Kids in the Hall (part 1)

(For reference, I am Teacher James at the school. There was another Brian already. Weird.)

The Thai children, and really all Thai people, are a bit different than their American counterparts. I present here, in part 1 of my story, a brief profile of the schoolchildren plaguing and enriching my existence in Thailand.


Every individual in Thailand has a nickname, mostly because their real names are filled with extra Thai words meaning beautiful or lovely. An example of a long name: Siriwarangkana Krietcheewaworn. Some nicknames are particularly funny to native English speakers. My Favorites: Big, Man, Name, Ninja, Boing, Pookie, Thong, Yam, Pee, Mint, Now, and Beer. And the children laugh when I pronounce it the English way, as if I am pronouncing their English names wrong.

When I enter the classroom each day, I greet the class with the typical greeting, "Hello! How are you?" They are so trained to respond to this sort of questioning. Often in unison, I hear, "I am fine, thank you, and you?" It is almost creepy. I taught each class to not respond with "fine," which seems to be the only reasonable response to them. I offered them a new response scale: Great - Good - Fine - Okay, So So - Not Good - Bad - Awful. Now when I greet the classes, they respond, "I am fine, thank you, and you?" (Sigh.)

Thai students LOVE to draw, and they are amazing at it. If I ask them to write five sentences about their weekend, they write five sentences accompanied by elaborate pictures of the activities. I said nothing about drawing. Here are three sample responses (all pictures and coloring are done originally on BLANK pieces of paper):


Weekend Writing: Boing wrote, "This weekend I went to a trip with my family. I went to shopping at department store. I went to the zoo. I saw a monkey. A monkey was very lovely. I saw elephant. It was very big. I was very happy."


Work ethic seems to be optional in the school setting. Sometimes homework is completed. Sometimes it is not. Sometimes students are not even aware of the homework, although I write it on the board and remind them about it twenty times. Of fifty-five children, only one turned in an assignment on Tuesday. Sometimes they give me their attention. Most of the time they talk. Sometimes they scream the entire period. Sometimes they throw things at me and other students. Sometimes they sit quietly and do their work perfectly. Frequently students from other classes enter and leave the classroom. Sometimes students in the current period enter and leave the classroom. Never is there less than twenty percent homework from other classes on the students' desk. Never is a student on time. Each day is its own adventure.

A sample response to an assignment (write a 10 line conversation using 5 vocabulary words--emotions):
A: Hello, Dan.
B: Hello, Nick, how are you?
A: I am fine. And you?
B: I am bored.
A: Why are you bored?
B: I think that Teacher James is boring.
A: Why are you think?
B: Because he is sick.
A: All right and goodbye.
B: Good bye.