seriously...

i am presently a part of the Thai government's program of teaching english to Thai citizens who are currently unemployed, either because they lost their jobs (mostly for the reason of the worldwide recession), or they are fresh graduates waiting for their break to come. i also have few university students. (there are Japanese and Chinese classes as well, for those who prefer to study the other languages).

the (english) course is 99 hours, divided into three modules, 33 hours for each module. obviously. it's 7 hours a day, except on the 5th day which is 5 hours. seriously... it's intense. each class had 30 students, initially. but on the 2nd day of the 1st module, 3 quit in my class. and it's not just my class. each class lost an average 5 students at the end of the 1st module.

i almost quit too, you know. it is intense, especially during the first couple of days. but the most difficult thing is the preparation. it's 7 hours! the manual they provided only consists of vocabulary for each topic, sample phrases and sentences, and couple of conversation samples. i have to prepare additional lessons related to the topics and few activities to supplement the manual. and that's the most difficult part for me. it's not the actual preparation itself, but the limited time that i have to make the preparation (since i have to do it on a daily basis). if you could see my room, pieces of paper and books are eveywhere.

one friend was surprised how i am able to manage teaching 7 hours of just english in a day. of course there's a one-hour lunch break in between. i am surprised too how i am able to teach 7 hours with not much difficulty. that i can cover jut two topics (chapters) for 7 long hours.

but i am more surprised that at the end of each day i dont feel the usual exhaustion and frustration that i used to feel almost everyday when i was still teaching primary schoolers.

and to my surprise everybody seems having a good time now. and that includes me. im glad i was given the same students (plus a few more) for the 2nd module which started yesterday. we developed some form of bonding in the class and everybody started making jokes and having fun. i get to become a little more funny and even sometimes animated. and everybody has become more active and cooperative in all the activities, especially the conversation drills.

seriously. for the first time in a long time, i feel a sense of fulfillment in my job as teacher. it's like i have been doing something really worth doing with this one. something that i could be proud of. that i am able to actually help and serve the Thai people by helping them improve their english skill (even if english is just my 2nd language). but im also thankful for the exhausting and frustrating work experiences that i have gone thru in the past. i could not do this task if not for those previous experiences.