Finishing university was terrifying; I had no idea what I wanted to do afterwards.  It was driving me insane. I spent days trawling the internet looking at graduate jobs and I came across an opportunity to teach in Thailand, and I thought, why not! I’ve taught before and I also had experience working with children. So, I went out on a limb and applied for the position.

After months of visa applications, flight bookings and all sorts of other legalities I was finally all packed up and ready to go! It was a 14 hour flight (which I was lucky enough to sleep right through). We eventually arrived into Bangkok, which was an experience in itself – the heat hits you in the face like a warm flannel as soon as you walk out of the plane. I thought, I can get used to this! It made a change to the cold, wet dreary weather we left behind in Manchester.

After a week of training with the teaching agency in Bangkok we were ready to travel to our school. Becca (a fellow teacher) and I were placed together in a small high school in the North West of Thailand in a village called Mancha Kiri. We were dropped off at our house, which was a beautiful, wooden, traditional Thai house with hot running water (a luxury)! This was a relief as some research into Thai housing had left me fearing the worst.

We had a couple of days to settle into the village before we were introduced to our school. It was a nerve-wracking day, packed with anticipation. We walked through the front gates of the school to what felt like a million eyes staring at us; the students were transfixed by our white skin and blonde hair, they wanted to touch us and take photos with us – I felt famous! We arrived in the English department where Ajarn (Mr) Kai the Head of English gave us a warm welcome. He told us to introduce ourselves in that morning’s assembly to the WHOLE school! I was so nervous! We said a quick hello to the school and told the students about ourselves and in no time we felt like regular fixtures amongst the teaching staff.[one_third]

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As time passed and I settled into my role as Year 1 & 5 (High School) English teacher, I came to the conclusion that teenagers are the same everywhere. Many people had suggested to me that Thai students would be so much better behaved that English students. Well, I don’t believe that. Teenagers are the same everywhere; they have hormones racing around their bodies no matter if they’re from the UK or Uruguay. This, plus the heat of Thailand makes for a very interesting concoction. The discipline strategy you have to employ is one of calm authority, as due to the Thai culture, if you shout or raise one’s voice you have essentially “lost face”, the worst thing a teacher can do. So at first it was a learning curve to adopt a style of teaching that needed to fit in with my western culture as well as adhering to Thai teaching methods. Once I had that, the rest was a breeze. I built relationships with students which had mutual respect, as well as fun and humour ingrained into them! They enjoyed the lessons, and many of my students grades improved significantly. One of my fondest memories is of a time when I was doing a speaking exercise (a listen & repeat exercise) and my whole class repeated the word perfectly, but in my accent. A mix of Yorkshire & Thai is a strange but hilarious combination.

My time in Thailand was an experience I will never forget and always cherish. If you are thinking about moving to a foreign county (either to study, work, or travel) I would advise you to be willing to adapt, try new things and not be scared of different cultures. Go in with an open mind and it will be the best experience of your life, that you wouldn’t change for the world!!

Becky Abbott-Hynes, Student Services Advisor at Study Links