Hello everyone!
I know, I know, this post is long overdue. Like 4 months overdue.Whoops....sorry. In the past few months, there's been a lot of changes with my move and job change to Bangkok and my life couldn't be any more different than my old life in Ayutthaya. Many people have expressed interest so I wanted to break it down and explain everything in detail.
School
Before, I taught at a Thai government (or public) high school. Now, I teach at an English language school. Language schools are very different than traditional schools. The best way to think of an English Language School is to not really think of a school. Yes, we are a school, but not in the traditional sense. We're actually located inside a mall. Instead, think of it as an extracurricular activity. For example, when I was in high school, I would go play baseball or attend rehearsals for plays after school. Instead, these students go and study English after school or work.
At my old school, I was assigned to teach specific grade levels and specific classes of students. Now, everyone is technically my student and anyone can sign up for a class with me. Because the teachers are from various countries and have different accents, the students enjoy the variety.
Dress Code
At my old school, I was required to dress very conservatively with my knees and shoulders always covered. I was also required to wear a black skirt, as pants were not allowed. And on Fridays, I had to wear an obnoxious, blue Hawaiian print shirt to work, the "uniform" shirt for all teachers. However, at my new school, I was told that the dress code was "trendy." I'll never forget, on my first day of work, the Director of HR said to me, "short skirts are definitely okay!" I'm not sure if I'll ever have a future employer says those words to me. Needless to say, I spent the first few weeks in Bangkok trying to acquire a new, trendy wardrobe.
Facilities
Once again - 180 degree turn. At my old school, my office and nearly all of the classrooms were not air conditioned (let me remind you it's an average of 90 degrees F everyday in Thailand). Also, I had to walk outside to different buildings for each class. I'm not gonna lie, by the end of the day, I was sweaty and gross. Also, my office only had 1 computer to share among about 15 teachers and the internet and printer were both broken approximately 75% of the time. Therefore, it was very difficult to work and plan lessons without a computer, printer, or internet. My first day of work I was give ONE white board marker and told to make it last for the entire semester. In the classrooms, there were no computers, projectors, smart-boards, speakers, etc. Essentially, it was up to my whiteboard marker and I to entertain 50 students for 50 minutes.
At my new school, we have everything. Air conditioning, plenty of computers, printers, working internet, and unlimited white board markers! The classrooms and facilities at my school are really quite nice.
Students
As you probably know, I absolutely adored my students from my old school. However, the job was difficult because their language level was very low. My class was just a required class that they "had" to show up to because it was required by the government. Even though they usually couldn't understand what I said, and had little to no motivation to learn English, they were still ridiculously sweet and kind. Likewise, I also adore my new students but they're quite different. I would say that my best student from my old school would probably test into the lowest level at my new school.
I think the main difference between the students is the motivation factor. Even if I can clearly tell they don't really want to learn English, they understand that they NEED to learn English for their futures and careers, which makes a world of a difference. In addition, the students (or their parents) pay A LOT of money for them to study here. So as with anything, when your money is involved there's more incentive to get something out of it.
Also, since most of my students grew up in Bangkok, they have more exposure to foreigners and foreign teachers. I'm not really like a novelty to them. While I will admit that I do kinda miss being told a minimum of 50 times a day that I'm beautiful, I feel like the students at my new school treat me like a normal person instead of a celebrity. They ask me about my personal life, invite me to eat dinner with them, and help me with any problems that arise (i.e. reading my electric bill). In fact, they don't even call me "Teacher Kim" but just "Kim." It's not out of disrespect, but the environment at the language school is much more relaxed.
At my new school, about 70% of the students are from Chulalongkorn University which is conveniently located directly across the street from my school. Chulalongkorn (aka"Chula") is ranked the top university and is basically like Thailand's equivalent of Harvard. The other 30% of my students are comprised of university students from other various universities, Bangkok high school students, and working professionals. The youngest student at my school is 14 and the oldest student is 88. I have many students that are doctors, lawyers, Thai Airways international pilots, engineers, businessmen/women, etc. I would say that I'm pretty lucky because my students are some of the cream of the crop.
