But I Never Wanted to Be Snow White

I would be remiss if I didn’t dedicate a blog post to all of my best friends at Sansai. I realized as I wrote this that it was a lot longer than I expected. I’m definitely not living alone this year.

Geckos: Lizzy, may she rest in peace, was my first gecko. Geckos are very territorial so once she showed up, she stayed put for a while. She lived in the walls and ceiling of my kitchen and bathroom until Clyde, my other gecko, appeared in my living room. For a while they co-existed but it is now several months since my last Lizzy-sighting. I believe Clyde has either scared Lizzy off or eaten her so that he can have free range of the house. I’ve found him trying to snuggle in my make-shift couch on the ground or blocking the staircase when I get up to pee in the middle of the night. Clyde is quite a character: he will freeze when he knows I’ve seen him and only retreat back into the ceiling when I turn my back. He often thinks he’s hidden but his tail will still be sticking out much like a toddler who throws a blanket over himself but his feet are still showing. My geckos, while a bit freaky when I first discovered them, are fabulous listeners. I’ve been told they will only bite if you corner them, so I’m happy to coexist despite the absolute animosity with which the Thais will talk about them. I’ve also been told that if a gecko jumps on me the only way to get rid of that bad luck is to get struck by lightning…so let’s keep our fingers crossed on that one.

Frogs: There’s a single frog who is a frequent visitor of my little Sansai home. For weeks, every single morning I would discover him under my couch pillows, which I now habitually check for Clyde before laying down. I would scoop him up in a shoe and fling him out the front door every day. More recently, I discovered him nestled in my tissue box. I suppose he’s just looking for a cozy place to live but a bit unsettling to pull out a tissue and have a frog fall on my lap. Apparently, this frog is apparently territorial as even if I take it across campus, blindfold it, and spin it around three times he will be in my couch again within the week.

Snakes: This was a real turning point. My reaction to seeing a snake squeeze under my door and start poking around was a groan that I had to get up from the couch to take care of this. How annoying. I grabbed my broom and carefully starting poking it towards the door from a couple steps safely up my staircase. After several minutes of failure I finally swung open the door and just swept him towards the opening. The poor thing couldn’t get a grip on the tile to slither correctly so just spastically squirmed as I accosted him with my broom until he was out the door. I now occasionally leave limes outside my door as local wisdom says snakes are deterred by lime juice. Seems to be working.

Flying Termites: These termites will blossom all of the sudden one day in the rainy season and attack any light they can find. In the time it took me to get upstairs and back it felt like the 8th plague had taken over. I ran to turn off any light source and turn up my outside lights but the cleanup in the morning was awful. These bugs have the lightest wings that fall off so easily. I am still sweeping them out of my house.

ANTS: A ginormous pain in the ass. NOTHING can be left out. I keep all food safely in the fridge, in a couple tested ant-proof Tupperware containers, or in a bucket of water so that the ants get into them. However, these terrible creatures have also chewed through plastic bags and invaded a box of tampons, my computer, and my cotton swabs. Sometimes I see their marching line across my wall and attempt to find their destination to no avail. Luckily there is a spray for when there are just a few too many to handle.

Cockroaches: Of course there are a few but I only seem to find them when I leave the house for a week and they will be belly up when I get home. Apparently they are exceptional hiders when they’re not dead.

Scorpions: I had only two and they were potentially the same one. (Right? Only two like that’s a lucky thing) The first seemed dead and I was sweeping then he sprung to life from within the pile of dust and started scurrying around the floor. Did you know how fast a scorpion moves? I trapped him under my broom and hock-pucked him out the door. Several weeks later I found another that was most definitely dead.

Spiders: I let most of the spiders coexist to get rid of my bugs however some are huge and I’m afraid they’ll get rid of me. One morning I lifted a pillow to discover I had both a frog and spider cuddle bugs for the past hour. I was not thrilled.

Lizards: These guys are just cute. I don’t mind them one bit since they eat the little bugs. Only once did I have the issue where one fell into my toaster when it was in the process of making my breakfast and caused the thing to spark and die with a fried lizard at the bottom. Rough way to go.

One of my students asked me today if I have friends in Thailand. I told her I have too many, and I showed her a picture of me and Clyde. She definitely thinks there’s something wrong with me now. 

Single Lady

I was preparing my lesson by placing several poorly hand-drawn pictures on the board when one of my students points to a picture of a blond girl and says “Teacher, you”. I laughed because she’s only assigning me the picture because of the hair color, and she points to a picture of a boy and says “Teacher, boyfriend.” I laugh a little harder and say no, no. So she points to another picture of a boy with different colored hair and says again “Teacher, boyfriend?” Good thinking, I tell them I don’t have a boyfriend. The student then points to another picture and asks “Teacher, girlfriend?”

