I've started my new job....

Today is the 4th day.

For the past few days, I've been waking up at 7 o'clock in the morning to prepare to go to work. YH was still sleeping when I stepped out of our apartment. Rare sight! For the past few months, it was the other way round (i.e. me still sleeping while YH goes to work).

The Vocational School for the Disabled is where I'm teaching. The students at the school are given free education, accommodation, food and medical care. They are taught a skill so that they can contribute to the society (or rather earn a living) when they graduate from the school.

After some administrative work, I joined G at her class. G is a young & pretty lady from Denmark. She will be leaving for home next week and hence, I'll be taking over her classes upon her departure. She told me that she enjoyed her stay in Pattaya and will be back once she had saved enough money. I'll have 2 classes and each class has 10 students each. All the students come from different parts of Thailand and are of different ages. Although they are physically disabled, this does not stop them from being rowdy and cheeky. They kept asking questions like "Where you from?" (that's the local spoken English), "How old are you?", "You got boyfriend?", "Can you speak Thai?"...... And they kept saying "Teacher beautiful; Teacher lovely"...... G told me that I'll soon get used to it cos they say it everyday...... Hahaha.... Those cheeky teenage boys.

It is not difficult to spot the different levels of command of English the students have. Some of them are quite comfortable and keen in learning English while some are less enthusiastic about it. This is due to whether they had learned some basic English during their ground school. Some of them kept saying "Ang-Krit Yak" (meaning English is difficult). Emm... Just like I would say the same about learning Thai.... especially the written Thai.

Well, I actually started to teach a class this morning as G was not feeling very well today. She suggested that I could help the class to prepare for their mid-term test which is to be held next week. It's really a CHALLENGE for me to make my class interesting for all students. I noticed that the better ones are getting bored while the slower ones are still struggling their way through the class. And some of them prefer to practise speaking rather than writing. Now I know that being a good teacher is not that easy.... It makes me think of how great my teachers used to be and honestly, I inspired to be one :-)

I met 2 other Singaporeans, J and T, at the School. It's like making some discovery..... Singaporeans in Pattaya..... It's a rare find. I had an almost-an-hour chat with J, talking about living in Pattaya, volunteering stuff, getting to know more Singaporeans, etc. She has been teaching in the School last October and is now currently helping out in the Finance Department. She still teaches some classes in the afternoon. Did not get a chance to speak to T but he seems like a nice old man. Finally, the Singaporean/Malaysian network in Pattaya will get a chance to connect and expand....

Okie, it's time to crack my brains to find ways to make my classes interesting. Any suggestions?