What I have learnt

I’ve managed to survive two weeks teaching teenagers in Thailand, so I thought it was about time that I made a concerted effort to share with you what I have learnt.

One of the most depressing aspects of teaching in the UK is that you work like a dog but the rest of the world thinks you have a dossy 9 till 3 job. Its usually 8am till 5pm if you’re lucky, or maybe even 7am till 6pm if your head teacher is addicted to red tape.

I remember when I worked in London the occasions when I overslept, got stuck at Victoria station and didn’t get to school until 8.30. As I approached the gates parents would comment “Ooh, you’re in early this morning Mr Winter.” Unfortunately they were not being sarcastic.




I arrive at school around 7.45am in Bangkok, but whilst in the UK I’d reach my classroom before most of the children had even woken up, here as I walk through the gates I am treated to the highly amusing sight of the entire school taking part in early morning dance aerobics.

There’s nothing guaranteed to make you feel better about yourself in the morning than knowing that someone else is in a much worse situation!!

I’ll freely admit to being somewhat apprehensive about the classroom management challenges of working with teenagers. After hearing stories of secondary school students in the UK carrying guns and knives to school and throwing tables and chairs at teacher, I was sure that Thai teenagers couldn’t be that bad.. could they?

In short the answer is no.. and they certainly haven’t been violent, abusive or particularly disruptive. On the other hand getting them to do anything, let alone converse in English is a lot of hard work. A significant number of students are unbelievably lazy.. quite openly attempting to fall asleep in class. The rest of them aren’t exactly overflowing with enthusiasm and just getting them to listen to instructions and conduct activities in English (not Thai) is a challenge.

One technique I’ve found quite effective is throwing a (soft) ball to a student as I ask a question. This seems to amuse the students who are awake and for those are not gentle blow to the head accompanied by a mild dose of embarrassment seems to help focus their attention quite successfully.

Mobile phones are also a particular problem. Thai teenagers seem even more obsessed than their counterparts in the UK. Whole floors at the MBK mall are devoted to stalls selling mobiles, many of them costing more than an average month’s salary. Trying to stop students sneakily using them in class is a fulltime job in itself.

Thailand is a country where contacts are all important and I’m told that one of the reasons for the lack of motivation I’ve encountered is that students at my school come from fairly wealthy families. They know that Mummy and Daddy will get them a good job, regardless of their grades when they graduate. When you add in the curious cultural note that students are not allowed to fail, it’s easy to see why a lot of them opt out.

I don’t mean to complain too much though! As ever with teaching there are always rewarding experiences too. I had a lot of fun playing ‘consequences’ with a class last week. They were old enough to make it funny, but not old enough to come up with anything too rude, and the pick of the bunch was this;

“Noy” (a girl from the class)

Met Bird (an aging Thai singer) ,

In the toilet.

He said “I love you”,

She said “I’m only 14 years old!”

And the consequence was..

They went to the police station!!

There was another surprise in store for me when I taught my Matayom* 1 boys last week. They are a very amusing class, quite insanely hyperactive, which is a refreshing change after the general apathy from the older students. Each lesson I teach is an hour and forty minutes long, so students are given a 10 minute break in the middle. Students normally spend this time talking, reading magazines or going to the toilet. With these boys however, three of cleared some space in the center of the room and started break dancing!!

I will end this entry with two words. Just a brief muttering of these words causes my Matayom 2 girls to immediately break into a chorus of shrieks and flustered over excitement..

…. Super Junior.

* In Thai school Matayom is roughly equivalent to Secondary schools in the UK (12 – 18ish) while Pratom (6 to 12ish) is like our Primary schools.

NB the photos on this page are actually not my own.. they were mainly found by searching key words on flickr.com .. which is a very good site.. so thanks to the photographers for their excellent foresight in taking pictures of things that I wanted to write about.