on life

Yesterday morning, in class with a large chunk of year 6, I witnessed some truly inspirational teaching.

The biggest problem with teaching in this school is, as I have mentioned a few times, the apparent lack of any motivation in the kids themselves. Sure, they work hard, most work harder than I or my friends did at school, but they work hard without any apparent enthusiasm or interest in any subject. A lack which continually shocks and appalls me.

In this lesson then, the kids (around 40 of them, I suspect) were seated on the ground and asked to join in a simple song. Now, I don't recall many lessons from my early years where we were given the opportunity to sing in this manner, but feel sure that I and most of my contemporaries would have jumped at the chance. There is an attitude of 'coolness' in the UK, where showing enthusiasm is seen as 'sad'. This doesn't exist over here, or at least, only exists in the most westernised groups of children. That said, the way in which over 90% of that class had their lips firmly closed was quite horrifying.

It was after this attempt, and a couple of other slow starts, the teacher in charge began to speak something along the following lines. Note that I have simply carried the spirit of what he said across, changing a few of the images and adding a few embellishments. When you read it, try and imagine the children listening. This speech made an effect on me, and I hope it made a greater one on them:

Would you like to have a life? or would you prefer to sit all day and watch television, until it fades into static, or switches off entirely. You can treat life like a television, simply allowing it to go on in front and around you, not interacting with it, not engaging with it, not exploring it with all the enthusiasm you can. Treat life like this - gaze at it with a glazed expression, loose limbs and an attitude of deference or complete disinterest - and life will, like the television, switch off.

Unlike the television, once this happens, it is very hard to turn it on again.



Dom.

Note that once this idea was suggested, a good many of the children suddenly became as lively as we knew they could be. There was also an interesting example of the Thai culture of deference; when it was suggested that Thai women should stay at home and watch the TV while their husbands became rich and enjoyed themselves, the boys would shout "Yes!", and the girls would stay silent. We got them shouting in the end, but it was a tough uphill battle.

master (of) bang kok

I'm once again in the constantly surprising MBK centre of Siam. Since I was bored, I came here to do some shopping, and found that was boring too. I am all enthusiasm and riches on the way, but once I arrive, a terrifying ennui falls upon me and I lose the will to shop. Perhaps it's just the gall of spending my own money.

As this is a Saturday, Friday still has not left my bloodstream completely, if you see what I mean, and sitting in a stupidly comfortable chair taking advantage of a very fast Internet connection is an excellent way of passing the time.

The last week was a pretty reasonable one, since it not only contained a good number of lessons where I was given leave to steer, but also a nice collection of extras. I joined the staff rock band, and found out that rock piano is effectively jazz piano with the 7ths taken out...

I am soon to be joined by one of my freinds from school, which will be fantastic, and I hope to make it to Cambodia, if he's willing. That should give me at least 5 minutes good conversation with all those teachers who's names I don't know and don't think I ever knew:

"Hi there!"
"Oh hello, errm.., old chap, how're you?"
"Good thanks, yourself?"
"Alright, yeah"
"Did you have a good Half Term?"*
"Oh yeah, sure, you?"
"Great thanks, what did you get up to?"
"Oh, we just chilled out here, sometimes it's nice to just stay at home and enjoy some downtime, you know?"
"Oh definitely, of course."
"How about you?"
"Well, you know, I wanted to get out of Bangkok, so I went to Cambodia with my friend who was over from England."
"Oh great, what was it like?"
"Just amazing, so many ruins, I did get a bit tired of crumbling masonry after a while, but you know."
"Sure, sure, listen, I've got a lesson to go to, have a good day, OK?"
"OK, bye now!"


All it takes is a quick rinse and repeat... Turn and:


"Hi there!"
"Oh hello, errm.., old chap, how're you?"
"Good thanks, yourself?"
"Alright, yeah"
"Did you have a good Half Term?"

etc... etc...


Dom

*At this point, insert whichever holiday was most recent, Half Term, Easter, Christmas, Hanukkah...

fridays

Oddly enough, I love Fridays.

