A Benchama Tale

Before I update you on the forever craziness that endures in Thailand, I want to apologize for the delay in blogging. My interent in my apartment is, well… very slow. But I am dedicating this blog to taking a closer look into Benchama Rat Rungsarit (a.k.a. Ben 1) and what my job is like.

I get to school around 8 in the morning and for the first 40 minutes the students have an outside assembly where they pray, sing the national anthem and hear any important announcements for that day. The teachers are supposed to stand outside as well, but we usually end up hanging out in the office (better yet.. I drink my coffee and start waking up). Sometimes these assemblies run late into the first period, and I’ll be lucky if the students show up half way through.

Getting ready for the dance performances

Sometimes your students don’t show up to class at all and you’re waiting in class for fifteen minutes just to realize that no one told you that your class was on a field trip that day. Other times the boys don’t show up because they are at “army training” and the girls don’t show up because they are “getting haircuts.” Sometimes I just don’t know what is happening at all.

But.. on the good days I have an average of 36-46 kids in a classroom and I teach about 19 kids a week. I have a total of 562 students.. and I know all of their names.. just kidding. But I’m actually learning them pretty well. Taking roll at the beginning of every class is always an opportunity for the kids to crack up at my pronunciation of their names, which I truly am trying to get, but sometimes I just can’t hear the difference.

Overall the kids are very energetic and get excited about speaking. They love when I try to teach them how to pronounce words and letters and make them make a “th” sound or a “r” sound and they just crack up, which then makes me crack up. The periods are 50 minutes long and I usually plan out my lessons with ample time. Once in a while, I am completely off and I have lots of time left and I will usually play a game like telephone with the kids.

Me with some of my M-2 students! Aren't they cute?!

The students have a uniform. The girls aren’t allowed to have hair past a certain length, and overall everyone seems pretty conservative. Oh, and did I mention that at the beginning of each class when I walk in one students says, “Everybody please stand up” The students then all stand up and in unison say, “Good morning/afternoon teacher.” To which I reply, “Good morning. How are you?” Once again in unison, “I am fine teacher. Thank you and you?” I reply that I’m feeling good and tell them to sit down. To which they say, “Thank you teacher.” If I forget to tell them to sit, they will remain standing.. trust me I’ve done that before. At the end of the class they all stand up and in unison say, “Thank you teacher. See you again.” At first I was completely bewildered my this ceremony, but it has become second nature, and I forget to mention it earlier because it didn’t seem out of the ordinary anymore.

Some more of my students!

The reason I mention the students conservative nature is because last Monday was a complete turn-around at school. It was the celebration of the school’s birthday, which meant no classes but one big carnival. I was so impressed with how the students put together the celebration. There were carnivals, games, food and a fashion show.

Let me tell you about this fashion show for a minute. I don’t know if you are familiar with the ladyboy culture here in Thailand, but basically there are many ladyboys, or men that dress up as women. More often than not, you can’t tell that these “women” are actually men. In this fashion show, about 80 percent of the students participating were ladyboys. The costumes were so extravagant and handmade and the students, who normally have to wear a strict uniform, were literally cross-dressing during school.

Later on there was a stage set up for students to perform different dances to their favorite songs. There were some traditional Thai costumes and dancing, and then there were the ladyboys who danced to their favorite songs, mainly by Lady Gaga. It was absolutely hysterical and shocking that these kids who seem so conservative were so lively and expressed themselves in interesting ways.

My favorite Lady Gaga Performer

One of the many lovely contestants

Me with students getting ready to perform

One of the many interesting dance performances

Traditional Thai costumes for Thai dancing

The next day things were back to normal, not that normal here is normal by any American standards. The weirdest part is when I was in class the next day I was thinking, any of these students could have been ladyboys participicating in the show, and I just wouldn’t know.