9.27.12

Although I don’t have any experience teaching in the States, I was a student there at one point (won’t say how long ago). The educational system is entirely different in Thailand.

Now, I have my beef with America’s emphasis on athletics over academics, however, at least there is still a desire that the students learn and you CAN actually fail out of school.

Unfortunately, in Thailand, there is no such standard. There is no fail. Which means there is little to no motivation for them to learn or care or do their homework or participate in class or even show up. There are students who truly do want to learn. They have a desire to be something and do something with their lives. I have future lawyers and pilots and doctors. They do buckle down and really learn the material. And then there are the students who show up to one class the entire term and then still get to take the final (although we were told that anyone with less than 80% attendance wouldn’t be eligible to write the final). The things the students get away with here would get them expelled or, at the very least, suspended from an American school. Continue reading →

Phuket is beautiful, like all my students say.

During our trip there, they almost left my bag at a way-station. After moving it just inside the sliding door (for some reason it no longer fit in the back where it had been most of the trip), it had to be taken out along with some large box when we stopped, so that people could get on and off the bus. We had gotten back on the bus and driven just a little ways when we realized that we were back at the same way-station. After speculating that perhaps we had accidentally left a passenger, I noticed my backpack and the large box still sitting near the food vendor. I had actually been thinking earlier that everything important was in my shoulder bag that I had with me, so the only thing I would be out is clothing if, for some reason, my backpack was lost or left somewhere. I need to not speculate about things like that in the future… Continue reading →

Thais can sleep anywhere, anytime. And they do. I have an inkling that a good portion of the population may, in fact, have a mild form of narcolepsy.

It makes me laugh sometimes. They can get on a bus and pass out in seconds. And not just a light doze. Dead-to-the-world sleep. I have had to physically shake people before in order to get them to pay their fare or open the door to the bus. The other day, a woman was trying to wake her sleeping child. She was squeezing and patting her cheeks for at least a couple of minutes before she finally woke up. I have seen men sleeping on their motorbikes. Boys in songtaews completely bent over in (what looks like) the most uncomfortable sleeping position imaginable.

The hot, muggy afternoons do lend themselves to a person wanting to retreat to a nice, cool area and just sleep through the most oppressive part of the day.

And I think it might be catching. I have found myself taking naps in the middle of the day or able to doze off sitting upright in a wen. I haven’t mastered sleeping on a motorbike and I haven’t fallen in to a true sleep anywhere but my own bed. However, I have only been here three months. Give it time…