VISUAL ENGLISH, ESL resources for teachers.

Well having decided we could be here for some time, I decided to keep a blog of this adventure……

Intro: Since mid October ……. We have been told on numerous occasions by numerous people to prepare for an advancing flood. I must admit in the beginning I was very skeptical. My little Soi has never flooded, according to a local who has lived here for nineteen years, so I took it all with a pinch of salt. This coincided with the end of term break so I was on vacation and had little to do and gradually I got sucked into the growing phobia and bought a couple of cubic metres of sand and some bags and then I built a barrier in front of the front and back doors and felt that was enough (and probably a waste of time and money). Then came a long wait and after listening to the media saying this and that coupled with conflicting reports from my neighbours, I reached a point where I wouldn’t listen anymore. When I see the water, I’ll take appropriate action.

Day one: Nov 1st and the water has begun to seep up from the drains. I now realize that this thing is going to happen although I still don’t think it will reach my front door. There are a number of reasons for that, firstly our Soi is one of the highest points in the village (hence the no flood history) and secondly the villagers have joined together and have made impressive barriers (with heavy machinery) around the village and prepared 6 inch water pumps to deal with any water coming in. I decide to sandbag the doors (front and back) rather than make a wall around them. It’s easier to seal a closed door than to create a watertight area around it. This would mean accessing the house via a bedroom window, but that would be a minor inconvenience.

Day two: The water level has risen to where the edge is 3 metres from my driveway. I make a mark on the water’s edge and note the time ……….. 2 hours later and the water has crept past my mark by a couple of metres! I am thinking it has begun when I am informed that the village pumps had run out of fuel. As soon as this was rectified, the water left as quick as it had disappeared, as did any worries I might have had!

Day three: The morning was just like any other, I made my daily trip to the canal nearby to check the levels. It had risen by 5 cms and was moving much faster. Sure enough, by 3pm the water was again coming up through the drains. By 5pm there was 20 cms of water outside my drive.

Day four: When I awoke at 5am I was shocked to see that the water had come up 20cms and was lapping on the tyres of my truck, parked in the driveway. This was getting serious so I “redid” my front and back doors, this time doing it expecting water to test my efforts. Once satisfied they were OK, I then began to plan ………

• How much food do we have?
• What can we move to higher ground?
• How high can I jack my truck up?
• Where would we go in the event of evacuation?

All these questions were answered and preparations were made.

Day five: The dawn revealed another substantial rise in water level, and this continued to the point where the water was 15cms from my front door defences. People all around me are now doing whatever they can to prepare for the worst and there’s a sense of an impending arrival. We’ve been watching footage of 2 – 5 metre floodings for days now, could it be that we were next in line? Certainly looked like it from where I was standing!

Day six: Upon leaving my bed I was confronted by a pool of water in the kitchen, seeping through the kitchen door! There ensued a couple of hours of cutting board, siliconing and bailing water before we got the leak under control. My next concern was the car; the water had reached the exhaust pipe (I quickly sealed that with bags) and spent another hour jacking it up. The water was rising continuously, leaving me with an uneasy disposition as to when it would actually stop. Living in a single storey house means as soon as water starts entering the house it is time to call it a day. I stayed up the entire night monitoring the situation.

Day seven: There is now one metre of water in the road outside my house. My car is OK but it won’t be if the level keeps rising. Am beginning to regret not taking this seriously and getting the car out when I had the chance. A good friend of mine arrives on foot (his motorcycle cut out at the village entrance) and advised me to get the car out. I wasn’t confident of getting it out and we waded up the road to the roundabout (a central access point to our village) and the water was waist deep there! Just as I am thinking there’s no way my truck would make it through this, a similar vehicle to mine came out from another Soi and slowly ploughed through the water and as he disappeared into the distance, I noted that the water was shallower as you leave the village. I then received reports that the main road outside was not nearly as bad as in here, in fact traffic was moving OK. I then made a decision to get the truck out asap and within 5 minutes I was preparing to make the nervy trip out.

My Isuzu truck is 5 years old (just finished paying for it) and it has a very large front. This became more obvious as the huge wave appeared in front of me, it was that big I swear you could’ve surfed it! This subsequently caused big waves that broke over neighbours’ sandbag defences but there was no way I was going to stop, at least until I had reached safety. Then I came across two huge clay flower pots floating in the middle of the road and had to avoid them, by this time I’d hit the deepest part and with fingers crossed I continued watching in disbelief as the water rose over the bonnet!!!!! Much to my surprise and delight I made it out to the main road and subsequently got the vehicle to another area and parked it up. Would’ve loved to have video of that short trip!!!

From this point on we would have to use the window as access to the house.

