Friday, June 30, 2006
Teaching...
So just finished "helping" a Pratom 3 student prepare for the Provincial English Speech competition that is taking place next week. And by helping the teachers expected us to pick the student from the whole grade. (We picked a girl named Nim) Then compose the entire speech, teach it to the student (since she doesn't even know the alphabet how in the world would she be able to read it!) and ensure that on July 13th they will be able to get on a stage and speak proper English. Ya right. Its 3/4 of the way to a disaster already. I don't know how this is helping the students at all, but its typical of the style of learning most Thai kids go through. The teacher will dictate, the students repeat exactly what they hear, and you end up with conversational english that sounds like, "i'm FINE thank YOU and YOUUUUU?" or "My NAME izzzzzzzzzzzzzz........"
The rest of the week has been ok, went to Nan for dinner twice, got to go to Tescos and stock up on VCDs, and had some fun English lessons that I disguised as art projects. On Monday afternoon, the ducks protest turned out to be part of an national anti-drug campaign. So the students had big banners, and we paraded around the village behind a pickup with a megaphone telling people not to smoke or drink. All of this in the middle of the day. Anyone who has been/lived in the tropics knows the stiffiling heat and humidity that comes the hour before the daily afternoon thundershowers....try marching around in that with 600 kids - NOT FUN.
Miranda and I just found out that instead of taking the bus to Bangkok on Wednesday night, Uncle Jai and his family want us to come with them in their car. They're going down to Bangkok to pick up their daughter who is a nursing student. So its going to be 8 of us in the van for 10 hours....should be a good story.
Nothing exciting going on this weekend, maybe some friends from Nan will come by on Saturday and we'll watch some VCDs...
The rest of the week has been ok, went to Nan for dinner twice, got to go to Tescos and stock up on VCDs, and had some fun English lessons that I disguised as art projects. On Monday afternoon, the ducks protest turned out to be part of an national anti-drug campaign. So the students had big banners, and we paraded around the village behind a pickup with a megaphone telling people not to smoke or drink. All of this in the middle of the day. Anyone who has been/lived in the tropics knows the stiffiling heat and humidity that comes the hour before the daily afternoon thundershowers....try marching around in that with 600 kids - NOT FUN.
Miranda and I just found out that instead of taking the bus to Bangkok on Wednesday night, Uncle Jai and his family want us to come with them in their car. They're going down to Bangkok to pick up their daughter who is a nursing student. So its going to be 8 of us in the van for 10 hours....should be a good story.
Nothing exciting going on this weekend, maybe some friends from Nan will come by on Saturday and we'll watch some VCDs...
# posted by Laura Davies : 10:58 AM
