Corporal Punishment and Interesting Interactions

Because I hadn't posted in a while and because one of my classes got cancelled today, I'll do back-to-back posts.  This topic actually occurred to me on the bus on the way to work this morning, but there are two separate and completely unrelated prongs to it.

First, the more serious angle on how Thais handle discipline in school.  When I first got here I was a bit shocked by it, but now I'm kind of used to it.  These kids are trained to be hard from the get-go.  When my three year-olds are talking or not sitting in the right spot or rolling around on the floor, the teachers (sometimes) snap to.  Sometimes I have to raise my voice or gently move them myself, but when the Thai teacher gets involved, things stop being polite and start getting real.  They use corporal punishment here, in a BIG way.  Any time a student is even slightly out of line, the Thai teacher will come over and smack them, hard enough to make a loud “thump” sound and usually jolt the student forward or backward a bit.  They usually hit them on the back, shoulder, or legs.  Sometimes the teachers will walk around carrying a ruler and smacking it on their palm menacingly.  If a student gets out of line or isn’t sitting nicely, they slap their shins HARD with the flat side of the ruler.  From the sound it makes, even I can feel the sting.  The thing is, it gets the kids in line, and sometimes it's hard to argue with results.  I've never seen it make the kids cry or seen any of the children get very upset by it.  I think it's sort of the norm here, so no one really rocks the boat about it and kids are so accustomed to it that they aren't bothered.  At first it was hard to watch, but now I've gotten pretty used to it, and can always tell when it's coming.  I still haven't hit any kids (obviously, I don't think I could), but I have been more physical in moving them around.  When they get out of line and try to cut to the front to get their work checked, they don't understand "Go to the back of the line, please" or even "back!" so they just stand there and keep staring at me.  I usually end up pushing them back away from me a bit and saying "Go. To. The. Back." very slowly so hopefully they will start to understand what that means soon.  With 24 kids in the class and me having to put a check mark at the top of every page (and usually have them identify the thing they were coloring or tracing for that day), it takes a while to check work and the kids all swarming, clumping, and cutting pisses me off after about the first 10 seconds.

On a lighter note, there have been a few funny and borderline ridiculous interactions and occurrences since I've been here.

All of my students confuse Molly with me, and think that she is me whenever they see her, in spite of the five inch height difference and difference in hair and eye color.  She teaches all the fifth and sixth graders, so they don’t know her at all, but still can’t tell her apart from me.

Most of my students can't really say my name properly (they're getting better) but a lot of the time I end up being "Teacher Cow" or just "Cow," which is sweet of them.  Although they don't know what "cow" means so it's not really an insult.

One of my girls pointed at my stomach and said “Baby?”  So I shook my head and said, “No.”  And then, like an idiot, decided to joke, “Just fat.”  So now a small group of my girls calls me Teacher Fat.

There is a monk who lives somewhere near where we catch a taxi in the morning.  He is very old, maybe in his late 70s or 80s.  He gets around in an electric wheelchair.  Which he doesn't drive on the sidewalk, but in the street, going the wrong direction.  So there are all these cars headed east up the road, going about 50 mph, and then in one lane there is a monk, doing 5 mph in a wheelchair headed west.  That is the best illustration I've ever seen of a complete lack of fucks to give.  It's easy to tell without ever having had an exchange with him that he is just stubborn and curmudgeonly.

Exchanges:


Me: (ordering food) A cheeseburger and fries please.
Waiter: Okay, in fifteen years. (turns out he just meant minutes)

(ordering meat skewers, I just pointed at one.  The woman looked concerned)
Woman: Leder.
Me: Leader?
Woman: Lemer
Me: Lemur?!?
Woman: LI-BER.
(I figured out she was saying Liver, which was honestly my bad as that was clearly far more likely than the idea that I was eating lemur or, god forbid, the leader of something)


Molly's student: Teacher Molly, do you speak Thai?
Molly: Yes, I speak it perfectly.
Molly's student: (goes off in Thai then looks at her expectantly)
Molly: English only.

Molly assigned homework of reading a mystery story and figuring out who stole the candy (in the story).
Molly: Who stole the candy?
(a bunch of wrong answers)
Student: Marie! (the right answer)
Molly: (excited) Why do you think that?
Student: Because she's a woman!

I'm sure there have been other funny things I have seen and/or heard, but this is just off the top of my head, so they'll have to wait for later.

Thai Language

During the orientation with my agency, we were given an hour of Thai lessons.  Since then I've been trying to study a little bit on my own.  Then a few weeks ago Molly, Luke, and I started doing lessons with a Thai teacher at our school named Gung.  She teaches us some Thai and we give her some English practice.  Recently the gym teacher, Arm, started to join us, though he speaks less English than Gung.