Day eight: Life would begin to get difficult and this makes one understand just how much we take for granted. Due to the low level of the bathroom we are forced to dump in plastic bags and shower outside. Our dog is 11 yrs old and so well trained that she will not dump in the house! So I have to take her in the boat to a small island of soil where she does her daily biz. There are 6 stray dogs marooned nearby so I combine the trip with a food run for them. I am always watching the water level now and it has remained the same since yesterday. We packed bags today, in the event we have to make a hurried exit, then secured a lot of things in the house as high off the ground as possible.

Day nine: Rise at dawn ……. Do a food check …. Enough for 5 days … water OK. We’ve made a decision to hold out here, as long as we have electricity and water. I allocate daily duties to my two sons, general cleaning, bailing water from the kitchen and garbage removal. Today passed by rather uneventfully.

Day ten: Fortunately we still have phone and internet so I can communicate with the outside world. Sent one of my sons out of the village to see how the outside is doing …. A lot better than we are in here apparently. I keep expecting the small leaks at our front and back doors to increase but luckily they seem to be holding OK. Just as I was thinking that this really isn’t so bad, I watch a couple of TV who are living on their roof!!! With no electricity either. They actually live in a two storey house but the water is 4 metres deep!!! I can see from TV reports that the water is creeping into central Bangkok. In a way it’s comforting to know that you’re not the only area affected. Am impressed by the way the Thais have taken this on the chin and kept their high spirits!!!

The plan for this week is to write a blog on the lead up to the election. It’s Wednesday the 29^th as I write and here we go. The news so far today is that the potential first female prime minister has gotten to Nan ahead of the incumbent. I don’t know what the purpose of the visit actually is, really I don’t. Although if she had come around my old house when it got flooded she wouldn’t have got a very nice welcome as I was in a foul mood. The feelings elicited by rising floodwaters outside your front door with three young babies and a new three piece suite as well as a snazzy TV unit thingie coupled with a night without sleep are best left unsaid but suffice to say it’s not a nice place to be. What she can do to help the people of Nan remains to be seen but in my past flooded situation, sympathy would have been rather unwelcome whereas a big pumping arrangement, a truck load of sand, a load of bags and a team of sandbaggers would have been well appreciated, and the sleep that would have followed such security would have been like awesome or something. How much sand would make enough bags to seal Nan from the floodwaters? If the potential brought the bags and the incumbent brought the sand or vice versa I’m sure the good people of Nan would provide the labour and a pump or two and all would feel good in a spirit of teamwork and success jointly achieved. Not bloody likely I know but someone once said something about dreams and becoming reality if you dreamt hard enough. Utter tripe!!

Paul suggested that I name the blogs here from now on as the numbers will start to get a bit off or something. This one is to be named “Election run in blog thingie,” in honour of my love of the word thingie.

I just took a wander to the shop down the road and the Democrat Party machine is in the moo bahn. As I bought a drink a lady asked me in broken English for my support. I said in Thai that I can’t (ไม่ได้) and the look on her face suggested that it was because my heart was somewhere else and the look took on a jilted air as she turned and walked away not seeming to reflect registration of the fact that I don’t have a vote. On coming back to the house the team arrived shortly passing out brochures and a DVD. The DVD is titled “The truth at Rachaprasong” subtitled with the incumbent prime minister’s name. I’ll have a look at it later when the kids have gone to bed.

The DVD is a bit of a hot potato by all accounts. I had a wee look at it and it’s well produced. It contains speeches by past and present premiers of differing lengths and at different times and inflammatory remarks made by a past premier. I could square things away by just naming him but as these are just videos of a past premier on a square screen talking to his mates in a square last year prior to a recording of the incumbent being non-square, hip even in his proclamations at the hot shopping venue that wasn’t non-flammable.

There is no drinking or blogging from Saturday at 6 pm according to the Bangkok Post. I don’t drink anymore and my blogging is limited to this but to be on the very safe side I am postponing the sending of this till Monday.

Friday has arrived as well as the rain. The parties will be making their final speeches and presentations to the people later today. The sky is heavy with rain where I am right now and I don’t know how prepared they parties are for torrential downpours. The police have announced this morning that they are ready to ensure that things go smoothly without problems as the rallies pan out later. The army has also moved to say that the country is on the road to democracy and there will be no intervention from them. Well that’s good to know.

Having watched some of the speeches in the pouring rain there is nothing new. While this isn’t surprising I kind of hoped, in a Hollywood movie ending way, that there would be a major revelation from somewhere. Both leaders focused on what they have said already. The incumbent is obviously good and I do find him believable, while the potential has improved a lot. Remember she has just entered this game. Yes, you can justifiably say that her strings are being pulled but even so she seems quite comfortable. The repetitive ”chai mai ka?” is rather annoying but substance aside and judging purely on showmanship she is doing well. Apparently some journalists somewhere have been having pockets lined by a political party. The payments allegedly are for favourable coverage. The allegations have arisen from an email published on the ASTV website. I for one am not in the least surprised, are you?

