Before I Expire: English, English, English...and a little bit of Thai.

First pick out the misspelled word. Then we'll play Guess Why Gabbie's Here.

Alright. So now that I've told you about Thailand, I'm going to tell you about what I actually do in Thailand: I teach English. It's that simple. Before I got here I thought I would be an assistant of some sort. Wrong. I am the teacher! But I don't have just one classroom or one class, so I'm going to tell you about all my classes and students. Here we go.
Sunday, 9:30 am: I teach English. Instead of Sunday School before church for the kids, they have an English class. It's a class that varies from 2-18 people, depending on whether the kids from the Chiang Klang dorm show up. We learn about clothes, weather, numbers, colors, opposites, body parts, and family members. Since these children have ages ranging from 4 to 14, we just play it by ear. Sometimes you repeat lessons, sometimes you skip them, sometimes you review them. It doesn't really matter whether a set curriculum is in place, simply because there's no structure to the attendance. So that's my loosey-goosey class.
Monday, 11 am: I teach at Bon Den! I used to teach at Bon Den on Tuesdays and Thursdays and at Soi Prow on Monday and Wednesday, but they integrated the schools last week, so now it's just one school. Soi Prow only had about 30 students to begin with, so couple that with no principal, extremely below-average kids, and poor facilities, and you get a sudden integration a month after school starts. That's how they do things here in Thailand.
So I teach at Bon Den during the week. On Mondays I teach second grade. Let me fill you in on what a typical one hour class is like:

11:00-11:10
Good morning, teacher. They do this funky introduction thing before class, where the students all stand up and chant "Good morning, teacher" like zombies. Then I tell them to sit down, and they thank me. Then we throw the formal stuff out the door and start English. Thai school is pure lecture and memorization, and we try to change that for English. For example, I asked some kids once "What's your favorite color?" I asked them a dozen times with no response. When I wrote it on the board, I was immediately answered with either red, green, blue, or yellow. So that's where these kids are coming from. They have no experience in talking or listening to native English speakers. Most Thai English teachers are not fluent (or close to it) in English, either.
First task after the zombie chant: Genki Disco. They love it. I don't. Just listen to it and you'll see why hearing it three times at the beginning of every class will slowly make you rip your brains out with a toothpick. But that's okay. I can deal for a summer in exchange for their happiness in singing and dancing to Genki Disco. You can even listen to it here if you're interested!

11:10-11:20
Review from the previous lesson.

11:20-11:50
New material. The average human brain can hold about 10-15 new vocab words a day. It also takes about 40 times of saying a word or phrase for it to stick. So we do that. Example:
Weather: Sunny, Rainy, Snowy, Windy, Stormy, Hot, Cold, Beautiful, Cloudy.
Key Phrase:
A: How's the weather?
B: It's _____ today.
A: Oh, how nice.
So we repeat the vocab about 10 times, preferably with some kind of hand motion.
1 and 2: Repeating after me in order.
3: In Thai.
4: Girls.
5: Boys.
6: Together, loud.
7: Together, quiet.
8: Together, out of order.
9: Without me, in order.
10: Without me, out of order.

Then we learn the Key Phrase. Every language has a beat. English has a 4/4 time. So we clap and dance to the key phrase together, repeating after me. Example:
Gabbie: How's
Class: How's
G: The.
C: The.
G: Weather.
C: Weather.
Repeat five times.
Gabbie: How's the weather?
Class: How's the weather?
Repeat 5 times.
Gabbie: It's
Class: It's
Gabbie: Mmmhmmmhmmmhmmm.
Class: Mmmhmmmhmmmhmmm.
Gabbie: Today
Class: Today
Repeat about 5 times.
Gabbie: It's mmmhmmmhmmmhmmm today.
Class: It's mmmhmmmhmmmhmmm today.
Repeat 5 times or more. They love the mmmhmmmhmmmhmmms.
Gabbie: Oh, how nice! (With a super exaggerated OH!)
Class: OHHHH! How nice!
Repeat 5 times. They love the OHs too.
Then they stand up and ask 5 people the key phrase, filling in the blank with whatever vocab word they choose. We also have Genki songs for every lesson, so we'll sing the appropriate song a few times.

