Learn, Understand and Embrace Thai Culture
This is not just a suggestion, but a requirement by the
Teacher’s Council of Thailand for anybody who wants to teach in a Thai school.
Thai culture is quite different from Western culture. Knowing a thing or two
about Thai culture will not only help you build rapport with your students and Thai
colleagues, it will also help you minimize the risk of putting your foot
in your mouth. Get informed about the monarchy, religion, customs, and general
beliefs. There is a lot of information available online and the mandatory
20-hour Culture course will ensure that you have a basic understanding of Thai
culture.
Lesson
Planning is Extremely Important
This one is especially important for people without much
experience teaching in
Thailand yet. It is recommended to print out a lesson plan, including a
broad layout for your planned topic, even if you are a seasoned teacher. Your
Thai colleagues highly appreciate it because you appear well prepared and
they can learn from your lessons at a different level. You also will make it
easy for any
teacher who may need to substitute for you, since they know
exactly what you intended to teach your students. Your
lesson plan doesn’t have to be a literary work; a few simple bullet points
outlining the topic and aim of your lesson, the new vocabulary taught, and the
exercises and games used to reinforce the material will do the trick.
In Thailand, people care a lot about looks and this is
especially important
for a teacher. Teachers are held in very high respect and not dressing
appropriately will have a negative impact on that perception. Teachers that
don't look professional will almost always have more trouble managing the
classroom than their peers who are dressed appropriately.
Do Not Speak Thai in the Classroom
If you are in the need of explaining something and can’t do it
with pictures, drawings, and realia, you most likely are teaching something too
complex and above the students’ comprehension level.
Unless you’re speaking Thai perfectly, you
will most likely make a fool of yourself with wrong pronunciation and perhaps
even wrong usage of some words. Students will
at the very least laugh at you (even if just silently) and at worst will be
confused about what exactly you are trying to explain to them.
Make it FUN!
Thai students and
Thai people in general like things to be fun. No
matter how important the material you are teaching to
Thai students, if it is not fun they will not pay attention for very long. The
Thai culture is in a lot of ways about "sanook" - a Thai word that
means FUN! So think of activities that will be fun for your students, while
still providing the information they need to be successful for the objectives
of your lesson.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TEFL Zorritos: What
could be better? Study in a beautiful Peruvian beach town at our
beach-front outdoor training centre with great accommodations available,
including delicious local food. Fully accredited 120 Hour TEFL course
with a practical approach that provides you with 10
advanced certifications at absolutely no extra cost!
And a guaranteed job waiting for you when you complete the course.
Class sizes are limited, so don't wait, make your reservation today!
No comments:
Post a Comment