The First Day of School

The first day of school always stirs up emotions, usually a good mix of feeling really excited and really nervous at the same time (with a little splash of dread). I've had over 20 "first days of school" in my lifetime, yet this was my first one on the other side, as a teacher. But the feelings apparently don't change; I was still really excited and really nervous.

Anytime you start a new job, you always go in the first day a little bit clueless. However, I went to school the first day knowing literally close to nothing. Things I knew: the name of the school, that I would teach English, and I would teach grades M1, M5, and M6 (although I had to look up online what that meant), and... I think that's about it. All the other details were unknown. I had no idea what my schedule was, what buildings or rooms my classes were in (or how to get to them), where my desk was (do I even get a desk?), or even what I was expected to teach this semester or let alone, on the first day. I also only had the most vague idea of how to actually get to this school 15km away from my apartment.

Luckily, one of my friends from the TESOL course, Jeff from Kansas City, was also placed as a teacher at the same school as me. Therefore, it was nice to have someone to go through this adventure with. We woke up super early today so there was no risk of getting to school late on our first day of work. Now, my commute to school is literally a hysterical story in itself. I'll post an entire separate blog on this soon. However, one leg of our commute is taking the local train. It was honestly miraculous that we even managed to get on the right train this day (can't say it's never happened...) because the announcements are only made in Thai. Our boss told us once we got on the train, we should get off at the first stop. So the train stopes, we got up, kinda looked around confused if this is the right stop and asked a few people around us "Bang Pa-In?", then Jeff got off the train and I stayed on the step of the train still a little unsure, and this women ran over to us yelling, "No! Not Bang-Pa In!" But at this point, Jeff was off the train and it started moving. We just looked at each other. Shit. Jeff was off the train. I was on the train. What the hell do we do now? Then one of the train workers figured out what happened and threw up the red flag for the train to stop. Then I had the pleasure of watching Jeff literally run after the train to get back on. I just stood in the vestibule of the train quietly laughing to myself. It's only the first day.

So eventually, we managed to get to school and show up at morning assembly with big smiles, ready to greet our new co-workers and students. The director of the school walked up to Jeff and I and informed us that we had to give a short speech in front of the entire faculty and student body (about 2000 students)....in 5 minutes. Luckily, Jeff and I had actually been previously given a heads up by another teacher that this exact situation would play out exactly as it did. On the way to school, we practiced what we would say in our supposed last minute speeches so we just smiled at each other and thought "No problem, we've got this in the bag." But if I've learned one thing, there's always a curveball in Thailand.  One of the Thai teachers came back and said, "Okay, are you ready? You're on in 1 minute. Short speech okay? Oh yeah, and you really should try to say it in Thai." Okay! Wait...what? IN THAI!?!? If I knew I would have to give a speech in Thai in front of 2000+ Thai people, then I would have been practicing everyday for the past month!

There was no time to think. We were being pushed toward the line for the microphone. I was frantically racking my brain trying to remember anything and everything I knew how to say in Thai. Ummm...banana? Mango? Where is the toilet? Can I have an iced coffee please? I don't eat meat? Ah! I can't say any of these things!

Right before the director handed me the microphone he made some joke (in Thai) to which the entire student body started hysterically laughing. I just awkwardly smiled. I THINK the joke was something along the lines of "This is the new English teacher, Teacher Kim. She is even more beautiful than I am, right?" Then I was handed the microphone.

"Hello sawadeeka. Chan chue Teacher Kim. Chan mak jak America. Yin dee tee dai roo jak ka. Kob khun ka."

That's what I said. They said short speech, right? If I managed to say things in the correct Thai tones, then I said "Hello. My name is Teacher Kim. I'm from America. It's nice to meet you. Thank you."

Considering the circumstances, I think I did alright.

Then we found out that because of extended homeroom, all classes before lunch were cancelled. Mai pen rai. This is the kinda mai pen rai I can get use to :)

During this time, I was given my schedule for the semester, got a mini-tour around campus, was shown around the Foreign Language Department office, given a desk, and met all of my co-workers. Everything was running surprisingly smoother than I imagined and everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming to us.

I felt a little bit like a freshman in high school wandering around with my schedule trying to find the right classrooms and buildings. But I quickly found that the students were always more than willing to help me. They would grab my schedule and pull or point me in the direction I needed to be.

Another aspect about teaching in Thailand that I had been warned about was the lack of communication. I heard that sometimes things were changed and we would always be the last to find out. Well, I went to one of my classes, introduced myself, started playing a game with the students and about 15 minutes in, a Thai teacher ran in and said, "Teacher! Wrong class!" Wrong class? But my schedule says Room 417...this is Room 417. "Sorry, Teacher! Room changed. 418." Apparently, I just taught for 15 minutes to students who don't even take English class from a foreign teacher. What I find funny is that none of the kids said anything. So then, I had to just awkwardly leave mid-game. The kids seemed kinda disappointed haha. Next class period, I walked in and all the students just immediatly started yelling, "MATH!!!!!! MATH!!!!!! AH!!!!! MATH!!!!!!!" Math? Why are 50 kids screaming math at me? Again, the schedule was changed. They have math now, and I come back to teach them next period. Mai pen rai.

This is just how Thailand is. You can't take things too seriously here and need to be able to just laugh at everything. When leaving work, I said to Jeff, "If the rest of my teaching career goes anything like today then this is going to be the funniest year of my life."

And so, we managed to survive the first day with only minimal embarrassment and a lot of laughs. But the stories just keep getting better, you'll see.