Teaching English from Ao Luk to Huay Pakoot

I started my 6 month-volunteer journey last January within the GVI teaching programme in Ao Luk, in the south of Thailand.  Having now returned home, I cannot think of a better place than Thailand to have had my very first teaching experience.

I enjoyed each step of the GVI project. I first spent a few months in Ao Luk, where I took part in an efficient EFL training programme, stepped for the first time in front of my very own class and went on to teach at the local non-formal education centre. After 4 months, I was offered an amazing opportunity to join the GVI adventurers caring for the elephants in Huay Pakoot, a village in the clouds of Northern Thailand, where I would teach at the local primary school. That was a challenge I could not turn down or I would call myself a chicken for the rest of my life.

In Huay Pakoot I spent my days lesson planning, reading (9 books in 6 weeks) and walking up and down the muddy village hills. At the school, I was teaching 40 students between 8-12 years old, 4 days a week and, at the nursery, kids as young as 5. After school, twice a week, the kids would go home, drop their bags, grab a notebook and a pencil and run down the hill towards the nursery. They would have a lot to talk about – in pakinyow, the local language – and the only thing I would be able to grasp from those lively conversations would be my name.  Sometimes, these are the little things that make living worthwhile. Well, my “little thing” which made me terribly - but secretly - proud was that exhilarating feeling I had when I was called “teacher” by my dedicated and benevolent students.

At weekends, after dark, I would also teach a few adults at the village chief’s house. As with the kids, the kindness of my students was heartening. One of them, Aree, was also my homestay landlady who made me feel like a queen at her home. She always showed careful attention to my well-being. To give a few examples, she spoilt me with a proper table-turned desk to work on so I didn’t have to do all lesson planning on the floor, and she also fed me as if I was in urgent need of weight-gain. Another of my evening students and shopkeeper, Nai, would offer me food and coffee almost everytime she spotted me after my class at school.

How can I ever forget the kindness of all these amazing people – students - kids and adults, volunteers and GVI staff members – who have made my journey worthwhile? I won’t.

Barbara Delage, Teaching English Intern, Thailand

Teaching English from Ao Luk to Huay Pakoot