I love my students.

When I studied in Senegal, I often lied about my relationship status jumping to already being married in hopes that it would deter the marriage proposal that was about to spill from the mouths of Senegalese men. For fun I even told them that I had four husbands (since they are allowed to take four wives) just to see the shock on their face as the thought about the switched gender roles.

In Thailand I may use the “boyfriend” line to deter a random songtao driver or food vendor, but I don’t lie to my coworkers or students. When the words “I don’t have a boyfriend” are understood, frankly everyone’s appalled. “But you’re so beautiful” is the usual argument against my single status.

Not to toot my own horn but I’ve been told I’m beautiful almost every day at my school. The word has unfortunately lost a lot of its power. Simply being a blond foreigner who’s in shape is enough to make me qualify as Miss America; although, once I scraped up my knees my coworkers informed me that the dream of Miss America is now dead.

Beauty is a tough concept to grapple with. The media is filled with advertisements for whitening creams because conversely to America, white and pale is beautiful. At least my teachers don’t go so far as calling me “ugly” when I return from a weekend outdoors but they have comments like: “Oh Kendra. So much sun” with a clear look of disappointment that I would do such a thing to my body.

Thais are very blunt about your appearance: if your dress makes you look like a teenager, if your hair is “not so beautiful today as it was yesterday”, or if you’re “fat, fat, fat, fat, fat…”

Stateside, if I wore a new shirt and received a few compliments throughout the day that would make me so happy and want to wear it again. When I wear a new shirt here, if I don’t get multiple compliments on it then it’s considered an ugly shirt and won’t likely wear it again.

A favorite moment on my birthday was among all the birthday wishes stood one teacher who said “Kendra, I wish you happy for your birthday….And I wish you make a boyfriend this year.”

Priorities. I’m 23, single, and beautiful… get to it, Kendra.

World Elephant Day

When I applied to Fulbright Thailand, I had no legitimate connection to the country. Don’t tell my scholarship advisor, but I believe half the reason why Thailand appealed to me when other South East Asian countries didn’t was because the country itself is shaped like an elephant (thus the title of this blog compilation). The culture is sprinkled with symbolism for elephants- particularly in Buddhism.

Taken from Bali Sun Tours website. Note the mahout up from with the bull hook.

What most tourists don’t know, what I didn’t know, is the absolute torture that elephants are subjected to in tourism and logging industries in Thailand. If you make someone think about it, it’s doubtful that they expect elephants to have a truly pleasant time working in circuses or painting pictures but you don’t expect, or want, to draw the connection from something so cute to an act so disgusting. In order for that elephant to paint a picture or prance around at the circus, its spirit is broken by being beaten, starved, chained, awake for days, and forced away from its mother as a baby. The process of domesticating an elephant in order to use it for tourism is an extremely brutal, disgusting process. The elephant only consents to “perform” out of absolute terror: fear of being beaten or stabbed by its mahout. The baskets that you see so many tourists nestled into as they wobble back and forth up a mountain is slowly crippling an elephant that isn’t built to hold that weight on that part of its body. One look at the pictures advertising this “once in a lifetime experience” to tourists will reveal a mahout perched on the head holding the hook, a weapon of choice that is similar in shape to a fire poker, to the head of the elephant urging it to continue when it has been walking tirelessly all day. The logging industry wraps chains around elephants to haul enormous trees up the mountain side; once again with the mahout atop poking it along with a knife, hook, or whip.

Taken from AlternativeWay.net. 

A baby being "broken".

Elephants are revered in temples but treated so poorly in reality. This is not exclusive to Thailand  but throughout South East Asia.  Luckily some people are starting to take notice. Many trekking camps are converting to non-violent practices and are getting rid of the baskets. There are sanctuaries in Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar for rescued elephants.

I took the opportunity to volunteer a week at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai. It is self-described as a rehabilitation park for handicapped and rescued elephants. Their injuries are as devastating and varied as: mutilated feet from land mines, broken legs from logging accidents, broken or displaced hips from forced breeding, blindness from torture or years of camera flashes, and numerous mental problems due to years of torture in logging or tourism.

Taken from Elephant Nature Park website.

Maedo enjoying the mud despite her ongoing injuries.

