Celebrity Status

Sometimes when I’m at work, I forget if I’m a teacher or a celebrity.

If you know me well, you know that I’m not one to ask for attention (I actually dislike attention) but I’m definitely getting it here in Thailand. Being a minority, I obviously expected a few odd stares here and there but I never would have imagined the enormous amount of attention I would attract, everywhere I go – especially at school.

Around campus and its outskirts, I get the total VIP treatment. I get to cut in line anywhere: coffee shops, food stands, 711, the line for the motorcycle taxi or tuk-tuk. I don’t even ask for it but I’m sure not complaining (I mean, sometimes the slurpee line at lunch is like 100 kids long!)

When I walk down a crowded hallway or stairwell, it’s like the sea parts for me to walk through. If not, everyone is tapping or yelling at their friends to move out of the way for me. I don’t even have to say a word. Sometimes, I’ll walk into a room and everyone will just start cheering. I actually secretly love when that happens. Students (both girls and boys) will kindly offer to carry my purse, coffee, books, bag, papers, etc. One day I was going to refill my water bottle and a student ran up, grabbed the bottle from my hands, shouted “No Teacher!” and filled it up for me. Today, I bought a coffee at the stand on the street right outside school and a student ran ahead and carried it up to my office and nicely placed it on my desk for me. What treatment! Now if only I can figure out how to make them be quiet during my class…

Walking around campus, there’s basically a constant never ending stream of “Hello! Hello Teacher Kim! Teacher! Good morning teacher! Hello teacher! Teacher, hello! Good afternoon teacher! See you tomorrow teacher! Bye Teacher!" from nearly every single student I pass. It’s like I’m in a parade or something, just waving, smiling, and saying hello to everyone I pass. There are 2,000 students at my school so I don’t even want to know how many times I say the word hello in a day. I do feel bad that I can’t yet respond with their names. However, to be fair, I have over 600 students with some pretty odd names (more on that topic later).

I’ve also been told that I’m beautiful more times in the past month than I’ve ever been told in the entire span of my life. “Teacher, you are so beautiful!” from the students with good English, “Teacher! Beautiful!” from those with mediocre English, and “Khun suay mak!” (Thai for "You are very beautiful") from the younger ones. Even the Thai teachers, school nurse, librarian, front office workers, security officer, and copy machine lady make similar comments as the students. Sometimes multiple times a day. Yesterday, I actually found out from one of my students that the four cashiers who work the morning shift at 711 apparently nicknamed me “Phu Ying Suay” which translates to “The Beautiful Woman” and said they are sad on the days when I don’t come in. I had no idea the simple act of walking into 711 and buying a water bottle could make or break someone’s day. Living and working in Thailand is certainly an ego booster to say the least.

I'm learning that the concept of "beauty" in Thailand is interestingly very, very different than in the US. I find it to be an extremely interesting aspect of Thai culture that I'm quickly learning more about everyday. However, I have much to say about this topic so it will be a future blog post on it's own.

Finally, what's a celebrity without paparazzi? Yep, I've got that too. One day, a student politely came up to me after class and asked if she could take a picture with me so she could show her mom her new English teacher. That's kinda cute; what's the harm in this, I thought? Horrible decision. I've learned that it doesn't matter where in the world you are, but a high school is a high school and word spreads fast. Now that I'm thinking about it, it probably got posted on Facebook. But now everyone wants a picture with Teacher Kim. What's next? Autographs?

I'm really starting to wonder if maybe I accidentally and unknowingly said I was famous or something on that first day of school when I introduced myself in Thai to the whole school.