Friday is the day I get to teach a few lessons properly, (music, naturally) and is also the day on which the week ends, and the weekend, begins.

This morning, I taught a singing class (we're doing Carmina Burana, just so's you know, which I can't sing, so god knows how they're supposed to manage any of it), then the teacher asked what I had next and suggested I stay and do his next set too.

There's something quite terrifying about a room full of children looking expectantly up at you, waiting, like empty bottles, to be filled with knowledge. They expect you to know everything and be able to do everything, and a lot of teaching involves lying and using tricks to make them believe you are omniscient.

For example, I was trying to teach the "Consider Yourself"song from Oliver, and couldn't for the life of me remember the words, I was standing there conducting these kids and didn't have the music. In this situation, the best thing to do is tell them you won't be singing with them, because it's a test. This Works.

I'm also a member of the staff band. I considered changing my name to something altogether more rock'n'roll, but since I couldn't really think of anything, I gave up. The only other major pain is the dreadful keyboard the school has. Ouch. Only had one rehearsal so far, but more to come, and at least three gigs before I come home, all being well...

Anyway, not much else to say, really, except howdy.

Dom

odd

You know what's really odd?

I'm actually looking forward to working at the Hospital again.

hmm...

smokin'

No mum, it's ok. I mean the bacon kind. The original title of this post was Cooking, but I though that was just far to simple.

A few weeks ago, I decided it was time I got off my ever expanding rear and took to the streets. After a few minutes of wandering with no aim at all, I went home and thought of things to do. A Thai cooking course seemed a good idea, so I did one.

On the edge of one of the busier roads in Bangkok stands a building. On one side, ruinous lean to sheds of corrugated iron. On the other, a skyscraper, and in front the skytrain rails. Right in the middle of a large concrete expanse stands an incongruously decorated blue and yellow mansion, known as the Blue Elephant Restaurant.

It's fairly well known, but apparently suffers from being quite expensive and not actually that nice. Anyway, I booked myself in for the morning course (with Market visit!) on a Wednesday.

We were all sat down in a room with little writing desks, supplied with some recipes and the dishes were prepared in front of us for our amusement. One niggle was that the lady doing the cooking insisted on varying the dishes as much as she stuck to the recipe. Ah well.

I found at the time of cooking that it was all really easy. I began to relax into my role as master chef, I cooked with flourish and flair, I tossed my hair back as I tossed in the vegetables. I sliced and diced and stirred. However, it quickly became apparent that it would be much more difficult if they hadn't put out the correct amounts of every ingredient in little bowls in front of you.

Ok, so Thai cooking isn't that hard as far as I can tell, it's just a matter of preparing everything carefully before you start cooking. Once anything is put on the heat it's all go and there's no time to think "Now, should these red peppers be sliced or diced, and how thick?". It's actually rather fun throwing everything you so carefully chopped up in at once and mixing it around.

I can now cook Prawn curry with Jackfruit (or as I shall do it, Chicken curry with whatever you like), Chicken and Cashew nuts (an old favourite), Mango Salad with Deep Fried Red Snapper (at least, I could if I had any deep fried Red Snapper) and one of those horrible watery soups with unexpected bits of scraggly meat floating in them. Yeurgggh.

All in all, a success.

Dom.

night life

I would be doing you a disservice not to mention, at least in passing, the thriving night life there is in Bangkok.

Perhaps I should also warn any grandparents reading to look away now, else I am woken in the night by the sharp intake of breath and tutting sound from right across the world.

Only joking, nothing sinful in here. At least, nothing to do with me.

Like any large city in any country in the world, in Bangkok there is plenty to do after sundown. However, Thailand has its own special way of dealing with vice and sin. It pretty much ignores them. There are laws against underage drinking and drink driving; there are even laws against go-go bars and prostitution, but these all happen in great abundance in the busier areas of Bangkok.