Arguably the park’s most handicapped elephant, Maedo, has the most devastating story that I heard. She was working in the logging industry which is constant labor hauling trees up the mountain in steep, slippery terrain by a chain that digs into the elephants skin with each pull. When the elephant isn’t going fast enough it gets stabbed by the mahout’s hook. Maedo had an accident while logging and broke her ankle. It never healed properly. The mahouts didn’t find her entirely useless: they chained all four of her legs and led a bull to her to breed. Some interaction between Maedo and the bull was poorly received: he raped her, beat her, and stood guard for several days so that no one could get to her to help. Once they were able to unchain her they found that she couldn’t even stand on her own as her hip was dislocated and her spinal cord separated from her spine. They build a wooden structure to hold up her limp body and bring her into the city to beg for money on the streets. Luckily this is where the people at the Elephant Nature Park found her and began the process of negotiating for her. Despite all of this in her past, she is said to be the kindest elephant in the park, but it breaks your heart to see her inch across the lawn, her hip dislocating every step she takes.

This is the norm. No elephant has a pleasant story any more. There are so few left in the wild and most that are working are the most cruelty treated animals I’ve ever seen. The camps that have started to change their ways have done so only out of support of tourists. If you have the special opportunity to visit this beautiful corner of the world and you want to interact with these amazing creatures (as you should), do your research and be sure you are supporting the right industry. Avoid the elephant paintings and circuses, don’t ride in the baskets, don’t give money or food to begging street elephants, don’t use your flash if you take a picture of an elephant, and don’t go to any camp that still uses hooks, knives or anything violent on the elephants in order to control them. The industry will not change so long as tourists are requesting these practices, if you express that you don't want that life for these elephants then you'll start to make a change. Elephants are fascinating animals for who they are: let them be their happy selves, not who the mahout is forcing them to be.

But Why Can’t I Call You Fat?

Each of the directors with his certificate for completing the workshop

Fulbright staff and English Teachers in front

(Photo taken from Fulbright's Facebook page)

This week was round two of teaching English to the directors of Thai schools. The directors were so pleased with the progress they had made last time that they requested a second workshop with us to continue their education.

The English teachers I worked with last time were not available to return so I was accompanied by two other English teachers from my program this time. It was very pleasant to see how happy the directors were to see me again, and how comfortable they were to converse with me despite their struggles with English!

We worked on pronunciation (do you say "die-rector" "dee-rector" or "der-rector"...they were not pleased when we each said it differently), how to have small talk, how to give a tour of your school and town, and how to present about your school. I was leading the small talk session the morning of day one. I had prepared some sample dialogues for practice but had prefaced the exercise with example topics of what to avoid:

Do Not Talk About:                                                                    

-Age                                                                                        “How old are you?”

-Weight                                                                                   “You are fat.”

-Physical appearance                                                             “You are very pretty.”

-Alcohol                                                                                  “Do you like whiskey?”

-Religion                                                                                 “What religion are you?”

-Politics                                                                                   “What do you think of Obama?”

The first two groups listened carefully, and followed with many questions about what is acceptable and offensive language to us Americans. Many of the men had a serious “oh-shit” face on when they realized that they have said almost every single one of these phrases to us just in the last workshop we held, thus why they each made the list. These are exceptionally common phrases in Thailand, and not considered offensive or taboo in Thai culture but even necessary at times. For example, talking about age in Thailand is common practice because you address those who are older than you as “Pee” and those who are younger as “Nong” (I will be addressed as “Pee Kendra” and “Nong Kendra” depending on who is talking to me). Many times that is someone’s first question to a new-comer in order to avoid making their own cultural faux-pas.

The most wondrous teaching moment of the day was when my last group sat down for the small talk session and one of the directors immediately said “Hello, my teacher. You look more beautiful today than the last time.” Great. Prime segue into my topic about what not to say to a foreigner. I begin the lesson, and as we proceed through the list above he immediately apologizes when he notices his error. I reassured him by saying that I understand because I have spent enough time in Thai culture. I know it was genuinely meant as a compliment, but when a 50 year-old man is complimenting my looks in a professional setting I can’t help but have that initial uncomfortable reaction, probably due in large part to the growing awareness of sexual harassment in the States.

Then it took a turn. What my group began to ask me, more or less, is why it is their responsibility to adjust their speaking and not that of the other party’s in the conversation. They asked me if I warn my American friends who come to Thailand that they should expect to hear these things that are considered exceptionally normal in Thai culture (as if I am personal friends with all Americans who come to Thailand).

Something to remember is these are middle-aged men run schools of around 50-100 students and 3-7 staff members in rural Thailand. Lampang province is not the most disconnected province from tourism and the greater world, but these men have very little reason to engage in the global community and have very little prior experience.

