Thai TESOL Conference
Posted by Stuart at 02:41 PM on January 21, 2006A couple of weeks ago, an American lady who I had met two years ago accidentally found my site and invited me to meet up with her. She had been teaching in the south of Thailand, but was now working in Bangkok. We were unable to make a connection, until she told me that she would be in Chiang Mai this weekend attending the Thai TESOL conference.
I figured that a TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) in Chiang Mai would fit in with my tour of Non-Formal Educaton in Lampang, so I attended the last day of the conference today. The presentations I heard were actually quite interesting. I won't get into the details (which I think are probably boring to most) but the key is that today I realized that over the past week I have been getting many more ideas about what direction to take on a future PhD.
The reason I have this renewed interest in topics of technology and education in Thailand was because it was so refreshing to see Thai people who are hungry for knowledge. The villagers at Baan Saam Kha were so happy to see us, and so interested to talk to us, and were asking us so many questions. They wanted to learn, but more importantly, they asked us to help them learn how to learn. The head of the school continuously asked us, "What do you think?" or "Do you have suggestions for us?"
Not only are the villagers learning a lot themselves, but they are also teaching others how to improve their lives through education as well. The group from Nakorn Sawan that I mentioned yesterday drove for hours to hear about the experiences of the villagers at Baan Saam Kha. The villagers had learned important lessons, and in turn they wanted to share their knowledge.
And even at the TESOL conference I could see this same desire to "learn how to learn". The rooms were full of Thai teachers who wanted to find out the best ways to teach a language that is not their own. They know how important it is for the people of Thailand to be able to speak the global language of English, and they know how difficult it is to learn. But they are working hard to improve themselves, so that they can improve their country.
So now I am excited about education in Thailand again. The needs of a village like Baan Saam Kha are still numerous. And I would certainly never say that I have solutions to all their problems. But I think it would be very exciting and rewarding to work side-by-side with them on some of these issues.
