My first real full-time job. I've worked 40-hour weeks, but I've never had a job where expected to work full time for more than a few months. And let me tell you (and I hope no one in the office finds this blog)-- this is without a doubt the easiest and one of the most fun jobs I have ever had. It is my first salary job. The people are really nice, and the kids are very obedient.
Our first day was a little difficult since we had no idea in the world what we were doing and everyone seemed to treat us a little bit like we should already know everything to do. But within a few days we got the hang of it more or less. Me and Sarah (my girlfriend of about 6 months) are, oddly enough, are getting paid the salary of one teacher each but have the work of one teacher between us. We have effectively split the subjects. We only teach one group of students--Pratom 3/10, that is a class of the third graders (around ages 7-9 I believe). She is now teaching math and science while I am teaching english, health, and social studies. We have course books (which is to say that we ahve a good guidline on what to teach how and when). We also have a veteran teacher that is teaching the other third grade class who we can ask anything of anytime. Sometimes he gives us worksheets or advice or anything. He is invaluable and helped us both learn the ropes very quickly. Another thing we have that many starting teachers do not are Thai assistants. These are people that often have something like an expertiece in the subject that they are helping in. Formally they are for keeping the children in line and translating into Thai. But in reality they are experienced, knowledgable, and invaluable. They are all very nice, though with very different personalities. They also have varying levels of English.
We work from 7:30am to 4pm M-F. Lunch is provided to us virtually for free, though it varies in quality from day to day. Every morning we have to stand outside with the students for the flag ceremony, where they raise the flag and sing the national anthem and then do some Buddhist prayers. Then they go into homeroom. We are given a little bit of a choice if we want to do a little activity with the children for those 20 minutes or if we want the teacher's assistants to babysit them.
My dad mentioned that maybe teaching is very different than I expected. And maybe it is, but after a week and a half it doesn't feel that way. It feels like a job, only a lot easier and a lot more fun. Teaching these kids is so rewarding. And the moment that they understand (or at least one of them understands) something you have taught is amazing. When you plan a fun activity for them and it succeeds, you wonder if the kids could possibly be having more fun participating as you have orcastrating.
Tons of fun. Happy to be here. Certainly not going to stay here in the end, but both me and Sarah know that we will look back on these days fondly. There are many simple pleasures here. Simplicity of living without taking away a lot of our comforts. I have an air conditioner, and there is easy access to cloths washers. We have hot water and a western toilet. We have access to several big-box like stores nearby. The apartment is safe, cameras, 24 hour staffing. We also have the added benefit of amazing food, drink, snacks, activities and simple pleasures. An average meal is under $1.50, and it is very large and very tasty. Snacks are everywhere and they rarely cost more than 75 cents. Some of the best ice cream, coffee, cakes, pastries, dounuts, chicken and tea we have ever tasted we ate here, and often in very obvious places. The ice cream you can buy at 7-11 (and they are everywhere) is on par with the most flavorful, expensive chocolate ice cream you can think of. We now regularly buy Doi Chiang coffee, which has been rated as having the best coffee in the world in good growing years. I have fallen in love with meat-sticks, a common street stall where they set out a large array of different vegetables and condiments to eat with the meat, all very flavorful and appetizing. We have been enjoying bowling at $1.35 a game recently at matinee times, though we have found out that if we come on Tuesdays we will recieve a price of $.70 all day long. Sarah is very good with an interesting and unique technique while I need quite a bit of work, but it is fun all the same. We both love the simple pleasure of riding the motorbike down around town. We use them to go everywhere now, and it is quite a pleasure to "break all the rules" as would be the case in America. Don't worry, we're safe and not reckless, we are just doing what everyone does here. Even hanging the laundry is a pleasure, as it lets you think about things.
I'd be happy to answer any questions if anyone has any about anything. arhorn@smcm.edu
So having lots of fun here.
