had had anything to drink. I cannot believe we went and did that stone cold sober.
This weekend I got to see the new Harry Potter movie at another mall (or maybe it was the same one) and it was more of the same. We were running late and Anisha was really anxious not to miss the beginning so all I can remember is haring it through this labyrinth of escalators and elevators and deserted hallways painted with weird murals before ending up at this nearly empty theater to watch the movie. Upon leaving it felt like we were emerging from a bomb shelter and were the last humans alive on earth. The mall was completely deserted and dark and we followed the one other family back to the entrance while walking past creepy looking mannequins.
Anyhow, Thai malls? Strange. The new Harry Potter movie? Not my favorite.
For instance, last weekend several people decided it would be fun to go to karaoke. I groaned inwardly. Karaoke is not my favorite, but I decided I needed to be more social so I went. I was told we were going to "the" karaoke place in Chiang Mai. This place was not a traditional karaoke bar. Instead, you go there and rent private "booths" with their own tv and sound system and perform for your friends. Well, I'd never heard of that before but I supposed that it made sense.
The karaoke place was located in a mall. With that single word "mall" I have conjured up in your mind a certain image. Scrap it. Well, not all of it. I guess the best way to describe the malls here is "funhouse style." Organization is... lacking. And the logic of the buildings' layouts escapes me. There is generally a plethora of escalators which lead to floors that have a random smattering of shops and occasionally to nothing at all. To get to the karaoke spot we went up a couple rounds of escalators and then took an elevator up a few more floors which I found really disorienting because none of the buildings in Chiang Mai seem that high. Then we went up another flight of stairs that kind of went in a circle and through an empty hallway. It was super sketch. By this point there weren't many other people around except for when we passed some boys doing aerobics. Like I said. Bizarre. Once we were in the hallway it really felt like I was in some sort of carnival maze. Certain areas didn't have any lights on which added to the Twilight Zone creepiness factor.
We finally made it to the spot and were told to choose a room. They all had themes like "outer space," or "night club." We chose "under the sea." The attendant led us to a door which, upon opening, revealed a tiny room decorated with what looked like spray-painted foam to look like it was underwater. "This Love" by Maroon 5 was playing, but with a Thai singer singing the lyrics! (In Thai of course). It took us so off guard that we burst out laughing.
There were two microphones and everyone took turns choosing songs from the playlist to sing. Yes, I sang one song. However they didn't have the greatest selection. Plus every song had a music video playing on the tv along with the lyrics and since we were in the water themed booth our videos often featured women in scandalous bathing suits. It was hilarious but also really awkward.
The most astounding thing about the whole evening to my mind is that absolutely none of us had had anything to drink. I cannot believe we went and did that stone cold sober.
This weekend I got to see the new Harry Potter movie at another mall (or maybe it was the same one) and it was more of the same. We were running late and Anisha was really anxious not to miss the beginning so all I can remember is haring it through this labyrinth of escalators and elevators and deserted hallways painted with weird murals before ending up at this nearly empty theater to watch the movie. Upon leaving it felt like we were emerging from a bomb shelter and were the last humans alive on earth. The mall was completely deserted and dark and we followed the one other family back to the entrance while walking past creepy looking mannequins.
Anyhow, Thai malls? Strange. The new Harry Potter movie? Not my favorite.
November 30, 2010
Homesickness
Don't get concerned! This blog title is simply an honest reflection of the reality of living abroad. You will get homesick. It is part and parcel of the experience. It is almost one of the reasons to travel: because you come to appreciate your home that much more. But it's also one of those things that people who haven't lived abroad for an extended period of time can't really understand completely.
I'm writing about it now because 1) I'm officially one month in. This is when (in my prior experience) the reality starts to set in that this isn't just a long holiday and you start to become fatigued by all the things that are different. The excitement kind of wears off. 2) There have been a lot of events lately that remind me of home, friends and family.
This is my second holiday season away from home in a row. I won't deny that it's a bit tough. Not that I didn't consider that going in. I've had many holidays at home and I will have many more, so it's worth it. But I still get that pang of regret when I think about being away.
Thanksgiving was better than last year's. Esther had everyone come over and we had a potluck dinner of traditional Thanksgiving foods. It was gigantic and it was amazing. A group of about 25 American expats were there and it was great to be surrounded by people and laughter. But for me, the holidays are no longer so much about the traditions and the food as they are about being with the people I love. There's no substitute for that. So it was still kind of bittersweet and hollow. And the pies were not even close to being as good as my mom's. Still, it was better than spending it alone with a tv dinner watching the news, which IS what I did last year. So I was appreciative. Also, I've really missed using a knife and fork. It's the little things.
This weekend was also graduation weekend for Payap. Graduation is different in Thailand because they actually wait for their official diplomas, which means that students wait for like a year after they finish their studies and come back to walk in the ceremony. I should have taken some pictures of campus because it was nuts. Like Whitworth, there were flowers placed everywhere, but in addition to this there were cardboard signs and Hollywood-style letters scattered in random places that said variations on "congratulations." It's definitely different. Also, there were random arches and cardboard backdrops scattered around for photo opps. Yes I am serious. All the graduates and their families would run from spot to spot snapping about a million photos. You couldn't walk anywhere on campus without being in the line of fire.
The actual ceremony was held on campus at a sort of outdoor but covered stadium. It was not a very big space, so I watched the proceedings from outside with a few of the others. The random thing though was that half of the seats in the stadium were occupied by potted plants. There were all these people queued outside and screens set up while inside a large number of perfectly good seats were taken up by vegetation. Oh Thailand.
We didn't stay to watch the whole thing as it was in Thai. But we watched the procession before leaving to go check out a local market. I couldn't help thinking of my graduation though and of Whitworth in general, so I wasn't really that into looking at the stalls.
On a more positive note, I'm starting to get to know a few students here. The day after graduation, one of the nursing students, I'll call her Nong, offered to take me to the Sunday night walking street in Chiang Mai. This is one of Chiang Mai's many weekend markets, but also one of the best ones. Nong (a general term meaning something close to younger sister) negotiated a red bus for both of us and I got to see just how much more they charge farang (foreigners). I would have had to pay three times as much to go half the distance we went. But Nong is a true Chiang Mai local and has promised to show me all the ins and outs of the city, which is pretty nice of her. I'll just have to be careful not to neglect spending time with the other students as well as I feel like the few I have gotten to know are more outgoing and could easily monopolize my time.
The walking street was very crowded and filled with street musicians (some better than others, most playing unrecognizable instruments, a few playing kazoos) and performances. I got to see some traditional Lanna puppetry as well as a Japanese parade and performance because a Japanese festival was going on. It was all pretty interesting, but communication was a bit of a struggle and intercultural interactions are stressful regardless so I was pretty tired when we returned.
