My First Day of Classes!

I have officially survived my first day of class! I will admit to my classes being a bit shambly; however I think that unless you knew how I planned (or in the case of Pre-1, didn’t plan) the class to go, that it looked smooth and educational. I need to backtrack for my first story of the day though.

Briefly after my last post I headed downstairs (I’m staying above the school) to get lunch. The lobby was full of some Thai students who had just signed up to take English lessons. I invited them to eat with Kate and I, but they said they had already eaten. Well, five minutes after Kate and I arrived at the restaurant, guess who else did? Those exact same students. The facial expression of Thai guilt is one of the greatest looks I’ve seen. I couldn’t have been upset if I wanted to. I was too amused and actually felt bad that they felt so guilty. Well, they just so happened to join us for dinner that night instead.

The students with Kate and I at dinner.

(The same ones we asked to and saw at lunch.)

Oh, and I want to take another brief cultural interjection. Teachers are highly regarded in Thailand. The best way for me to explain it is that it was raining when we walked to dinner, and out of the six of us there were two umbrellas. Both Kate and I were dryly under an umbrella, and neither of us had to hold one. I don’t even think the boy who was holding mine was under it. I actually felt kind of bad about it. I mean, respect is nice; especially in the classroom. Could you imagine if all of your students spoke a language you didn’t understand and then didn’t respect you as a teacher? The class would be unmanageable. But the umbrella thing seemed a little ridiculous.

Anyways, my first class is Level 1. So they are very beginners, and I am their first English-native teacher they’ve had. They can read and write fine, but their speaking and listening skills are particularly poor. My second class is Pre-1. Pre-1 has never been taught by a non-Thai speaker before. I co-teach this class with Charissa. She is the daughter of the owner of the main branch of Santisuk school. She is an incredible girl around my age who is fluent in both Thai and English. However, today she was late. Five minutes before class, I was handed a textbook and told to teach Pre-1. Mind you, this class is meant to be taught in Thai. Also, I did not receive training to teach Pre-1 as I wasn’t actually supposed to be teaching it until a few minutes before then. Oh, and I had no lesson plan for a two hour long class that started in five minutes.

Believe it or not, the class ended up working out really well. Charissa showed up early in the class and we are a great team. The class itself is only three students for now (four more may be joining) but they are extremely sweet women. One is a biochemistry engineering major at KMIT! Wicked smart girls. And they had a great sense of humor, and an even better level of patience. I can’t wait to work with them more.

My last story of the day has nothing to do with my teaching, other than it taught me a lesson. There is a reason I go places with Thais. I had a free hour today around lunch and decided to go to the market by here. Well, during my time I bought an adorable skirt. It’s a long cotton material skirt with an elastic waistband and goes to my ankles. Crazy comfy. I changed into it this afternoon and was wearing it around right before class when a T.A. for Santisuk asked me if I knew what I was wearing. I have learned that “Do you know…” here never ends well. (See the blood story from my first day in Bangkok.) Well, turns out that the skirt is actually a bathing dress. Like we have towel wraps in the USA, this is something you wear to the bathroom and back when bathing. The worst part? I didn’t have enough time to change before I taught both my classes. So yes, I just taught my first day of classes in what is the Thai version of a bathrobe.