A typical night for an expat (let's say a school teacher, for the sake of argument) might follow this pattern. You'd go out for a meal then, once it was late enough, you'd head to one of the club districts. There are quite a lot of these, some are very close to home, but there's always a taxi driver willing to take you there (sober) and back (near-death and certainly wishing you were past it) for 700% of the usual price.

Once in one of these dens of sin, you try and enjoy yourself, forget the idea of a pleasant conversation and hope people with full salaries will buy you a drink.

Once this place shuts (around 1/2/3 am in some cases, depends on the police bribe issued), you could do the sensible thing and go home. This is, I have to admit, my favored option most nights, once the night has turned into a morning and I'm tired.

However, if this is unacceptable to you, this is Bangkok. No barrier to drunkenness and debauchery is strong enough. In other words, there are loads and loads of illegal nightclubs scattered around the city which, for a reasonably small entrance fee, will stay open till gone 5 or 6 in the morning. In theory therefore, you could go out straight from school and go straight into school again without going home at all.

After you've been fleeced by a taxi driver on the way home, this all begins to seem like a normal trip out in England, it's just that they don't last so damn long.

Cheers,
Dom.

Kids

Quite frankly, I'm in a very bad mood. 10 minutes ago, I was in a very good one.

How has this shift occurred, you might ask, if you care.

Well, actually, I was supposed to be doing a debating society with these damn kids now, but none of the ungrateful little plebes signed up. I hate that.

Dom

rain

Rain Rain,

Well, it seems the rainy season has begun, even if thats not what the old-timers say. Frankly, if you see no rain for 3.5 months, and then one week it rains every single day, you're going to get suspicious. In fact, calling it rain is a bit of an insult. Chances are, you will never have seen rain this incredible. It's amazing. The rain itself is mere musical accompaniment to the deafening brightness of the lightning and the blinding volume of the thunder.

It usually starts around 6pm, just as the sun begins to go down, the sky becomes utterly terrifying, either a dark brown or blue with flashes high up among the clouds. Later, stabs of lightning skewer the clouds, and the roads begin to flood.

Bangkok is on a flood plain. You may think that sounds like a bad idea, but it does mean that if you go up in a building of even a little height, you can see for miles. It would of course be possible to see further without the perpetual layer of smog over the city.

When it rains heavily, the roads fill up with water. The "soi"we live on has good high curbs, and becomes a canal. If we removed the cars, it would be indistinguishable from the canals near the river. Of course, it all goes away in no time at all.

Sadly, there's no wood around, so my main idea of saving taxi fairs by building a raft had to be abandoned.

Come again another day!

Dom

operatic times

Good morning, chums,

Well, since we're now back at school, I'm not bad at posting because I'm lazy, it's because I'm busy. It's quite nice really, actually having quite a bit to do! Sometimes last term I did find myself wondering what exactly I should be doing, but now I've been pretty much reserved for full time drama/music department action (not actually my idea, but I like it. A lot). The first full week of term was taken up entirely (and I mean entirely) with the Junior school production. It was pretty distressing. Ok, so that's not fair. It was alright, sometimes funny. Occasionally some reasonable acting. Anyway, that was how I spent every day that week - on Lighting. God knows how they made those rehearsals last so... damn... long, but there you go.

That week was also the week of the Opera. We did Dido and Aeneas, in case I forgot to mention it. Sadly, it wasn't fully staged, because the opera company ran out of money. We did it like a concert, which was great. I will get hold of a recording of at least one of the nights soon so that Nana & Popa have a new CD to grind around and around their player; over and over again.

This week, though only really for yesterday and today, are the GCSE drama exams, so I'm in there again.

Once I get out of all this, it'll be back to the usual fare of lessons, which I'll have to go sort out soon since I haven't really had many to do so far this term!

Dom.

YouTube

This has been going on for weeks, but there aren't so many confirmations of it inside Thailand, so I thought I'd better get on and mention it.

YouTube is still blocked completely in Bangkok. I don't know how many other sites have been blocked, since I haven't found any that don't work yet.

Needless to say, with my dreadful internet connection here, I wasn't too fussed anyway!

Dom