A happy student
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There are times in life when opportunity knocks. Sometimes we answer; sometimes we don’t. Luckily this time, we answered and the results have been life changing.
After moving to Thailand in September 1999 to start an adventure travel company in a strange new county, Daniel and I spent a great deal of time trying to feel at home in our new surroundings.
The process of feeling comfortable and part of the community in our new country was a slow process, sometimes not so easy, but month by month and year-by-year, Thailand has officially become ‘home’.
Experiences such as starting social programs throughout the Kingdom have helped to establish roots and have brought us to feel tightly woven into Thai life.
While developing and establishing our latest ‘English Fun Days’ project at Surowa Huamark Noi School in the far eastern suburbs of Bangkok, a magical experience took place.
For three days in June 2003, we taught fun English classes to 700 wonderful and curious, mostly Muslim students, from Grades 1-6.
finished works of art
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After teaching many people across the country over the years, I was blown away by these young students. It’s natural for kids to have problems paying attention, talk during instruction and to have to be told to “be quiet”. But at this school, the students were absolute professionals. Not once during our three days at the school did we have to ask a single student to pay attention or be quiet - truly amazing considering this was an incredibly strange and new experience for all involved.
Surowa Huamark Noi School is your typical public Thai elementary school. Lacking in funding and located on the edge of a canal in a rather poor area of Bangkok, students seem to value their education, perhaps sensing it’s a way to better themselves and hopefully one day, have more than their parents do. Maybe that’s why they paid such studious attention and made our time at their school so rewarding.
From our first contact with the English teachers and principal at the school, everyone was extremely accommodating, friendly and eager to make the program happen.
Day One began with a school assembly where we were introduced and then gave speeches in Thai to our eager-eyed students. Foreigners are rarely seen in this area and having two Westerners at their school caused great excitement to say the least, from the word go.
Students couldn’t believe themselves when we got up in front of their classes, made them laugh, speak English out loud and dazzled them with fun, proving learning another language doesn’t have to be a dreaded and arduous task.
Our main lesson was teaching the students about body parts via modeling and labeling a worksheet with a picture of a school boy/girl. What made this lesson unique was there were no hands on their worksheet. We painted each student’s palms, and then they printed them on their worksheet. Having paint put on their little hands blew their minds. Giggles filled the room and word quickly spread about this lesson as students showed their work to friends during recess.
Getting involved
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Never having had the chance to make arts and crafts at school due to budgetary restrictions, the opportunity to make their handprints blew these young peoples’ minds.
A sports day after school on Day Two saw students participate in a three-legged race, egg-on-spoon race and balloon toss to name but a few contests. Laughs filled the air as a call to prayer bellowed out of the neighboring mosque’s sound system.
Two visiting friends from Canada, Amanda and Ryan joined us for a day of teaching and while watching them interact with the kids and seeing cultural and language barriers disappear, I realized how special this program is - not just for the students, but for us too.
It was at this time that I finally felt at home.
With so many great new friends, leading wonderful adventures and now deeply routed in the Thai community, I boarded my plane to Canada for our annual summer marketing trip two days after the teaching program ended and realized how much I would miss my adopted home while in the Great White North.
Thailand’s a wonderful place to be and I’m happy to officially call it home.
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