Regarding said interactions I'll give a couple of examples. Both when I went to the walking street and when Anisha and I took our English Conversation students out to dinner the students have insisted on getting the bill. Thais don't really split the check. Whoever is of higher status is supposed to pick up the tab, which was my plan BOTH times as I am technically "pih" or "older sibling" or even "ajaan" which means professor, to them while they are all "nong" to me. However possibly because I am foreign they insist on paying for my food, which is okay when it's something small but they are students and I know what it's like to live on a student budget. After going around food stalls and having Nong pick out various items and pay for them I finally managed to pay for our orange juice and I must say she seemed a bit relieved. It's so difficult because you have to do it in a way that doesn't make them lose face.
Food is also awkward because I can't politely decline anything they offer me. So when Nong innocently suggested I try fish-stomach soup, I did my best to disguise my unenthusiasm but didn't quite succeed. However, upon trying it I decided it wasn't all that bad. Weird, but not disgusting. I was however relieved when she passed up the fried bug stand.
Another awkward interaction happened when I set my purse on the ground. Apparently this is a big no-no for Thais. The ground is dirty and they would never set any of their personal belongings on the floor. So Nong hurriedly snatched up my purse and set it on the table. "Pih Heidi, the ground is dirty!" she exclaimed.
"Farang don't care," said her friend, who is engaged to a British guy. "My fiance does it all the time."
Nong was absolutely perplexed and I couldn't explain to her why it wasn't a big deal for me to put things on the floor. Granted, maybe it should be, but I've been doing so for 23 years and I'm still perfectly fine.
Another cultural note is that twice a day, every day, they broadcast the king's song, which is basically the national anthem. If you are in a public place and can hear it, you are expected to be silent and stand still. I hadn't yet encountered this but sure enough at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday suddenly some anthemy sounding music began to play and everyone stopped what they were doing. Also, pictures of the king are everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. Offices. Restaurants. Parks. Everywhere. That goes double for educational institutions, which usually have an oversize portrait displayed at their entrance. Payap has it's share of these photos.
One of these days I will get around to taking some pictures of campus. I think they would be different from what you might expect. TESOL classes are still going and will continue through the end of next week. I'm done teaching for the time being but now trying to structure what my and Sarah's duties will be on our campus. It may seem selfish and lazy, but I really just want to finish TESOL and then launch into new stuff after Christmas break. However I think the staff on this campus don't think we do anything all day...
As I've mentioned, appearances are of the utmost importance in Thailand. What's important is that you give the impression of being busy and accomplishing something, even if you just sit at your desk and do nothing. But Sarah and I haven't had a chance to be over at this campus during the day and to be honest we're not contributing that much right now. But it's because we're being trained! Gah! However, this doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you weren't told about a meeting or event. What matters is if you don't show up. But at least Thais are also forgiving. So far I haven't forgotten anything major so hopefully I'll get in some desk time soon and put my official boss at ease.
November 27, 2010
Loy Kratong
Last weekend was Loy Kratong, which is a crazy awesome Thai festival. In trying to write about it, I find that I can't quite do it justice. "Loy" means float. "Kratong" is the name of what they float. They're kind of hard to describe. They are about the size of a plate and made of banana leaves and "wood." They are usually many colors and have candles and joss sticks. The purpose of the festival is to honor the river by floating the kratong on it. This is interesting because all the kratong end up as a lot of debris in the river, so it doesn't make 100% sense to me. However it is a very beautiful festival and a lot of fun. Not only do people float kratong with candles, but they also light up the sky with fireworks and lamps. The lamps were maybe my favorite part. They are kind of like miniature hot air balloons and literally filled the sky all weekend. It is so gorgeous and almost eerie. Imagine looking up in the night sky and seeing the stars move around. It kinda looked like that.
The preceding week was marked by an increasing number of premature fireworks in anticipation of the big event. The actual festival went for four nights, starting Friday. I had originally planned to head up to Mae Jo with my roommate Sarah and her friends, but things didn't work out transportation wise so I ended up hanging out with the other CVs down by the Mae Bhing River.
I remember talking with someone about the Fourth of July and laughing about how Americans celebrate their independence by blowing stuff up. Well, let me tell you folks. The Fourth of July is positively tame compared to Loy Kratong. We have cute little fireworks shows in controlled, "safe" settings. But I think I've explained that safety is a foreign concept here. So people just set off fireworks at random all over the city. And by that I mean they just light them, hold them in their hands, and point them in whatever direction they want to. I can't believe the entire city wasn't set on fire. It was madness! But it was also loads of fun.
We went down to the river purchased our own lantern (the first of several) and a handful of relatively tame fireworks. I might mention that these were technically contraband, but the cops only seemed to shut down people whose fireworks were excessively unsafe. Which was a rather liberal guideline. Down by the river people were launching their kratong and fireworks while on the bridge many people were lighting lanterns. There were rows of market stalls selling kratong and plenty of fireworks stands. We found a spot and took turns launching our fireworks over the river (they were the kind you swing around and throw, they're pretty fun and fairly harmless). Some of us were better at this than others. I hid behind a tree when I wasn't the one throwing. We succeeded in getting our lantern to take off. Unfortunately we almost set a tree on fire in the process. But never mind. By the end of our attempts, the Thais sitting nearby seemed relieved that we were leaving.
Since we'd just received our paycheck, the others all wanted to go get massages. Massage is very popular here and the others are regulars at one of Chiang Mai's establishments. I am not a big fan of strange people touching me, but I went along anyways. I guess I can see how some people would find it relaxing, but I still don't like strange people touching me. I kept flinching and I think my masseuse got annoyed with me. So I don't think I'll be going back. They are expensive anyways.
I think it was about 2:00 a.m. when I got home, which continued to be the norm for the rest of the weekend. The problem with late nights on the weekends is that the nursing dorm has a curfew. Luckily Esther has opened her home to all of us and we are welcome to spend the night there when we need to. I pretty much lived there for the entire weekend.
Saturday was more of the same, only bigger. All the lights and sounds were intoxicating to the point of being overwhelming. There were food stalls everywhere selling everything imaginable. I should have taken more pictures. I bought a coconut drink that was simply coconut juice inside a carved coconut shell that was maybe the size of a bowling ball. It was so good. But they also had shishkabobs and noodles and seafood and teas and ice creams and even fried bugs. I did take a picture of that. It was like a huge carnival. There were people everywhere and all around the constant boom of exploding fireworks while lanterns hovered above.
Sunday we again went down to the river and this time bought kratong to float on it. But the closer we got to the water, the crazier things were. I remember a firework (an m-80 perhaps?) going off so close to me that I could feel the blast. This happened a couple of times. Ozzie got hit in the head with a firework, but luckily it wasn't the kind that exploded and the sparks didn't burn him. Nawarat bridge was insane, crowded with people looking at the river and the sky. We went up to the top of the Porn Ping (a common name) Hotel to look over the city which was incredibly gorgeous with fireworks going off all around. It was great to get a better view of the skyline. Chiang Mai is a small city (about 200,000 people live there) however it FEELS big because during the day about half a million people work there.
