OK.. mates.. you have a class of 150-200 NON-English Majors.. and some deserve your best, and the rest, well.. just let them sleep.. they are quiet.

A mix of entertainment with a dash of lessons.. is the only means of survival..

The ADM certainly did not Give A PLUK.

The well meaning instructors do their best.. and call it a day.

The technology is not available.. it is the overhead project and your necessity of invention.. and all those back-up lesson, that don't fit the scheme..That save the day..

Any tips for the tired teachers?

After teaching a lot of classes with 50 Thai teenagers, I thought I had it bad. Then university instructors from the USA started writing about auditorium classes of first year non-majors, with up to 500 students. I cannot imagine.

With bad technology, I'll bet the $30 sound system doesn't reach the back of the classroom. Surely nobody expects much of you.

You got it right: edutainment. Hopefully, like the screenwriters for "The Simpsons," you can throw in some intellectual jokes for the students in the front row who deserve to learn something. At least a pun like 'My pen writes."

Learn Thai fluently, then take a tip from our Thai university instructors who teach English classes under the same circumstances: Talk Thai 95% of the time with a couple of English phrases thrown in to satisfy the course description.

Don't forget the monotone, it insures uninterrupted slumber from otherwise disrupters.

We have the added "enhancement" of 4-hour long classes (yup, with the 150 non-English majors).

Nightmare.

Seriously, I'm with you. I teach to the 5% of interested students only (and yes, and they're in my front row, too). If they start having enough fun, sometimes it arouses the second-row to join us. God help rows 3 through 30 at final exams.

Two very funny (and opposite) views from a website for farang teachers in Thailand:

I for one, will never prostitute myself for some Thai student who expects "a performance" from his western teacher . Do Thai teachers clown themseves for their students? It's called pride!"

Ajarn Pete

"These kids and adults aren't paying real money to be bored to tears. Entertain them, and if you're clever, you'll educate them along the way, and they'll hardly have noticed. However, just to tell 'em what I told 'em, I write today's accomplishments on the board, since with all the clowning around, they may not have noticed: "Today, we practiced the continuous tense in the present, past, and future." Oh, is that what all the dancing, singing, and jumping was all about, all those -ing words?"

Peace Blondie on the 'entertainer' aspect.