I haven't worn shoes for a week and half. The woman who owns the training facility is a nurse and she gave me some iodine and forbid me to wear shoes after she saw the cut on the top of my foot that hadn't healed since my encounter with coral the first weekend I was here (although I count my blessings, because I was luckier than the guy who stepped on a sea urchin!) Resigned to my fate, I have learned to cope with the agony of having to walk through the garden everyday without protection from the horribly wonderful sensations of soft, dewey grass, cool, smooth stepping stones, and warm, well-worn wood against the bare soles of my feet.
I am also teaching my classes barefoot... but so are all my fellow trainees as it is customary in Thailand to not wear shoes indoors. Anyone leaving during a class will encounter an obstacle course of at least 30 pairs of shoes right outside the door. After only one day of training we were given a lesson to plan and teach the next day. My lack of experience was clearly visible as my lesson tanked during the first ten minutes, and things kept going wrong until the end. I spent the night thinking about whether I should bail out and wondering why I needed to come all the way to Thailand just to find out I was a horrible teacher... But the next lesson was much better, as I steeled myself to teach the past tense. Finally, success! My fears eased, I could now stick out the course knowing that while there would be ups and downs, I did have the ability to keep improving with practice.
We're learning a lot! Everyday we have several hours of instruction on teaching methods and several hours on English grammar, vocab, and pronunciation (I'm still grateful that I'll never have to learn English as a second language). I am very confused about phonetics as my teachers are both from the UK. I'm supposed to be learning that "arm" is pronounced "ahm" (no r) and the word "saw" is pronounced "sore" (r added?!) Then we write words and sentences in phonetic symbols and share with the person next to us- I wrote /gWt mi: aˆt ‚v höWr/
I am enjoying myself though actually. Classes run from 11am to 5 pm, with teaching practice from 6-8, when our students get out of work and school. We eat wonderful food everyday, and watch movies and play cards at night. It's a good way to relax from the hard work, but the hard work can't be put off forever- lesson plans and evaluations are due every few days, and there are four 1000-word essays to finish by the end of the course. The build-up to teaching practice is very stressful: leading a class for an hour can be quite nerve-wrecking if you've never taught before. I always feel under-prepared beforehand, even when the lessons turn out well.
The students make it so much easier. Thai culture is very much based on respect and saving face, so everyone is incredibly polite and even the teenage students are well-behaved (!) Teachers also hold a position of reverance in Thai society, and activities that I would find boring or awkward, such as quizzing the teacher on her life story, are the peak of entertainment for them. They love games or anything fun; I did karaoke with them to a Madonna song in one of my lessons!
The person I spend the most time with here is actually not a fellow trainee- she is the wife of one of my colleagues and their 8-month-old daughter is also along. The baby is so cute! We went to the Chiang Mai zoo on the weekend, and little Nakia was screaming with glee at the deer in the petting zoo. We also saw the pandas! Only one was out, because the other was a mother with a newborn baby, but they were visible on a TV screen =) Sumra is teaching me a bit of Urdu for when I go to India- it's almost exactly the same as Hindi so it should be helpful. Overall, I am having a great time...
and my foot is healing nicely =)
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