At 9 in the
morning we met with P’Nurai, she is the vice-dean of the English department of
this university and she was going to provide us with a busier schedule. Turned
out we even have less classes to teach now. But good news came as well; Sally
received a call from the English consulate asking us if we would be interested
in tutoring local doctors and nurses in the hospital of Prasat. We were very
happy to have a change of scenery and of course we eagerly accepted this
proposition. We felt quite honored to be able to teach people with a higher
degree than we will (most likely) have so we were a bit nervous at first.
However this nervous feeling quickly turned into anticipation as we reached the
hospital.
It turned
out we were assisting Mr. Chatchai Chumnum, a member of staff of the English
department. He prepared an entire lesson and we were to help him with the
pronunciation bit. We introduced ourselves, showed the ‘students’ some pictures
of our school and town and then we did some origami. I know, sounds silly,
right? In wasn’t exactly origami but all of the students received a piece of paper
which they folded into a neat little book. A Tinybook, if you will. This kind
of activity made me think of kindergarten but to be honest, I actually enjoyed
it. Mr. Chatchai had us make 6 books: one in which he introduces himself,
another about the famous YouTube hit: Charlie Bit Me! (of which we didn’t
really got the gist, but hey, at least the movie is pretty funny), one about
common errors made by Thai people in English, one about health issues and the
last one was filled with tips and tricks to study English in a fun and
motivating way.
Almost forgot: due to the heavy storms: Blackout number 2. Reading a book by candlelight isn’t that romantic when you suddenly spot a cockroach trying to get in your bed. After a bloody battle (none of mine), I won and could sleep safe and sound.
On Thursday
(19th of April) it was my first real lesson at the university. The
Thai teacher had seen the grammar part and it was up to me to let the students
practice this by using conversations used in everyday speech. I prepared a lot
of activities and conversations only to find out that the students didn’t
really get the gist of the grammar and since the Thai teacher had suddenly
vanished into thin air, I improvised some fun games about pronunciation. The
students seemed to like getting taught by a Farang because some students were
more occupied taking pictures of me than actually paying attention to their
peers. It was a fun lesson but I didn’t get any feeling of accomplishment.
In the
evening we were invited by P’Nurai and her fellow teachers for dinner at the
dam. Since we like being in the company of other people (and I just can’t
resist Thai food) we accepted her invitation. Rain seemed to rain on our parade
(I know, ha-ha) but luckily it stopped as soon as we arrived at the dam. The
place was crawling with people, all eating at the artificial shore and their
children swimming in the huge lake. We had a typical Thai dinner, washed it
down with a couple of beers and watched the sun set in beautiful shade of red. The
funny thing is, we didn’t really expect to bond with these teachers since we
don’t see them that often. Turns out every one of them is simply adorable. We
had a very nice and cozy evening at the dam and went to sleep really excited.
Could this be because tomorrow we would become FBIS (Famous Belgians in Surin)?
Remember
Mr. Chatchai from the English department? He happens to host a radio show in
Surin called The Voice of Surin’ and we were invited to tag along for a
45-mintute interview with him live on antenna! The goal of this radio broadcast
is to make people more aware of the importance of the English language because
of the fact that is Asia is becoming one union in 2015.
Mr.
Chatchai picked us up at 08.30 and took us to Surin, where the radio program is
being broadcasted. We are welcomed into the building and are offered a hot
beverage. Not that we needed a hot drink, it was already about 35°C, but we
politely accepted it anyways.
We were
ushered into the broadcasting room, were assigned seats and a microphone and
suddenly, without any warning the light flashed and we were live on Thai radio.
Mr. Chatchai started talking in Thai and then asked to introduce ourselves.
Without any form of preparation we were asked a lot of questions about teaching
English in Thailand, what the differences are between Belgian and Thai culture,
and many more. It’s a really funny feeling knowing that this conversation is
live on radio but we managed to uphold our nerves.
Once the
interview was over we were given an MP3-file containing our feat so that we can
listen to it again. We thank everyone there for having us and after a short
drive, Mr. Chatchai stops at our favorite bakery in Surin. Here we have a
coffee together and he asks us if we would be willing to rejoin him for his
show next week Friday. We are already looking forward to this.
I will soon
let you know if it’s possible to listen to our live broadcast next week. Stay
tuned!
Hallo Sam ,wat boeiend dat jullie op de radio geweest zijn (Ornelis en Rogiers zitten al op jullie te wachten hoor).Op de blog te zien zagen jullie er weer stralend uit ,en toffe mensen leren kennen dus dat kan niet beter.Het eten valt precies ook reuze mee wat jullie allemaal opnoemen ,ik krijg er water van in de mond.Hier is het echt Belgisch weer regen en zon ,en frisjes dus geniet van het zonnetje de laatste weken en laat jullie stempel achter met de Engelse taal (zijn we hier zeker van dat jullie daar 100% in slagen) Sam dikke kussen en tot wederhoren xxxxxxxxxx
BeantwoordenVerwijderenhoy sam weeral een leuke ervaring ! live on the radio ! dat hebt ge dan toch ook weeral eens meegemaakt !toffe fotos trouwens ! nu misschien nog de t v halen , dat zou ook wel tof zijn !het schuift al goe op he !grtjs en dikke kus van ons
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