It’s Saturday and it’s rather fine where I am. I am having a wee lunch break and catching up on the reporting of yesterday’s events. All pretty standard really. One of Newin’s men in Nakorn Ratchasima won’t be eligible for votes and any votes cast for him will be considered void. Certain fears of violence are valid but I hope all will go well. Both the Post and The Nation lead with similar stories and similar layouts this morning. The Post leads with the headline, “The last battle,” and splits the page left and right with reports on the previous night’s rallies. The rain pours down on the candidates and the potential’s long locks are soaked with rain. The Nation split’s the page from left to right across the centre showing the potential on top and the incumbent below her and upside down. They have separate headlines over pictures taken at the rallies with the potential quoted as saying, “we’ll reconcile.” The upside down incumbent is quoted as saying, “it’s us or chaos.” The pictures show a rather wet incumbent and a radiantly dry potential. I am no news editor. I am not even a journalist. I don’t know what I am but that’s for another day. However is I was an impartial news editor, which I am not I certainly wouldn’t have gone with the front page that The Nation went with. When I came here first I was a more regular reader of The Nation rather that The Post. A lot of the news was international, sourced from the agencies and other papers whereas The Post was rather more local. As my knowledge of local affairs increased I drifted towards The Post buying The Nation when it was the only choice. I feel that recent editorial decisions made by The Nation have shown a bias in their reporting. Nothing wrong with that if you don’t badge yourself as independent, but they do.

That’s it then, the promises have been made, tomorrow the votes will be cast and we will see who will make up the next government. At this stage my feeling is one of quiet hope. Hope that whoever takes the reins will work to move the country forward. I hope life will get better for the folks who deserve it. You know the ones, the quiet folk getting on with their lives; the ones that sometimes take a lot of life’s punches on the chin and carry on with a smile. I hope you guys get a good run of things, you really do deserve it. And for myself, well I do have three young children and I am a teacher so education is rather important for me. I do feel that this as an election issue has been sadly under represented. Those computers for my kids would be nice but let’s not hold our breaths, eh?

Sunday is here and I’m at work. That’s ok. The exit polls are coming out and the word landslide is tacked on close. Exit polls do have a large margin of error but not enough to sway the result here. The potential has taken it. The incumbent will be now known as the former. Life will move on. In what direction remains to be seen. I hope to God things get better or at the very least stabilize. For all of our sakes. There will be issues, recriminations and by-elections as members are turfed out for cheating. That may be sure but your crystal ball would need to be HD to get a picture of what will come here. Back again next week. Watch this space

There’s no doubt but that the internet is an amazing tool. A tool for so many things. As a teacher and an expatriate its uses are obvious and boundless. When I first came across this new fangled web thing in the 90s in Dublin the potential of this tool was beginning to be seen amongst us ordinary folk around the world. Communities of like-minded people were springing up sharing ideas and resources; information previously unavailable or hard to come by was now beginning to be available at one’s fingertips. In those heady days of the 90s with The Cold War over, a reunited and resurgent Germany, newly opened European countries and vibrant economies driving forward, this new departure in technology fitted nicely into the whole scheme of things and all looked rosy. (The former Yugoslavia and other unfortunate nations excepted) How did we then actually develop and make use of this extraordinary tool? Did we as humans actually manage to use something to its fullest potential for the benefit of all just even once? Did information on world events flow without corporate interference? Did information on medical ailments, treatments and cures find their way to those most in need? Did weirdos and quacks find an outlet for their rantings? Did the religions and sects based at the odder end of the spectrum find a new medium to proselytize? The answer to these questions we could say is yes. But yes in the most convoluted way that we as a species, yes only us, are capable of.

I spend most of my time on line following news items from different perspectives around the world. A rather anorak wearing sort of pastime I hear you say and I have to agree with you. It is, but that’s the sort of person that I am. I realized a long time ago that most, if not all, of the news we hear or are told has some sort of bias. A most human trait. Prior to us having this level of access to information we were limited to state TV and newspapers. Moving further back in time news was by word of mouth varying from national decries to the more local sort of news such as who had been nabbed with the maid. All moving with the bias of the messenger inherent, be that blatant or subtle. Most newspapers and news outlets from around the world are online and have been for sometime. Levels of access vary from free all the way to varying levels of subscription. I still trust some newspapers to a degree and this trust is maintained by the fact that I have accepted that the papers carry some level of bias. I think if you are expecting the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth you are on a loser. Seeing modern media in this light and seeking different views on the same stories works for me. The event that finally cemented this for me was here in Thailand during the height of the red shirt events. I had a strong affinity for Al-Jazeera in the years leading up to the happenings in central Bangkok and actually had the news channel in my home thanks to PSI. That had become the only source of TV news that I was watching despite the availability of others, and I really enjoyed the other shows on music, technology and food amongst other things. But I felt that the editorial slant on, and the perception being given to an uninformed audience outside of Thailand was not the actual truth. The feeling that was a grassroots revolution for the betterment of all didn’t sit well. This was my own uninvolved opinion and while I could appreciate the editorial efforts it seemed to be quite simply that they had gotten it wrong. This then had me doubting other events reported from places from which I had no prior knowledge and in a way I had been displaying trust where I shouldn’t have by taking the reporting on face value. This isn’t to say that everything Al-Jazeera has done is wrong. I am saying nothing of the sort. This one example taught me to look a bit more carefully, that’s all.

