Aaaaannnnddd we're back! This time with Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F Major. Everyone knows Rhapsody in Blue so I thought I'd post this one.
May 28, 2011
The joys of rearranging furniture
The new semester is just around the corner and new students will start moving in on Monday. The person who usually organizes orientation is out of the country at the moment and so we have been scrambling to fill her place. This has made for a lot of confusion and uncertainty, but with any luck we'll pull through.
Besides organizing events, our team is responsible for a cultural workshop for the international students. We are once again using Foreign to Familiar as a reference point and have decided go all out on the discussion-based approach. Basically, what we've encountered is that people are highly resistant to this stuff. It seems to oversimplify things and promote stereotypes and so people resent it. But the fact is that (at least in my limited experience) there is some logic to it. But it's no fun to be told things about your own culture, or to be forced to swallow something you're resistant to. However, it is fun to discover this stuff on your own and to start to be able to make sense of things. Therefore we're using activities and scenarios (Whitworth folk: think Core 350) instead of simply creating a boring powerpoint presentation. Unfortunately that means more work and anxiety, which I have been avoiding through every means possible.
On a related note, my room is the cleanest it's ever been! And my stuff is super organized. This is actually a great feeling. I've been meaning to rearrange the furniture and do some thorough cleaning for quite a while actually, but I put it off with the excuse that I ought to consult sarah first. Well, sarah's moved to another dorm and so I have this rather spacious room/suite all to myself. For the time being at least. I cannot convey how happy I am to have finally moved the furniture around. For one, my computer can finally live at my desk. The old location of my desk was out of the wireless network range and so I was using a makeshift table instead. I have finally switched the locations of these things so that I don't have to sit sideways anymore. Of course I'm so used to sitting sideways by now that I'm currently doing so anyways. I also discovered many things while cleaning, including a light switch to a light that I thought was burnt out. It's amazing what happens when you move things to clean behind them. But mainly I'm much happier because my room feels more like a place to live in and less like a storage closet. sarah and I had experimented before with furniture arrangements and never found anything that quite worked. Initially I thought I could move some extra stuff to sarah's side of the room, but I've discovered that I didn't even need to do that. I feel like I'm channeling Katrina. I can't stop looking around at all the clean, organized things and feeling extremely happy inside. so if you are feeling down, try rearranging your furniture. It may just be that your feng shui is off.
I can't believe I just wrote so much about cleaning. These are the exciting things I blog about while living in Thailand. so for some more important news, our team has gone from five to four people. As I've mentioned before, Ozzie and Rochell's contracts expire at the end of the month and they are both moving on. Esther had hired two new replacements for them, but one of them cancelled at the last minute leaving us with four people. This is part of why my roommate sarah has moved to another dorm, so we'll have a CV in every dormitory on the other campus. I'll be flying solo on this side, but I've decided I do better working alone than in a team. so sarah will be living in the international dorm, Anisha will be in the women's dormitory and our new team member, Eric, will be in the men's dormitory. Eric hails from Wisconsin but has lived in Thailand for a few years. He's currently completing his masters in tesol at Payap and therefore will be a great resource for our team.
It looks like it will be a busy semester. The general English program is undergoing a complete overhaul and we are going to be responsible for speaking "lab" classes. This sounded like a good idea before we realized it meant dividing up 1200 students between four CVs and two GVs. We'll see what happens. And with the loss of Ozzie, Esther is in need of some support for her department's classes: Truth and service, and Critical Thinking and Logic. I am quite pleased to say that it looks like I will be facilitating the Critical Thinking course, even though I have absolutely no credentials to do so. Thus "facilitating." I suppose it's more of an independent study course, but I'm still excited. I basically get to pretend to be a professor, which for me is a little bit like being a kid in a candy store. And I am super passionate about this subject because I believe it is a skill that is badly needed and that most people seem to lack. Maybe I should have been a philosophy major...
Anyhow, that's all I can think to write about and now I've used up the last of my procrastination devices and will have to actually do something job-related. Woe is me.
Besides organizing events, our team is responsible for a cultural workshop for the international students. We are once again using Foreign to Familiar as a reference point and have decided go all out on the discussion-based approach. Basically, what we've encountered is that people are highly resistant to this stuff. It seems to oversimplify things and promote stereotypes and so people resent it. But the fact is that (at least in my limited experience) there is some logic to it. But it's no fun to be told things about your own culture, or to be forced to swallow something you're resistant to. However, it is fun to discover this stuff on your own and to start to be able to make sense of things. Therefore we're using activities and scenarios (Whitworth folk: think Core 350) instead of simply creating a boring powerpoint presentation. Unfortunately that means more work and anxiety, which I have been avoiding through every means possible.
