Volunteer Stories  |  Miriam

Goodmorning Teacher, how are you?

There I was, only nineteen years old entering a class full of young Thai children. As soon as they got me in their sights they jumped up to scream in unison: 'Goodmorning teacher, how are you?As I wasn't used to this procedure - yet -, I stuttered: 'I'm fine, thank you'. I must have done something wrong as twenty pairs of eyes looked at me full of surprise, waiting for me to do something..

It took me a few days before I understood the little dialogue that had to be repeated every morning - one small change and the students lost track - however it took me even more time to tell them that they didn't need to jump up as if greeting a commander-in-chief.

Teaching a group of kids is always challenging I guess, but it's when they don't have a clue what you are saying, that it becomes a real 'mission impossible'. The first few days they would simply repeat exactly what I said. Whether that was my name or 'this is a chair'. They would all of a sudden be named Miriam and the chair was renamed as 'thisisachair'. However, as the days pass by they are beginning to understand my simple tasks as 'repeat', 'listen' and 'sing' - singing being something most Thai children love to do.

Today we played a game in which they had to draw different kinds of shapes such as circle, rectangular and cone. Explaining the game was difficult but as soon as they understood they were smart enough to cheat. If I would tell them to draw a circle (in two groups, the group who did it the fastest got a point) they would just draw all the shapes they know, hoping at least one of them was right.

Although I have little to no experience with teaching children in a classroom situation, it surprises me how well behaved they are. Of course they do get tired, bored and annoyed but on the other side they are eager to learn and ask me to continue when class is actually finished.

The least difficult part of all was to love them, as they continue to practice their English with me during the day and overload me with hugs and smiles. Next week summer classes are finished and some weeks later the real classes begin again. Too bad I can't be there to be challenged with even more kids. The next volunteer will hopefully take over this fun, it's simply too enjoyable to be called anything else!

Miriam van Reijen, May 2003