Conspiracy theories, let me throw a pause in here. Say it again, conspiracy theories. I won’t even begin to speculate as to how much of the web is devoted to alleged conspiracies. But first, let’s pause after that pause. My trusty Collins paperback dictionary defines conspiracy as “a secret plan to carry out a secret or harmful act,” and defines theory as “a set of hypotheses related by logical arguments to explain a wide variety of connected phenomena in general terms.” The term conspiracy theory seems to have drifted away from these definitions and could and is being applied to the rantings of any crackpot at the obvious expense of anyone trying to find answers to genuine queries. For example the recent news that Newcastle disease is killing thousands of chickens could be said to be the fault of the current prime minister as he is also from Newcastle. Nonsense I know, but put a website together and all of a sudden you have a bona fide conspiracy theory on the go. From JFK to 9/11 to Waco, Texas, there are myriads of websites devoted to the conspiracies alleged. I feel that in some cases questions do need to be answered (the magic bullet??) but the rantings of nutters given the freedom of the internet to spew, a freedom of distrubtion never afforded in history, has sullied the genuine questions and questioners therefore as a consequence pushing the whole lot, ravings and genuine inquiries under the easily ignored umbrella of conspiracy theories. Simply call something a conspiracy theory and you call it nuts, call someone a conspiracy theorist and you call them a nutter. There is no doubt that there are conspiracies out there. People conspire all the time. The wobbly rantings posted online however have given cover to genuine big-time conspiracists allowing them to avoid having to answer pertinent questions genuinely posed. This is a shame.

However we seem to look for conspiracy in far off or untouchable places, there are more of these a lot closer to us, much closer than we seem to realize and having a more tangible effect on our day to day lives and the lives of those close to us. Take cigs for example. Many people around the world, from all walks of life are hopelessly addicted to a substance we know not a lot about. A substance manufactured from a cacophonous blending of ingredients that to say are addictive would do the word addictive a disservice. A substance that’s killing us. Killing us fathers, brothers, mothers, sisters and loved ones. We know this and blithely continue to ingest a substance manufactured to exploit the maximum addiction for a rather large profit. A substance that can’t seem to be kicked without great strain and hardship. A substance that robs the pocket especially in the west as governments struggle to levy an appropriate deposit in the form of tax for the healthcare that may be needed later. A substance that can’t seem to be replaced with an alternative to ward off the withdrawal, that doesn’t kill so assuredly despite the efforts of several to do so. Does this not fall squarely into the above description of a conspiracy? It does.

I had it in mind to include banking in the above but that’s enough for now. And as for the education of our children well that’s for another day. The blog has been a little irregular of late. This has been due to a few issues out of our control such as making a living and the like. Time will be becoming more available to us and we will continue with our aim of making this a place for teachers to come to, to find resources or ideas; a place where you can share resources or ideas with us lot too. Over the last few weeks I have pretty much given up my Election Watch. As things descend into farce, following the proceedings has left me feeling rather strange. Apathy is not the word, more of a sense of observing something preordained; a very strange sense of déjà-vu. The blog will be here again on Sunday next. Watch this space.

Well another week has passed and the new school year is no longer new. It seems an age since we started and both staff and students are happily engaged in the processes of teaching and learning. Targets that were set are being met and surpassed; students are delighting in the daily routine of preparation for a life in the world. Isn’t it great? Just a second, let me remove my rose tinted specs; ah, that’s better. Actually it’s not all bad and the vision created by the aforementioned specs isn’t far from the reality. Having moved from teaching the higher grades back to primary this year has been a revelation. Before teaching high school I taught primary for several years and it has been like coming home in many ways. While not taking away from the high school students, great kids in all honesty, the wonder and amazement evident in primary classrooms is wonderful. Most of my 170 students are genuinely into learning. A lot of personality and character has emerged and as of now they seem to be free of cynicism, a trait that is sadly in the post no doubt as their seniors so ably demonstrate.