On the final day, Monday, there was a huge parade featuring amazing floats and various Thai costumes. We had Conversational English class until 5:00 but afterwards a group of us went to check it out. At first we just stood on the sidelines, like you would at a parade back home. It was frustrating though because people kept crowding in front of us and running into the middle of the parade to take pictures. The police had to keep pushing everyone back to the sidewalk. The parade was so long and moved so slowly that we decided to walk along the route so we could see everything. To give you an idea of the size of it, it started at 6:00 p.m. and went until midnight. Earlier that day we ran into a couple of students at lunch. "Teacher, tonight we walk from six to twelve" they said. We thought they meant they were taking a walk and had gotten confused in their English. No, they meant they were in the parade and literally were walking from 6:00 until midnight. I felt bad for them.
Being at the parade made me feel like a little kid again. The Lilac Parade in Spokane used to be one of my favorite events growing up. We walked so far that my feet felt like they were on fire and my knees felt like they were going to buckle by the time we made it back. But it was so worth it. I tried to take lots of pictures but it was really challenging in the dark and with the crowds. I wish I'd taken more of the costumes, which were stunning. I felt like I was in the movie "Anna and the King."
So yes, I had an insane amount of fun although I also feared for my life at certain points. Every weekend from now on is going to be a bit of a letdown after that one. The following pictures of us lighting our langern are courtesy of Glory Crocco, Ozzie's younger sister.
My own snaps can be found on facebook. Here's the link.
Also, if you want to learn more about Loy Kratong, you can click here.
The preceding week was marked by an increasing number of premature fireworks in anticipation of the big event. The actual festival went for four nights, starting Friday. I had originally planned to head up to Mae Jo with my roommate Sarah and her friends, but things didn't work out transportation wise so I ended up hanging out with the other CVs down by the Mae Bhing River.
I remember talking with someone about the Fourth of July and laughing about how Americans celebrate their independence by blowing stuff up. Well, let me tell you folks. The Fourth of July is positively tame compared to Loy Kratong. We have cute little fireworks shows in controlled, "safe" settings. But I think I've explained that safety is a foreign concept here. So people just set off fireworks at random all over the city. And by that I mean they just light them, hold them in their hands, and point them in whatever direction they want to. I can't believe the entire city wasn't set on fire. It was madness! But it was also loads of fun.
We went down to the river purchased our own lantern (the first of several) and a handful of relatively tame fireworks. I might mention that these were technically contraband, but the cops only seemed to shut down people whose fireworks were excessively unsafe. Which was a rather liberal guideline. Down by the river people were launching their kratong and fireworks while on the bridge many people were lighting lanterns. There were rows of market stalls selling kratong and plenty of fireworks stands. We found a spot and took turns launching our fireworks over the river (they were the kind you swing around and throw, they're pretty fun and fairly harmless). Some of us were better at this than others. I hid behind a tree when I wasn't the one throwing. We succeeded in getting our lantern to take off. Unfortunately we almost set a tree on fire in the process. But never mind. By the end of our attempts, the Thais sitting nearby seemed relieved that we were leaving.
Since we'd just received our paycheck, the others all wanted to go get massages. Massage is very popular here and the others are regulars at one of Chiang Mai's establishments. I am not a big fan of strange people touching me, but I went along anyways. I guess I can see how some people would find it relaxing, but I still don't like strange people touching me. I kept flinching and I think my masseuse got annoyed with me. So I don't think I'll be going back. They are expensive anyways.
I think it was about 2:00 a.m. when I got home, which continued to be the norm for the rest of the weekend. The problem with late nights on the weekends is that the nursing dorm has a curfew. Luckily Esther has opened her home to all of us and we are welcome to spend the night there when we need to. I pretty much lived there for the entire weekend.
Saturday was more of the same, only bigger. All the lights and sounds were intoxicating to the point of being overwhelming. There were food stalls everywhere selling everything imaginable. I should have taken more pictures. I bought a coconut drink that was simply coconut juice inside a carved coconut shell that was maybe the size of a bowling ball. It was so good. But they also had shishkabobs and noodles and seafood and teas and ice creams and even fried bugs. I did take a picture of that. It was like a huge carnival. There were people everywhere and all around the constant boom of exploding fireworks while lanterns hovered above.
Sunday we again went down to the river and this time bought kratong to float on it. But the closer we got to the water, the crazier things were. I remember a firework (an m-80 perhaps?) going off so close to me that I could feel the blast. This happened a couple of times. Ozzie got hit in the head with a firework, but luckily it wasn't the kind that exploded and the sparks didn't burn him. Nawarat bridge was insane, crowded with people looking at the river and the sky. We went up to the top of the Porn Ping (a common name) Hotel to look over the city which was incredibly gorgeous with fireworks going off all around. It was great to get a better view of the skyline. Chiang Mai is a small city (about 200,000 people live there) however it FEELS big because during the day about half a million people work there.
On the final day, Monday, there was a huge parade featuring amazing floats and various Thai costumes. We had Conversational English class until 5:00 but afterwards a group of us went to check it out. At first we just stood on the sidelines, like you would at a parade back home. It was frustrating though because people kept crowding in front of us and running into the middle of the parade to take pictures. The police had to keep pushing everyone back to the sidewalk. The parade was so long and moved so slowly that we decided to walk along the route so we could see everything. To give you an idea of the size of it, it started at 6:00 p.m. and went until midnight. Earlier that day we ran into a couple of students at lunch. "Teacher, tonight we walk from six to twelve" they said. We thought they meant they were taking a walk and had gotten confused in their English. No, they meant they were in the parade and literally were walking from 6:00 until midnight. I felt bad for them.
Being at the parade made me feel like a little kid again. The Lilac Parade in Spokane used to be one of my favorite events growing up. We walked so far that my feet felt like they were on fire and my knees felt like they were going to buckle by the time we made it back. But it was so worth it. I tried to take lots of pictures but it was really challenging in the dark and with the crowds. I wish I'd taken more of the costumes, which were stunning. I felt like I was in the movie "Anna and the King."
So yes, I had an insane amount of fun although I also feared for my life at certain points. Every weekend from now on is going to be a bit of a letdown after that one. The following pictures of us lighting our langern are courtesy of Glory Crocco, Ozzie's younger sister.
November 17, 2010
TESOL and a few notes
We'll start with the few notes.
1. Hello Kitty is insanely popular here. To the extent that Hello Kitty motorbikes are a fairly common sight in parking lots.