It was a bit shocking at first to hear them ask me why it is their responsibility and not the other party’s. Although I had not defined a particular situation at first, I believe most of the directors assumed that they would be interacting with a foreigner in Thailand rather than being the visitor themselves, as that was the situation they were currently in while speaking to me. Therefore, they felt if you come to their home you should play by their rules. That’s valid. I have no right to say they are in the wrong if I am in Thailand and the things they say make me uncomfortable. But if you have a guest in your home don’t you do your best to make them feel comfortable, even if it means changing your routine a bit? And as a guest, you expect to be make adjustments from your normal routine. It’s a compromise. It’s a thought that has certainly crossed everyone’s mind when you travel or interact with foreigners: whose responsibility is it to adapt? But there is no code or rule. Culture is a complicated game. The responsibility falls to those who are educated about the cultural differences, and they further have the responsibility to educate others. Although these directors challenged the idea at first, the next day they were eager to report what they had learned from the day before. When they arrived at the meeting room the sought me out to say “Teacher, we don’t talk about age. Don’t say you look sexy, or you are thin. Don’t offer you whiskey…” listing off each item on their fingers as they dug through their thoughts.

I was a proud teacher. 

Krung Tep and Bangkok…Same Same.

Something that took me an embarrassingly long time to learn is that Bangkok is not called Bangkok in Thai: it’s actually “Krung Tep Maka Nakhon” or just “Krung Tep.” It means city of angels despite the brunt of many jokes “Bangkok” has born over the years. In fact, this is the abbreviated version of a much longer name which holds the Guinness Book of World Records for longest name of a place. This is a recent video released by the Peace Corps which is too fitting to this post:

 

A peer of mine showed the video to a Thai friend who commented that this man in one of ten people who knows the full name: making the point that it is not common to use the full name, only for ceremonial purposes. King Rama I established the new capitial in 1782, and anointed the city with this name which roughtly translates to this:

“The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (of Ayutthaya) of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn.”

Clearly the king was fond of his new capital, although apparently foreigners have never caught on to the new name.

Broadway in Bangkok

I’m currently in Bangkok for a six-week internship over school vacation, and as I took the subway every morning I stared enviously at this gigantic poster for Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast. My roommate and I decided to indulge a little bit while we are in Bangkok and have the chance, as this is likely our only opportunity to see a play until we are home next year.

We bought the ticket online, looked up where to go, and discovered upon arrival (much to our amusement) that the theatre was on the top floor of a shopping mall. We have discovered that just about every shopping mall in Bangkok (and there are many!) has a movie theatre on the top floor. Movie theatres clearly haven’t hit the same financial problems as the US. Sure enough, the Broadway-equivalent theatre has found its home on the top floor of a mall as well.

After picking up our tickets we noticed how much effort had been put in for a travelling show. They set up the entire lobby for photo-ops. You could pose with the rose or take you picture with any number of the posters from the play that were framed around the entry way. A big difference from the standard poster out front on a NYC sidewalk with which it is customary to take your picture.

Everyone taking their pictures before the play. It was a madhouse after the show...

Apparently a Thai architect worked on Broadway for many years and returned to Thailand with the vision of a theatre of similar standards for Bangkok. He build the Mueng Thai Rachadalai Theatre that you can see below so that Thailand can participate in the world of theatre with its own productions as well as housing international tours like Beauty and the Beast. In fact, one of Thailand’s productions will find its way to Broadway next year.

(Photo from www.rachadali.com)

We were also shocked that the event appealed more widely to Thais than foreigners. We expected, as the play is English (and set in France making this even odder), there wouldn’t be as much local interest. As we settled into our seats we noticed large flat-screens in the corners of the theatre and deduced that the play has been subtitled in Thai.

Having taken a translation course before, I know the challenges this poor person faced when trying to subtitle the production. Particularly in a play like Beauty and the Beast, the songs and a lot of the humor involves puns with both the French and English language, idiomatic expressions, and cultural references that simply don’t translate well. When attempting to do so, the translator typically tries to find similar puns, expressions, and references in the host language but I imagine over an entire play there are many jokes lost. 

We had noticed, as the only foreigners within a certain diameter of our seats, that we were the only ones laughing at jokes that truly depended on the language. Clearly some things didn’t get translated. For example, Lumière was giving a tour of the castle and ended with “I always say, if it’s not Baroque, don’t fix it!” I know the joke is a bit old, but I don't think that's why we were the only two laughing.

We were very happy with the night, both to indulge in our love of theatre which has been absent from our Thai lives, as well as an unexpected cultural moment. I will definitely be looking forward to a trip or two to Broadway when I get home next year though!

Pin the Flower on the Student

My favorite senior (Yes, I have favorites. Get over it.)

Graduation day at Sansai. My first semester teaching English in Thailand is over and some of my students are leaving school. Unfortunately, due to the absurd amount of holidays and class cancellations, my senior class was the group I saw the least. 