The most difficult thing about the Thai language is that it is tonal, like Mandarin and several other languages around the world. What that means is that the same word (for example mai) can be said in five different ways, each of which makes it a completely different word.  There's a high tone, a low tone, a rising tone, a falling tone, and a flat tone.  Every syllable has a tone to it.  EVERY SYLLABLE HAS A DIFFERENT TONE.

With the example of mai...

mai (flat): no, not

mai (low): modern, fresh

mai (rising): when put at the end of a sentence, turns it into a question.  Essentially a spoken question mark.

mai (falling): to burn

So, if I misprounce the word "no" I could essentially be threatening to burn someone or something.  "Do you want this book?" "I set fire to your book!"  "Can I kiss you?"  "I will set you on fire!"  Not the easiest thing in the world to master.

On the other hand, numbers are the easiest thing ever.  To say "thirty" you just say "three ten" or "four ten" for "forty."  So "thirty-three" is "three ten three."  It seems like that would be confusing, but it means I only have to memorize ten numbers and count to 100.

For reference:

one: nung
two: song
three: sam
four: si
five: haa
six: hok
seven: jed
eight: pad
nine: kao
ten: sib

11-19 start with sib, so sib et, sib song, sib sam, sib si, sib haa, etc.

The only difference is that when it's a one they only say nung for one on it's own, otherwise it's "et."  Generally it's really easy, and I can actually understand now when people in restaurants and stores tell me how much something costs.  The funny thing about the number five (haa) is that it sounds just like how we write laughter in the West (hahaha).  So when Thais write out laughter on Facebook (for example) or text, and they just type 555.  Because it’s HaHaHa. Which I find both really useful and really funny. 555

In general, I've been doing a good job learning the key phrases I need to get through day-to-day life.  Like for ordering food (and informing people of my allergy because they add tiny shrimps to a lot of things here), directing taxis, talking about my name, age, and where I’m from, etc.  The basic phrases are easier for me to remember because I use them with my kids a lot, saying both the English and Thai when I ask a questions to help them understand what the questions mean.

Another interesting thing I've learned is that the days of the week here have colors.  Sunday is red, Monday is yellow, Tuesday is purple, Wednesday is green, Thursday is orange, Friday is blue, and Saturday is lavender.  If you wear the color on the day, it's supposed to be good luck.  For some reason you’re also not supposed to cut things on… I think it’s Wednesday but I’m not 100% sure.  So no haircuts, no trimming your nails, etc.  It’s bad luck.

I'm still learning more of the language, but at least the structure is similar.  Actually, the structure is identical to the way Spanish is structured.  In Thai you start with subject, then verb, then object, like in both Spanish and English.  However, unlike in English but as in Spanish, the adjective comes after the noun.  So if I want to say "I eat Thai food," then I say the words in Thai in the structure "I eat food Thai."  The more I learn specific words, the easier it will be for me to make sentences on my own.  For now I'm really only good with numbers and rote phrases.

That's all for now.  I'm hoping to get better with Thai over the coming months, and we'll see if I can actually learn to speak it at all.  Sorry this entry was more technical and boring.  It's hard to breathe life into syntax and vocabulary.

UPDATE:
A few fun/ interesting words that I've learned over the last few weeks...

For "cat," Thais have completely cut out the middle man, and they just say "meow" which is AWESOME.

The word for disgusting is "ruur" but it's a very gutteral sound, which is actually just about the sound I make when disgusted by something, which makes it kind of perfect.

There are a few others, but as usual when these things occur to me I don't write them down and then when I sit down later, I can't recall them all.  Without fail in the next twenty minutes, when I walk into class, I'll remember the other words I learned, but by the end of the lesson they will have once again retreated into their hidey-holes in the cobwebbed back corners of my mind.  Scumbag memory.

Classes, Names, and Haircuts

As I've already said, this year I'm teaching Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten 1 and 2, which means two, three, and four year-olds.  They are completely adorable.  I teach three classes at each Kindergarten level, with an average of 23 students per class.  The Pre=Kindergarten class has only thirteen students because not all the parents opted to pay extra for those lessons.  Classes only last 50 minutes.  For the first month and a half, we had no supplies or curriculum, so it was essentially our job to plan out the structure of the lessons as well as the content.  So we had to figure out on our own what we were going to teach and how we were going to teach it.  However, at the beginning of this week the course books finally arrived in the mail, so now there's structure.  After doing the bookwork for the day, there's really only about 10 minutes per class, which I use to sing songs because hey, I'm getting paid and nobody really cares what I do.  Plus the kids love it.  Each class has lessons three times per week.  So I have six different classes three times a week, and Pre-K twice a week, meaning I only teach 20 classes per week.  It's a pretty sweet deal.