2. Safety? What's safety? Thailand's approach to "safety" is like their approach to traffic laws. Today I witnessed a family of three riding on one motorbike. The child was probably around three or four years old. None of them were wearing helmets.
3. I saw a gigantic rat in the street today. Seriously. This thing was the size of a small cat.
4. 7'eleven, affectionately known as "seven," is ubiquitous. It's like the Starbucks of convenience stores. There is a 7'eleven about once every two blocks. Also, plastic bags are far more prevalent (they bag everything! sometimes separately!) AND there is no such thing as a public trash bin. Forget recycling. And they always give you straws with your drinks. Every. Single. Time. I currently have an unused pile of straws.
Teaching is steadily getting better. We are all learning a lot about language, culture, student psychology, etc. just by teaching. Today for instance I did another team-teaching session (we're learning how to collaborate more effectively). We played a game using question words because I'd noticed that the students had a tendency to mix those up. We wrote questions and answers on strips of paper, but left the question word out so that the students would have to fill it in. We reinforced over and over that who is for people, how is for describing things, where is for places and when is for time. It seemed to work, and we were feeling really great about it. "Good! 'When' is for time," I would say encouragingly. And then, when we had finished that I turned to my colleague and just caught myself before saying "what time is it?" Yeesh.
That's often the challenge with teaching English. You can give a rule, but invariably you're going to have to ask students to break it. On and in for example. When do you use on and when do you use in? That's simple, you're thinking. "On" is when something is on top of something, "in" is when something is inside something. So why then are we "on a train" or "on a plane" but "in a car." If you can give me the rule, I will be eternally grateful. Don't even get me started on at, to, with, which, that or this.
Another thing I'm getting better at is slowing down (but not too much) when I speak and enunciating/separating my words. I'm also more aware of the vocabulary I use when I speak in class and often say things several different ways. This started as an attempt to get my students to understand me, but now I also use it because I think it's good for them to know there are different ways to say the same thing. It's amazing how much you start to notice about your own language when you do this.
Today we were playing a game called "Desert Island" where students are supposed to come up with a list of things that they would want if they were stranded on a desert island. But, before we could do this I had to explain the word "desert." And in doing so I also had to explain the word dessert. When I had explained that "dessert" was a sweet food usually eaten after dinner and "desert" is a place without any water, I again caught myself before saying "desert island." Desert island? You can argue that this is just a shortened form of "deserted island" but does anyone actually say "deserted island"? So after this long explanation about desert and dessert, my colleague caught me and said "and now we're going to play the island game." I imagine that such an abrupt transition from deserts to islands was a bit confusing. :-)
I think my best class so far was yesterday's. I only had two students, but I was teaching solo. They were both a higher level and more confident, so it was a good atmosphere for some more creative games. I had them tell me about football using a diagram. I did a lot of prompting or "eliciting" as it's called in TESOL and it was really rewarding to see them both get into it and try to communicate. I also learned that Thailand has only three seasons ("summer," "winter" and "rainy") and that they call March, April and May "summer." We are going in "winter" right now (I think). The other activity I was pleased to have success with was a "run-on story." I drew a picture of a man in a boat (this is my default "notes doodle" although I often add a sea monster of some kind. I don't know why. I know. I'm weird.) and had them write a story based on it. They struggled at first but eventually ended up having Jack Sparrow fight a ghost. It was epic.
As a whole I think we're all discovering that they really do know more than they let on. It's just making them feel comfortable, helping them understand and occasionally jogging their memory (jogging their memory - isn't that an odd expression? Also, apparently in Thai you say you are "jumping class" when you "skip class" which sounds weird but when you think about it, skipping is equally strange).
As for TESOL classes, they're going well. For the most part. As I've mentioned, our methods teacher has been particularly helpful. Here's an idea of my schedule. We have class from nine to noon Tuesday through Friday. Tuesdays and Thursdays we also have class from 1:00 to 2:30 in the afternoons. On Friday we have class from 1:00 to 4:00 (and it's my least favorite!) Mondays are reserved for observations. In addition we teach Conversational English classes from 5:00 to 7:00 every evening and I am tutoring a Masters in Theology student on Wednesdays after 7:00. It's full on.
Classes are varied. Methods (basically, how to teach) is twice a week. It's literally saving our butts right now, especially since we don't have library cards yet so we don't have access to any resources. We also have classes in grammar and syntax twice a week. These are my least favorite. It would help if the professor would maybe, I don't know, teach. He seriously just reads out of the book. My favorite quote thus far "I didn't read this beforehand because I wanted to put myself on your level." He doesn't even know the subject matter. Anytime we ask a question he spends ten minutes looking for the answer in the book. I could do that!
But I digress. I think grammar is important. But mylanta. Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions and prepositions I can handle. I even understand Subject, Verb, Object. But then we get into adverbials and complements, compound-complex sentences, dependent and independent clauses, finite and non-finite clauses, noun clauses, adverbial clauses, phrasal verbs, verb chains... I guess the attitude is that we we'll probably never be teaching this stuff, so it's not important. But I'd like to know as much as I can. Even if I don't use it, I will be able to use my knowledge of it to teach more effectively.
Thursdays we have "corpus and concordancing" in the mornings (although we only have two sessions of this). The professor seems like he just walked out of a dusty, old British university and while he may not be the most riveting, this class addresses a lot of things I'd never thought about before. "Corpus" in linguistics refers to a set or collection. Concordance is kind of like agreement as I understand it. So these sessions are basically about what constitutes proper or "correct" English, which is hazy. English is, by nature, always growing and changing so these are tricky issues. I won't go into it here but it's kind of thought-provoking, like pretty much everything else I am encountering.
Then we have phonology, which deals with sound and pronunciation. Sooooo interesting! It kind of ties in with singing. Have you ever thought about the difference between the "b" and the "p" sound? The "b" sound is voiced. That's the only difference. I've been having fun teaching my students to pronounce their "th"s and "z" sounds. Imagine a handful of people all standing around going "thhhhh" with their tongues stuck exaggeratedly out of their teeth. Did you know that Japanese babies and American babies have the same ability to distinguish between "L" and "R"? As they grow up, the Americans develop a greater ability while Japanese people lose this ability.
Anyhow, more another time. It's getting late. I'd like to sign off with a video clip. Today in Methods, we were experimenting with an activity somewhat like 20 questions where the group asks yes or no questions to someone with a picture in order to find out what the picture is. We asked our professor if it was a mammal and he said "yes." After a long string of guessing he gave us a hint that it was a bird. Needless to say we did not hesitate to point out that a bird is not a mammal. Anyhow, it made me think of this video that Katie told me she played in one of her Spanish classes. I wanted to share it, but that would be weird, so I will post it here instead.
"That's okay, I've stepped on my J many times."
