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This album contains photos I took during the P4-P6 assembly this morning, celebrating National Thai Language Day. Following the usual singing of the National Anthem and the Buddhist prayers (during a torrential thunderstorm), our school’s head librarian took the microphone and explained the significance of the day to the students and those foreign teachers who could understand Thai. There was a dedication by one of the most senior Thai teachers and then a short speech by the school director prior to presenting awards to a number of students. A short Thai dance number followed and then skits (mostly morality plays, judging by the responses one of my students gave to my questions). All in all, it was a nice program which would have been vastly improved if I could understand more of the language (and I still feel that the Thai staff should at least make a cursory English-language listing of the schedule so more foreign teachers would understand what was going on).
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Every year on 29 July, Thailand celebrates National Language Day. The day came about because the Ministry of Education was concerned several years ago that many Thai people weren’t using their language correctly. According to a 2007 article in The Nation, the ministry “found that more than 80,000 students at the third level of primary school could not read or understand Thai properly.” Deputy Education Minister Varakorn Samkoses stated that “children attending bilingual schools are using Thai incorrectly because parents force them to study in English more than in Thai.” Veenarat Laohapakakul, writing in a 2005 editorial published in The Nation, felt that “in a world where English has become the lingua franca, a growing number of Thais, especially Bangkokians, don’t really seem to care if they speak or write Thai properly, and even more alarmingly, they don’t seem to appreciate the ability to do so anymore.”
Continue reading 'It’s Thai Language Day'»
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I’ve been participating in the Thursday 13 meme, hosted by http://thursday-13.com/, over on my other blog – The Expat Bookworm – for about a month now. I’ve decided to keep the lists there focused on books and teaching and include those not related to reading here on BJP. My first one here looks at my own past – places where I have lived. All are located in the U.S.A., unless otherwise noted. The earlier years are mostly guesses due to a rather faulty memory (note to self: ask my sister to confirm these!).
13 TOWNS I HAVE LIVED IN
Continue reading 'Thursday 13 #1 (29 July 2010)'»
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The ceremony at our school yesterday for Buddhist Lent was very nice. The monks were fashionably late (prior engagements, you know) but this allowed time for the entire 2000-plus student body to assemble in the canteen area. Once the monks arrived and sat on a raised platform in front of the students and staff, they chanted for a while – the first part was the regular call-and-response we hear every morning at Assembly, the only difference being that the children had to do a complete krab during which they bow their heads completely to the floor during the wai. The school directors then presented a few offerings (typically robes, candles, and envelopes of cash), there was a bit more chanting, and then the entire event ended a full hour before the anticipated time which is a rarity here.
All in all, it was a nice event – the first en-masse Khao Phansa ceremony the school has held since I’ve been working here (I’m in my fourth year now) – and I took a number of photos, and a bit of video as well. Check out the album below for a sample…
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As the actual Wan Khao Phansa occurs this weekend, our school is holding a candle-lighting ceremony this morning for one of the most important events on the Buddhist calendar. Known in English as "Buddhist Lent," this day occurs each year on the first day following the full moon of the eighth lunar month and is a time devoted to study and meditation. It marks the beginning of the three-month "Rains Retreat" during which monks remain within the temple grounds and do not venture out until the fifteenth day of the waxing moon of the eleventh lunar month (in October). This originated to prevent monks from trampling upon rice paddies when they venture out to receive offerings from the villagers. The candles were essential in earlier times for both ceremonies and studying scriptures during night time. Today, devotes purchase large candles that are given to the temple to create illumination in the belief that such a gift will help illuminate the mind.
During the weekly Boy Scouts and Girl Guides period yesterday, our students practiced for today’s ceremony. It made quite a sight to look down from the fourth floor and see so many uniformed kids sitting quietly on the floor of the canteen. This morning, I noted a number of “monk baskets” in the administration office. I arrived so early that only a lone janitor was mopping the floor in preparation for the ceremony. I always look forward to these little breaks in the academic routine and I hope to take a few more photographs today…
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My posts here on Baan Jochim Phuket have been rather few and far between for several months now. Part of that is due to the new school year – I no longer have that much free time for research and writing. Also, since February, I’ve been focused on maintaining a blog that concentrates on reading – The Expat Bookworm. Last week I began an off-shoot of that blog for my P4-level Reading students called The Charlotte’s Web Study Guide. Thus, I’m still active online – just not here.
