Back to teaching. My lesson that I planned for this week was way to easy for the M5s (high school Jr). They have a great grasp of English vocabulary. They do great repeating if I give them a dialogue to say. Then, if I have them try to come up with sentences or dialog on their own, it breaks down. I have to come up with ways to get them to try experiment/play around with what they know. Now, I feel dumb. How do I do that? Then I think, I can’t say in Thai what I’m asking them to learn in English. It’s hard to wrap my brain around that.
After school yesterday I did an English class for the teachers that were interested. There were 6 teachers. I had no idea how many would show up and how much they would already know so I basically didn’t prepare anything and hoped it would go well. I started with “How are you”? They know this well, but the answer always is “I am fine”. I tried to show them that the answer could be good, great, not good, hungry, cold, hot, etc. They came up with great questions, like what is the difference between “How do you do”? and “How are you”? I had trouble explaining that someone could be funny or fun, but if you answer “How are you” with “I am funny”, it might not mean funny ha ha, it might mean funny not right. I didn’t quite explain this one well. They had questions like what’s the difference between cool and cold. My favorite was what’s the difference between “I’m thinking of you” and “I miss you”. I pointed to my head and said in a calm tone “I’m thinking of you”. Then I pointed to my heart, collapsed around my heart a little and said with feeling “I miss you”. They got it. I’m also trying to show them that there is formal/polite ways of saying things, but we don’t use them that often. “How do you do”? is more formal, but hardly anyone says it. There is a common way of saying things that isn’t as personal as just with friends, but isn’t as formal as what is usually taught as polite. Then one of the teachers took me and another teacher out to dinner. I’ve only been to one restaurant here, 3 times, taken there by 3 different teachers. They all love that restaurant. It probably was one of the best Thai meals I’ve had yet.
Last night I was woken up several times by a lot of noise coming from the kitchen. It sounded like someone was throwing plastic water jugs around. I’ve heard this before and wondered what my next door neighbor was doing in the middle of the night. My next door neighbor isn’t home. Crap, something else is making this noise. It was a rat. I don’t know what the heck was doing to make that noise, but I came downstairs to find him in the kitchen looking very confused as to why I was there looking at him. It didn’t appear that he had been in the food. wtf was he doing to make that noise? Why do I have to have so many visitors? I’d rather have the frog back than a rat. Today Pat took me to get “chemicals” that rats don’t like the smell of. They look like moth balls. I plan to put them around the kitchen floor and see if they work.
Today was similar where I just don’t want to get out of bed and I just don’t want to do anything, but go home. But, by the end of the day, I feel better. I wish I could get rid of this morning dread, but I don’t know how. It’s not a new thing. I had it for years when I lived in the US. I’ve had it off and on for most of my life. It had disappeared completely over the past 3 years so I figured I had worked through it. I thought it was part of the not wanting to be here issue from a young age, being adopted. So, either I still have more work to do on that issue or it’s something similar, but slightly different.
The afternoon market is Tuesday and Fridays. We went after school. I like the market. I love the idea of buying food from the people that grew or cooked it. I much prefer this to a grocery store back home. It also has fascinating and weird things which I like too. For instance, tonight I saw 5 lizards tied together so they couldn’t run off. They were alive and for sale for food. On one hand, I find it gross, on the other, I find it sad and yet so fascinating. I asked Pat if she eats lizards. She said no, but some do. I saw two catfish jump out of a bucket and try to get away. They got pretty far before someone scooped them up and put them back in the bucket. I saw what looked like pig skin, but the entire pig head. I have seen them cooking stuff in bamboo and heard it was sticky rice. You see the bamboo grilling and you want it even before you know what is in it. Tonight Pat’s husband bought me one. I had it with dinner. The rice was sweet and had black beans in it. If I have to eat rice, I vote for bamboo sticky rice.
I am probably just as interesting a sight at the market. I tower over everyone. I have to duck constantly because I am taller than the fabric they have hung between the food stalls. One kid about 6 or 7 almost fell over staring at me with a confused look on his face. I often get this stare from younger kids. Some people don’t pay attention to me. Some look surprised and delighted when I smile or wai. Some come up to Pat and tell her they want to talk to me. One guy always wants to talk with me and has pretty good English. Tonight he told Pat he didn’t want to talk to her he wanted to talk to the other teacher (me).
(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Rraine Drops 