"Good Mawning Teecher"

On Monday morning I awoke to the incessant ka-caw-ing of the rooster next door. Although he is three floors and two lots away, his alarm rings loudly into my room every thirty seconds or so. And sadly, he has no snooze button.

If he wasn’t there to wake me up, I’m sure my anxiety would have. Today is the first day of school and I’m so nervous! I stayed up last night planning my first lesson. I knew what I would say and what materials I would need, even though the school had yet to give me a schedule. Reuven and I walked the 25 mins to school with nervous excitement.

When we arrived on campus we were met with thousands (5,000 to be exact) curious little faces. They stared at us and smiled and then giggled nervously and stared some more. They would poke each other on the shoulder, urging their classmates to examine the strange figures walking past them. We felt like aliens.

When we finally reached the foreign teacher’s office we found relief, and some disappointment: we would not be teaching today because they did not yet have our schedules. We were taken out to the morning assembly, which rounds up all 5,000 students on the quad every morning… more staring, giggling, and pointing.

We were then rescued by an older American teacher named John. He swooped us up to the third floor to his private office, equipped with a computer, internet, and ac! He sat us down and explained some of the more peculiar characteristics of the “thai school system.” He had never taught on the first day of school, in fact last quarter his schedule had changed so many times he had to color code and make tons of back up lesson plans because he never knew what he would be teaching next. His answer to any of our questions was, “don’t count on it.” He assured us we wouldn’t be teaching for at least two days, maybe even until next week.

When we returned to campus after lunch, I went off in search of a water bottle. I was cornered by our coordinator who informed me that I would be teaching “science english” starting immediately, in fact starting fifteen mins ago.

Inner dialogue: WHAT?!?! What the crap?!? Why am I teaching? What am I teaching? What the hell is science English? Damn water bottle…

Outer dialogue: Ok, Ajaan Lek. Where do I go? (Ajaan = Teacher)

That’s just how it is in Thailand! Mai pen rai! (No worries!)


So now, after a few full days of teaching I feel like I’ve found a rhythm and a routine, oh and exhaustion! I wake up every morning to that damn rooster. I spend about 10 mins lying there contemplating how to find a bb gun in a peaceful country like Thailand with which I could assassinate that damn animal, then I get up and get dressed.

Sidenote: I’d like to make a shot out to Megan Vick who warned me that I would develop a teacher’s wardrobe rather quickly… she was right! Long skirts, button down shirts, “blouses”, very strange to me. And counter intuitive, given the heat everyday and the fact that we walk 1 mile to school!

But anyways, back to the routine… we arrive on campus and are greeted with wais (traditional thai greeting) from all the little students. And they are all so excited to greet us and to say Sawatdee ka or hello teacher. It makes me feel like such a celebrity.

After morning announcements, everyone scurries off to their classes. I am teaching 15 levels of Mattayom 3, which is 9th grade to us Americans. So I make one lesson plan for the week and teach it 15 times… sounds boring right? But each class is so different, some take the entire period to practice vocabulary pronunciation, others run through it and get to the fun activities, and even some hangman.

No matter what each class begins and ends the same way, As soon as I walk into the room, I am greeted with all 30-60 students standing up and saying “Goood maaaaawning teee chaaa” and then they stand staring at me and smiling until I respond with “good morning class, please sit down.” As some of my fellow teachers and I have learned, if you don’t say anything, they’ll stand up the entire class waiting for you!

As crazy as it can get teaching a class of 60 thai students (especially after lunch, right Kristina?), it is so oddly rewarding. I walk back to the teacher’s lounge and flop into my chair utterly exhausted, but I have the biggest smile on my face. I get so excited when they understand the definition of a word after my awkward miming, or when they get the right answer on a worksheet that I thought would be too hard for them. I’ve even started talking about them like they’re my kids, bragging about how smart they are. They make me happy and so proud!

I guess that’s why I’m here :)