Sansai Wittayakom School educates 7^th-12^th grade students. Even though they stay in the same school, we graduate the 9^th graders as well as our seniors. I’ve asked a lot of questions about this and can’t figure it out. It is some sort of coming-of-age or right-of-passage to “graduate” from 8^th to 9^th grade, but those students will be right back at Sansai Wittayakom come May. It’s not like the US and many other countries where many students attend separate schools for middle school and high school, so a graduation ceremony is justified, albeit a bit ridiculous. Then again we hold full-fledged ceremonies for graduating kindergartners now…

Helping  a buddy out and pinning his cards on to his shirt.

The Mama noodles necklace.

Thai secondary school graduation is for the school and the students, not the family. The underclassmen (11^th, 10^th, 8^th, and 7^th graders) will decorate the school (missing half-a-days class for it) and often bring in small gifts for their upperclassmen friends. They proudly adorn their gifts on their bodies: pinning cards to their blouses and hanging pictures around their necks. They may be the most unique graduation gifts I have ever seen. They remind me of Valentine’s Day cards from elementary school when you made 30 of the same card with a small candy attached to distribute among your classmates. Some were even more unique, my favorite was a Mama scarf with two bowls of instant noodles hanging around the boy’s neck. By the end of the day some students couldn’t even carry all of their goodies: candies, flowers, fake flowers, stuffed animals, and who knows what else.

So many goodies.

Many of the teachers laugh at the students’ costly and flashy forms of celebration but also remark that they are modeling themselves after college graduations. Although the colleges do the classic diploma ceremony with robes and a cap as we do, though the princess hands them their diploma, they also have these very social-orientated practices as their expression of friendship, and congratulations.

Thailand values aesthetics. It's a theme I've noted across many fronts: first priority is appearence. There were several areas set up, and broken down within the day, for the sole purpose taking pictures: more specifically selfies.

Some photo-opt scenes set up at the school.

The graduation itself was kicked off at morning assembly when I had the nice opportunity to participate in part of the ceremony. Every teacher lined up in front of the students and all of our 9^th and 12^th grade students filed through to receive a flower pin from one of the teachers.  Only thought on my mind: I’m most definitely going to stick one of these children with the pin. I had to repeat it with four or five students so chances were high, but I pulled through. I was proud that these students at least had the sense to say “Thank you” in English to the foreign teacher (who was holding a giant pin to their chest).

Sitting outside the spirit house.

Graduates parading into the school receiving gifts from friends in the crowd.

Following the flower-pinning ceremony, all the graduating students proceeded to the front gate of the school to pay respect to the Buddha at the spirit house. They then paraded in, stopping along the way to be decorated with cards and candy from their friends who lined the driveway. At the end of the parade, in small groups they were honored by the underclassmen in a unique way which you can see in the video below.

A special way of saying thank you and congratulations to the graduates.

The teachers tying a string around students' wrists for luck.

After taking a moment to have a snack and deposit their treasures at a table in the canteen, the teachers, myself included, led the graduating students upstairs to the auditorium. There were many songs, prayers, pictures, speeches from both faculty and students, and emotion to fill the morning. We held one more ceremony where the teachers tied a string around the students’ wrists for good luck. As we filled out of the auditorium the teachers lined the exit to salute each student as they exited and “Wai”-ed the teachers as an expression of gratitude and respect. The ceremony was very symbolic as an educator: leading my students, wishing them luck, and letting them leave no longer under our guard.

We joined the students for a special lunch accompanied by the school’s band but the afternoon was left to the students to socialize and celebrate. Many of the teachers retreated to their offices to finish grading and let the students enjoy their party. Early that evening both the students and teachers had cleared out early to leave a quiet Sansai….until Monday morning when the unhappy children have return for final exams!

Teaching the Gods How to Speak English

(Taken from the TUSEF Facebook page)

The purple shirts: Fulbright teachers

The two women: Fulbright Executive Directors

The 20 men: school directors

During orientation with Fulbright, we were taught that school directors (aka principals) are the gods. I could not agree on a better descriptor.  Nothing is done without their say, their presence is noted immediately, and they are the ones required to present students with any sort of honor.

Last week, accompanied by four other teachers in my program, we set out to teach the gods how to present about themselves and their school in English. As South East Asia is further interconnecting through ASEAN, directors want to be able to travel to schools in other foreign countries and be able to give a comprehensible presentation about their school, Thailand, and Thai education. On the drive there, we learned that a good majority of our 20 pupils had google-translated the homework our program had asked them to prepare. Good start.

Have low expectations and be flexible and you will be successful as a foreign teacher. We switched up our game-plan and presented only about presentation skills. We followed by asking the directors to respond to these two questions:

-How much did you understand when the teachers presented their material in English?

-What is your stress level right now?

Here is a photo of their respective answers.

Low comprehension/ high stress

Swell. We’ve got our work cut out for us.

