Coming back home
Can second time around ever be as good as the first?
Returning to live in Thailand is quite different from coming to live here for the first time. Instead of everything one encounters seeming exotic, one mostly senses the familiar.
Remembering the terrible floods
We will never forget the horrors of late 2011
A lot of Thais said the 2011 floods in Thailand were the worst in 50 years. Factories and businesses, agricultural crops and countless properties were damaged at a huge cost. Anyone who experienced it will never forget.
Old things from the village
Keeping the memories of those olden, golden days alive
My foreign friends and students who know my life habits ask me why I love old things; old houses, old wood furniture, and even pieces of an old rice mill that I keep underneath my old wooden house in Bangkok. It seems strange, doesn't it?
A fulfilling moment
The story of teacher Salrich
One Filipino teacher I knew and admired so much did something great for his school. His name was Salrich. When his director told him to beautify a 90-metre long concrete school-wall, Salrich hesitated for a moment. It was a huge undertaking.
Thai education shambles
Postbox letter from Ajarn Jim
Outside of MEP and EP programs, why are government schools fixated on NES teachers doing so much conversation? From what I understand, the English section of the university exams covers reading, comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar.
The communists helped me learn English
Childhood memories of Thai village life
I must have been eight when the Communists came to our village, because that was the first year my grandmother told my father that I must stay in school. I had six older brothers, I was the first girl in the family, and there was a lot of cooking and dish-washing to be done in the morning. My father thought that girls who stayed too long in school would just get pregnant.
The house of horrors (final part)
The fourth and final part of Ralph Sasser's amazing story
The third update to the story came in late 2010 when Ralph entered into a long court case (are there any other kind in Thailand?) and was left with a half-finished building. Surely things could only get better? So here we are in mid-2012. Did Ralph's house of horrors story finally have a happy ending? Read the fourth and final instalment.
What to expect when you move to Thailand
Life in the sticks and other oddities
I packed my bags and moved to Thailand to eventually become an English teacher. I was offered jobs in different parts of Thailand, but I quickly decided to move to a village in the North East region of Thailand, as opposed to a city. Moving from a city in Canada to a village in Thailand is a radical change but it's the type of challenge I was looking for.
Thailand vs Korea
Which country offers more for the English teacher?
Living and teaching in both laid back Thailand and fast paced South Korea has made for an interesting perspective on life in Asia. The two extremes are hard to compare but I think I should at least try.
What you may not know about her
Tales from Thai society
The story begins with a new foreigner who came to our village two years ago. He was an Australia man, strong and handsome, not so old, but he spoke no Thai and never smiled. I would see him sometimes, with his wife, at the local noodle shop. She was from the tambon, the small town about fifteen minutes bicycle ride from my farm.