On a related note, my room is the cleanest it's ever been! And my stuff is super organized. This is actually a great feeling. I've been meaning to rearrange the furniture and do some thorough cleaning for quite a while actually, but I put it off with the excuse that I ought to consult sarah first. Well, sarah's moved to another dorm and so I have this rather spacious room/suite all to myself. For the time being at least. I cannot convey how happy I am to have finally moved the furniture around. For one, my computer can finally live at my desk. The old location of my desk was out of the wireless network range and so I was using a makeshift table instead. I have finally switched the locations of these things so that I don't have to sit sideways anymore. Of course I'm so used to sitting sideways by now that I'm currently doing so anyways. I also discovered many things while cleaning, including a light switch to a light that I thought was burnt out. It's amazing what happens when you move things to clean behind them. But mainly I'm much happier because my room feels more like a place to live in and less like a storage closet. sarah and I had experimented before with furniture arrangements and never found anything that quite worked. Initially I thought I could move some extra stuff to sarah's side of the room, but I've discovered that I didn't even need to do that. I feel like I'm channeling Katrina. I can't stop looking around at all the clean, organized things and feeling extremely happy inside. so if you are feeling down, try rearranging your furniture. It may just be that your feng shui is off.
I can't believe I just wrote so much about cleaning. These are the exciting things I blog about while living in Thailand. so for some more important news, our team has gone from five to four people. As I've mentioned before, Ozzie and Rochell's contracts expire at the end of the month and they are both moving on. Esther had hired two new replacements for them, but one of them cancelled at the last minute leaving us with four people. This is part of why my roommate sarah has moved to another dorm, so we'll have a CV in every dormitory on the other campus. I'll be flying solo on this side, but I've decided I do better working alone than in a team. so sarah will be living in the international dorm, Anisha will be in the women's dormitory and our new team member, Eric, will be in the men's dormitory. Eric hails from Wisconsin but has lived in Thailand for a few years. He's currently completing his masters in tesol at Payap and therefore will be a great resource for our team.
It looks like it will be a busy semester. The general English program is undergoing a complete overhaul and we are going to be responsible for speaking "lab" classes. This sounded like a good idea before we realized it meant dividing up 1200 students between four CVs and two GVs. We'll see what happens. And with the loss of Ozzie, Esther is in need of some support for her department's classes: Truth and service, and Critical Thinking and Logic. I am quite pleased to say that it looks like I will be facilitating the Critical Thinking course, even though I have absolutely no credentials to do so. Thus "facilitating." I suppose it's more of an independent study course, but I'm still excited. I basically get to pretend to be a professor, which for me is a little bit like being a kid in a candy store. And I am super passionate about this subject because I believe it is a skill that is badly needed and that most people seem to lack. Maybe I should have been a philosophy major...
Anyhow, that's all I can think to write about and now I've used up the last of my procrastination devices and will have to actually do something job-related. Woe is me.
May 19, 2011
Bangkok song
so Bangkok's real name isn't Bangkok. The true name is:
กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยามหาดิลกภพ นพรัตน์ราชธานี บุรีรมย์อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถาน อมรพิมานอวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยะวิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์
or:
Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit
Can't remember that? Well, no worries! someone on YouTube has anticipated your difficulty. Enjoy this video featuring students from the Prince Royal's College, which is just two blocks away from where I live.
Translation: Bangkok, the Great City of Angels, it's where the immortal Emerald Buddha dwells, the invincible city, the grand capital of the world, endowed with nine precious gems and full of joy, it is abundant with enormous royal palaces, it's where the reincarnated angels reside, at the order of Indra, Vishvakarma has magically built the capital.
กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยามหาดิลกภพ นพรัตน์ราชธานี บุรีรมย์อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถาน อมรพิมานอวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยะวิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์
or:
Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit
Can't remember that? Well, no worries! someone on YouTube has anticipated your difficulty. Enjoy this video featuring students from the Prince Royal's College, which is just two blocks away from where I live.