1. Hello Kitty is insanely popular here. To the extent that Hello Kitty motorbikes are a fairly common sight in parking lots.
2. Safety? What's safety? Thailand's approach to "safety" is like their approach to traffic laws. Today I witnessed a family of three riding on one motorbike. The child was probably around three or four years old. None of them were wearing helmets.
3. I saw a gigantic rat in the street today. Seriously. This thing was the size of a small cat.
4. 7'eleven, affectionately known as "seven," is ubiquitous. It's like the Starbucks of convenience stores. There is a 7'eleven about once every two blocks. Also, plastic bags are far more prevalent (they bag everything! sometimes separately!) AND there is no such thing as a public trash bin. Forget recycling. And they always give you straws with your drinks. Every. Single. Time. I currently have an unused pile of straws.
Teaching is steadily getting better. We are all learning a lot about language, culture, student psychology, etc. just by teaching. Today for instance I did another team-teaching session (we're learning how to collaborate more effectively). We played a game using question words because I'd noticed that the students had a tendency to mix those up. We wrote questions and answers on strips of paper, but left the question word out so that the students would have to fill it in. We reinforced over and over that who is for people, how is for describing things, where is for places and when is for time. It seemed to work, and we were feeling really great about it. "Good! 'When' is for time," I would say encouragingly. And then, when we had finished that I turned to my colleague and just caught myself before saying "what time is it?" Yeesh.
That's often the challenge with teaching English. You can give a rule, but invariably you're going to have to ask students to break it. On and in for example. When do you use on and when do you use in? That's simple, you're thinking. "On" is when something is on top of something, "in" is when something is inside something. So why then are we "on a train" or "on a plane" but "in a car." If you can give me the rule, I will be eternally grateful. Don't even get me started on at, to, with, which, that or this.
Another thing I'm getting better at is slowing down (but not too much) when I speak and enunciating/separating my words. I'm also more aware of the vocabulary I use when I speak in class and often say things several different ways. This started as an attempt to get my students to understand me, but now I also use it because I think it's good for them to know there are different ways to say the same thing. It's amazing how much you start to notice about your own language when you do this.
Today we were playing a game called "Desert Island" where students are supposed to come up with a list of things that they would want if they were stranded on a desert island. But, before we could do this I had to explain the word "desert." And in doing so I also had to explain the word dessert. When I had explained that "dessert" was a sweet food usually eaten after dinner and "desert" is a place without any water, I again caught myself before saying "desert island." Desert island? You can argue that this is just a shortened form of "deserted island" but does anyone actually say "deserted island"? So after this long explanation about desert and dessert, my colleague caught me and said "and now we're going to play the island game." I imagine that such an abrupt transition from deserts to islands was a bit confusing. :-)
I think my best class so far was yesterday's. I only had two students, but I was teaching solo. They were both a higher level and more confident, so it was a good atmosphere for some more creative games. I had them tell me about football using a diagram. I did a lot of prompting or "eliciting" as it's called in TESOL and it was really rewarding to see them both get into it and try to communicate. I also learned that Thailand has only three seasons ("summer," "winter" and "rainy") and that they call March, April and May "summer." We are going in "winter" right now (I think). The other activity I was pleased to have success with was a "run-on story." I drew a picture of a man in a boat (this is my default "notes doodle" although I often add a sea monster of some kind. I don't know why. I know. I'm weird.) and had them write a story based on it. They struggled at first but eventually ended up having Jack Sparrow fight a ghost. It was epic.
As a whole I think we're all discovering that they really do know more than they let on. It's just making them feel comfortable, helping them understand and occasionally jogging their memory (jogging their memory - isn't that an odd expression? Also, apparently in Thai you say you are "jumping class" when you "skip class" which sounds weird but when you think about it, skipping is equally strange).
As for TESOL classes, they're going well. For the most part. As I've mentioned, our methods teacher has been particularly helpful. Here's an idea of my schedule. We have class from nine to noon Tuesday through Friday. Tuesdays and Thursdays we also have class from 1:00 to 2:30 in the afternoons. On Friday we have class from 1:00 to 4:00 (and it's my least favorite!) Mondays are reserved for observations. In addition we teach Conversational English classes from 5:00 to 7:00 every evening and I am tutoring a Masters in Theology student on Wednesdays after 7:00. It's full on.
Classes are varied. Methods (basically, how to teach) is twice a week. It's literally saving our butts right now, especially since we don't have library cards yet so we don't have access to any resources. We also have classes in grammar and syntax twice a week. These are my least favorite. It would help if the professor would maybe, I don't know, teach. He seriously just reads out of the book. My favorite quote thus far "I didn't read this beforehand because I wanted to put myself on your level." He doesn't even know the subject matter. Anytime we ask a question he spends ten minutes looking for the answer in the book. I could do that!
But I digress. I think grammar is important. But mylanta. Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions and prepositions I can handle. I even understand Subject, Verb, Object. But then we get into adverbials and complements, compound-complex sentences, dependent and independent clauses, finite and non-finite clauses, noun clauses, adverbial clauses, phrasal verbs, verb chains... I guess the attitude is that we we'll probably never be teaching this stuff, so it's not important. But I'd like to know as much as I can. Even if I don't use it, I will be able to use my knowledge of it to teach more effectively.
Thursdays we have "corpus and concordancing" in the mornings (although we only have two sessions of this). The professor seems like he just walked out of a dusty, old British university and while he may not be the most riveting, this class addresses a lot of things I'd never thought about before. "Corpus" in linguistics refers to a set or collection. Concordance is kind of like agreement as I understand it. So these sessions are basically about what constitutes proper or "correct" English, which is hazy. English is, by nature, always growing and changing so these are tricky issues. I won't go into it here but it's kind of thought-provoking, like pretty much everything else I am encountering.
Then we have phonology, which deals with sound and pronunciation. Sooooo interesting! It kind of ties in with singing. Have you ever thought about the difference between the "b" and the "p" sound? The "b" sound is voiced. That's the only difference. I've been having fun teaching my students to pronounce their "th"s and "z" sounds. Imagine a handful of people all standing around going "thhhhh" with their tongues stuck exaggeratedly out of their teeth. Did you know that Japanese babies and American babies have the same ability to distinguish between "L" and "R"? As they grow up, the Americans develop a greater ability while Japanese people lose this ability.
Anyhow, more another time. It's getting late. I'd like to sign off with a video clip. Today in Methods, we were experimenting with an activity somewhat like 20 questions where the group asks yes or no questions to someone with a picture in order to find out what the picture is. We asked our professor if it was a mammal and he said "yes." After a long string of guessing he gave us a hint that it was a bird. Needless to say we did not hesitate to point out that a bird is not a mammal. Anyhow, it made me think of this video that Katie told me she played in one of her Spanish classes. I wanted to share it, but that would be weird, so I will post it here instead.
