A day at school.

Right now we are only taking 3 classes. Methodology, Grammar and Thai.
Our Methodology Teacher's name is Stefan. hes from Germany and he speaks German, French, English and Thai. Hes a very smart man and we are learning a LOT from him.
In Methodology he teaches us how to make lesson plans, and How to teach without confusing the student. Theres actually a lot of details that you wouldnt think of.
What we do is we make a "Drill Circle". In the class we have to try to make it 70% Student talk time, and 30% Teacher talk time. Stefan is a strong believer that language study should be entirely communicating amongst each other, that way the students are learning from each other. So basically we have to try and teach the class with as little explination as possible. He encourages us to draw pictures, or refer to picture dictionaries or to act out the verbs.
Once we create our lesson plan we want to do, we have to teach the class. What Stefan does, is he acts as a student as well, and he makes it difficult for is.
For example: I was chosen to teach the class today. I made my lesson plan the night before based on a story that Stefan printed out of a storybook. When I got up in front of the class, I tried to get the students to make a sentence using "Around" and the example I took from the story was "The train is coming around the bend"
When I asked stefan to give me an example, he said "This is a round watch" and pointed to his watch.....DOH!!!
And going by what he taught us, I had to try and explain the word "around" with as little words as possible (because the more you explain, the more confused the students get because you are explaining in a language that they dont understand yet)

Anyways, yeah. Its a lot harder than we thought. But we are all helping each other and we all have a little bit to contribute. Our creativity, Ideas and support combined makes us a really sweet class. We all get along really well too and when we go eat, we all go together. :)

In Grammar, basically we are learning our grammar all over again because WE TALK WRONG. And worst part, we are learning it by the Brittish Books. Us Canadians and Americans are like...."HUH?" when we read some of these sayings... Then it always turns into a class debate about which one is the proper way. All the Europeans defend their way, and how its the right or more sensible way to say it, And then the Americans and Canadians do the same for theirs.
It ends up being 20% of the class is actually practising our grammar and the definitions for the terms. The rest is us arguing and laughing. The teacher loves it. (Ray, who is also Canadian...from Toronto, married a woman from Nova Scotia so me and Jess are his favourites we say) He gets right involved and starts laughing and ends up telling a story and we end up telling stories for the rest of the class.
But not to worry, we make up for it at home. We are really good about doing our homework together.

Thai is mine and Jessica's favourite class. We learn SO much. And the Thai teacher (her name is Tin) loves hearing us try and say the words. She is always laughing and giving us the thumbs up.
She taught us proper Thai etiquitte.
-When you greet someone who is older than you, or more superior to you, you must put your hands in a prayer position up to your chest and bow to them only once. After that, you can greet them in a normal fashion.
-When you sit, it is not proper to cross your legs. Girls must sit with their feet flat on the floor and together. Men, can have their feet about 30 cms apart if they wish. Your hands must be cupping each other and resting on your lap, and you must not sit with your back resting to the back of the chair. You must sit up straight. This is how you must sit when you are a teacher and when you are in interviews or sitting with an elder.
-You are never allowed to stand over an elder or sit on a higher chair than them.
-You are never allowed to touch someone with your foot (wether to get their attention or to show them that they have somthing on them...it is the RUDEST.....er.....um...Most Rude thing you can do)

Just wanted to say that school is VERY fun, and we can't wait to start to teach. We have been finding out lots about our options and we can sign a 3 month contract with a school if we wish. And move elsewhere after that. That is one of the options.
Still looking into the visa runs and what we will do then, but thats a long ways away.

Chan Rak Khun

That means "I love you" in Thai. [Pronounced: Chan Raccoon]