itsmedave Posted July 15, 2001 Report Share Posted July 15, 2001 Before I move on and discuss the comings and goings (so to speak) during the second week of the class, I thought I'd discuss a bit of the nightlife of Ban Phe and Rayong for those who may be interested on what there is to do after school hours. As this may not be so much of interest to those on the Ajarn site, (Phil) feel free to edit it when transferring this report over there. Being a small beach community, which, for farangs, only exists as a docking point for Ko Samet, there is very little in the way of western comforts. Even the city's largest hotel, the Pine Beach, has only Thai tv channels. Apart from a 7-11 and a Kodac store, there is nothing to be found which resembles anything you're used to back home. There are quite a few restaurant/bars either on or along the beach that many of the students hang out at. The two favorites seem to be Dewey's (on the beach) which is famous for it's food and pleasant atmosphere and Nim's (on the land side) which is famous for...Nim. An elderly, toothless lady who generally manages to get at least one thing wrong with your order, she is also very amusing, and grows on people quickly. They do make a very good fried chicken and french fries...with the fries being the best I've tasted in all of Thailand. Also, they make fruit slushees that are to die for...for 15 baht. For even more "adult" sanuk, there are several karaoke bars in a little square behind the 7-11. For the most parts these are all very small with 4 to 5 girls working in each, and the music machine only plays Thai songs. Although I have to this point never had more than conversation with these girls, they are quite friendly, but lack the English skills of their Bangkok counterparts. From what I understand, they have short-time rooms available for an all-inclusive 1000 baht (this is the stated price so I imagine you could bring it down) Otherwise Ban Phe is filled with the generic Thai shops and street vendors. Their big cultural event, the Monday market, is very similar to Chatuchak - only on Monday and about 10 times smaller. There are scads of mosquitos so bring some repellant or be prepared to enjoy the benefits of angry welts up and down your legs. Rayong is like a little suburb, but it is an actual city. It has a big western-style mall with all you could want and it's main road is a highway with four lanes. It was a very enjoyable day I spent there, and, although I again did not take advantage of whgat was offered, I did see some sexy massage places near the bus station. To get to Rayong from Ban Phe, there is a Baht Bus that goes for 15 baht. The ride takes about half an hour. The bus station in Ban Phe only goes to Bangkok (about 100 baht) so if you want the bus to Pattaya, you first need to get to Rayong where the bus fare is 50 baht. You can also hire a minivan for 300 RT to Pattaya or a taxi for B700. Week two Fresh, relaxed, and rejuvenated from our weekend away, we began Monday morning by returning to the dreaded grammar lessons, followed in the afternoon by Phonology. Last week I mentioned that the Head teacher, Dave Hopkins, was all that we could have hoped for. While this continued, week 2 brought us an ever-increasing amount of time with another instructor, Steve. This was not good news because Steve, for all his effort and easygoing ways, is simply not up to the standard set by Dave. In fact, the more often Steve taught, the more clear it became that we'd be facing a wasted 90 minutes. While Dave would spend 20 minutes using us as Thai students as he taught a lesson, then explain in detail exactly what he did, followed by having us get up and do it for ourselves, with Steve it was all Steve. Basically we would be his Thai students for the full period, until it seemed we were giving HIM teaching practice more than he trainging us to be teachers. On Tuesday we spent 45 minutes writing a little play in English (we were pretending to be Thai students) and then performing it for him. The purpose? I'm still not sure. We had done this twice before with Dave, but in each case there was always an alterior motive which made logical sense. Meanwhile, as usual, he never got to the end of the handout he was describing, and still kept us late, so we could complete the meaningless task he set for us. Add this to the fact that Steve doesn't really seem to be on top of the lesson he's teaching, frequently just reading directly from the handout, and you can imagine how frustrating these sessions can be. To be fair, though, it is unfortunate for him to be compared with Dave, who truly is the captain of the ship in every way. I hope you don't get the wrong idea about Steve, as I do like him as a person, and I do understand he is, in a sense, in training himself for this job, but I did not pay 60,000+ baht to pretend to be a Thai student or to give him practice teaching. I did make the appropriate comments during a feedback session, so we'll see if things change (although we are now almost done with the "input" portion of the class.) Tuesday we took the grammar and phonology exams and, blessed be his name, I managed to pass. (Actually scored pretty well, although the fact that it was an open-book test helped quite a bit.) I had also recv'd a very good feedback report on my teaching time with the Thai student, and am current on my homework assignments, so...so far, so good. Wednesday we learned that, once again, Thai holidays were screwing with our schedule. Monday and Tuesday of the third week, which were supposed to be our first days of real teaching practice were called off because the high schools were out. To fill the time, Dave would spend a day on