Teaching, my personal story.

[fascinasian]

Ok everyone, I have read a few of the posts on teaching in Thailand and I thought that I would share with you my personal story and experience, if you are looking for facts regarding visas and required degrees probably read elsewhere.

I had arrived in Thailand as a 25 year old backpacker, qualified chef and I have a degree in Environmental science and law(which would all explain why I now work as a butler), I travelled around up in the east and north for a couple of months before ending up in Pai north of Chiang Mai. I should mention that this was all about 10 years ago, the experience remains relevant though, Pai was a beautiful place and I am sure it still is well worth a visit.

Whilst I was in Pai I met a Scottish woman who was working with the Karen refugees from Burma, I went out to the camp to help her out and see what it was like and that is where everything started. This was a refugee camp, electricity rationed in the evening to those lucky enough to have access, bamboo housing but the hardest part was that many of the people there were in a weird limbo. Thailand refuses to recognise them officially as refugees, they also have in effect no Nationality as they cannot get a Thai id card or residency and some of the families had been there for nearly 50 years. I decided that I wanted to help and started working out how, it turned out that the young people could get Thai papers if they attended a Thai college and graduated thereby enabling them to be "productive members of society".

So I went up there to help teach, no experience and not a clue what I was letting myself in for, luckily there was an experienced teacher already there from London, (oh yes I forgot to mention this was a volunteer position, no salary), I threw myself into trying to help out these kids and what I got out of it was incredible. We worked 6 days a week, started early in the morning and late in the afternoon, teaching English and helping with math and geography, my inflatable beach ball globe was a surprise hit! All these kids wanted to learn and may be the best students in the world, and the love that was given back for our efforts used to blow us away on a daily basis. Amazing when people who have nothing will give you everything, I will always be grateful that I spent this time of my life giving back, after all so much of my good fortune has been down to the accident of being born in a western country.

Now the camp was very well connected and established, there had even been a visit from the Queen years before and I think we all know what that does for a place! One morning I was told that I had to go to Chiang Mai for a visa, I came away with a B visa for which I was totally unqualified but apparently because I was teaching for free in this camp and trying to help that was all they needed. I spent 8 months in the camp and loved it, a truly ridiculous number of stories and insights into life in Thailand and I will share them another time.

The most important part to tell anyone thinking of being a teacher is that the main question is "why do you want to teach", I found that you have to want to do it for a reason. For me it was to help people, from there it grew to the amazing feeling you have when you actually teach somebody something, you can see it in their eyes, and of course there is some ego involved, the knowledge that you taught them this and they will remember you. Teaching is not a job, it is not something you should do unless you love it otherwise you will never inspire your students; we all remember the good teachers from our youth and the bad ones. And depending on where you are you have to respect the possible sacrifices that peoples families make to send their kids to school, and that you owe them a good teaching experience.

Any questions anyone has just ask and I will be happy to tell you, hope you enjoyed the viewpoint even though I am often accused of being “wordy”lol.

[Dr Mindbender Jr]

definitely a different point of view, glad you are enjoying yourself AND helping out as well. More people like yourself are needed. You are doing that community a great service and I am sure they appreciate you more than words can express, take care

Edited November 29, 2010 by Dr Mindbender Jr

[pseasnain]

Nice post and being a 'khun kru' myself I can agree with you when you say that teaching is really a vocation and not just a job.