Volunteer English Teaching in Chiang Rai

[pomchop]

Foreigners Volunteer to Teach English to Children Living in Rural Areas

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A new project has been made to teach children in English in Khon Kaen. Countryside students are being taught English by several foreign volunteers.

Khon Kaen September 23, 2013; The Provincial Governor held an meeting regarding a project that will teach children living in rural areas English. Over 23 foreigners signed up to teach the children. Amongst the foreigners were Norwegian, German, Dutch, Russian, French and English nationals.

The reason behind the creation of the project was that several foreigners were residing in Khon Kaen province and they were seeing that children who were living rural areas didnt have chance to learn any languages and that some were not able to get any decent education.

The Khon Kaen provincial government has shown its full support to the project as it is a great opportunity for children living in rural areas to study English and other subjects which are taught by English speaking teachers.

Not sure how Khon Kaen province gets around the absurd work permit issue for volunteers to teach English for FREE...but I would love to see this get approved in CR province. There are a LOT of poor kids here who could benefit from having some farangs around to at least ATTEMPT to speak and understand English. Many of the kids do know quite a bit of English but almost all the instruction is concentrated on reading and writing and RARELY do the kids actually practice speaking or trying to understand spoken English. Many of the Thai English teachers actually teach English speaking almost all Thai. I have long suspected that there are a lot of kind hearted bored Falangs in CR that would be happy to volunteer a day or two a week to allow the kids to meet falangs from around the world as well as to hopefully practice speaking. I have been involved in a similar program in CR for several years and after getting over the initial stare at the falang and the initial shyness to actually try and say the words they know the kids do respond very well. There are ways around the work permit issue by saying that you are just "visiting the kids". I am trying to get a local CR public school to see if they can work it out to do a semi major falang volunteer program. Just curious as to how many of you local CR falangs would agree to show up for an afternoon/morning or two a week if the work permit thing is not an issue? It's really not rocket science to teach the kids...all you have to do is talk...tell them about yourself, your family, your dog...make it fun and try and get them to respond to you in English. You will have to speak very slowly and clearly....and of course there is always a Thai teacher present in the room to help out if you get stuck and need some translation help and of course to protect kids from any weirdo falangs.

So the question is how many of you would be interested in volunteering some IF IF the work permit issue can be resolved?

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[tingtong]

I think in trully rural area one can get by volunteering without a work permit, contact a school for their take on the matter, but i think they would be pleased. Having a farang teacher to boost, without spending on actual money ( even a thai salary) is an achievement, dont you agree?

I am not really sure about the teaching part. I agree that some thai words might be beneficial to the foreigner, but the constant present of a thai taecher is useless ( they cant really translate as they dont really understand English, if tranlate, then still maybe their view, idea, or understanding will be the result, and not your meaning) and probably counterproductive too ( authority issue in the eyes of the kids).

English is my second language, and when stared to learn in high school, we got a native teacher who was few days in my country prior, spoke about 2 words in my language. Enthusiasm, from the teacher side, and wanting to learn from the student's...got us past the start, and it all became easier in time.

Agree, that a teacher has to speak clearly, but not necessery sloooowly....kids should hear and learn to mimick the real language, with its real spoken speed, rather than the one now they hear: Aaareee youuuu reeeeady? and such common thai english.

If you can, go for it, the kids should enjoy it!

[pomchop]

I think in trully rural area one can get by volunteering without a work permit, contact a school for their take on the matter, but i think they would be pleased. Having a farang teacher to boost, without spending on actual money ( even a thai salary) is an achievement, dont you agree?

I am not really sure about the teaching part. I agree that some thai words might be beneficial to the foreigner, but the constant present of a thai taecher is useless ( they cant really translate as they dont really understand English, if tranlate, then still maybe their view, idea, or understanding will be the result, and not your meaning) and probably counterproductive too ( authority issue in the eyes of the kids).

English is my second language, and when stared to learn in high school, we got a native teacher who was few days in my country prior, spoke about 2 words in my language. Enthusiasm, from the teacher side, and wanting to learn from the student's...got us past the start, and it all became easier in time.

Agree, that a teacher has to speak clearly, but not necessery sloooowly....kids should hear and learn to mimick the real language, with its real spoken speed, rather than the one now they hear: Aaareee youuuu reeeeady? and such common thai english.

If you can, go for it, the kids should enjoy it!

I don't worry about the work permit thing much but I know a lot of farangs do. The Thai English teachers where I am certainly are capable of translating as I use them quite a bit in that regard.....while it would be great to speak at normal speeds it would be worthless as the kids wouldn't understand a word you say....you have to start SLOWLY with them and then hopefully over time work up to normal speed.....walk before you run so to speak. I often will say something to them in my broken Thai and after they quit laughing at my horrible pronunciation I try and make them tell me IN ENGLISH what I said in Thai. They seem to get a kick out of that so they have to try and think a bit in English and I get to practice my Thai and we all have fun laughing at each other.

Some farangs seem to worry about all the different accents etc we farangs have but frankly in my experience if you can get the kids to speak/understand most any English accent it is way better than doing nothing. A Thai teacher would likely be required to be in the room as otherwise they might feel the volunteers were threatening their jobs which would not work....in my experience the Thai teachers seem to enjoy having me or other farangs take over the class and they have been most helpful and co-operative.

I do wish we could get a few younger and female volunteers as well so the kids could meet some people nearer their age rather than it being all old retired male farangs. I suspect some younger blonde aussies/swedes/ etc gals would be a big hit...not a lot of blondes around the school to say the least..in fact zero.

[pomchop]

So 287 views and not one single CR farang is interested in possibly volunteering to "teach" English to some CR high school kids?

I have a meeting tomorrow to discuss with head of English dept at local high school and had hoped to tell her that several people had expressed an interest to help a day or so a week assuming she can overcome any "work permit" concerns as Khon Kaen has done.

Have to say I am a bit surprised at lack of interest by our CR TV group. It really is a GOOD thing to do especially if you are a bit bored and want to at least try and help out some poor local kids.

Anyway...up to you.

IF IF you are interested please just post your interest here and I'll give more info as it becomes available.

Thank you.

[villagefarang]

As I see it there is a lot more demand than supply. I wouldn’t need to drive 60 km to a school in town if I wanted to teach. Every village around here has a school and they would all accept the help.

As it is, my wife does volunteer to teach English once a week in a neighboring school. I have visited and their level is so low, I personally think a native speaker would be wasted on them.

If people really had an interest in volunteer teaching I am pretty sure they wouldn’t have to look far afield to find a place to do it. It is nice that you want to try and organize something but residents of the Rai can be a difficult and disperse group to try and corral. Good luck with your efforts to make a difference.

Edited September 30, 2013 by villagefarang

[sceadugenga]

I still occasionally get "Good morning ka" from schoolgirls out on my walk.

Nice to see that they don't let a foreign language get in the way of good manners.

Edited September 30, 2013 by sceadugenga

[kevvy]

pomchop

please let me know how I can help . I dont live there but always willing to help kids. maybe I can sent some school books, pencils , bags etc

You are a wonderful person to take time out of your life to help the children . Most of us in our childhood years had good schools to go to and happy home life. The kids in Thailand in these small villages do not have what we had . sure it is a different culture , but now they are many westerners here now who can make a different life for these children. if everybody just gave 100 baht a month it would make a difference to the children's schooling . Believing that education is the best solution towards solving poverty .The ultimate goal of helping is to ensure that the children in need get out of their impoverished situation as quickly as possible through schooling .

cheers

kevvy