A day in the life of an ESL Teacher in a small town called Phanom Phrai, Thailand.
So, most of you will probably not know where in the world is Phanom Phrai without using Google maps.
Phanom Phrai is a small town in the South-Eastern part of Roi Et Province, North-eastern Thailand. To give you an idea of how small the town is, the population ads up to a number of roughly 75 000 people.
We have a 7/11 and a few local shops here to buy groceries from. If you want to buy more Western stuff you will need to get into a taxi for a 1-hour drive to the next bigger town called Yasothon.
So, what is life like in this small town called Phanom Phrai?
Being a teacher here is so much fun. Everybody knows you and wants to talk to you constantly. The children are simply amazing. Smiles all day long.
Waking up in the morning, well… it’s hot and humid.
Morning markets before school are the best. You will buy loads of interesting food to eat during lunch and also meet all the locals at the market. From fruits and veggies to cooked chicken and seafood. You can even buy a coconut ice cream at the market. I use to take my bicycle and drive to the market. Yes, our local transport were bicycles.
Off to school we go, school starts at 8am. Most foreign teachers will stand at the gate and greet all the students and their parents. A school day will always start with assembly in the mornings.
In Thailand they value the presence of teachers so much, they actually have a teacher’s day and believe me they make a huge fuss about it. All the children will make flower arrangements from small to huge to show their appreciation to
wards the teachers. There will be a whole ceremony/ celebration for half of the school day.
The school band will play, the students will sing and hand over their flower arrangements to the teachers. The students will then pray for health and wealth to their teachers.
After all the celebrations this morning you can’t do any actual school work with these children as the excitement is just too much. So fun games and silly drawings on the whiteboard is what it is for the rest of the day. School days are from 8am to 4pm.
After school most teachers will head into the small town to find some dinner. We have a local restaurant called P1 where we have the most amazing food for a small town like this. Once again, our bicycles are parked outside the restaurant like a biker’s club.
Food is super cheap in Thailand and you get value for money. You can buy a Phad Thai for 60THB and feed two people from one serving. They have the most amazing iced coffee called “Coffeyen”, “yen” means cold/iced. You can even buy iced cocoa and iced green tea.
A teacher’s day in a small town called Phanom Phrai ends for me at about 10pm.
I would highly recommend the teaching programs in Thailand. Stay tuned as there will be more about Thailand and my adventures.
Author: Claudine van der Linde
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