Rakhi: As Joel mentioned, I’m still dealing with the shock of having all sorts of bugs and creatures as unwanted guests in my home. Each day, it’s getting easier but the discovery of the scorpion yesterday left me feeling slightly uneasy again. I’m hoping that all this getting back to nature will help harden my skin and stop me being so afraid of everything that moves. Fingers crossed!
I was very pleased to find out that Takhliprachasan School is really good. Everybody seems very kind and the teachers can’t do enough for us. The students seem lovely too. The classes that I’ve taught so far have all gone really well and the students have been attentive and enthusiastic. Generally, all English classes with the Thai teachers are conducted in Thai with the main emphasis being on grammar not on speaking. That is why Joel, Fritz and I are here- to encourage the students not to be shy about speaking. My Mattoyam 2 students are 13-14 years old and my Mattoyam 5 students are 16-17 years old. Mattoyam 2 is split into 12 classes with the 2/1 being lowest ability and 2/12 being the best students. There are 8 Mattoyam 5 classes and it’s the same principle with them- 5/1 are the lowest and 5/8 the most proficient. I’ve only taught eight classes and so far what I can gather is that all of the students are nice but the lowest M2 classes are probably going to be a bit of a handful. They’re still young and quite rowdy- they’re not rude in any way though, they just have short attention spans. All of my other classes, the higher M2’s and the entirety of M5 are great, even the lower M5 classes. I think I’m really going to enjoy teaching at the school.
For the last two mornings, Pi Apple has kindly taken Joel and I to and from school as it’s slightly out of the way and not quite within walking distance. The day before yesterday, Fritz managed to borrow a motorbike so has been enjoying the freedom of that. Being a former mechanic and having used a motorbike here for the past 7 months he is well versed on the contraptions. Joel and I on the other hand don’t know much about motorbikes so decided to steer clear. When we mentioned that we’d rather have bicycles, everybody thought that we were mad. Everybody (no exaggeration) has a motorbike, not just in Takhli but in the whole of Thailand- men, women and even little girls and boys ride around on them. Besides, it really is extremely hot to being riding around on bicycles. On Tuesday after school, Pi Apple took us to a workshop in the school where there were lots of second hand bicycles and asked if we wanted one of these each. We agreed and one of the caretakers kindly fixed them up for free and returned them to us yesterday. We rode back home in the sweltering mid afternoon heat and that’s where the realization that we’d made a huge mistake came. Not only did we completely overheat and have sweat pouring all over us but the pedal on Joel’s bike fell off at least 5 times before completely busting. Now we’re thinking that we’ll get an automatic bike after all. The roads here aren’t very busy and we’ll be super careful. With nothing being walking distance it’s the only option we have.
I’m really looking forward to our trip to Bangkok this weekend. The last two times we were there were just fleeting visits and overnight stopovers before moving on. We haven’t seen any of the city yet so it’ll be nice to visit some of the sights like the Grand Palace where there is also the infamous Emerald Buddha which according to legend, was created in India in 43BC.
I was very pleased to find out that Takhliprachasan School is really good. Everybody seems very kind and the teachers can’t do enough for us. The students seem lovely too. The classes that I’ve taught so far have all gone really well and the students have been attentive and enthusiastic. Generally, all English classes with the Thai teachers are conducted in Thai with the main emphasis being on grammar not on speaking. That is why Joel, Fritz and I are here- to encourage the students not to be shy about speaking. My Mattoyam 2 students are 13-14 years old and my Mattoyam 5 students are 16-17 years old. Mattoyam 2 is split into 12 classes with the 2/1 being lowest ability and 2/12 being the best students. There are 8 Mattoyam 5 classes and it’s the same principle with them- 5/1 are the lowest and 5/8 the most proficient. I’ve only taught eight classes and so far what I can gather is that all of the students are nice but the lowest M2 classes are probably going to be a bit of a handful. They’re still young and quite rowdy- they’re not rude in any way though, they just have short attention spans. All of my other classes, the higher M2’s and the entirety of M5 are great, even the lower M5 classes. I think I’m really going to enjoy teaching at the school.
For the last two mornings, Pi Apple has kindly taken Joel and I to and from school as it’s slightly out of the way and not quite within walking distance. The day before yesterday, Fritz managed to borrow a motorbike so has been enjoying the freedom of that. Being a former mechanic and having used a motorbike here for the past 7 months he is well versed on the contraptions. Joel and I on the other hand don’t know much about motorbikes so decided to steer clear. When we mentioned that we’d rather have bicycles, everybody thought that we were mad. Everybody (no exaggeration) has a motorbike, not just in Takhli but in the whole of Thailand- men, women and even little girls and boys ride around on them. Besides, it really is extremely hot to being riding around on bicycles. On Tuesday after school, Pi Apple took us to a workshop in the school where there were lots of second hand bicycles and asked if we wanted one of these each. We agreed and one of the caretakers kindly fixed them up for free and returned them to us yesterday. We rode back home in the sweltering mid afternoon heat and that’s where the realization that we’d made a huge mistake came. Not only did we completely overheat and have sweat pouring all over us but the pedal on Joel’s bike fell off at least 5 times before completely busting. Now we’re thinking that we’ll get an automatic bike after all. The roads here aren’t very busy and we’ll be super careful. With nothing being walking distance it’s the only option we have.
I’m really looking forward to our trip to Bangkok this weekend. The last two times we were there were just fleeting visits and overnight stopovers before moving on. We haven’t seen any of the city yet so it’ll be nice to visit some of the sights like the Grand Palace where there is also the infamous Emerald Buddha which according to legend, was created in India in 43BC.
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