After lunch we broke into groups; I took four directors, sat them down, and taught them just a few phrases:

Good afternoon. My name’s ____________. I’m the director of _______ School. I’ve been teaching there for _____ years. Before becoming director I was a ______ teacher. My school is known for _________.

Once establishing everyone’s response, we repeated the words over, and over, and over, and over….and over. Five, Social Studies, deputy [directory], health, and academics were particularly difficult words for them. I am extremely proud of these directors for allowing their guards down and learning from us. As directors, they are the top. They tell others what to do. We asked them to listen to a couple 20-something-year-olds for two days about a subject that Thai people are particularly intimidated by. I am very impressed. They were determined. When they stood up one by one to give their rehearsed speeches, my pupils would look to me for approval after that last breath of relief. As they waited their turns, I could see their lips moving at their seats rehearsing in their head for their turn.

The paper fish gifted to me by my ride to the restaurant.

That evening, we all enjoyed a Thai dinner, and karaoke of course, together at a restaurant in town. The teachers split up in cars among the directors. I went along with one of the directors from my group. As it was just the two of us, it was a bit awkward as I attempted to continue conversations in English and realized his English level was even lower than he fooled me to think in the group setting. I pulled out some of my basic Thai and we talked about coffee. I pointed to a paper fish that hung from his rear-view mirror and used it as a conversation piece until he almost crashed the truck trying to untie it to give it to me. Despite my best efforts we still spent majority of the ride in silence, which was honestly a necessary break from a day of repeating the words “social studies” back and forth for an hour.

The next day, the directors strut in the room with smiles and enthusiastic exclaims of “good morning, teacher!” I hadn’t realized that the day prior when they walked in how quiet they were because of their nerves.

We spent the morning working in groups to provide the directors with better vocabulary for common situations if they go abroad. After lunch we sat in a circle to reflect on the two days and discuss future plans. During the group reflections, one of the deputy directors from my group commented that he was really dreading coming to the workshop; his director had forced him to go. However, after the workshop on introductions with me when Fulbright asked for drivers he was the first to volunteer and said “I want Kendra in my car.” I was shocked that this moment that I had chalked-up as super-awkward was one he was reciting to the group as rewarding.

Finally, we asked them to repeat the previous days exercise:

-How much did you understand when the teachers presented their material in English?

-What is your stress level right now?

Higher comprehension/ very little stress

Much more pleased with these results.

We’ll see the gods again next month for round two!

Why is He Holding Scissors?

In most aspects of my life here, I am a participant observer. I imitate as I see and I do my best to understand later. I try not to judge but reflect internally that there are loads of aspects about American culture for which I am equally vulnerable of being judged.

Conformity in Thailand is the way of life in the school system. The students wear uniforms, walk, talk, pray, and sing in unison. Students are most comfortable in the classroom repeating after the teacher, and given any example on the white board students will copy it word for word. When 41 students tell you on Thanksgiving “I am thankful for my students because they make me smile” you know something is askew.

In the classroom it is a constant struggle to encourage students to think independently because they are afraid of being wrong and being embarrassed and scolded for it. I gave three different versions of a quiz last week and the stream of expressions that moved from confusion to anger to contemplation as they actually read through their test was truly fantastic to watch.

As I struggle on a daily basis to break this conformist mentality in my classroom, the school has been working harder to enforce it everywhere else. During morning assembly, we have spent several morning re-aligning the students to make sure the rows are perfectly straight.  And I mean perfectly. More and more often the students are instructed to re-sing the school song because they didn’t sing loud enough the first time or not everyone participated.

This morning I learned that the boys in the younger grades must have very short hair; only the older boys are allowed to grow it out longer (and by longer I mean an inch or two). The assistant principal disciplined these particular boys by cutting chunks of their hair off at morning assembly. Those boys had not complied with the dress code, with the rules of representing themselves at school.  It seemed very degrading that these boys submissively let the assistant principal chop off their hair with desk scissors, and they were forced to bear their punishment in front of their classmates for the rest of the day. This incident left me extremely unsettled throughout the day, particularly because it involves other cultural aspects that I still don’t fully grasp, and likely never will as a foreigner. The head is the most sacred part of the body in Buddhist culture. I have been reminded on multiple occasions to be careful not to touch a child’s head. I know the other Thai teachers at the school have a special right because they are almost like parental figures. However, to then see the AP disfiguring what I have learnt to be an untouchable part of the body is extremely confusing. Moreover, appearance is extremely important in Thai (and from what I understand most Asian) culture. They are very concerned with appearances and will comment quite bluntly on how you look. The students are expected to have fresh, neat, tucked-in uniforms every day. Now these particular boys are walking around looking as if their little sister surprised them with the scissors.