"That's okay, I've stepped on my J many times."
November 13, 2010
I Survived!
My goal this week was to make it to Saturday alive. Well, it's Saturday and I'm alive. Hurray for achievement!
My second day of class went much better as I was able to prepare more appropriately for the level my students are at. Friday though was exhausting and by the end of the day I was ready to collapse. A solid night's sleep has helped me prepare for the weekend. I have several activities to go to, although if I had my way I would just chill and read in my room.
I am really fortunate to be getting TESOL training in conjunction with teaching some English classes. Anisha and Rochell have been here five months and are just now getting the training, so I am thankful to be receiving it right off the bat. Not only that, but having a class to teach makes the material much more real for me and adds to my motivation to learn this stuff, especially when most days I am using whatever I learned that morning in class that same evening.
Some of you may be puzzled as to how I can teach English when I don't speak Thai. I didn't think this would be an issue because I thought the students would be at a higher level, but I cannot give instructions in spoken English because for the most part I just get blank stares. Well, I've been told there is a reason they've stuck a bunch of non-Thai speaking English teachers in the classroom. As I encountered my first class day, Thai students are excruciatingly shy and terrified of making mistakes. Therefore they don't want to take the plunge and try speaking English. Apparently their Thai teachers end up just teaching them in Thai because they cannot get them to communicate in English. We, however, do not have that option so it's either sink or swim. Unfortunately I think the fact that I am a native English speaker makes the students even more hesitant to speak in front of me, but that is why my trying to learn Thai from them was so good. In a sense I got to model for them the behavior I wanted to see by just trying and making (I'm sure) horrendous mistakes.
That being said, I would be having a much tougher time of it if they weren't able to read fluently. After experiencing many painful silences my first class day, I noticed that it helped if I wrote things down. I think there are a couple of reasons for this. First, I'm still learning to slow down when I speak and to pause more frequently. This is more difficult than you might think because one: standing in front of a group of people during a period of absolute silence is terrifying and two: speech is so instantaneous that it is difficult to monitor what words you are using and how fast you're talking. The other reason has to do with the differences between Thai and English. Thai focuses on vowel sounds. If you use a long 'a' sound instead of a short 'a' sound, you end up saying a completely different word. But English is the exact opposite if you think about it. Think of all the different accents in English. What's different about them? The vowel sounds. I can say 'bag' with a long 'a' and still be understood, even if I am mocked for my regional dialect. This would make if very difficult for a Thai speaker to understand spoken English because, as I am learning in TESOL, there is no such thing as "standard" English pronunciation. We like to think of the way we speak as "standard" and of anyone who speaks differently as "deviant." But that's a pretty prideful conception if you think about it.
Another difficulty arises from the tonal nature of Thai. In addition to vowel sounds needing to be exact, Thai words can mean different things based on vocal tone. For instance, the word "mai" can mean "no," "wood," "burn," or "no?" depending on if it is spoken in low tone, mid tone, high tone, rising tone, or falling tone. Luckily, there are only five. I wish I could show you my phonology chart. High rising tone? Rising-falling tone? Yeesh. When Thais try to speak English, they have a hard time with putting stress on the appropriate syllable. More often not, the stress ends up on the last syllable with rising inflection. FeeLING. WatER. HappY. SpeakING. EngLISH. In order to be understood, many farang have taken to mimicking this style. "TaXI! I GO to marKET. How MUCH?" While this may get the message across, it's harmful in that Thais don't get exposed to naturally spoken English and so it kind of exacerbates the problem. I had even started doing this without realizing it but caught myself after it was brought up in TESOL class. Now I'm hypersensitive to it and cringe whenever I hear it.
After day one of teaching, my primary goal has been to create a safe environment for my students where they feel comfortable speaking in front of each other and in front of me. Our methods teacher, Philip, has been really helpful regarding this by giving us many ideas for games and icebreakers that can be used in the classroom. I've been starting off with a simple "get to know each other" game where you toss a ball around while introducing yourself. I change it up every time so that we progress to greeting the other people in the circle and then saying where we're from etc. It's really great because it doesn't require much explanation and gets them speaking right away.
On day one, I tried to follow this with "the name tag game" which some of you may have played in other language classes. Basically, you write your name and a number that is significant to you or your "favorite" on the top of your name tag and then you draw one thing you like, one thing you dislike and one thing you are good at on the bottom. Then everyone gets up and mingles and tries to guess what everything on the name tag means. I had limited success with this though because it required more explanation. In fact, many of the games Philip recommended proved too challenging for my students because they require them to think on their feet and come up with their own vocabulary. The best I can do is have them write out sentences beforehand which they can then read aloud to one another, but this takes them a considerable amount of time.
Thursday I took a very different approach and used a lot of the materials that Ruth from the women's retreat had sent me. It was actually pretty successful except that they spent so much time writing that they didn't do much speaking AND that I was doing more instructing and less interacting. Friday another CV wanted me to combine classes with her. I was a little nervous about doing this but decided to go along with it. But even so it was okay because I only had two students show up and by combining we were able to have six and do some larger group activities.
My two main challenges are that my students aren't confident enough/don't know enough to provide their own English vocabulary, so I'm struggling with how to find ways to incorporate vocabulary into class activities. The other thing is that the focus is supposed to be spoken English and conversation, but I'm noticing confusion about things like plural nouns, possessives and even simple mistakes regarding verb conjugation. So how much should I address these problems? I mean, not only is it not really the intention of the course, but they're not open enough to receive correction without taking it personally, so it could be counterproductive. However, they need to speak with proper grammar, so it does sort of automatically become part of my responsibility. But then I can't communicate clearly with them, so I'm limited in how much I can teach. I'm trying to find a balance.
But it's a fascinating challenge and I find I can't stop thinking about my students and various strategies that I could use to help them. So yes, I am enjoying teaching in that sense. I know this will surprise some of you because I've always been anti-teaching, but this is for a couple of reasons. One, I've never felt strongly called to teaching and I've encountered enough teachers who were in the profession only because they couldn't think of anything else to do. I didn't want to be one of these. I mean, I think you should really want to be teaching if you're going to take on that role. Especially with music I feel like there's a definite "those who can, play. Those who can't, teach" mentality. Also, I never relished the idea of managing bratty students and I don't really like working with kids. At all. I've lucked out here because I was warned that Thai students are not very diligent and only pay attention when they want to. My students though are wonderful! They are very respectful and are trying hard, even though they are unsure of themselves. So that helps.
I don't yet know if teaching is something I would like to continue doing after this year, either with ESL or music or something else, but it's an option. If I truly feel I have something to offer that students could benefit from then I would be less reticent about teaching as a vocation. I'm still trying to find a place for music, and even music performance, in my life after college so there is that as well. But I am glad to have this opportunity and am learning a lot.