Before the books came I was teaching my students some basic introductory phrases.  My students can all tell someone their name (the full sentence, which took a long time because some of them couldn't even figure out their regular name... more on that in a second), their gender (which seems straightforward, but I messed it up a couple times.  Again, more on that in a second), and what color they like.

First, the gender thing.  I had three students that I could not properly identify as boy or girl, and unfortunately I guessed all three were girls and they all turned out to be boys.  Whoops.  There is a slight trend in boys’ haircuts here to have shoulder length hair with distinct bangs, which is honestly something I don't think I've seen on a boy before.  None of them were offended, and actually I think only one of them actually understood that I called him a girl.  However, seeing as he never really pays attention to what's going on and his spacing-out face looks really intense, it is not only possible but also highly likely that he was just staring at me without actually listening or being aware that I was addressing him.  So I'm pretty sure none of them realized I thought they were girls.  But the teachers did.  We had a good cross-cultural giggle about it.  

Beyond the long hair with bangs hairstyle, there's another strange trend that I've noticed with the boys.  Many of them have what appears to be a combination of a rattail and a mullet.  Rather than one small wisp on longer hair at the nape of their neck, all the hair along the top of their neck is significantly longer.  But only one thin layer.  I've been trying to find out if this is cultural, but so far all I've found out is that it's a popular hairstyle in manga.  One of my female students even has the same hairstyle, although hers is a longer rattail that comes out from underneath her shoulder length hair.  It seems interesting that so many of them have this hair cut (at least 6 of my students are rocking the look).  I also have one male student with one of the weirdest hairstyles I've ever seen.  His head is shaved, except for a small circle on the top of his head, where men generally get a bald spot as they grow older.  The outside of this circle of hair is short, maybe a 1/2 inch long.  The center of the circle of hair falls down past his shoulders, and is generally fashioned into two thin braids.  He's a new student, and speaks no English, though he's great at understanding that when I look him in the eye and say something slowly I want him to repeat it, so that's good.  No comprehension, but he always has the right answer once I feed it to him.  

 
There is also an interesting trend in names.

Many of my students use a Thai "nickname" which is just a shorter version of their given name.  Examples of this are: Boa (Boo-ah), Ang Pao, Gusjang, Krit, Patcha, Tonkhou, Seenum, Bi-O, Pun-Yah, Bai-Toey, Gam, etc.  There are a lot of them.

A few students have Thai nicknames that are somewhat awkward.  Examples of the awkward names are: Phu (pronounced "poo"), Poo-ri, Piew (pronounced pee-ew), Meew (like a cat), Khun (pronounced coon, like a racoon, or an old-timey racial slur), Parn (pronounced "porn") and Phuk, Volk, and Fluck (all pronounced either "fook" or "fuck"- I go for "fook").  I also have a student named Poon.  No comment.

About half my students have "English names".  I put this in quotes because very few of them are actually names.  Real names include: Jenna, Jean, Kevin, Leo, Angie, Minny, Micky, M.J., C.J., Meena, Austin, and Buck (who is pleasantly plump and always reminds me of John Candy because of that movie "Uncle Buck").  They also pronounce these names differently, always stressing the last syllable.  So it's not JEN-na, it's jen-NA, or min-NEE, or le-O.  It sounded a bit weird at first but I’m getting used to it.

The rest of the "English names" are not names at all, but random nouns, verbs, and adjectives.  These are, without question, my favorite names.  ALL of the students with such names are...

Deer (who is tiny and deer-like, so well done parents)
Raifel (pronounced like rifle)
Gun (subtle)
Corn
Blue (I have a few students named Blue)
Japan
Plum
Worm (yup)
Sunday
Make
Mine
April (which she said to me "like, May April" so I think it's the month, not the name)
City
Bonus
Grate
Ink
Mobile
True
Spy
Pure
Proud
See
Chain
Pun
Nut
Mint
A-care (random letter and word combination)
Note (one of my cutest kids)
Kiwi
Tree
Song
Be My (be your... what?)
Pay (pronounced "pie" for some reason)
Tide
Finch
Time
Tan
Fight
Fighter

Tigger

And my favorites:
Captain
Earth
Guitar
Boss
Pepper
Mickey Mouse.  (Yeah, Mickey Mouse)

And the Pre-K triplets Sun, Sand, and Sea.  Yeah, triplets named Sun, Sand, and Sea.

Adorable, and completely absurd at the same time.

Notable students:

Blue (the younger one) who cannot say any word other than his name, and yet cannot identify the color blue.

Finch, who cried every time I even looked at him for the entire first week, and yet would still say "My name is Finch" through the tears.  He has stopped crying when I look at him, but still goes from a pleasantly blank facial expression to one of unflinching abject terror every time I look at him.  I'm going to call it an improvement.