Translation: Bangkok, the Great City of Angels, it's where the immortal Emerald Buddha dwells, the invincible city, the grand capital of the world, endowed with nine precious gems and full of joy, it is abundant with enormous royal palaces, it's where the reincarnated angels reside, at the order of Indra, Vishvakarma has magically built the capital.
May 17, 2011
Retreat
We are about to say goodbye to Rochell and Ozzie. Their contracts end this month and both are leaving, Rochell will be heading to Bangkok and Ozzie will be studying at Harvard. As part of saying goodbye to both of them, and because of the long weekend, Esther organized a retreat for us.
sarah had been trying to get us to come to these lake cabins she discovered and so this was our chance. We packed our things and went for an hour's drive or so out of Chiang Mai. From there we were picked up on a boat to be ferried to our cabin. It was raining pretty hard and we all got pretty wet. Esther did her best to shield us using "the world's smallest umbrella."
sarah had been trying to get us to come to these lake cabins she discovered and so this was our chance. We packed our things and went for an hour's drive or so out of Chiang Mai. From there we were picked up on a boat to be ferried to our cabin. It was raining pretty hard and we all got pretty wet. Esther did her best to shield us using "the world's smallest umbrella."
Quote Esther: This is a pretty good analogy of the CV program, don't you think?
Question for the ages: why are Kevin and Anisha wearing sunglasses?
The scenery actually reminded me a lot of New Zealand, what with the mist and rain. The weird thing about Thailand is that when it rains, it's still warm outside. so you're wet, but you're not cold. An odd sensation for this northerner.
The cabins were actually floating cabins, situated just a few yards from shore. I was reminded of trips to my uncle's cabin in Idaho and felt right at home. We ordered lunch and began to swim while we waited. I just realized that I forgot to take a picture of the menu, which is a shame because it had the most hilarious English translations. I did take a picture of lunch however, which included this freshly caught fish.
Because this is Thailand, the cabin had a karoake machine. In fact, many of the cabins seemed to be outfitted with this form of entertainment because we were plagued with karaoke pretty much the entire time. Oh my gosh it was awful. I was in agony. This was meant to be partially a spiritual retreat, and the off-key warbling coming from next door was particularly distracting as we tried to meditate on scripture and pray for one another. I had been hamming up my annoyance because I was expected to as the resident music major. And then I made one of the most embarrassing mistakes of my entire time in Thailand.
The cabins weren't super tidy and there were some odd things lying around on the deck. I had gotten up to stretch my legs after a devotional and before a meeting about CV stuff. I noticed a random shot glass containing a clear, probably alcoholic liquid just sitting on this small wooden platform. Had someone left it there? How funny. "Hey guys, look!" I said, raising the shot glass in a pretend toast. They didn't seem to find the randomness quite so amusing.
"That's for the spirit house..." someone warned me. Wha? Oops. I looked back at the platform and realized that it was decorated... The cigarettes and things littering it were actually offerings. I hastily replaced the glass and looked around to see if any Thai people had been watching. Thankfully I don't think there had been, but I was teased mercilessly by the group about how I'd brought bad luck on us all. And coincidentally, just seconds later, a group of Thais arrived at our cabin in order to do maintenance on our karaoke machine. We were subjected to lots of unpleasant, loud noises for the two hours that we were trying to hold our meeting. I will pretty much never live this down. From then on, anytime anything bad happened guess who got the blame. Not to mention the endless mocking. "Hey Heidi, this looks like a small doll house. Why don't we play with it?" Ha. Haha. After a while I told them I thought it was getting a little old, but nobody else seemed to agree. Ah well, what else am I here for.
But despite the bad luck, it was still a good time. We spent the evening playing a great game of "golf" and listening to our own music in order to drown out the increasingly drunken karaoke. We got to swim in the warmest lake water I've ever experienced. And overall there was a lot of great fellowship.
May 11, 2011
A B C D... Oh forget it.
One of the reasons my students struggle with reading so much is that reading isn't really a part of Thai culture, whether it's Thai or English. With an alphabet like this, I can't say I really blame them.
In which I continue to enjoy teaching
some days you leave class with the unhappy thought that the students are no better off than they were before the lesson. And then some days, you leave class really feeling like the students actually learned something. Today is one of those days.