Also, thank you Google for making me aware that today is Robert Louis Stevenson's 160th birthday.
My second day of class went much better as I was able to prepare more appropriately for the level my students are at. Friday though was exhausting and by the end of the day I was ready to collapse. A solid night's sleep has helped me prepare for the weekend. I have several activities to go to, although if I had my way I would just chill and read in my room.
I am really fortunate to be getting TESOL training in conjunction with teaching some English classes. Anisha and Rochell have been here five months and are just now getting the training, so I am thankful to be receiving it right off the bat. Not only that, but having a class to teach makes the material much more real for me and adds to my motivation to learn this stuff, especially when most days I am using whatever I learned that morning in class that same evening.
Some of you may be puzzled as to how I can teach English when I don't speak Thai. I didn't think this would be an issue because I thought the students would be at a higher level, but I cannot give instructions in spoken English because for the most part I just get blank stares. Well, I've been told there is a reason they've stuck a bunch of non-Thai speaking English teachers in the classroom. As I encountered my first class day, Thai students are excruciatingly shy and terrified of making mistakes. Therefore they don't want to take the plunge and try speaking English. Apparently their Thai teachers end up just teaching them in Thai because they cannot get them to communicate in English. We, however, do not have that option so it's either sink or swim. Unfortunately I think the fact that I am a native English speaker makes the students even more hesitant to speak in front of me, but that is why my trying to learn Thai from them was so good. In a sense I got to model for them the behavior I wanted to see by just trying and making (I'm sure) horrendous mistakes.
That being said, I would be having a much tougher time of it if they weren't able to read fluently. After experiencing many painful silences my first class day, I noticed that it helped if I wrote things down. I think there are a couple of reasons for this. First, I'm still learning to slow down when I speak and to pause more frequently. This is more difficult than you might think because one: standing in front of a group of people during a period of absolute silence is terrifying and two: speech is so instantaneous that it is difficult to monitor what words you are using and how fast you're talking. The other reason has to do with the differences between Thai and English. Thai focuses on vowel sounds. If you use a long 'a' sound instead of a short 'a' sound, you end up saying a completely different word. But English is the exact opposite if you think about it. Think of all the different accents in English. What's different about them? The vowel sounds. I can say 'bag' with a long 'a' and still be understood, even if I am mocked for my regional dialect. This would make if very difficult for a Thai speaker to understand spoken English because, as I am learning in TESOL, there is no such thing as "standard" English pronunciation. We like to think of the way we speak as "standard" and of anyone who speaks differently as "deviant." But that's a pretty prideful conception if you think about it.
Another difficulty arises from the tonal nature of Thai. In addition to vowel sounds needing to be exact, Thai words can mean different things based on vocal tone. For instance, the word "mai" can mean "no," "wood," "burn," or "no?" depending on if it is spoken in low tone, mid tone, high tone, rising tone, or falling tone. Luckily, there are only five. I wish I could show you my phonology chart. High rising tone? Rising-falling tone? Yeesh. When Thais try to speak English, they have a hard time with putting stress on the appropriate syllable. More often not, the stress ends up on the last syllable with rising inflection. FeeLING. WatER. HappY. SpeakING. EngLISH. In order to be understood, many farang have taken to mimicking this style. "TaXI! I GO to marKET. How MUCH?" While this may get the message across, it's harmful in that Thais don't get exposed to naturally spoken English and so it kind of exacerbates the problem. I had even started doing this without realizing it but caught myself after it was brought up in TESOL class. Now I'm hypersensitive to it and cringe whenever I hear it.
After day one of teaching, my primary goal has been to create a safe environment for my students where they feel comfortable speaking in front of each other and in front of me. Our methods teacher, Philip, has been really helpful regarding this by giving us many ideas for games and icebreakers that can be used in the classroom. I've been starting off with a simple "get to know each other" game where you toss a ball around while introducing yourself. I change it up every time so that we progress to greeting the other people in the circle and then saying where we're from etc. It's really great because it doesn't require much explanation and gets them speaking right away.
On day one, I tried to follow this with "the name tag game" which some of you may have played in other language classes. Basically, you write your name and a number that is significant to you or your "favorite" on the top of your name tag and then you draw one thing you like, one thing you dislike and one thing you are good at on the bottom. Then everyone gets up and mingles and tries to guess what everything on the name tag means. I had limited success with this though because it required more explanation. In fact, many of the games Philip recommended proved too challenging for my students because they require them to think on their feet and come up with their own vocabulary. The best I can do is have them write out sentences beforehand which they can then read aloud to one another, but this takes them a considerable amount of time.
Thursday I took a very different approach and used a lot of the materials that Ruth from the women's retreat had sent me. It was actually pretty successful except that they spent so much time writing that they didn't do much speaking AND that I was doing more instructing and less interacting. Friday another CV wanted me to combine classes with her. I was a little nervous about doing this but decided to go along with it. But even so it was okay because I only had two students show up and by combining we were able to have six and do some larger group activities.
My two main challenges are that my students aren't confident enough/don't know enough to provide their own English vocabulary, so I'm struggling with how to find ways to incorporate vocabulary into class activities. The other thing is that the focus is supposed to be spoken English and conversation, but I'm noticing confusion about things like plural nouns, possessives and even simple mistakes regarding verb conjugation. So how much should I address these problems? I mean, not only is it not really the intention of the course, but they're not open enough to receive correction without taking it personally, so it could be counterproductive. However, they need to speak with proper grammar, so it does sort of automatically become part of my responsibility. But then I can't communicate clearly with them, so I'm limited in how much I can teach. I'm trying to find a balance.
But it's a fascinating challenge and I find I can't stop thinking about my students and various strategies that I could use to help them. So yes, I am enjoying teaching in that sense. I know this will surprise some of you because I've always been anti-teaching, but this is for a couple of reasons. One, I've never felt strongly called to teaching and I've encountered enough teachers who were in the profession only because they couldn't think of anything else to do. I didn't want to be one of these. I mean, I think you should really want to be teaching if you're going to take on that role. Especially with music I feel like there's a definite "those who can, play. Those who can't, teach" mentality. Also, I never relished the idea of managing bratty students and I don't really like working with kids. At all. I've lucked out here because I was warned that Thai students are not very diligent and only pay attention when they want to. My students though are wonderful! They are very respectful and are trying hard, even though they are unsure of themselves. So that helps.
I don't yet know if teaching is something I would like to continue doing after this year, either with ESL or music or something else, but it's an option. If I truly feel I have something to offer that students could benefit from then I would be less reticent about teaching as a vocation. I'm still trying to find a place for music, and even music performance, in my life after college so there is that as well. But I am glad to have this opportunity and am learning a lot.
Also, thank you Google for making me aware that today is Robert Louis Stevenson's 160th birthday.
