I contacted the English Crazy Club at Ubon University not long before I arrived in Thailand. They were very helpful and organised at short notice for me to teach with the Non-Formal Education department in a small city called Detudom, South of Ubon Ratchathani in North East Thailand.
Detudom is quite a busy small city, with a long main road and a large central market, but only a few minutes from the centre it stretches out into countryside - rice paddies with buffalo grazing on the brown rice stalks, papaya trees and banana palms, and wood and thatch houses beside long dusty orange earth roads.
I lived alone in Detudom in a house belonging to the director of the NFE department, but nevertheless not long after I arrived had an adopted Thai family - a patchwork of a father, two mothers and 5 older siblings from all over the city. They took their roles seriously - bringing me- or taking me out for food, making sure I ate well and tried all the local specialties (from sweets, sticky rice and somtam to grasshoppers), buying me clothes and making sure I dressed correctly. Even after I left the city I would get daily phone calls to make sure I was safe and well.
During the week I would travel to many different places. Each day I would wake up around 6, have a cold shower and prepare my lessons. Aruond 8.30 I would ride my bicycle to the central office, and from there travel to my classes. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays I would travel to different villages to teach morning classes for students ranging in age from 13 to 58 completing their high school certificates outside a formal school system. On Wednesdays and Fridays I taught students in grades 5 and 6 at a local Primary School, and each weekday I would teach a 2 hour afternoon class for students from another school. Each week there seemed to be a festival or holiday. Besides teaching English, while I was there I also learned to make rubber animals and flowers from balloons, tell stories with puppets and mix cocktails during the festivities.
On weekends I would sometimes help out with the English camps organised by the English Crazy Club. It was fun to hang out with the English students, and a good chance to get ideas for differents games and teaching techniques I could use during the week. The week before I left Detudom, the English Crazy Club came to do a camp with my students from the Non-Formal Education classes. It wasn't until then that I really fell in love with these students. The camp began just like my first classes - the energy and enthusiasm of the English Crazy Club volunteers was met with a startled, nervous silence. Scruffy teens and twenty year olds, older men and women and women with young kids from farms and small village restaurants and markets looked surprised and shifted in their seats uncomfortably, but soon began to show shy smiles and tentative interest.
Of all my classes I came to look forward to the afternoons the best. Together everyday, I really came to like the small group of students, and by the end I thought they were just about the cleverest kids I'd ever met. Tired after long days at school, neither I nor they had energy for verbs or grammar exercises, but there was lots of room for experimenting with games and songs, and they surprised me by how quickly they picked things up.
At around 7pm, after my afternoon class, I would ride my bicycle across town to have dinner and learn Thai with my 'Thai mum'. She spoke no English, and I no Thai to begin with, but she had endless patience, and knew how much I wanted to learn her language. In the cool evenings we would sit in the street outside her dusty newsagency as she taught me names for the stars, the moon, the trees, the sky, and all the thousand things in her shop, enunciating clearly words for me to repeat and watching carefully as I drew Thai letters with an uncertain hand.
Though I had no previous teaching experience I soon learnt what actvities and exercises worked and didn't work with my younger and older students. During my time in Detudom the other teachers in the Non-Formal Education office helped me alot with communication in my classes, and enjoyed teaching me Thai as much as they did learning English. I made many good friends, both students and teachers, and found a caring family in Detudom. Although I was able to stay only 6 weeks, I hope to go back to visit next year, if not sooner.
Many thanks to the English Crazy Club for organising my stay with NFE in Detudom - it was a wonderful experience and I think I learnt as much if not more than I taught. I would strongly recommend other volunteers to take the opportunity!
Detudom is quite a busy small city, with a long main road and a large central market, but only a few minutes from the centre it stretches out into countryside - rice paddies with buffalo grazing on the brown rice stalks, papaya trees and banana palms, and wood and thatch houses beside long dusty orange earth roads.
I lived alone in Detudom in a house belonging to the director of the NFE department, but nevertheless not long after I arrived had an adopted Thai family - a patchwork of a father, two mothers and 5 older siblings from all over the city. They took their roles seriously - bringing me- or taking me out for food, making sure I ate well and tried all the local specialties (from sweets, sticky rice and somtam to grasshoppers), buying me clothes and making sure I dressed correctly. Even after I left the city I would get daily phone calls to make sure I was safe and well.
During the week I would travel to many different places. Each day I would wake up around 6, have a cold shower and prepare my lessons. Aruond 8.30 I would ride my bicycle to the central office, and from there travel to my classes. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays I would travel to different villages to teach morning classes for students ranging in age from 13 to 58 completing their high school certificates outside a formal school system. On Wednesdays and Fridays I taught students in grades 5 and 6 at a local Primary School, and each weekday I would teach a 2 hour afternoon class for students from another school. Each week there seemed to be a festival or holiday. Besides teaching English, while I was there I also learned to make rubber animals and flowers from balloons, tell stories with puppets and mix cocktails during the festivities.
On weekends I would sometimes help out with the English camps organised by the English Crazy Club. It was fun to hang out with the English students, and a good chance to get ideas for differents games and teaching techniques I could use during the week. The week before I left Detudom, the English Crazy Club came to do a camp with my students from the Non-Formal Education classes. It wasn't until then that I really fell in love with these students. The camp began just like my first classes - the energy and enthusiasm of the English Crazy Club volunteers was met with a startled, nervous silence. Scruffy teens and twenty year olds, older men and women and women with young kids from farms and small village restaurants and markets looked surprised and shifted in their seats uncomfortably, but soon began to show shy smiles and tentative interest.Of all my classes I came to look forward to the afternoons the best. Together everyday, I really came to like the small group of students, and by the end I thought they were just about the cleverest kids I'd ever met. Tired after long days at school, neither I nor they had energy for verbs or grammar exercises, but there was lots of room for experimenting with games and songs, and they surprised me by how quickly they picked things up.
At around 7pm, after my afternoon class, I would ride my bicycle across town to have dinner and learn Thai with my 'Thai mum'. She spoke no English, and I no Thai to begin with, but she had endless patience, and knew how much I wanted to learn her language. In the cool evenings we would sit in the street outside her dusty newsagency as she taught me names for the stars, the moon, the trees, the sky, and all the thousand things in her shop, enunciating clearly words for me to repeat and watching carefully as I drew Thai letters with an uncertain hand.
Though I had no previous teaching experience I soon learnt what actvities and exercises worked and didn't work with my younger and older students. During my time in Detudom the other teachers in the Non-Formal Education office helped me alot with communication in my classes, and enjoyed teaching me Thai as much as they did learning English. I made many good friends, both students and teachers, and found a caring family in Detudom. Although I was able to stay only 6 weeks, I hope to go back to visit next year, if not sooner.
Many thanks to the English Crazy Club for organising my stay with NFE in Detudom - it was a wonderful experience and I think I learnt as much if not more than I taught. I would strongly recommend other volunteers to take the opportunity!
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