Andy
PS:
Sarah's Section:
What I like about Thailand: the food, the people are really nice, the people we work with are really nice, cheap everything, cheap food, food everywhere, lot of motorbikes on the road, cheap bowling, amulet market, the beautiful lake in Ubon, the park in Thailand, very nice farang (foreigners, ie white people), outdoor thift stores, markets, cheap apartment rent, cheap internet cafe, people will help you out anytime you need it especially if you have a problem doing something.
What I don't like about Thailand: being hit on, hardly any young Americans/young American females who aren't missionaries or tourists, a lot of people don't speak very much english at all[she's doing a lot better with the Thai though], you can't confront people[Thai culture thing], sushi is expensive[I'm not sure if $10 for all you can eat is expensive, but it is a lot more expensive than most other things to eat], sometimes the rain[we have been told that this rainy season has be particularly bad], American food is expensive[$3-4 for a hamburger and fries].
What I like about teaching: the kids are adorable, we don't have to teach many classes [about 6 hours of teaching per week for each of us], we only have 30 kids in our class, they are very nice, obedient, our co-workers are very nice helpful and give great advice, we get cafeteria food for $3.30/month for lunches, it's pretty hard to get fired.
What I don't like about teaching: waking up early, kind of a downer feeling when it rains or has rained, the morning assembly, the monday morning "meetings", the morning flag assemblies, the fact that we probably will have to buy some of our own office supplies.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
First Interview
So I know I haven't posted in a while. I would be lying if I said it had nothing to do with the fact that we had not gotten jobs yet. We have been kind of lazy looking for jobs. We have visited only two schools. The first was Assumption College, a private Catholic school with no positions open, but they were very friendly. The second was Anabon. Anabon is the school in the city that educates the highest class people of Ubon. The "movers and the shakers" of Ubon send their kids there. I think it is a government school. Foreign teachers have 17 hours of work a week (though they stay on the school grounds a lot longer). They also get free lunches.
Anabon is a school in the middle of town, and rather close to us. (This is good since some of the other "good schools" are 15km outside of town, which would not be the best or safest drive by motorbike as a commute.) It is across the street from the park, two blocks from the main road. It is a very short walk from the main night market area. It is a very nice school with many foreign teachers and a great pay to boot. 31000B/month ($1033/month). We are ready to settle for 25000B if we have to, so this seemed like a relatively ideal situation. The people are nice. The grounds are welcoming. The turnover is not bad. The benefits are pretty good.
We heard that Anabon was hiring when we first got here, but we did not act on it until yesterday, Monday. It was at that point that we visited on a contact that we received and handed in our resumes, copies of our TEFL certificates, copies of our diplomas. They set up an interview for this morning, Tuesday morning. They said that they would be taking one of us almost certainly. They had one vacancy. I interviewed first. It took an hour and a half. Very taxing. Sarah felt like her interview was an interrogation. Then we went in front of a class for five minutes each for reasons I don't totally understand.
Then when we were saying goodbye. They said they would call us that afternoon and tell us which of us was hired or whether it was neither of us. This was a marked tone difference for me because before it seemed like it was a sure thing before that one of us would get it. Sarah told me soon after that that they asked her where we took our TEFL class and she told them it was online. She said that is when they stopped saying "when we take one of the two of you" and started saying "whether we take one of you or neither of you." So we sat in Peppers and discussed how it was pretty clear we would be lucky to get one offer, and how it felt like we turned a sure thing into a not-so-sure thing. I felt like it was such a failure.
While we were in Pepper's, lamenting our lost opportunity discussing how we actually didn't want the job anyway, the school called. I picked up the phone but they wanted to talk to Sarah first. Sarah stood outside Pepper's while I waited for our formal rejection. I spoke to John for a long time, the owner of Pepper's. I realize I was being a little bit rude since a group of policemen had just arrived and he needed to be very attentive to them since they hold such a strong a powerful status in Thai society. Sarah came back it and told me the news.