Business English, a course for which he normally charges extra, and would spend more time on job hunting, resume, and job interview skills. This was actually good news because it was these things I really wanted to learn. (Most of the class, apart from grammar-type stuff, deals strictly with teaching children) The rest of the week went by pretty easily, as the heavily front-loaded first week consumed most of the big projects of the course. The amount of homework drastically decreased, and there was much more time to play. For me (besides the actual teaching) the only big hurdle remaining, is a set of materials I have to create when doing my teaching practice. I seriously, seriously suck at art, so I'm a little nervous about creating all of the pictures I'll need to model the concepts of my lesson. Friday, we recv'd more good news, in that they were about to finalize a written agreement with the AUA schools where, if you taught there for a certain length of time, they would pay back some or all of your tuition, and possibly pay at a higher rate than someone who was not a TEF'L Int'l graduate. The details aren't final yet, but when I know, so will you. The owner, Bruce, spent the week in Turkey, where they are apparantly trying to expand. Things appear to be moving rapidly for the school, and they even offered to hire us for one week after the course to help out while another of their English camps was going on. They offered to pay 1500 per day for the five days. Week 3 then, promises 2 days of added coursework not originally intended for the class followed by our first three days as teachers of a semi-full class of students. But you'll have to wait til next week to hear about that. ALERT!!! I plan to come to Bangkok next Friday night to set the stage for my move. I'll catch the 5:30 bus and might be able to get to Woodstock between 9-10pm. Hope to see ya'll there. Also, anybody who'd like to help me in setting up interviews (are you listening Loo Doot) or apartment hunting would be most gratefully appreciated. I will be making my resume this week and hope to spend Saturday travelling to various schools around town dropping them off and maybe even interviewing. As always, please let me know if there's any questions you'd like answered, and any other feedback, positive or not, I'd love to hear. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colonel Kurtz Posted July 16, 2001 Report Share Posted July 16, 2001 Nice one Dave,keep em coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 16, 2001 Report Share Posted July 16, 2001 Your candid reports are very important. Thanks for the update, and we hope you survive the next two weeks! teacherwannabe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Long Gun Posted July 16, 2001 Report Share Posted July 16, 2001 Dave I'm assuming you won't be needing the 'stuff' just yet - I will be away in Indo at the weekend. BTW, remember I asked you about the origins of your board name? Here is the routine I spoke about - perhaps you can use it in one of your conversation classes?!!? Dave (Soft knocks at the door) CHONG: Who is it? CHEECH: It's me, Dave. Open up, man, I got the stuff. (More knocks) CHONG: Who is it? CHEECH: It's me, Dave, man. Open up, I got the stuff. CHONG: Who? CHEECH: It's, Dave, man. Open up, I think the cops saw me come in here. (More knocks) CHONG: Who is it? CHEECH: It's, Dave, man. Will you open up, I got the stuff with me. CHONG: Who? CHEECH: Dave, man. Open up. CHONG: Dave? CHEECH: Yeah, Dave. C'mon, man, open up, I think the cops saw me. CHONG: Dave's not here. CHEECH: No, man, I'm Dave, man. (Sharp knocks at the door) CHEECH: Hey, c'mon, man. CHONG: Who is it? CHEECH: It's Dave, man. Will you open up? I got the stuff with me. CHONG: Who? CHEECH: Dave, man. Open up. CHONG: Dave? CHEECH: Yeah, Dave. CHONG: Dave's not here. CHEECH: What the hell? No, man, I am Dave, man. Will you... (More knocks) CHEECH: C'mon! Open up the door, will you? I got the stuff with me, I think the cops saw me. CHONG: Who is it? CHEECH: Oh, what the hell is it...c'mon. Open up the door! It's Dave! CHONG: Who? CHEECH: Dave! D-A-V-E! Will you open up the goddam door! CHONG: Dave? CHEECH: Yeah, Dave! CHONG: Dave? CHEECH: Right, man. Dave. Now will you open up the door? CHONG: Dave's not here. LG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 16, 2001 Report Share Posted July 16, 2001 Dave, Great stuff, very informative. This is going to be a big help for me. Keep it coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsmedave Posted July 16, 2001 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2001 Long Gun, Thanks for the notice, but you're right, I won't need it yet. Hopefully I can find an apartment on the skytrain line this weekend so I will have a place to go when the course ends. Have good travels...and did you ever get to the festival in Japan? Also, thanks for the Cheech and Chong, I miss those guys. Cheech is downright boring nowadays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sukhumvit Posted July 17, 2001 Report Share Posted July 17, 2001 LG lol man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 17, 2001 Report Share Posted July 17, 2001 Thanks Dave for the newest installment. It sounds like "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"! I'm curious how your transitions will go. Apartment and job hunting reports will be very helpful. Good Luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 17, 2001 Report Share Posted July 17, 2001 Thanks again Dave , I'm sucking this stuff up. I really hopeful of living this out some day myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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