Pepper, a boy who is extremely smart, will follow me around the room trying to put his hands in my shoes because he is in love with my toes.

Maiklong, Volk, and City, the boys I thought were girls.

Still unnamed child with the two-braid hairstyle, who doesn't know how to say his name so I have no idea what it is.

Bonus, a heavyset girl who gleefully sticks her belly out and drums on it every time we sing a song.

Note, who is a simultaneously adorable and obnoxious child. (haha, Note is notable)

I would write more, but it is feeding time, so I must jockey for my position next to the trough.  Next blog's topic: TBD when I write the next blog.  Perhaps Thai language.

Pagan Magic

The view from our middle apartment window.

So, I Moved to Thailand

My blog before was a bit more diary than cultural exploration, so I'm going to try to rectify that to the best of my ability now that I'm older, though not necessarily wiser.

I am no longer living in Korea, but in Thailand.  I moved to Thonburi, a part of Bangkok city just across the river from western Bangkok, about a month ago.  So far, I have been lazy and have not done much to update people on my life here.  My facebook posts have mostly been intellectual jems such as, "I was just listening to a song from the Pocahontas soundtrack, and looked off to the side of my Facebook and saw, "People You May Know: John Smith." Coincidence? Probably" and, "My inner How I Met Your Mother fan LOVES that I have a student named Captain."   My brilliance is astounding at times, even to me.  It's a little out of control.

For now, I'll shoot out some of the basics of my life here and within the next few weeks I will hopefully get my act together enough to note some of the cultural differences that have jumped out at me.  

 
I live, like I said before, in a part of the city called Thonburi.  It's not in Bangkok proper, but my apartment is about a ten-minute drive from Bangkok, so it isn't too much of a stretch to head in on weekends.  I teach at a primary school, but I teach Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten 1 and 2, which means I deal with two, three, and four year-olds all day.  I'm hoping that my English becomes accordingly accomplished.  I still have students that cannot even repeat after me if I sit directly in front of them and say "Hello!" very slowly to just them.  Instead they tell me their name, as if I've asked.  Silly children.  I have three classes of each age, and I teach each class three times a week for 50 minutes each time.  The language level is extremely different from Korea, and I'm still adjusting.  Don't be surprised if, by the time I return to the states, my English is halting and broken, my vocabulary has reverted to that of a five year old, and I've lost the ability to read and write.  If you're so inclined, I invite you to witness firsthand the eventual loss of my mother tongue here, on this blog.  In fact, it's already begun.  On my first pass I misspelled "tongue."   But I digress.  School is good.  Teaching fifteen hours a week is in many ways preferable to the 29.8 hours per week I taught in Korea.  I have a lot more time in the office to plan.  Mostly I spend this time doing nothing.  Maybe now I'll start spending more of it writing blogs!

You might have noticed that staying on topic is not my forte.  I'd apologize for it, but I've already forgotten what we're supposed to be talking about.

As far as the apartment goes, the set up has some huge benefits and one really huge... not benefit.  See? I'm already losing words.  I live in a real human apartment, as opposed to my shoebox studio from Korea.  It's a two bedroom, 1.5 bathroom place, with a kitchen (sans stove and oven because food is so cheap here that people don't often cook- more on that in a minute), living room/dining room, laundry balcony (it's definitely not a room, but whatever, it's in home laundry) and a nice balcony in the big bedroom.  Our building has a small gym and an outdoor pool on the sixth floor, which doesn't sound like it would work, but it does.  Our living room wall is made up of three huge windows, which look out at the river and the Bangkok skyline.  The view is actually one of the major benefits of the apartment.  I often get caught walking through the living room and have to stop and just look out at it for a while.  Again, saying I will post pictures will probably be a lie, so don't expect them.  If, by some pagan magic, they do actually appear on here, just be pleasantly surprised.  

I live there with two other teachers from my program who work at the same school I do.  Luke lives in the small bedroom by himself.  He's a funny, off-the-wall, good-hearted Scotsman who does AMAZING impressions.  I live in the big bedroom with Molly, another American girl.  She's really friendly and funny.  She and I actually are kind of stupid, and any time you leave the two of us together we end up laughing and giggling the whole time, generally at nothing, though occasionally we are talking about sad or disturbing things, but still laughing.  She's from Washington D.C. by way of Ohio, by way of California, with a little sprinkling of Mexico and Spain in there somewhere.  We sleep in bunk beds though, which isn’t exactly ideal.

For now, that is what I have for you.  In the future I'll post more about the actual day-to-day of the program, and catch you up on the first month in Bangkok.  I'm hoping that because I have more down time in the office I will be better at posting sensical things than I was when I lived in Korea.  This time I'll try to be saner.  The key word is "try."