Teaching ESL: A Different Experience

Well, here we are at the end of the first semester. I began my grading and finished it up this week. Let me tell you, it was a very different experience. First off, grading here in Thailand is quite different. For example, I had two students cheat on a quiz mid-semester. They admitted to it, so I told them I would have to fail them for it and take away half the points, starting them at 50%. They would have had a 100%, but I wanted to make sure they understood they could not cheat in my class. Come to find out, in Thailand passing is 50% and higher. Failing is 49% and below. Ugh. So in punishing them, I still passed them. So most everybody did pass, there was only a couple students who got grades like 17 and 18%. But then it might have helped if they showed up to class more than 4 times! I was very happy with some of my classes, as the students passed with many A's and B's. It felt very good to get the grades in and done. But what felt even better was knowing that God was using our example and influence at the university to get things moving with Surin Baptist Church. The Hayes and the team here in Surin are using the connection with Surin Rajabhat University to create venues of ministry to reach out to the college-age community here.

I also wanted to encourage anybody who might be considering doing something like this. Do it. It's very feasible. You may only have to raise monies for your initial outfit and passage, setting up living space, airfare to and from, visas, etc... But I find that one could very well live in a place like this on a Thai salary. Other countries, I don't know, but probably. Sure, I'm making 1/3rd of what I did in the states, but living expenses are even more fractional. You buy meals for #1.00, that's about the average rate. The most expensive when we eat out is like $6.00 (for two people). However, it is one of the most taxing things one might do. You are out of any comfort zone, you are in a place where up seems like down and right seems like left. You don't have your cultural map whereby you discern life. And yet it's the best thing for anyone to go through. Because you kind of "re-learn" all those things you either took for granted or never really thought about. Things like, "is someone really a bad person if they are late to something", or "Does somebody peeking in your windows or walking in your house mean they are nosy or trying to invade"? These are the questions you face, and it forces you to go to God for the answers. It would be easy enough to lose your temper and decide the answers based on your own cultural map, but then you'd find yourself hating everybody around you. It forces you to look to the scriptures for what God has really commanded, and what is just culturally assumed. Some things you decide are actual biblical commands (like not bowing down to idols), others are more along the lines of culturally conditioned assumptions (like being late).

Well, all this about grading. But I wanted to encourage anybody out there. Even if you do a shorter-term, like what we are doing for a year or two, it will change the way you see the world. It will change the way you read the Bible. It really comes to life in an awesome way. To see the church in another tongue, another culture. It's honestly a glimpse of heaven, where there will be people worshiping Christ from every culture, family, and language.