I wrote about the election and not a lot has changed in the meantime. I have been keeping up to date with sms alerts from The Bangkok Post. Not a bad service but it is basically their tweets a bit after they have been tweeted. I’ll talk more about Twitter in a bit. One of the most interesting campaigns to me personally is that of the “Yellow Shirts,” or number 16. Posters of animals dressed in shirts and ties amuse my children highly and provide topics of conversation daily going to and from school. The usual cries of anguish at things being taken or looked at in the wrong way or protestations at the allocation of seating are being happily forgotten as the posters entertain. The Post reported that someone had ordered someone else to remove them seems to be happily going unnoticed. Even vets saying that this is harming the image of animals will unlikely have an effect. The choice of animals too is one to raise an eyebrow or two. If this doesn’t make sense to you, gently enquire as to the predicted reactions of an average Thai to being labeled one of the postered animals. Maybe then it will be a bit clearer.

When the micro blogging site Twitter is mentioned these days, there does seem to be two distinct opinions on its usefulness or lack thereof. In today’s Nation a columnist says that Twitter changed his life. On the other hand a more appropriate name of Drivel has been suggested. This is one of the more polite ideas for monikers for a site that helped avoid the implementation of anti-gay legislation in Uganda. The argument that Twitter is for people who can’t shutup even when alone may be a bit extreme but I would have to say that I would struggle to tweet on a daily basis as is done by a sizable number. A tweet about the breakfast menu Chez Jerome probably wouldn’t stir up much interest but it would easily be done and certainly contained within the 140 character limit. Whatever your own view on it, it certainly is here to stay and Apple’s interest in the site continues.

Prince Philip is 90. The Duke of gaffes passed the landmark by saying that he is going to cut down on official duties. He is looking forward to enjoying himself a bit more with less rushing around and “less trying to think what to say,” he is quoted as saying. That quote deserves as much attention as some of his other more famous quotes. Good Lord, if the man was prepared in the past on what to say on official visits what would he have come out with unprepared? This is the man who questioned the Aboriginal man in Australia about whether they still chucked spears at each other; the man who questioned the number of dead in an incident where unarmed civilians were shot dead in Amritsar in Punjab and passed a comment to a British student in Papua New Guinea about him having not been eaten yet.

Closely observing the elections has left me in a strange state. I have kind of passed through the mirthful stage, to the stage of disbelief and then to the anger and now I have reached a sort of apathy and ennui at the whole thing. The ridiculous promises, the wooing of voters who will be promptly forgotten on the 4^th of July whatever the outcome and the nonsense of the whole thing has taken its toll on me. I will be back to normal soon I hope. Watch this space.

When asked about grammar, most people will shuffle awkwardly and either change the subject or leave the room. The ones who will engage in conversation about grammar are usually backed into a wall or the more polite kind who will endure the discomfort gallantly before making good their escape. As an English teacher I face students every day armed with the latest tools and ideas to impart the fundamentals of the language in their general direction hoping for retention, comprehension and a blissful feeling in my soul as they reproduce grammatically accurate sentences on demand. Wishful thinking indeed but how can we ever hope for any sort of grammatical accuracy when we don’t have it ourselves. If I asked you how many tenses there are in English what would your answer be? Go on, answer honestly. Well let’s have a look from the start then.

Verbs are the words we use to signify an action or a state of being. They make up the head of the predicate and are remarkable in large part because they convey so much information in sentences. Sentences would not exist without them. Actions can happen in the past, present, or future, and verbs commonly change (in spelling or sound) in relation to the time an action occurred. We call this feature tense. So as a consequence three tenses are possible but being a royal pain in the rear end, English has only two: past and present. The future has to be conveyed in a way that does not involve changing the verb. Sometimes, we use the words will or shall to indicate the future, as in we will eat soon, but English is flexible and allows us to signify the future in other ways. We can, for example, use the present to indicate the future, as in we eat soon or we are eating soon. In fact, English is so flexible that sometimes we also can signify the past by using the present, as in: So last night he buys her drinks and then she just leaves. Can you believe it? Romance languages like Spanish clearly have three tenses, (see below) whereas other languages have only one or no tense at all. I will talk about this another day. I have to consult a few locals first.

Comparing English and Spanish verbs illustrates the nature of tense and how English differs from a Latin-based language. Consider the verb speak, which in Spanish is hablar:

Past Present Future

spoke speak

hable hablo hablaria (forgive the missing accents)

So I think it’s hard to move on from this point without a definitive answer on tense. As I mentioned earlier, I teach English daily and the books we use would almost have us believing there are many more tenses, past perfect continuous, present progressive etc. but at the end of the day, settling on two may give us more leeway and at the if you can understand what little Somchai is trying to tell you, maybe that is the first victory.

