Clare Elsewhere

As I finish my last day of classes and tutoring, it's hard not to see how things have changed over the course of the past few months. It's hard not to see how teaching has had an impact on my perspective, and hopefully a lasting one.  My office :) I started out coming to Thailand, teaching as a means to finance it. As the term comes to a close, the focus has shifted: I've been learning how to teach, with Thailand just as the setting. It certainly has influenced a lot in my classroom- the culture of the students, the structure of the education system, my status as a foreigner and the extreme language barrier between my co-teachers, my students, and myself. And over the weekends and holidays, I was able to enjoy uniquely Thai and exotic places and experiences.  But unlike my study abroad in Brazil (sorry CIEE), the most memorable times for me in Thailand, the lessons I will hold on to, occurred in the classroom or at least in the school yard.  There is an...

In a country that knows no winter or snow,  the movie "Frozen" is a household and classroom favorite. For many of my students, singing along to "frozen" songs is the most English words they've even spoken consecutively, some of their best pronunciation, and a good chunk of their vocabulary.  It's catchy. It's enticing, and incredibly foreign to them (when I asked my fourth graders to draw a picture of the best weather they can think of, I got a lot of snow, snowmen, winter, cool, cold).  They might like the tune, might like the simplicity, might be fascinated by the concept of winter. But there's also an incredibly strong tie between the "theme" song, "Let it Go" and the behavior and attitude in Thai culture.  When I first explained the lyrics to my kids (1st through 6th graders), I did it word by word but then also tried to give them a comparison. "Let it go" is similar to the Thai "Mai bpen rai" li...