I've been struggling with how to teach reading. While my students can recognize and write English words quite well, when it comes to actually understanding anything longer than a sentence, they struggle. Until today I'd been hitting a wall with how to help with this. I would have them read one paragraph at a time, and then ask them to tell me about what they read. The response was usually moderate confusion and, after some prompting, maybe one student would read me a random sentence from the paragraph or provide me with some irrelevant detail that for some reason stood out to them.
student: Teacher, I need help. I don't understand. (points at text)
Me: so tell me about what you read
students: terrified stares of confusion
Me: What did you read here? (pointing at the first paragraph)
(A painful two minutes goes by during which I smile a lot and tell them not to be shy.)
Brave student: jeans
Me: Okay, that's great! What about jeans?
students: blank stares
It usually ended with me explaining to them what the story was about or getting into detailed explanations of vocabulary, sometimes involving acting or makeshift props. It wasn't helping their reading skills at all and they still just didn't understand what I wanted them to do.
Today I encountered the same situation, and in an effort to elicit any response, I blurted out "who is it about?" Well, that was a question they could answer. With vague memories of 4th grade I asked them to answer the questions who, what, when, where, why and how in relation to the text. I find it is helpful to review question words anyways as all too often I have asked something like "When do you eat lunch?" and gotten a reply like "At the canteen."
so I had them answer who, what, when, where, why and how (when appropriate) for each paragraph in the text. I then wrote a sentence per paragraph based on their answers. Then I had them do the same thing with a new text, only this time they had to write the sentences themselves. It was amazing. I sat there and read for half an hour while feeling that there was far more learning going on than on the days I find myself dancing around trying to explain the meaning of "boundary" or some such word. There were a couple of questions about vocabulary, but the first time one of the other students knew the definition while the second time the word was "medic" and I was able to get them to figure out the meaning themselves. You cannot imagine how pleased I was about this.
I was a little afraid that I might be confusing them further. After all, not every paragraph of English will have the answers to all those questions and they would have to figure that out themselves. But at the end of the session I was pleasantly surprised with their summaries. They weren't perfect, but they weren't copied, they had gotten the general idea and they understood the text. I was so pleased, I just had to share the victory with you all. Unfortunately, by the time we finished it was pretty late (not my fault) and I think I tired the poor things out. As they left the building, I overheard one of the students exclaim the word "free!"
May 8, 2011
Mother's Day Music Post
First of all I want to say, Happy Mother's Day Mom! Thank you for being the best mom ever.
Perhaps you are wondering why this week's music post is "The Final Countdown." Well, the reason is one of the following:
a) It was the only song epic enough for Mother's Day
b) It is secretly my favorite piece of music ever
c) I accidentally posted the wrong link
d) I will have a new niece or nephew this month!
The answers are of course "a" and "d." My brother and sister-in-law are due to have their second baby this month and I'm super excited! After chatting with sam I realized that I may not have made people aware enough of this fact. so prayers and best wishes go out to Eric and Jenny as they prepare for this next step of parenthood!
(Coincidentally, as I was searching for a music-only clip of this on YouTube, I ran across this arrangement featuring head-banging cellists. sadly, I don't think it's tongue-in-cheek. Just when I thought musicians couldn't get any more weird.)
Perhaps you are wondering why this week's music post is "The Final Countdown." Well, the reason is one of the following:
a) It was the only song epic enough for Mother's Day
b) It is secretly my favorite piece of music ever
c) I accidentally posted the wrong link
d) I will have a new niece or nephew this month!
The answers are of course "a" and "d." My brother and sister-in-law are due to have their second baby this month and I'm super excited! After chatting with sam I realized that I may not have made people aware enough of this fact. so prayers and best wishes go out to Eric and Jenny as they prepare for this next step of parenthood!
(Coincidentally, as I was searching for a music-only clip of this on YouTube, I ran across this arrangement featuring head-banging cellists. sadly, I don't think it's tongue-in-cheek. Just when I thought musicians couldn't get any more weird.)
May 6, 2011
Another Holiday
Yesterday was Coronation Day or something like that and so we had yet another day off work. The Christian Endeavor group had a retreat planned and of course I was invited to attend. I knew it would be a bit awkward because it would be all in Thai, so I brought a book along.
We left in one of Payap's "World War II" buses. I wasn't exactly sure where we were going. According to Jew it was some sort of camp, part of a national park but a business. This didn't make much sense to me but I assumed it would be sort of wilderness-like. Of course it wasn't at all like that. It was more like a resort.
