pomp

Hey all,
So this past Thursday was Constitution Day in Thailand. It is a really cool day where pretty much everyone gets the day off work! It is a day where everyone sleeps in late and then converges on the few parks in Thailand to meet up with friends and BBQ and just have a nice relaxing time. At least, that was what I imagined it to be as I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to go to work. Luckily, it wasn't really work. The Siam computer and Language School Corporation has three campuses and a whole slew of "centers" that are all bundled underneath the "internal sector." For everyone who works in any of the campuses or for the internal sector, this past thursday was sport day. The staff of each grouping played the other staffs in different sports all day. The main sport of course was football (soccer) but there was also Basketball (which I played in) and a woman's only game of "_______". I am blanking on the name right now but it is a traditional Thai sport similar to basketball. The differences are, you don't dribble, you cannot move once you have the ball, and the basket is actually a basket that is held in the air by your teammate who is standing on a short stool or table. The game looked like it would be fun. However, on Siam's sport day, it looked BRUTAL! These women were trying to kill each other! I was watching it and cheering and just kinda enjoying how brutal it looked until it was time to play basketball and I was suddenly in the middle of a similar environment. There were refs, and sometimes they would call a foul. Most of the time everyone (myself included) just played slappy hands and it was fun (and others got to enjoy the brutality of it). There were also little games in between the big games (i.e. tug of war, musical chairs, potato sack race (which I dominated at BTW), and various other relay races). I actually found these the most fun. They were the only coed events and they stayed very light hearted. Each group had a cheer squad, and they all performed in a cheer competition, I thought my school's was the best but they didn't win. At the end of the day my school won "sport day" and we received much adulation and three big tins of peanuts and snacks. I shit you not. So all of that was about a third of sports day. The another third was a party at night. It started at 6pm and I left early at 10:30. Every school was to have a theme that everyone had to dress up for. People spent well over a day's pay on their costumes, and many of them were really really amazing. My school charged itself with "bringing back the past" so the women wore really crazy golden whoopdee doos on their heads and golden flashy gowns. The men either wore Thai silks or dressed exactly like Aladdin. I, not willing to spend any money on my costume, was either Indiana jones, butch cassidy, or early elvis depending on who you talked to. Each school or department had a dance that followed their theme that they performed on the big stage. Luckily, my school did an ancient Thai dance which I did not have to partake in (because indiana-cassidy-presley apparently was not in ancient Thailand). On entering the party, everyone got a gift that was chosen raffle style. Included in the gifts were flat screen TVs and a piece of jewelry worth like 20,000 Baht or something. I got a little purse. I'm in no way complaining, i was just really gunning for the TV haha. The last third of this day was pomp, pride, and more ceremonial butt scratching than you could shake a stick at. At 7:30, everyone was all formed up for a parade. By 8:20, the parade began to move. It snaked through the empty corridors of the school we were at which all of its members banging drums and smiling and waving. Then, we made it to the gymnasium where we circled in school by school to the delight of the owners of SIAM. It is a family run gig so the entire parade of a few hundred was only seen at the very end by about 14 people. There was ceremony after ritual throughout the entire day. Bows and songs and fireworks at night, there was a lot of it. Again, I am not complaining. Save for the flag ceremony that happens everyday before school, I like seeing the ceremonies (maybe not in large doses) because they are a good insight to the culture. I will complain about two small things. The first, is everyone was forced to wear really heavy polo shirts. Not a good exercise outfit when its a humid 2 million degrees out. Also, my school chose bubble gum puke pink as a color (cause it's franks color). The second is what Cal fans know as "the bench." I think it is safe to say, that Thai people should trusted with sound making devices about as much as Americans should be trusted with guns. Neither group can really control the power of their respective implements. My school was by far the most spirited. All day, our section of bleachers was equipped with two four-foot-tall speaker cabinets commanded by three microphones, two pairs of conga drums (which are played with drumsticks here so they are louder) and 130 staff members with cheers and all wearing white gloves that accentuated the hand movements. Yes, i said all... A day of this in a humid gymnasium with three other well equipped schools gave me a headache and (i feel) the right to complain. So, even in the face of noise and loosing a day off, sports day was sweeet!

friday and saturday I was really tired.

