Volunteer Teacher Without Borders

Xiaoxuan Yang’s Post in 2017 volunteer teacher project

In this volunteer teaching experience, we went from being completely clueless and unable to interact at the beginning to eventually getting along harmoniously, all of which came at the cost of tremendous effort. Every morning after breakfast, we would prepare lessons at the campsite, deciding who would take the lead in teaching which part and who would be responsible for livening up the classroom atmosphere. Meanwhile, Uncle Tang would join us during our preparations for classroom rehearsals, which undoubtedly helped us a great deal. During the first lesson planning session, we weren’t sure how to organize the logic—what to teach first and what to follow—despite having an outline and a lesson plan. The results of that first class were far from satisfactory. Starting with the preparations for the second lesson, we gradually learned how to energize the classroom and achieve our teaching goals despite the language barrier. The teaching effect of the second lesson began to show improvement; we didn’t just teach them to recognize single syllables but also introduced them to some simple poems. For the third lesson, our preparations focused on reviewing what they had previously learned, refining their pronunciation, and then introducing new material on that foundation. By the end of the third lesson, the children could independently and completely recite Li Bai’s Quiet Night Thoughts without pinyin or a guide. For the fourth lesson’s preparations, we focused more on everyday phrases and specific terms for family members. They understood very well, though much of this success was thanks to the teaching cards made by David and Michael, which included Thai translations they painstakingly copied down alongside Chinese and English for easier comprehension.

After four days of teaching, we discovered that Thai people have a remarkable talent for learning Chinese. Given the right conditions, they could learn to converse with a native Chinese speaker. On the last day, we translated into Thai to tell the children that this would be our final day teaching them. They were very sad and even pretended to cry loudly. We quickly translated again to assure them that we would come back, and only then did they smile happily. When it was time to leave, we felt reluctant to part, but there’s always a chance to return to Thailand and see them again in the future.

Finally, we’re deeply grateful to Local school, my parents, and Nond for giving us such a wonderful opportunity to experience what it’s like to be teachers. Everyone worked so hard.