It was much what you'd expect for a faith-based retreat. There were some presentations and scripture readings and worship songs. Most of these involved hand motions. In Thailand, it's okay to do things that might be thought of as silly or childish. The whole point is "sanook" or fun. The basic idea is that if you're going to do something, you may as well have a bit of a lark doing it. I think there's actually a lot to be said for that, but I do feel a bit ridiculous sometimes. I mean, when's the last time you sang a song with hand motions when there wasn't a child around?
While I mostly sat in the corner and read, I was able to talk with a few of the students during breaks and at lunch. They were pretty excited to have me around and quite eager to practice their English. During lunch, one student peppered me with questions which I did my best to answer while eating my food. When she finally slacked off, I focused on eating my lunch. But after a few moments of silence she turned to me and said "you haven't asked me any questions yet." :-D
Thai students (and people in general) are also very affectionate. While boy-girl touching of any kind is pretty taboo in public, girls often hold hands and hug. This means that I am occasionally the recipient of unsolicited hand-holding and the like. I tolerate it, but for some reason it seriously wigs me out. I have a pretty big personal space bubble.
The most notable thing about the day was that after the usual discussion and activities, we were taken on a "tour" of the resort, which was also a sort of garden/zoo thing. Let me explain. The main feature of this place was that most of bushes were sculpted to look like animals. so there were elephant bushes, gorilla bushes, bird bushes, even some dinosaur bushes and a sea monster bush. They were actually pretty impressive. The students got unbelievably excited about it all. I couldn't believe how much they screamed. And that was before we got to the actual live animals. somehow there was a sort of miniature zoo that contained various birds and some camels. I was pretty mystified by the whole thing, but in Thailand it's best to just go with the flow.
I've had a few more students come to my room for help, which has been good and gives me the chance to blog a little bit about cultural differences and education. Namely: plagiarism. You see, the concept of an idea as private property is a bit foreign to some cultures, which means understanding of plagiarism is limited. The students who came to me were prepping for an English presentation. One of the presentations I looked over was mostly copied off of the internet. I didn't quite know how to approach the problem. I mean, you could say that I ought to lecture them about academic honesty and doing their own work, but communicating successfully on the most basic level is often a struggle. And honestly the problem is so widespread that I'm not sure it would do any good, even if I did get the message across. In their defense, the books they have and the assignments they're given are way above their level. They have to turn in something. As a tutor, my policy thus far has been to simply choose my battles and try and capitalize on any learning opportunities. If I can make it so they're actually learning something instead of just regurgitating something they found on the web, then I figure I've done my bit. It would help if I could be confident that the professors were actively enforcing, or even introducing, policies against plagiarism, but I'm doubtful. To be honest, I don't know what to do. This is something that obviously needs to change, but when it's apparent they've been getting away with it for quite some time and when the problems go deeper than laziness or dishonesty it makes me feel as though there's not much I can do, at least for these guys, especially as it's mid-term. But perhaps at the beginning of next semester I'll be able to lecture on it or something.
Another student who came to me hadn't exactly plagiarized, but she had simply written her presentation in Thai and then put it through an online translator. It made zero sense. In this case, as with most of the handful of students I've seen so far, I felt that the student assumed I would be her easy ticket out. I would simply fix all the problems and she wouldn't have to do a thing. But while I may shrink away from confronting a student about taking portions of their work off the web, my conscience stops dead at the thought of virtually authoring these students' assignments. It's agonizing, but I don't allow myself to spoon feed them any vocabulary. I do help with spelling, but mostly it's a long slow process of "explain to me what you want to say." I then have to decide how much to fix their grammar and how much to leave alone. Okay, I do occasionally supply them with a word when I feel they've done their best to explain the meaning they want, if only because it's faster than having them look it up in a dictionary, although I'm considering forcing them to do this to. This would be more possible (and things would all be much easier in general) if I knew more Thai but that can't be helped. Basically, I do the best I can and I'm working through the ethical issues. If anyone has ideas, I'm open to suggestions. And if the Higher Education Police want to take it up with me, well, I'd like to see them in my place.
But despite the challenges, I'm really starting to establish myself here. I've got a feel for how I can fit in, or at least cope, with life in this culture. This isn't to say I'm completely comfortable. I certainly couldn't move here indefinitely. But I think I might be able to handle a few more months.
We left in one of Payap's "World War II" buses. I wasn't exactly sure where we were going. According to Jew it was some sort of camp, part of a national park but a business. This didn't make much sense to me but I assumed it would be sort of wilderness-like. Of course it wasn't at all like that. It was more like a resort.
