Why Teach in Thailand? Learn from past participants' experiences.
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Alex Kipp, a teacher in Thailand shares his experience:
“GOOD MORNING TEACHER!”
My students, all standing up, looked at me expectantly. I had just walked into the classroom for the very first time, trying to shake off the nerves that were still with me, when every student in the class stood up and gave me this greeting. “Good morning class, please have a seat.”
“THANK YOU TEACHER.”
As the students sat down, I once again tried to shake off the nerves that were glued to my skin. As I started, speaking slowly and enunciating clearly, to introduce myself, I began to realize that they were as scared of me as I was of them. Well, I thought, at least we’re on equal footing. I began by telling the students where I came from. I’m originally from Iowa (I-OH-A), but I went to school in Texas. I just graduated from Rice University, and I’m teaching in Thailand for a year before I go to medical school in Washington DC. I told them I think Thailand is very beautiful (which it is), and that I wasn’t homesick (which, in fact, I was). As I tried to get them to introduce themselves to me and the rest of the class, I recognized a frustration that would stay with me throughout most of my classes. Even though the students know English somewhat well, they were deathly afraid of speaking it to me. Oh well, I thought, that’s exactly the reason I’m here.
After introductions, we started playing a game. “Sanook” (which means fun in Thai) is one of the first Thai words all the farang English teachers in my program learned. I remember sitting with the other 75 teachers in Bangkok, learning how to teach English to our students, going through some specific lesson plans, and learning about how Thai culture will influence our successes in the classroom. We were told again and again to keep our lessons fun, otherwise we would lose the students. In Thailand, being serious is a quick path to ruin. That’s not to say that Thai people don’t work hard. What it means is that Thai people try to have fun in everything they do, be it working all day in a rice field or learning English. As the weeks passed, I quickly learned that I had to keep things fun and that getting students to talk in English to me was still like pulling teeth.
As I started to get into the flow of things, recognizing my bad lessons and celebrating my good ones, I repeatedly was on the receiving end of the question, “So why did you decide to come to Thailand?” As often as I was asked this, both before and after my transpacific flight, I never felt I could give an entire answer. I was able to explain bits and pieces to some, but I never felt like I could explain the whole story. The reason I couldn’t explain the whole story is because I didn’t feel like I knew the whole story. Here I was, in Thailand, thousands of miles away from anyone I knew, plunked down in the middle of nowhere with only a hectic week’s orientation to teaching under my belt, reeling from jet lag and culture shock…and to top it all off, I still had no idea why I came. Sure, I had “reasons” why I came, but I didn’t feel like I knew the reason why I came. When it came down to it, my heart told me to go, and I went.
My “reasons” were abundant and sensible: I wanted to live in a different part of the world, a place that had a belief system very different to mine. I wanted to take a break before medical school. I wanted to try something different before I dedicated my time to medical educations. I wanted to be challenged in ways I could never be challenged in the states. I wanted to live and work with a different culture to improve my cross-cultural communication skills. But as the classes came and went, as my nerves calmed and my weekends became filled with trips to nearby towns and friends, I slowly realized why I needed to come to Thailand. The reason I came was to be changed.
Coming to Thailand has certainly changed me, even in ways I never expected. I have had more time to think and let my mind wander than ever before. From hanging out in my room at night, to spending 8 hours on a bus, I have had plenty of time to think about everything in my life. Additionally, I’ve had the advantage at looking through my life with another set of “cultural lens” on. As a Westerner in Thailand, I am able to look at my set of beliefs and recognize the influence of being raised in the West. For example, no Thai person ever talks about the idea of fairness. For a country that believes in reincarnation and karma, what happens to you now is a result of previous lives. The amount of time I have had to think, combined with the different set of beliefs around me, has opened my eyes radically.
Coming to Thailand has been one of the best adventures of my life. I had no idea what I was getting into, and it wasn’t all fun and games, but every day was a lesson, every weekend an opportunity to explore. Even though I have a career waiting for me in the wings, and I am quite aware of what I want to do with my life, taking the time to do something completely different has changed my entire perspective of the world. I had no clue what would happen to me when I first stepped off the plane in Bangkok. Now, 6 months later, I can’t imagine not coming to Thailand. I’ve been changed, and these changes will last me a lifetime.