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Published: August 23rd 2012
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A little bit late on this one, sorry if you've been waiting in suspense!
The past 10 days or so have been all about immersion. Immersing ourselves in the culture, as well as in teaching experiences. We have cut back on the eating out and, instead, started practicing our culinary skills. Thanks to these nifty little pre-packaged pastes, I can make just about any Thai soup, curry, or noodle dish I crave. This week I conquered tom yum and yellow curry. I also pulled off a decent fried rice with the leftovers. Next week green and massaman curries.
The rainy season began Friday, and there hasn't been much sun since. But even in the overcast periods we can still enjoy the beach. In fact, I found some pretty cool critters in the tide pools the other day; John had to pry me away I was so fascinated by the crabs (see pictures). Speaking of animals, if you aren't my facebook friend you haven't seen the montage of bizarre creatures that have tried to call our apartment home recently. Spark notes: John and I spent 30 minutes capturing and transporting a mouse that had been living under our sink.
So anyway, the reason I (now we) am (are) here is to teach English. Starting last Tuesday I began tutoring 5 different students at 2 different hotels. All five are females between the ages of 20 and 28. Their educations range from having no previous English lessons to several years of high school classes. They are all very bright and charmingly enthusiastic. Teaching one on one has been different from my experience in a classroom. For one, I am planning my own lessons; not having to think, besides employing a little creativity, was a perk of subbing. I have to come up with an objective for each hour-long session (ex: greetings, plural nouns, etc) and then produce materials to teach, drill, and test the topic. Working with only one student means you get to focus on their individual needs, but this requires a lot more effort! Less crowd control, more brain power.
Teaching English is another challenge all on its own. It's one thing to teach a language to someone IN THEIR NATIVE TONGUE. To teach a language, in that language, to a beginner- let's just say I've had to become quite the actress. Anything goes when you are
Mouse in the house
John caught this guy with the purple crate on the left. Then we shimmied the mouse and trap into a pillowcase and walked half a mile down the road before letting him go in the woods. trying to convey the meaning of a word or phrase: facial expressions, charades, dictionary, you name it. I'd never realized there were so many irregularities in the English language, with both spelling and pronunciation, until I tried to explain these things to my students. For example you have 1 house and 2 houses, but you have 1 mouse and 2 miceā¦.?! Thai students have plenty of difficulties besides the dozens of exceptions to the rules, such as the different sounds, or lack of sounds, in the Thai language. There is no "V" , only a "W" so you get sentences like "We take Mastercard or WISA". Not to mention the stereotypical "L"/"R" switch, despite the ability to pronounce both. The list goes on: no articles usage, no verb tense usage, not pronouncing the last consonant in every word. And forget about multiple consonants (such as "ch", "sh", "fl", "rd", "pl"); only one can be said at a time. The words "split", "cards", and "Sprite" come out "spill", "car", and "Sa-pie". It's been challenging, but it makes it all the more rewarding when you can correct mistakes and undo bad habits. One of my students went from barely being able to
communicate her name to me to saying very deliberately "Thank you for all your help, I hope to see you again!" at the end of our last session.
We graduate tomorrow and then the job hunt ensues. We are hoping to stay in Phuket, but will go where there is availability for both of us. Stay tuned for more details!
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