Tag: students

Hosting Visitors in Rural Thailand

November 12, 2013

A friend of mine who is serving in Cameroon has a friend who decided to go to Thailand for a month and she put us in touch. I figured I would offer up some travel tips for the country, places to go, must sees. After getting in touch, I offered to let her and her travel companion stay with me if they wanted, thinking that I’m a bit far off the beaten path and they probably wanted to hit the major sites, as there is a lot to do here in Thailand. I was happily surprised when I got a call on Friday asking to be taken up on the offer.

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Reflecting on My First Semester During Bpit Term

October 8, 2013

My first semester of working in Thai schools in now on the books and completed. Last Thursday the students had their second of two days of testing and the school shut down for the semester after that. Officially, by the government, school was supposed to go until October 10, but I’m not complaining. We’re supposed to go back on November 1. It is officially bpit term, literally meaning “closed term.”

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Bpai Tiao: School Field Trip to Chonburi

September 27, 2013

In Thailand, a bpai tiao is a trip of any length. I’ve written about some of my more significant bpai tiaos to tourist destinations here, to be used as travel ideas and tips.

On Tuesday in the wee hours of the morning, I made my way to school. The fourth, fifth and sixth graders were to go on their end of semester field trip and rather than spend the day sitting at school in an empty classroom len-ing Internet (playing on the Internet), I decided to go with them. This was the quintessential Thai trip.

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The Frustrations of English Competitions in Thailand

September 13, 2013

After my conversation with my co-teacher about critical thinking and watching how schools work here in Thailand, I feel comfortable saying that learning, in the Western sense of being curious about a topic and wanting to learn the why and how of it, is not valued here. Learning in the sense of memorizing and reciting is valued. Which brings me to tell you about how I have spent my time after school for the last couple weeks.

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Thai Education System: Critical Thinking

September 10, 2013

When comparing eight of the countries that are a part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Thailand ranks eighth. The two countries that were not included were Laos and Burma, which are widely regarded as low performing. That means that children in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam were more proficient on the test. And Education Ministry officials are “stunned.” However, an honest look at the Thai education system reveals lots of room for improvement.

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Thai Collectivism as Seen in the Classroom

August 20, 2013

I’m definitely an embodiment of the individualistic attitude of the US. My mother tells me stories of how at 2, I refused help with putting on my shoes by adamantly shouting, “I DO IT MYSELF, MAMA! I DO IT MYSELF!” Probably not hard for most people who know me to imagine me at two saying such things. But now I’m living in a place that my 2-year-old self would have been at great odds with (and my adult self is still at odds with, but slightly less so.) Thai culture is one that is decidedly collectivist, not individualist.

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5 Everyday Parts of Rural Thai Life

June 25, 2013

When you go to a new country, or even sometimes a new part of the country you live in, and you spend a good amount of time there some parts of life start to become a given. For example, it became a given for me in Portland to look more diligently for bikes when I drove. In Australia and England and New Zealand, looking right and then left when crossing the street is a small adjustment that becomes a given if you come from the States. In cultures and countries where chopsticks are the primary utensil it becomes odd to not see them at the table. Here are some things in Thailand that I’ve become accustomed to as normal, that when I think about, realize just aren’t in the States.

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