I couldn’t help but make a few inquiries to try and better understand the situation. Thinking about some private schools back home that have rules about boys’ hair-length and facial hair, I know those boys might receive detention or demerits or something along those lines of discipline. It’s thinking within these boundaries that I have made myself so upset by this situation. Had this happened in the U.S.A, parents would have thrown a fit. We are an extremely individualistic nation and we consider appearance a personal expression of identity. Even in private schools we would feel violated if administrators came at us with scissors rather than a detention slip. However, in Thailand the people have a completely different set of values that flow through their culture. The parents of these boys will likely be upset with their children for not following the rules and getting in trouble with the AP. However, this is not the case across the board; I teach in a more rural setting where families hold strong to these traditional values and practices, whereas schools in the major Thai cities are moving away from traditional support from parents and producing a more sensitive parent concerning discipline issues. Although, I am sure there is still a cultural gap between “city parents” in Thailand and the common American parent who comes in fighting tooth and nail insisting that their child did no wrong.

Due to these unfamiliar values, it is still very difficult to properly understand the complexities of the situation, but I understand the importance of uniformity in the school. It comes into play in many aspects that thoroughly confuse me, and I am grateful to have several months still to ask questions and observe. 

I Really Don’t Like Watching Sports…

(I have a few short videos to upload but not strong enough wifi to do so at the moment. To be posted later.)

It’s Sports Day at Sansai Wittayakom. Don’t be fooled: Sports Day is actually three days long (Thai doesn’t have plurals and they are often left out when they speak English).

Sports Day One:

Aerobics competition

As I have mentioned earlier, at my school (not every Thai school) each student is assigned a color which corresponds to a day of the week for which they are responsible to come in early and clean. These colors are also how they divide into teams for Sports day. Day One consisted of soccer (boys only), volleyball (boys and girls separately), and aerobics (boys and girls together). I was lucky not to have any responsibilities for the day and got to wander from one sport to the next to observe and take pictures. Thank goodness because Sports Day was far too colorful for me to capture in my spirited writing alone.

The levels of athleticism really varied simply depending on the class. Some games were competitive, but for others even the refs from the local university couldn’t help but laugh at the students head-butting the volleyball.

Aerobics was my favorite of the day, each group put together a soundtrack and started their performance by stretching out, then breaking into aerobic-like activities. They periodically changed places to make different formations which reminded me of synchronized swimming. Then they finished with a cool down. All the while, they count out loud to ten together. I would love to know what the criteria was for scoring.

Sports Day Two:

Cheerleaders

I have heard a lot about Thai cheerleaders, I have seen them practice and been thoroughly confused. I have tried to ask questions only to discover my coworkers often don’t really get it either. The morning was kicked off by each color group dividing in their section of the soccer field and putting on a short “performance” I suppose you could call it. The cheerleaders danced, yelled out numbers, and strutted in front of their perspective bleachers. The rest of the color group sat in the stands assisting with the counting and singing while doing these tutting-like moves in unison. Each group had a theme:

Blue: Under the sea

Pink: Witches

Green: ASEAN

Yellow: Egypt

Orange: Respect your teachers (cough cough, suck ups..)

I was hoping a few days would help me process the oddity that I had witnessed (five times over), but no great understanding has come with time. Gaudy was the word of the morning. Inappropriate followed closed. I asked my teacher if this existed when she was in school to which she burst out laughing and said it was nothing like this.

Once each group had a chance to perform, the students again broke off into their teams for soccer and volleyball playoffs.

Sports Day Three:
On the third day we had the privilege of using the stadium at the local university, Mae Jo (home of the Cowboys!), as our school does not have a track. We kicked off the morning with a parade in which the students were divided by color. The pictures have a lot more to say than I do:

Once in the stadium, we held opening ceremonies and raised the Thai and school flag. The only events for the day were running races: various distances, ages, boys and girls, relays etc. I sat behind the director and vice director in the special box. Not sure if I really should have been there but I was happy to have a seat with a back for the day. The director sat on his traveling couch: wherever he goes, it goes to keep him comfy for the day. As the day went on and grew warm the extremely unfortunate phenomenon of students passing out started to become standard of a race. There were many comments about how the students didn’t run and didn’t prepare for the race. The only students I’ve seen running are part of the boys’ soccer team. Luckily no serious injuries occurred.

Not all students have the money for sneakers.

Once all races were completed, the students were lined up on the field again. After several long minutes of the administrators reorganizing the students so that they are lined up straight, the director handed out awards for overall best runners, best soccer team, best parade, etc. by color. The excitement and pride to win these awards was fantastic to see in the students.

The director handing out the awards from his traveling couch.

Students cheering on their color-mates!