They were offering both of us jobs. They wanted us to start tomorrow.
I was in total shock and disbelief. I thought maybe she had heard them wrong. I asked John whether we should take the jobs (without checking out other schools). They wanted a response today. John is the most connected and knowledgeable person in Ubon, and his opinion is probably the best of anyone's. John said that it was one of the better schools and that if they were giving that kind of offer than we should take it. He said that he's heard nothing but good things about Anabon. Neither had we and we had heard some bad things about pretty much every school.
I was very skeptical. Is there some catch? What's going on here? But as we thought about it and inquired, it seemed like we were nothing less than very lucky. We did try to visit another school, but our decision was pretty much made.
We called with our acceptance and they asked us to come in for some visa paperwork. We were introduced to EVERYONE. Every foreigner and every Thai in the foreign office. Altogether probably 20 people. Everyone was warm and kind, like they were greeting long lost friends. We now have desks, a class, mentors, a salary. More than we could ever ask for.
Anabon is a school in the middle of town, and rather close to us. (This is good since some of the other "good schools" are 15km outside of town, which would not be the best or safest drive by motorbike as a commute.) It is across the street from the park, two blocks from the main road. It is a very short walk from the main night market area. It is a very nice school with many foreign teachers and a great pay to boot. 31000B/month ($1033/month). We are ready to settle for 25000B if we have to, so this seemed like a relatively ideal situation. The people are nice. The grounds are welcoming. The turnover is not bad. The benefits are pretty good.
We heard that Anabon was hiring when we first got here, but we did not act on it until yesterday, Monday. It was at that point that we visited on a contact that we received and handed in our resumes, copies of our TEFL certificates, copies of our diplomas. They set up an interview for this morning, Tuesday morning. They said that they would be taking one of us almost certainly. They had one vacancy. I interviewed first. It took an hour and a half. Very taxing. Sarah felt like her interview was an interrogation. Then we went in front of a class for five minutes each for reasons I don't totally understand.
Then when we were saying goodbye. They said they would call us that afternoon and tell us which of us was hired or whether it was neither of us. This was a marked tone difference for me because before it seemed like it was a sure thing before that one of us would get it. Sarah told me soon after that that they asked her where we took our TEFL class and she told them it was online. She said that is when they stopped saying "when we take one of the two of you" and started saying "whether we take one of you or neither of you." So we sat in Peppers and discussed how it was pretty clear we would be lucky to get one offer, and how it felt like we turned a sure thing into a not-so-sure thing. I felt like it was such a failure.
While we were in Pepper's, lamenting our lost opportunity discussing how we actually didn't want the job anyway, the school called. I picked up the phone but they wanted to talk to Sarah first. Sarah stood outside Pepper's while I waited for our formal rejection. I spoke to John for a long time, the owner of Pepper's. I realize I was being a little bit rude since a group of policemen had just arrived and he needed to be very attentive to them since they hold such a strong a powerful status in Thai society. Sarah came back it and told me the news.
They were offering both of us jobs. They wanted us to start tomorrow.
I was in total shock and disbelief. I thought maybe she had heard them wrong. I asked John whether we should take the jobs (without checking out other schools). They wanted a response today. John is the most connected and knowledgeable person in Ubon, and his opinion is probably the best of anyone's. John said that it was one of the better schools and that if they were giving that kind of offer than we should take it. He said that he's heard nothing but good things about Anabon. Neither had we and we had heard some bad things about pretty much every school.
I was very skeptical. Is there some catch? What's going on here? But as we thought about it and inquired, it seemed like we were nothing less than very lucky. We did try to visit another school, but our decision was pretty much made.
We called with our acceptance and they asked us to come in for some visa paperwork. We were introduced to EVERYONE. Every foreigner and every Thai in the foreign office. Altogether probably 20 people. Everyone was warm and kind, like they were greeting long lost friends. We now have desks, a class, mentors, a salary. More than we could ever ask for.
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