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Past Volunteers |
Max's story |
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BIO:
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| Name: |
Max Paarlberg Age:20 |
| From: |
Amsterdam / Holland |
| Status: |
Completed a 2 week placement in Kalasin province |
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To start off with, I had an amazing experience teaching English in the rural town of Huaymek in Kalasin province. I really feel that I’ve seen Thailand in a way that very few tourists get the opportunity to see. |
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Thai people are probably the most hospitable people in the world, almost to the point that you feel guilty about being treated like royalty, but the fact is that Thais genuinely want to make you happy. In Thailand, people don’t greet each other with “how are you?”. Literally translated, the standard Thai greeting means “are you happy?”. |
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The teaching itself doesn’t actually feel like you’re doing a job because Thai students are enthusiastic, energetic and have a great sense of humor. No matter how cheesy your jokes are, (and mine are pretty bad) Thai students will find them the funniest thing they’ve ever heard. Not being a morning person, I woke up every morning excited to go to school and teach. I was teaching students ranging from 15 to 18 years old, which in my opinion is the best age to teach. Growing up in London, my experience with students in this age group is that they are apathetic, and not willing to learn. Thailand is completely different in this sense, especially towards foreign teachers. All my students looked forward to my classes and I even had other classes which I wasn’t scheduled to teach begging me to teach them. |
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My classes ranged from students who spoke relatively good English to students who stared at you blankly when you ask them what their name is. The less able classes could sometimes become quite stressful, but the teacher training suggests techniques to help students to understand what you want them to do. |
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Living with Thais is practically having free Thai lessons everyday. I learned quite a bit of Thai, and I made very good friends with the teacher that I was staying with. At first, I wasn’t quite sure whether he was a man or a woman, and it turned out that he was a bit of both, which at first was a bit of a shock. He turned out to be extremely nice and he taught me a lot of Thai. He even shed a few tears when I left which was really sweet (considering that I had only done a very short placement of only two weeks!). I would recommend volunteer teaching in Thailand to anyone. I had a great time and it was also a great life experience.
Max P |
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