The final week of Paul's volunteer placement has arrived, and here are his final comments:

My favorite memory: All of my students. Every one of them were good students, had a good attitude trying their best and always willing to learn. This in spite of the fact that I was teaching them during their holidays. Remember how you felt about summer school? I wish all of them a bright future.

I was surprised that... the level of understanding and speaking English was rather low. The students have a good textbook understanding of English, i.e. they can recognize and read English words. However, they need a lot of help speaking English and pronunciation needs work. That is where the volunteer can help. 

My best received lesson: were ones that didn’t come out of a text book. I would have the students create something – like a map of town, or the layout of a hotel resort (for the hospitality and tourism students) – and then they would practice giving directions. It was more relevant to them if they were working with something that they created. 

Tip for Future Volunteers: My tip is to expect that the students will have a low level of understanding and seek out material that teaches English in a simple way but with lots of pictures. The book I ended up using most was “Side by Side”, by Melinsky and Bliss, purchased at a Border’s book store in the U.S.

Practical tip: Take it easy when you first arrive, and do not take any trips on a motorbike on the highway until you have several days (or more) of practice. A minor fall could lead to a scrape that would only take a few days to heal at home, but could take weeks to heal here. (You can find the same advice over and over in Lonely Planet – take it). As you might guess, I learned the hard way. 

Personal Paragraph: Overall the experience was very good. Thai Muang is a wonderful town located on a beautiful never ending beach that you will have to yourself. It is also close to many popular tourist locations which you can reach on the weekends. The students need to learn English if they want to get a job in the tourism sector that surrounds the area and tourism is obviously a major part of the Thai economy. These students will greatly benefit from any help they receive in improving their English.