It was much what you'd expect for a faith-based retreat. There were some presentations and scripture readings and worship songs. Most of these involved hand motions. In Thailand, it's okay to do things that might be thought of as silly or childish. The whole point is "sanook" or fun. The basic idea is that if you're going to do something, you may as well have a bit of a lark doing it. I think there's actually a lot to be said for that, but I do feel a bit ridiculous sometimes. I mean, when's the last time you sang a song with hand motions when there wasn't a child around?
While I mostly sat in the corner and read, I was able to talk with a few of the students during breaks and at lunch. They were pretty excited to have me around and quite eager to practice their English. During lunch, one student peppered me with questions which I did my best to answer while eating my food. When she finally slacked off, I focused on eating my lunch. But after a few moments of silence she turned to me and said "you haven't asked me any questions yet." :-D
Thai students (and people in general) are also very affectionate. While boy-girl touching of any kind is pretty taboo in public, girls often hold hands and hug. This means that I am occasionally the recipient of unsolicited hand-holding and the like. I tolerate it, but for some reason it seriously wigs me out. I have a pretty big personal space bubble.
The most notable thing about the day was that after the usual discussion and activities, we were taken on a "tour" of the resort, which was also a sort of garden/zoo thing. Let me explain. The main feature of this place was that most of bushes were sculpted to look like animals. so there were elephant bushes, gorilla bushes, bird bushes, even some dinosaur bushes and a sea monster bush. They were actually pretty impressive. The students got unbelievably excited about it all. I couldn't believe how much they screamed. And that was before we got to the actual live animals. somehow there was a sort of miniature zoo that contained various birds and some camels. I was pretty mystified by the whole thing, but in Thailand it's best to just go with the flow.
I've had a few more students come to my room for help, which has been good and gives me the chance to blog a little bit about cultural differences and education. Namely: plagiarism. You see, the concept of an idea as private property is a bit foreign to some cultures, which means understanding of plagiarism is limited. The students who came to me were prepping for an English presentation. One of the presentations I looked over was mostly copied off of the internet. I didn't quite know how to approach the problem. I mean, you could say that I ought to lecture them about academic honesty and doing their own work, but communicating successfully on the most basic level is often a struggle. And honestly the problem is so widespread that I'm not sure it would do any good, even if I did get the message across. In their defense, the books they have and the assignments they're given are way above their level. They have to turn in something. As a tutor, my policy thus far has been to simply choose my battles and try and capitalize on any learning opportunities. If I can make it so they're actually learning something instead of just regurgitating something they found on the web, then I figure I've done my bit. It would help if I could be confident that the professors were actively enforcing, or even introducing, policies against plagiarism, but I'm doubtful. To be honest, I don't know what to do. This is something that obviously needs to change, but when it's apparent they've been getting away with it for quite some time and when the problems go deeper than laziness or dishonesty it makes me feel as though there's not much I can do, at least for these guys, especially as it's mid-term. But perhaps at the beginning of next semester I'll be able to lecture on it or something.
Another student who came to me hadn't exactly plagiarized, but she had simply written her presentation in Thai and then put it through an online translator. It made zero sense. In this case, as with most of the handful of students I've seen so far, I felt that the student assumed I would be her easy ticket out. I would simply fix all the problems and she wouldn't have to do a thing. But while I may shrink away from confronting a student about taking portions of their work off the web, my conscience stops dead at the thought of virtually authoring these students' assignments. It's agonizing, but I don't allow myself to spoon feed them any vocabulary. I do help with spelling, but mostly it's a long slow process of "explain to me what you want to say." I then have to decide how much to fix their grammar and how much to leave alone. Okay, I do occasionally supply them with a word when I feel they've done their best to explain the meaning they want, if only because it's faster than having them look it up in a dictionary, although I'm considering forcing them to do this to. This would be more possible (and things would all be much easier in general) if I knew more Thai but that can't be helped. Basically, I do the best I can and I'm working through the ethical issues. If anyone has ideas, I'm open to suggestions. And if the Higher Education Police want to take it up with me, well, I'd like to see them in my place.
But despite the challenges, I'm really starting to establish myself here. I've got a feel for how I can fit in, or at least cope, with life in this culture. This isn't to say I'm completely comfortable. I certainly couldn't move here indefinitely. But I think I might be able to handle a few more months.
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