Teaching class 5 and Graduation day

So here we are, the final assessed teaching class and it's the main one we have been dreading: “The story lesson", were we have to tell a 10 minute story of our choosing and then hope that the students understood enough of it to answer 10 straight forward questions relating to the content and 5 much more difficult questions where they would have to think for themselves to give answers, followed by asking them to write a 6 line summary of the story we had told.

Kristine chose a story called "The Honest Woodcutter" about ..wait for it.. yep an honest woodcutter, the title is a dead give away. She started her lesson but because no other students had turned up I (Stephen) had to wait around for 1 hour 10 minutes till my students were ready to go. She once again delivered a flawless class getting another 100% and came out grinning.

She asked the kids if they knew the story and one girl had previously heard it from an Indian teacher, a few months ago. She thought Kristine's was better as she had more visuals and her story telling and her acting was better and funnier: Hollywood here she comes...
The rest hadn't so it was new for them and they were genuinely interested in the way she told it. Quick recap is a woodcutter loses his axe in a pond and a water fairy offers him a silver and gold axe instead one by one but he refuses each time saying his was a simple wooden axe and for his honesty is rewarded with all 3 axes and sent on his way and continues with him telling his landlord about it. The landlord then tries the same trick and lies and the spirit punishes him and changes him into a frog. That's the short version but one of her students did turn around and said "Oh that sounds like the story of the boy, sheep and the wolf, and about telling lies”.

So one hour later I was in my class ready to give my lesson and because a few students hadn't turned up I was given one girl from Kristine's class, who was happy to take another free English lesson and a few other students who eventually turned up 1 hour late (it's Thai time and its something we have to get use to), we have been told that sometimes while teaching your entire class might not turn up without warning... no complaints here. ☺

So then I was about to start my class and I was telling the story about the “boy who cried wolf” as I exclaimed at the start of the lesson only to see one girl laugh for no apparent reason. It was only after my class that Kristine told me she had her as well and she had brought up the boy who cried wolf story.

The next day was the last day of our course and graduation day we knew it was going to be good as on our way to school just outside our apartment we seen a man walking his baby elephant down the road, ”the norm” here we suppose, everyone say it with me “Ittttsssss Thailand”

In the morning we had to assess a students proficiency by sitting with one pupil and having a chat in present simple form ie, "What is your name?" "What is your favorite hobby?" and so on and if they preform well bring it to past and then past continuous ie, "Have you been in school long?" and "Have you been studying long?". This was tough as it's one on one and if they don't understand your question they stare at you dumbfounded while you try and think of something else to say, and I said before going in that speaking to any person constantly for 1 hour without pause is tough enough... try it with a 15 yr old Thai kid... like getting blood from a stone. We found common ground by talking about movies and Tony Jaa.

Afterwards we took our graduation pics and were given our certificates making it official and we were now teachers of English as a foreign language and the job hunt could begin.

The owner of the school brought us all to a restaurant for free lunch and afterwards showed us her school in Khon Kaen, which we fell in love with straight away. 
She kept saying how impressed she was with me and Kristine, as she had evaluated 2 of our classes and they happened to be two were we got 100%, so it was a good boost of confidence. 

She then went on to say that we are first on the list for private classes as students contact her agency for lessons and pay 400 baht an hour so we should be expecting calls soon for some side work. 
Then she mentioned she had part time work for the next 3 months in her school but couldn't offer a work permit til next may when her new semester starts so we said we will consider but may try get a permanent position for this semester as other wise we could go crazy waiting around. And would have to keep doing visa runs to Laos every 2 months without a work permit. Still she is a damn good contact to have as we found out she owns half the business's in Khon Kaen and we were advised she is one of the wealthiest woman in the city.. might have to get me a sugar mama, if Kristine gives the green light :)

Now to celebrate.. roll on next weekend and the trip to monkey village.. which I'm hoping is a village run entirely by monkeys (one can dream)