As I was going down Lad Prao yesterday, the early morning traffic was surprisingly heavy. As I slowly made my way down I had the chance to have a look at the election posters. The prime minister continues to endure random and organized acts of vandalism. Random moustaches and missing eyes and seemingly more organized stuck on information. What these stickers disseminate is as of yet not known to me but I will find out. Just past Makro, the potential first female prime minister had a whiskers type arrangement added. Initially seeing this as an act of destruction by some revenge seeking facial accruement police, I thought about the many photos I have seen over the years where this feature is added digitally on a voluntary basis by the person portrayed and immediately felt confused. Two other leaders have escaped supplementary features. Purachai who will be remembered for his social crackdowns remained undecorated. I remember seeing him in the paper years ago taking a tour of Pat Pong. I can’t remember the details. Around this time our habit of drinking beers in the local petrol station came to an end too. This was most likely a good thing, for both our health and sanity, but I do remember feeling aggrieved by the injustice of it all at the time. Looking back now, that’s probably why I was single then. My kind of classy wasn’t working with the fairer sex. An Amstel and a microwave burger deserved to be served after a walk on a red carpet in my opinion but you can’t always be right. He was also gone in a hurry after that and I never quite knew why. Newin Chidchop, the leader of the Bhum Jai Thai party hasn’t been vandalized at all because his picture is not on his party’s posters. He is banned from politics for 5 years for drinking Leo at a Caltex or some other minor offence probably. Named after a Burmese general, Newin is a serious power broker and any party who forgets this does so at their peril. Based in Buriram he has a huge power base, an obscene amount of money and a football team to boot. Then there are the promises. While I do read Thai, I do not do it at speed so I got the headlines. Free tablet PCs and free wi-fi from the Pheu Thai. Having three kids of my own that can only be good. Lots of Skytrain stations from everyone, peace and love if they are elected as well and to be blunt if words could shapeshift to a more genuine form, I don’t know what would be flowing down Lat Prao. But that’s election promises for you.

Barcelona are the best football team in Europe but didn’t we all know that anyway.

Over the next week I will have a closer look at the election and the parties involved. I am going to try to get some information from the parties directly with a view to finding out how all of this relates to the sizeable community of ex-pats who live here. Those of us with families and so on could really do with knowing what’s in store. We should know even if we have no say in it. Watch this space.

So it’s almost election time again. Now that the parties are reflecting on the numbers they have been allocated and bragging about preordained success or backpedalling rapidly to account for the duff number handed to them. The number 1 allocated to one party was the result of a night’s meditation the prior night by a party leader which I guess will do the proponents of said same activity lots of good. You could take that one step farther and say that we won’t need government at all if we all focus our thoughts and let things take care of themselves.

Baring a few, pretty much all schools are back in session now. To be honest as far as things go with me it has been a seamless change. This year I have moved to upper elementary grades and so far so good. Let’s be honest; when all the bull is extracted, teaching in Thailand is a pleasure. By teaching I mean the time spent in the classroom dealing with students. Most of the rest isn’t so. The amount of resources available online is good but trawling through the tripe and nonsense takes ages. With its dedicated team of teachers this website is addressing that. Shared resources are a blessing in a teacher’s life. Specific resources with our common target audience in mind can be a huge help. When time allows I will be introducing differentiated worksheets. Basically different worksheets, usually 3, for the same lesson. We know by now that students work at many different levels in the same class and differentiation is a way of keeping all on task. Watch a space near this.

Yesterday history was made as AFC Wimbledon beat Luton in the play-off for the final league football spot. League 2 football awaits us next year. It has taken the club nine years to rise from the Combined Counties League to present heights. The club was formed when our club, Wimbledon was taken from the fans and the area to Milton Keynes to form the MK Dons. The resistance to the franchising of clubs was strong and I believe set a precedent that other clubs would be well advised to heed should they think along the same lines. The club is in the hands of us, the fans. A club of the might of Liverpool was nigh on brought to its knees recently through the financial dealings of its recent owners. This should never be the case and the shady dealings of owners of football clubs needs more vigorous scrutiny than the present fit and proper person’s test. Thailand finds a link to Manchester City somewhere here.

Why do people invest large sums of money to get politicians elected? The answer is self evident I know but it is an answer that is worth reflection. Sometimes the most obvious of things are the ones that are accepted as status quo when really they probably shouldn’t be.

The Director-General of the International Monetary Fund made bail this week and is fitted with a tracker. An article in The Guardian this week speaks of the culture of silence in the French media regarding DSK as he seems to be known. The New York Times ran a few stories on Wednesday and I could almost see a trace of sympathy or understanding in the press in general. Being whatever the opposite of what a fan is of the IMF and World Bank I think this story has deeper roots and is a metaphor of larger abuses. According to Greg Palast, “Director-General DSK’s cruelty, arrogance and impunity toward African and other nations as generalissimo of the IMF is right in line with the story told by the poor, African hotel housekeeper in New York City.” The lady from Guinea arrived in the States in 2002 having been granted asylum. Why did she leave her home and end up in New York in the first place? In 2002, the International Monetary Fund cut off capital inflows to this West African nation. The IMF’s halting of fund’s movement was devastating, and the nation regressed while sitting on its astonishing mineral wealth including up to half the world’s raw material for aluminum, plus oil, uranium, diamonds and gold. Without capital inflows Guinea could not develop these resources by itself. Guinea was thus forced to sell off its resources to foreign corporations at knockdown prices. As a result, Guineans who could, bolted for freedom and food. Now we have the context of how these two, the lothario of globalization and the refugee ended up, in quite different positions, in that New York hotel room. DSK’s lawyers say the relationship with the housekeeper was “consensual.” But DSK says that about all IMF agreements with nations over whom it holds life and death powers. Whether it was actually consensual sex or a crime, it could only have been “consensual” in the same way that the people of Guinea consented to IMF-ordered financial rapine.