Now comes the fun part: we play games. Either Go Fish, Matching, Revolving pairs, and Gender competition.
Go Fish: Children split up into groups of four and get a deck of cards with vocab words on them. They have to ask each other "Hey Pin, is it sunny today?" And if Pin has a sunny card, she says, "Yes, it is!" and hands over her cards. If not, the asker has to draw. Matches of 4 must be made.
Matching: Every child gets a card with a weather vocab on it. One other student has a match to that card. They must ask everyone "How's the weather?" "It's sunny today." "Oh, how nice." If they have a stormy card, they move on.
Revolving pairs: Children stand in two lines facing each other. One side has a card with a weather vocab word on it. They ask the partner with the card, "How's the weather?" and the partner replies. When everyone has finished, the card people shift down one until they have talked to everyone. Then the sides shift.
Gender competition: Girls against boys. Whoever wins gets candy. It's just that much fun. Sometimes it can be me pointing to a word on the board and the first team to shout it out gets a point. Sometimes it's who can speak more clearly. Sometimes it's them writing it. You just never know.
The nameless game: I haven't named this one yet. Everyone stands in a circle with one loner in the middle. He must close his eyes and turn around while the circle says the key phrase three times. When we stop, he opens his eyes and asks the person he's pointing at the key phrase. Then the person replies. Then they switch. They love this game too. Once again, I don't know why.

11:50-12:00
We have a test. We always have a test at the end to see who actually learned something. The tests can vary, but they're always verbal, requiring the child to say a few words or a sentence. Then they do another zombie chant ("Thank you, teacher.") and go to lunch.

And that's your typical one hour lesson. Songs, dancing, funny faces, songs, and competition. I don't use pen and paper for two reasons: they take FOREVER to write, and they do that every other minute they're in school. It's good to give them a break.

Tuesday, 1:00-2:00
I teach 6th grade. These guys are higher level, so we're learning things like a slice of pizza, a carton of ice cream, a bar of soap, etc., and big/bigger/biggest, tall/taller/tallest, etc. But it's the same idea: games, singing, dancing, and competition. And yes, we still do Genki disco : )

Wednesday, 9:00-10:00
I teach the students that were previously at Soi Prow. They were a 4th, 5th, and 6th grade combined class, but at Bon Den they're just a 4th grade class. However, we follow the same lessons that we do for the 2nd grade. The Soi Prow kids are very low level. To give you some background: Soi Prow is a Lao village, so their primary language is Lao. Then they learn Northern Thai, which is the regional language. Once they go to school they have to learn Central Thai, which is only about a 60% overlap (the same difference between Spanish and Portuguese). So teaching them English fries their brain. Soi Prow also has a lot of interbreeding and lacks diversity in the gene pool, so you end up with awkward facial structures and lower level students.

Thursday, 11:00-12:00
I teach my 6th grade again! I love this class. They know what they're doing. They are the bomb diggity (is it illegal to say that in this decade? If so, I apologize).

Friday: Off. All the Thai staff from the Life Development Center (the ministry here on the compound) comes back from the villages and we have a refresher day.

Saturday, 10:00
I hand out with the Sop Gorn kids. These are kids from a few villages over who study English in school and want two things: English practice and an American friend. I just so happen to provide both of those! So we usually just talk about Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift and play Bananagrams. They love that game. And they're getting good at it, too. I've had to stop letting them win.
1:30-3:00
Adult English class at the church. I'm not in charge, but I help out. It's fun getting to be the one who already knows what the weather's like today ;)

And that's my week. English, English, English, and then Thai when I get sick of English. When I'm not teaching I'm helping Cheri and Jeri with projects, babysitting Sydney and Noah, or reading through the box books my parents send me. This week was special, though, because the Nehemiah kids got here! I think I told you about them before, but they're college kids coming through the International Mission Board to teach English. They don't teach here at my schools, but we're their home base for the summer. They arrived Friday morning and jumped into four days of Thai learning, teaching training, cultural immersion, and curriculum planning. They leave tomorrow morning for their destinations. Kaitlyn and Amy are going to dorms in Mae Charim, Catherine and Bailey are going to dorms in Pua, and Laranda and Rebekah are going to dorms here in Chiang Klang. I'll get to see Laranda and Rebekah at church occasionally. The guys, Adam and Nick, are going to a village in the middle of nowhere, Ba Kahm. They have to rough it, but then again, they're guys. They should live. They're taking a live chicken with them, if that tells you anything.
If you care to keep up with any of the Nehemiah kids, blogs are:
Bailey
Amy
Adam

This weekend was also super exciting because I met Megan! Megan is a Peace Corps volunteer who lives in Chiang Klang and is in need of American friends to keep her sane. Luckily, I can do that! She hung out with the group on Friday and Sunday, and she'll probably be mentioned a few more times in this blog.

And now, although I know you love procrastinating on whatever task is waiting on another browser, I must go plan lessons for tomorrow. Genki, here I come.