At 2 on saturday afternoon, I went to school because I had to chaperon students to a huge event dedicated to Frank. Frank is very old and in poor health. This event was put on to honor him, or wish him better health... or something. I don't know, actually. Either way, I am glad I went because what was described to me as an optional opportunity of a lifetime, was actually a mandatory school event. ha! I was told that I would be in an amazing palace/temple/golden thing and would see lots of amazing things and would see the queen but not the king (due to his poor health). I was also told that I not only would get in for free (usually 350 B) but i would get paid. "i'm in!!" I was also told that this event was so unique and amazing that there would be 10,000 people there. And there was, in fact there was well more than 10,000, all dressed in puke bubble gum (and me, back in the polo). Because of the size of the crowd it was good that the event was outside of a palace, a slightly smaller, less decadent one than the one I was told (don't get me wrong, it was still a palace). The main lack of foresight that the directors of my school had were that they did not think to reserve seating for the 1,000 students we were sending. And, as to be expected there was no seating. No one on the trip knew this until we had moved inch by inch into the crowd for about an 45 min. It was brazenly hot but the crowed (despite the fact that it was almost 7 by this point) was cheering as directed by a tiny remote control helicopter that was operated by a nerd-super-hero. There were several megatrons spaced throughout the massive crowed and a fair number of speakers. A group of us finally settled of to the side and sat through one half hour of the pomp. none of us could see the stage or any of the megatrons and most of us were standing. So, did the smart thing and walked around the food tents! I spent the whole night hangin out with a different groups of students. It was cool because I havn't spent time outside of school with really any students and it was nice to get to know more of them. I tried lots of good food (and some not so good food) and then, because no solid time was established for everyone to meet, we spent two hours trying to account for the last 100 students. Back at school I was handed 130 B and went home. All in all it was sweet.

I was supposed to go to another school event on sunday, but i was too tired (and not about to allow the school to swallow 3 days off in a row). The event on sunday was bowling. I question. Who schedules bowling-fundraiser for 7:30 on a sunday morning? Answer: the same person who "requires" that all staff go and marks the price up to 2,500 B from the usual 50B. classy!

In reading back through this post I am seeing a lot of sarcasm. So in the effort of full disclosure, I will end with where I am at right now. I left work early today. In frustration, I filled out my leave form (in blue) and peaced. While, I was starting to feel like I really was getting a hold on teaching and that I just needed to put more effort into making lessons fun, I now feel that I do not have a very good hold on teaching.... at least, teaching here in Thailand. The number of "routinely bad classes" I have has doubled over the past few weeks. I now distinguish my routinely good classes and when I am having a shitty day, they don't go well. If yall will remember, Johnny and I entered the school with celebrity. That made classes really easy. Then celebrity faded into novelty and classes were just challenging. Me being goofy enough made the classes different enough from the monotone microphone of their other classes to keep their attention. Now, I think it is fair to say that the novelty is fading and I am seeing that the way I want to teach (and the way I always saw teachers teaching) has its foundation in control. To a well behaved class I can give a very fun and engaging lesson and everyone will learn. As my novelty has been fading, behavior problems and plain rebelliousness have been on the rise. I have been asked to no longer lock students out of class (but I have started doing it again... shhhh) and have been trying to lay more heavily on the schools discipline department. Unfortunately, they are worthless. Most of their effort goes into stopping or preventing fights on campus and in the afternoon in the surrounding neighborhoods. The discipline people roam the halls during class hours, and teachers are supposed to be able to call on them to take students out of class. Twice now I have tried and twice now the same douche-bag has just laughed (which gets the students laughing) and offered an apology on behalf of a very unapologetic student. When I take students names to the discipline office, I can feel them shine me on as they write down the students ID numbers and a quick summary of what they did wrong.
When I first started with Siam, I was reminded of what I already knew. "Thai students don't fail, are not disciplined, and do not learn." I was instructed by the westerner to follow his three rules in order of importance "1. get paid 2. have fun 3. be engaging." Hearing all of this always made me laugh and I kinda nodded along (the american version of saving face) but inside I always hated all of it. I felt all of it was a cop-out and that there had to be a way to drive through it all. I still do hate all of it, but I am beginning to see the lesson behind it all. I do not have the answer yet, but I am supposing that it lies in a lesson that does not at all rest upon me having any "control" of the class. I imagine that the students will talk and use their phones but somehow learn at the same time. I do know that what I am trying right now is not working for me or most of my students, and that what many of the Thai teachers are trying is working even less. Hidden behind the Thai custom of "saving face" is the root for why power lines are always tangled swamps of danger, why construction workers die because there are no safety regs, and why the students at SBAC are learning far less than they could be. Culture is a big ship without a captain. It just kinda goes where it wants and try as I may, I can't rock the boat. But i will try to work with the boat! .... and will keep you posted on how that goes.
oh also, another reason I went home today is I think that the plate full of tentacles, rings, and arthropods that came instead of my "fried rice with chicken" gave me a small touch of dodgy stomach. No yacking so I wont call it food poisoning, but I havn't been away from the bathroom for more than ten minutes at a time for most of today.

and you are now all caught up on the happenings of Ashley Watson's brother... who must go to the toilet now.

--jon