In my first post on this site I waffled on about pay as you go education and the ills inherent. I am not all negative says I negatively but there is a pay as you go education service for us big people online. There are many, yes, but one sticks out for me because of the motivation behind it; it is www.straighterline.com and should be checked out. I had very high hopes for it a few years ago but while as yet unrealized, hope does after all, spring eternal. Speaking of the web, youtube is a vast resource of amazing stuff. A load of cobblers too I know but a veritable list of howtos can be found here http://happymeal.soup.io/post/54606863/what-can-you-learn-on-youtube.

Not really Thai teaching related but I thought I’d throw a few of these your way anyhow ..

• If the “black box” flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash, why isn’t the whole airplane made out of that stuff?
• When dog food is new with improved tasting, who tests it?
• What does O.K. stand for?
• If a person owns a piece of land do they own it all the way down to the core of the earth?
• How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
• Why is the time when the traffic is slowest called rush-hour?
• How does a man who drives a snowplough get to his place of work in the mornings?
• When we make a mistake and say “I knew I was gonna do that”, then why did we do it?
• Why can’t you get a tan on your palms?
• Why do triangular sandwiches taste better than square ones?
  

This weekend sees an end to a few things and of course ends bring new beginnings. The main end is that of the school holidays here in Thailand and the consequent beginning of a new academic year. On that note this website will be building; becoming a regular place to visit for resources and more. I have heard the plans and I have to say I am impressed. Furthermore, and this is of importance to me, the football seasons in Europe are on the brink of packing it in for the summer when they will tour far flung parts of the earth in the guise of bringing football to the ordinary people or regular fans of theirs, while in reality extending their mercenary claws to suck up as much available cash of any denomination. Concerns for the ordinary fan closer to the clubs’ homes seems not as high as the summer’s repricing of tickets and the reissuance of slightly altered team strips at a price showing the widest possible gap between the purchase price from an Asian sweat shop and final retail price from the club shop. Luckily as a fan of a team in the lower leagues this is not of direct personal concern.

Anyway, for most of us foreign teachers school is opening next week.

A major topic of conversation over the last few weeks has been the shooting of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. Most conversations have an edge of conspiracy about them. Really? Was he? I think…. Well, if you ask me…. etc. I am getting a bit old for conspiracies. They do exist but the odder end of the exponents are their own worst enemies by seeing conspiracy everywhere and then getting dragged into the theory side of things. A conspiracy and a conspiracy theory are hugely different things and if I have to explain that difference, well, I am just not going to.

And school kicks off on the 17th. I am on the back end of one of the longest times off work in many years. This is the first time I have enjoyed the full break without involving myself in summer school or extra work that my bank account and her indoors appreciate. But isn’t it great? 9th March to 17th May, a, I would like to think, well earned rest or a lazy indulgence? Doesn’t matter much now as it is nigh over.

As I was sat writing this, her indoors asked what I was up to. I told her I was writing a blog for the newest and most amazingly fantastic Thai teaching website. I didn’t say this actually as I got stopped at the word blog. No translation was necessary but we did get a bit stuck at what a blog is. Thankfully our tech-savvy niece was here and she took over the explanation. And then I heard the question/statement roughly translated as who reads those things. Speaking of tech-savvy, a story doing the rounds recently came to my attention when I heard a few of my neighbours discussing it at my local shop. I was well surprised at the words they were dropping; Facebook, Twitter, network; I was well surprised. Turns out that two representatives of two opposing sections of Thai society passed each other in a rather luxurious restaurant off Sukumvit somewhere. Nothing extraordinary there. The thing is, in broad brush strokes one is a representative of the rich and the other of the poor. In broad brush strokes as I have said. Anyway the representative of the rich posted on his Facebook page that it was rather unusual for such a person, as a representative of the poor to be drinking wine and dining in such a place. The representative of the poor then posted a rebuttal on his page, the former’s wife posted about it on her page, more people posted their opinions and something I would have never known about was made known to me at my local shop early in the morning, just as day was dawning as I was getting my morning coffee. I think technology has now officially passed me by but I can happily accept the role of spectator providing my mornings are entertaining as this one was.