As from the house your mother sees
You playing round the garden trees,
So you may see, if you will look
Through the windows of this book,
Another child, far, far away,
And in another garden, play.
But do not think you can at all,
By knocking on the window, call
That child to hear you. He intent
Is all on his play-business bent.
He does not hear, he will not look,
Nor yet be lured out of this book.
For, long ago, the truth to say,
He has grown up and gone away,
And it is but a child of air
That lingers in the garden there
You playing round the garden trees,
So you may see, if you will look
Through the windows of this book,
Another child, far, far away,
And in another garden, play.
But do not think you can at all,
By knocking on the window, call
That child to hear you. He intent
Is all on his play-business bent.
He does not hear, he will not look,
Nor yet be lured out of this book.
For, long ago, the truth to say,
He has grown up and gone away,
And it is but a child of air
That lingers in the garden there
November 11, 2010
Murphy's Law
This is an ode to yesterday, possibly one of the most challenging days of my entire existence. But first we'll start at the very beginning.
Tuesday was the beginning of TESOL training and I now know what TESOL stands for. Huzzah. Apparently TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language and is for teaching English abroad. TESL stands for Teaching English as a Second Language and is for teaching English to non-native speakers living in English-speaking countries. TESOL stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and is replacing TEFL and TESL as a kind of umbrella approach.
Classes are, for the most part, very interesting and practical and I'm learning how much I don't know about my own language. I'll give you a quiz sometime. So far I've had three instructors, two of whom are Brits which pretty much makes everything better. The classes are special for the CVs and GVs so there are only the six of us (Ozzie has already been certified). I've never thought about a lot of the things we discuss and grammar is kicking me in the butt, but I am enjoying it. Mostly. Sometimes it's kind of boring. The schedule's pretty intense though. 9-12 four days a week and a couple of hours in the afternoon on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays with classroom observations on Mondays.
The rest of Tuesday was spent in preparation for the "surprise" English class we were starting on Wednesday. We spent a lot of time looking at online resources for games but really we had no idea what to expect and no idea how to prepare. The only materials we'd been given were these archaic packets that might take up half an hour each at most. Classes are two hours at a stretch for ten days, five days a week. Yep, that's 20 hours of English teaching.
Ajaan (professor) Philip promised to give us some ideas Wednesday morning and we pretty much ended up changing our entire lesson plan Wednesday afternoon. After TESOL we split for lunch and then reconvened at the dorms for an afternoon of nerves and lesson plans. It was decided we should move to the library, so we began to walk that direction. And that's when all hell broke loose.
I always have to have a crisis. Always. Part of the sidewalk was very wet and muddy and slick. You know what's coming. Mai gingerly stepped over it warning us to be careful. I recognized the danger and began to edge my way across, but despite my best efforts gravity would have its way. I had a flashback to when I was hiking in New Zealand with Katie and Sara and fell in the mud. Both times everything slowed down and despite my best efforts I couldn't stop myself from falling. I landed on my back, hit my head on the wall, bruised my elbow, skinned the palm of my hand and got mud smeared all over my nice clothes (I'd worn something especially nice in honor of my first day of teaching) and backpack. It. Was. Mortifying. I have had many undignified moments in my life. That was possibly the worst.
Sarah and Mai were sympathetic and Mai offered to lend me some of her clothes while Sarah went on ahead. I went back to the dorms feeling very self conscious and then tried to clean myself up in Mai's bathroom. Mai lent me a new skirt and top and I tried to clean up my backpack too but it still smells like a swamp. The water even bled through and got my papers and sheet music wet. Why me?
But I changed and tried to focus on lesson planning, even though all I really wanted was to go back to my room and take a hot shower. 5:00 arrived and found me in my classroom embarking on my first classroom teaching experience with minimal training and no idea what to expect. Let me tell you, it is extremely unsettling. 21 students registered for my section, of which a grand total of three showed up. I took attendance, constantly having flashbacks to high school and college and thinking of every single teacher I have ever had and pretty much freaking out that I was the one in front of the classroom and in charge.
I wasn't prepared for the low level of comprehension and speaking ability my students were at. All of my activities, including Ajaan Philip's, were geared for too high of a level. My students couldn't even understand my instructions. But it wasn't a complete disaster, even though it felt like it at the time. We played a ball toss game to practiced introducing ourselves and then I tried another activity using name tags, which is when I discovered how little they could understand me. From there I tried everything I could think of to fill in the time with little success. My students were extremely nice and respectful, but they were also painfully shy. I had no way of knowing what they would understand and every time I asked them a question they would just blush and then start laughing with embarrassment. Plus it was awkward to be hovering over them when they were only three people.
I needed time to think, so I had them do some writing (I don't remember what) while I tried to think of how to communicate with them. I ended up moving four desks into a square so that I could sit down with them and from then on it was hit and miss. I felt unprofessional and unprepared because I was coming up with things on the spot and forgetting things and probably embarrassing them every time I asked one of them a question that they didn't know. At one point I did the very thing I'd dreaded and knocked my phone off my desk so that it fell apart. One of my students quietly put it back together for me, but I felt like I had lost any shred of respect or authority I might have had. I was so awkward! Things improved slightly when I had them write and then ask me questions about myself at which point they asked me things like what my favorite Thai food was, which forced me to try to speak in Thai. They thought this was hilarious and so I'm afraid I spent some class time asking them how to say things in Thai. I really think it made them more comfortable because they saw me making mistakes. So that relaxed the atmosphere.
I know you'll all say positive things about this, but I cannot convey how very painful and awkward it was at the time. I felt so self-conscious and could not stop thinking "what the heck am I doing up here!?" I let them go five minutes early and stumbled out of class to find that many of the others had had similar experiences. But my day wasn't over. I've taken on a theology student getting her masters and had scheduled a tutoring session with her (at my request) after trying to edit one of her papers. So it was back to my campus without any dinner and still in Mai's clothing where I ran to library and was still half an hour late. My student was very forgiving though and even asked me if I'd eaten anything and then gave me some snacks(!) She is a sweetheart. We worked until the library closed at 9:00 but still weren't quite finished so this morning I got up at 7:00 a.m. and met with her at 7:30 to finish helping her with her paper before another long day at the other campus.
So really, I am exhausted right now and should be sleeping. It was a huge relief to get back to my room and shower (finally) and change. Today I did not fall in anything or drop anything, but my markers did run out of ink and one of them fell apart in my hands and got ink everywhere.
But despite everything, I'm feeling really good right now. I'd forgotten what it was like to be busy like this. To have absolutely nothing left and still have to keep going. You'll think I'm sick but after several months of inactivity it feels good. And I'm learning. Rapidly. And I will always remember my first day of teaching. I can't think of much more that could've gone wrong.
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