To my students who think I'm rich and famous

To my students who think I'm rich and famous

To my Thai students who think I'm rich and famous because I'm white actually....

Every time you call me 'movie star' or tell me I look like someone from a K-drama (wrong continent by the way), I smile but inside I’m laughing, cringing, and thinking of the basic meals I ate for three nights in a row because payday was still a week away. You see me walk into the classroom with my button-up shirt, my chai yen in hand, and maybe you imagine I came straight from a luxury condo or a five-star breakfast. But let me tell you: I live next to a karaoke bar that keeps me up half the frigging night.

You ask me if I’m rich, if I own a car, if I’ve been to Paris. I get it. Western media does a great job of selling that dream. But here's the truth: I don’t own a car. I own a bicycle and even that gets a flat tire every so often. I’ve never been to Paris. And no, that’s not a genuine Apple Watch; it’s a knockoff that sometimes tells the wrong time but still looks cool. Sometimes, I want to sit all of you down and say: I’m here because I chose this lifestyle not because I was sent here by some VIP parent company or because I couldn’t make it in “the West.” I came here to teach, to learn, to live differently. To trade winter for warmth, stress for smiles, and office cubicles for chalk dust and laughs.

I’m not famous. I’m not rich. But every time one of you says, “Teacher, I understand now!” or makes a joke in English that actually lands, I feel like the most successful person in the world. So let’s make a deal: you stop calling me movie star, and I’ll stop pretending I understand หมูกรอบ prices at the street market. Okay? Maybe we’re both learning how to see past the surface.

Kenny


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