One note I would like to make about the week in general is that the school has found a way to instill great school spirit in its students. I remember students wearing our rival school’s colors on school spirit day at my high school in the States. During sports day and the cheerleading competitions the students sang their school song multiple times in one day. They consistently cheered on their classmates and went all-out getting dressed up for the day of the parade. I did my best too, although I was never assigned a color group so I sported one for each group. But I will admit, going home on Friday night to a quiet house was never more welcome. 

Representing the pink, yellow, orange, green, and blue team.

Paint the Town Purple!

Double Purple! 

The Princess is coming to town! Just as the King had his color for the day of the week on which he was born (yellow for Monday), the Princess is represented by purple for Saturday. To welcome her, we have a beautiful display at the gate of the school and purple flags all down the highway of the town because we have been told this morning that the Princess is coming to Sansai. Most of morning classes are cancelled and students are filed out by class to the side of the road to wait for the Princess. Everyone was hyped up about her arrival: the students formed perfect lines, my host teacher reminisced about how she received her diploma from the Princess when she earned her master’s degree. The King used to present diplomas but is no longer capable due to his age. Can you imagine the President taking the time to distribute diplomas to graduates every year?

Waiting.

Waiting some more... 

We are out on the side of the highway an hour early because, I am told, “you prepare yourself an hour early for the royal family.” So we wait. We creep into the house we’re standing in front of, comment on its old-style architecture, laugh at the size of their bear-like dog, and wait. Finally we see the crossing guards at our school have blocked off the road for a parade of police cars, army vehicles and an ambulance to pass smoothly. Mixed in the traffic is a small black car with a blue flag (I thought her color was purple!) that carries the Princess. The car doesn’t so much as slow down as it passes past our display and the students at attention. We didn’t even see her. I’m not the only one giggling at how far off my expectations were as I look to the other teachers who are laughing as they wave to the car far in the distance. As I have said before, there is a lot of respect for the royal family which is why it doesn’t surprise me that we would all line the streets to view the royal car and not actually see the Princess. It would be unacceptable to continue the day as if she weren’t in our town and passing in front of our school, so this is how we show respect.

Students, Assemble!

I mentioned in an earlier post that there are ceremonies galore in Thailand: literally, every day. Every student is assigned a day of the week for which they are responsible to come in early and help clean the school. At 7:30 am the first bell of the day rings which gathers the students together in the courtyard. They sit cross-legged, in order by grade, and perfectly spaced; although, I wouldn’t put it past these students to break out a ruler. A period of time is given each morning for silent reading. Some students read, some study, some zone out…

The brooms gathered together after the students have swept the school.

Then an audio tape starts to play that signals students to stand up for the national anthem, counting to five as they stand, I think to stay in unison of their movement. Luckily, Sansai has a solid school band which plays the national anthem as the students sing along. We follow with a prayer that is repeated by a student speaker on stage. In the prayer I believe the students ask for patience and diligence in the school day.

A student speaks to the school about her book.

Next is the school song which is again accompanied by our school band. The entire practice lasts about ten minutes. Once we are seated again, one teacher and one student give a short speech everyday about a book that they have read or are reading. Very often the students are taking notes because teachers will ask them about what was said later. Then there is a moment for any other business to be addressed, and there have been quite a variety of events at morning assembly:

-A group of boys are disciplined in front of the entire school for parking their motorbikes in the wrong place.

-Students vote for their favorite teacher, best food stand in the canteen, favorite janitor, best dressed teacher….

-The assistant director threatens the boys who peed on the school sign to turn themselves in (didn’t get the full story but it was something like that)

-The new foreign English teacher attempts to greet the whole school in Thai…

Once it is all said and done the teachers “check the students” which is how they know who is in school on time. This moment also appears like bonding time between a class and its representative teacher who laughs and jokes and even has the right to touch their heads: the most sacred part of the body. Honestly, I'm impressed that I haven't messed that one up yet; even as a teacher who is often seen as a parental figure (think back to when you accidentally called your teacher "Mom" in the 3rd grade), I do not have this right as my farang (foreigner) card trumps the teacher card. Always. 

Very often, morning assembly runs well into first period (the bells are more like guidelines here). I only teach one or two first periods a week and have been left with ten minute classes. It frequently frustrates me because I think they have their priorities quite mixed up when teachers are losing so much teaching time. I often hear other teachers make comments about how little time they have to teach, although it is covered by a light-hearted laugh, it upsets them too. I remember that I can’t judge especially because I don’t understand 99% of morning assembly. It’s all in Thai and while I do get the cliff notes version every now and then there are other days I have no idea what message has just been communicated to every single student in the school. That is a unique moment to have every day: to bring the entire community together to discuss both the issues and the triumphs of the school.