I do plan to rectify that very soon. I’ve always sought to use BJP to discuss things specifically related to Thailand – it’s history, culture, and people – and my life living here. I’ve strayed somewhat from this “mission” over the past year – especially since a server crash on my old domain and the loss of my archival backups but I must admit life at home changed dramatically with the birth of my daughter, Anda, last September. I found myself watching her every movement rather than trying to think of topics to write about; it’s rare now for me even to leave the house on the weekends. I also felt that many other bloggers cover the things I find fascinating about this country so much better than I ever could. I need to rediscover my muse – at least with upcoming special days and events on the calendar there isn’t a shortage of interesting things to write about. Getting started is the hard part…
It will all come with time. I may begin by reprinting a few older articles; I do have one rather scrambled database backup from the old site – it’s time-consuming to pull anything legible out of it but it can be done. I also need to find out why Thai script will no longer display correctly on BJP (I used to include a Thai translation – script and phonetics — for various words used in my articles); I don’t know if it’s an issue with the theme I’m using, my browser, or something else…
In the meantime, everyone at home is once again healthy. Joy and Anda were both sick off-and-on most of the month of June, mainly due to alternating rainy and sunny days – cold at night, blazing hot by day. Anda is still a happy, smiling baby with nothing to indicate that this won’t continue. She’s very smart in her mannerisms and babbles constantly, wanting very much to talk real words so she can better communicate with us. Joy and I have a friendly wager as to whether her first word will be in Thai or English. I also think that she will begin walking very soon – she can stand up with a bit of help (and if you hold her hands and play music, she’ll dance for you). It’s difficult to believe that she will be ten months old tomorrow. How time flies!
That’s all from (nice-and-cool-but-sunny) Phuket this morning. I hope to write again very soon…
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I do apologize for not writing anything in quite some time; I’ve also been neglecting my other blog at The Expat Bookworm. This has been my busiest year yet teaching (and we are only in the sixth of twenty weeks for Term 1) and I’m often too exhausted at night to much of anything. Some nights, I actually manage to read a chapter or two of a novel but many times I’m out like a light as soon as the evening meal is finished. I spend most of my weekends working on school-related projects on Saturdays (mostly catching up on the huge increase in paperwork) and then laundry or other household chores on Sundays. As far as creative writing (or even blogging), forget about it!
And yet this morning, I find myself in an unusually quiet Teacher’s Lounge between classes so I will attempt a brief post to bring things up to date.
Continue reading 'Busy Times'»
Family, Teaching In Thailand
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2010 Updates, Anda, holidays, Joy, P3, P4, Phuket, Reading, school, Wai Kru
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NOTE: I wrote the following article the evening of 23 April which now seems a lifetime ago. I’m only posting it now because I’ve been fairly bogged-down since returning to work – I see over 200 students per week and am starting to struggle with the amount of paperwork involved in tracking their reading activities, not to mention the myriad of duties and record-keeping involved with having a homeroom on top of being a subject-teacher. This, coupled with the fact that our school’s network has not been working consistently, has prevented me from doing ANYTHING online. I hope to upload more trip photos soon…
Now that I’m finally able to access the internet, I’ve spent an afternoon catching up on the burning of Bangkok and hoping that the violence doesn’t spread elsewhere in Thailand.
We cut our trip to Laos a bit – mostly because the fellow teacher I’d been travelling with wanted to spend his holiday immersed in nightlife akin to that found in Patong, Pattaya, or Patpong (something that doesn’t exist at all in the Land of a Million Elephants) – and I’m now back in Phuket after a whirlwind journey south. In fact, our only real break southbound was yet another night in Vang Vieng (a very comfortable and clean, 50,000-kip/190 baht/USD $5.90-per-night establishment just across from the town’s bus station).
From Vang Vieng we took a local bus to Vientiane (four hours – 30,000 kip/114 baht/USD $3.54). I’d decided that I’d rather buy a few souvenirs for Joy, Anda, and myself than spend money tuk-tuk’s and accommodations so we’d already accepted that we would remain in the Laotian capital just long enough to photograph a few important sights and do a bit of shopping. I paid attention as we drove along Rue Setthathirath and had the bus driver drop us off at Rue Nokeokoummane (rather than the ultimate terminus near the morning market – Talat Sao). I’d remembered that the Vientiane branch of Big Brother Mouse was on one of the side streets near Wats Ong Teu and Mixayaram and quickly found it, once again impressing myself with my sense of direction in places I’d never visited. I wanted to buy a Big Brother Mouse t-shirt (the Luang Prabang shop didn’t have any extra-large sizes in stock) and thought I’d try my luck. They had one white XL t-shirt which I bought for 50,000 kip.
Continue reading 'Back Home in Phuket'»
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