Last Day of Classes6

The last day of classes was this past Friday, so starting Wednesday I had to start bidding farewell to my all of my students. It was an interesting affair as many of my students gave me gifts of all sorts. Cartoon character keychains, chocolates, an earring, gummy bears,  creampuffs, brownies, cake, hand made cards, and a journal with notes written from one of my classes. The most clever was probably the disposable razors one of my female students got for me- I’ve been growing a beard lately and while its a hit with the guys in my class (probably because they can’t grow one) a good majority of the girls don’t like it anymore since it has gotten a little more burly. Despite this beard however, it didn’t stop my lady students wanting to take a photo with their handsome teacher. I’m not bragging or anything… wait, yes I am, however my jaw was sufficiently sore from all of the picture taking. All in all however, as much as I can tend to complain about my students sometimes, I’m going to miss them and all of their silliness.

With that being said, there are a few things I have learned from my first semester as an English teacher.

1. Actually enforce all of the rules that you set down the first day. When one student has to go to the bathroom, suddenly everyone’s bladder is about to explode.
2. While the students may blatantly be calling me an ugly moron to my face in Thai, I alone hold their fate in my hands.
3. I hate cell phones, iPods, and electronic translators. I like taking cell phones, iPods, and translators and selling them on eBay.
4. I like making my students sing in front of the class when they speak Thai.
5. I need to teach my students more songs than Happy Birthday and Jingle Bells.
6. Everytime I’m teaching my class I think about how much I hated learning French. And instead of it making me feel bad for them, it mostly just made me glad I wasn’t them.
7. The silent game works wonders for classes that are out of hand. Have them sit for 5 minutes in complete silence before they can leave and you get to see giant grins turn to the saddest puppy faces you’ll ever see. Its adorable.
8. No amount of Red Bull will prepare you for an three-hour, 8:00am class of 30 uninterested Thai students. It is merely punishment for my sins.
9. Say a word or two in Thai and the class will completely shut up. “Teachaa know Thai?” HAH, no! But you’ll think twice next time before calling my stinky.
10. Deciphering mispronounced English words is an acquired skill. Deciphering if a hospital note written in Thai is real or not is just plain enigmatic. However with the number of cases of H1N1 in Thailand (quite high) they usually got the benefit of the doubt. Just tell them you need a copy to give to the department head will quickly reveal their honesty.

I don’t want to bog down this post don’t much more, so I decided to leave you with some photographs of my classes that I took the last day. I realized I’ve talked about them quite a few times but have never seen their faces. They’re probably smiling because they never have to see me again, unless somehow they’re unlucky enough to have me  next semester.

I have to proctor exams most of this week, but after that I’m headed to Vietnam and Cambodia for a few weeks at the beginning of October. Hopefully I’ll get up one more post before that, but if not, expect some exciting adventures and stunning photography to come after that. Also, while I’ve been working on music of my own, Ed and I started a musical project called “E-Money and the Wall Street Journalists.” I as producer/beat dropper and Ed as rhyme master money, we have released our first single online titled “Wet Bag of Chicken.”  Be sure to click the link to have your mind blown. You can also become a fan on Facebook, everybody’s doing it.