Angela Killian

I taught Pre-school and Kindergarten at the Nai Yang Temple School from February – May 2011.

I obtained this job through ECC, a language school and English teacher placement agency. They also provide English Teacher Training courses. I recommend this company out of necessity if you are desperate to teach in Thailand. http://eccthai.com/ I attempted to approach government schools on my own to apply and they all insisted that I go through ECC.

I only taught at the Nai Yang Temple School a few times per week (about 14 hours total) and was very happy to do so as it was walking distance from my house. There was no work permit provided, but at least it got my foot in the door. This was my very first job after college, in Thailand and in the education field.

A Thai lady from ECC accompanied me and said we were only going there to meet the director and other Thai teachers, none of which spoke English, so she would be the translator. ECC assured me that I would NOT be teaching that day, so I didn’t prepare any lessons.

I walked to the temple to meet the ECC representative and she would drive me to the school, as I wasn’t 100 % sure where it was. I chose to wear a knee length black flowy dress with a white cardigan. I pulled the front of my hair back and put on natural looking make-up. I even wore closed toe shoes, at ECC’s request. What else is an English teacher supposed to wear?

When I sat in the woman’s car, she immediately looked at me and said, “You cannot wear that to work.” I was crushed because I put a lot of thought into looking professional, but also approachable for the kids. I also literally had nothing else to wear. Abruptly she said, “It’s fine for today, we’re running late anyways.”

Upon arrival to the school I realized how local  it was. The buildings were all open air and covered in a layer of dust. The basketball court was a dirt field and the rusty baskets were falling down. Some classrooms had an air conditioning unit on the wall, but they never turned them on for some reason. The students didn’t have desks and were forced to sit on the floor. The teacher’s desk was little more than a folding table with a plastic child’s chair.

The teacher squat-style toilet was pretty typical (picture below), but the student bathroom looked like a swampland covered in piss, shit and dirt.

I was immediately confused as to WHY I had to wear closed toe shoes, as we were required to remove them before entering the classroom. The classroom floors were always swept, but the old white tiles were stained yellow and often had ants and other insects crawling on them. I worried about getting a foot fungus.

The Thai teachers I met that day were all really sweet. They waied (Thai style greeting with prayer-like hands) and served me cold water in a glass. I noticed that they were drinking from plastic cups or their own personal water bottle. The children all shared one plastic cup that was stained brown that they would refill at the plastic water cooler. I worried about the cleanliness of the drinking water and ice, but took a few sips because they were so proud to offer it to me and I didn’t want to look like a snob.

I was mortified when the ECC woman and Thai teachers released me on the children, expecting a full hour lesson. Not only was I told NOT to prepare anything, but my attire was criticized, I was sweating, barefoot on a dirty floor and forced to consume what I thought was unclean water.

Once I realized that they all expected me to magically make these 3 year olds produce English words with no supplies, I told the ECC woman that I hadn’t prepared anything. She scoffed and began speaking in Thai to the other teachers. They gracefully saved face for me and said it was no problem. We said our goodbyes and the ECC woman offered to drive me back to my house. I told her where to go, but she was driving a big truck and didn’t make the turns I told her to so we ended up a bit lost. In retrospect, I don’t think she had a strong command of English. She was already annoyed with me on the first day and I didn’t want to be pushy with the directions, so I kept quiet. Eventually I said to just drop me off where she had picked me up, the temple. It would be easier for me to walk the rest of the way and it was only 20 minutes on foot. I hopped out and her truck kicked up dust as she sped away. Surrounded by stray dogs and gawking villagers, I quickly started walking towards my house.

By this time I was on the edge of hysteria and finally broke down as soon as she was out of sight. I was completely traumatized and told Joe the whole story over my pre-paid mobile phone. It was the worst first day on the job ever. I put my sunglasses on to hide my tears from passersby and powerwalked as fast as I could to the house. I didn’t want to go back to that school ever, but was scheduled to start the following week.

I felt slightly better once I had done some lesson planning. ECC boasted that they had supplies available in their offices for English teachers to borrow. The selection was made up of incomplete ABC and animal flashcards. I made some of my own for emotions and colors, but the printer was in black and white so I inevitably had to buy supplies on my own. I also had some work clothes made at one of the tailors on the beach and purchased some better shoes.

Aside from getting classrooms confused, the only thing I remember from my first day was the morning bathroom break. After I was about 30 minutes into a lesson, the Thai teachers signaled that it was time to use the bathroom. The children ran out the door in a disorderly fashion. I followed them, as I figured 3 year olds might need assistance in the bathroom swamp. The little girls immediately took off their underwear and squatted on the pavement in front of the classroom. They were still smiling and chatting with each other as streams of urine soiled the hot cement.

It was the most disgraceful thing I had seen up to that point and the bewilderment didn’t leave my face until I got home later that day.