Schedule
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I am not a a morning person. For my old job, I had to wake up around 5:30 AM because I was required to be at work at 7:30 AM for morning assembly and also had to allot time for the dreaded commute. I was usually so tired from the day and commute that I'd fall asleep by 10:00 PM. I remember in college, I used to make fun of people who went to bed at 10:00 PM. How times have changed.
Now, since I work at a language school, the school is open at times that accommodate to people's school, university, and work schedules. Therefore, I usually work from 12:00 noon - 9:00 PM and occasionally the shift from 11:00 AM - 8:00 PM. That means, I can stay up late and have the entire morning to do whatever my heart desires (sleep in, workout, run errands, etc). Let's just say the new schedule is much for fitting for my lifestyle. The only slight downside is that I usually work on the weekends. I always have two consecutive days off a week that rotate by month. While I occasionally miss out of things happening with my friends who are off on Saturdays and Sundays, it hasn't been that bad so far. In fact, going places in Bangkok during the weekday is much nicer than going on the weekend when its ridiculous crowded.
Commute
By now, I'm sure you've already read or heard about my dreaded commute to my old job. It was long, sweaty, and unreliable. Average time was about 1.5 hours each way. It was probably the one thing I disliked the absolute most about my old situation.
My new commute....total opposite. Although it somehow still involves 3 - 4 different modes of transport, it's short, minimally sweaty, and reliable. I'll write a more detailed post soon about my new commute. I'm really lucky to live near the BTS and take it to work. The BTS is the SkyTrain in Bangkok, similar to the El in Chicago. From my apartment door to the door of my office is exactly 25 minutes. I can also shave off about 5 minutes if I walk on escalators (I think there's like 10 escalators?!). You can ask any Bangkok local - that's a pretty impressive commute time for a city nicknamed "traffic jam city."
What I teach
Just like my old job - I still teach English, I still teach 5 classes a day, and I'm still at school for about 9 hours a day. However, what I teach couldn't be any more different. At my old job, on the first day of the semester I was given a vague list of topics to teach the students such as "conversation in many situations," "Asia holidays," and "apology and concern." I was told by the head of the English department, "Up to you!" and interrupted them as I chose. Since I had no book to teach from, I would create my own basic lessons. For example, different phrases you can say to apologize (excuse me, sorry, please forgive me, pardon me, etc).
On the other hand, at my new job I mainly teach English grammar, sometimes quite advanced grammar. In fact, I'll be honest...I didn't really know much about English grammar before starting this job. However, I quickly learned that Thai students don't learn English the same way that we do. Sure, we all learn grammar in school but when you're a native speaker a lot of it just comes natural and what "sounds right" to you, not the formulas for constructing positive, negative, and question sentences in all 12 tense and of course the irregular forms as well.
On my very first day at my new job, a student came up to me and politely asked me to explain the difference between Verb 1 and Verb 2 and the difference between Present Perfect Continuous and Present Perfect Perfect tense. I had no idea! In that moment, I experienced a minor internal freak out. I'm the teacher and I think the students know more about English than I do! After that, I had to kick myself in the butt and quickly re-learn English grammar and how to simply explain it to students. Now, I finally feel confident teaching any lesson on it. I will admit that the first few months were busy and tough because of the large learning curve.
Class Size
This is a huuuuuuge difference. Class size at my old school was between 40-52 students per class. At my new school there are 3 different types of classes. Type 1 has a maximum of 8 students. Type 2 has a maximum of 4 students. And Type 3 (Activities) have a maximum of 20 students. At my old school, I spent about 50% of the class time saying, "Listen please," "Quiet!" and "Don't talk!" However, at my new job there is absolutely no classroom management involved. The students show up for class, only speak English with each other, and politely listen and respond.
So there you have it. So many differences between jobs, right?. I'm quite happy with my change and really enjoying my new job. I'll write again soon!
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