Last night saw the FA Cup final take place. Since I was a lad this has been an unmissable thing for me. Probably a lot of that is nostalgia now but I will never forget Tommy Hutchison scoring both goals as Manchester City played Spurs many years ago. He scored for both teams though necessitating a replay which also will never be erased from my memory. Spurs’ Argentineans, Ricky Villa and Ossie Ardilles stole the show as Spurs won the replay. A few years later Kevin Moran became the first player to be sent off in a final. In 1988 the mighty Wimbledon beat Liverpool by the odd goal. Wonderful indeed. I happened to be in Switzerland in 1996 and paid the outrageous prices there for a few ales to watch a rather drab final but that was ok, it’s the FA Cup. For the more romantic fans, last night was a let down as Manchester City squeezed passed Stoke. I guess City have waited long enough and for the price of nearly seven hundred million pounds the cup was theirs. I thought Stoke played well, as they have done all season. Their position in the table coming the end of the season shows this and kudos to Tony Pulis for unfashionably ignoring the big boys’ ways and getting on with their own thing. I mean for many years from now, hear the words long throw, and you will think of Stoke and Rory Delap. That is if you care..

The holiday is over and yes I do labour the point. No summer school for me and I didn’t send my own kids anywhere either. But being a bit of a Stoke City, I am unfashionable and my bank balance is challenged, but the time spent with my kids was wonderful. It is probably a time that I will struggle to replicate in the future as the demands of life, financial and otherwise rise to the top of the to-do list. But right at this moment life is wonderful and that really is something. If only Stoke had won…

As I was returning home one Saturday recently, I grabbed a copy of The Bangkok Post for the journey home. Looking up Ramkamhaeng at the month’s end traffic gridlocked ahead I settled into the rear seat of the van glad to have my reading material. Flicking through I came across an article that caught my eye, the headline “Pay-as-you-learn education teaches us a bad lesson,” had me guessing as the last travelers filled up the van and off we set, albeit slowly, though thankfully the van lights remained on negating the usual strain encountered in positioning the paper to grab a bit of light from the street.

As both a teacher and a parent, this type of headline is one to get me reading and the mention of the word pay in the same sentence as education has a double meaning for me. One is the beneficial in and the other is the more stressful out. In any case as it turned out the article was an interesting account of the latest ‘educational” enterprise designed to separate parents from baht therefore allegedly ensuring the successful educational advancement of our little ones; at least that’s what these establishments would have us think. This latest trend in edutainment seems now widely available and with the previously mentioned dual roles in life that I now have it perplexes me. Arglit Boonyai’s article raises the issues of regulation and pricing therefore running straight into its first contradiction. Firstly regulation he says is nonexistent for these places and pricing will revert to the “Thai way,” if it costs a lot it must be good”, (or possibly if it costs a lot the riff-raff can’t get in). Imbibed with a journalistic spirit, I initially thought that on the following day I would bundle my three eager young offspring into the car and head off to some of these places and in a suitably detached way would find out for myself what exactly was going on. With my identity as a teacher and a long-term resident hidden under a smug exterior I would find out what these charlatans were up to, and when the time came to write this I would knowingly tell all about how all these activities could be done in the loving bosom of the home’s illimitable parental love… bullshit.. After a short think, I knew my kids would love it. I knew they would bail in to whatever activities were on offer fully aware that the staff there would not put up the restrictions that dad would. There would be no rants about the value of toys and how dad had to work hard to get the means to buy them. They would bound from area to area without mum insisting on tidying up and putting back things. It would for them, be heaven. It is for a parent hard to say no for a variety of reasons and is another source of pressure in these times that are getting harder.

With this thought I realized that as a parent this would put me in group 2 of the three groups of parents I had classified with regard to extra educational activities. Let me explain. These are three broad groupings with even more sub-divisions. Group number 1 first then. Group 1 parents are typically wealthy and fashion conscious. Their kids get it all if all can be said to be purchased. Group 2, my peers, realize that their sprogs may benefit from some of this but have to consider things like cost and logistics before engaging in activities outside the compulsory and our final group, group 3 don’t even think about these things as they are outside their reach from the get go. As I say these groups are broad and are in no way intended as a comment or a judgment on parenting, a very personal thing. On that note let me then comment on Group 2, the group I feel that broadly, I belong to.

As a parent I want the best for my children. I would like my kids to have a good education. I imagine this is the case for all parents from whatever background. I want my kids to enjoy life and to be happy, well rounded individuals. I would be glad if they developed a well rounded bank of skills and entered their adult life well equipped for whatever life may throw at them. The reality is now in 2011 that this is going

to cost. The mindset I had found myself with, developed from my own education with schooling finishing after four o’clock, is now the incorrect approach. I can fill some of the gaps myself and as parents we will, of course, try to instill correct values but this in the modern world we live in is not enough.

The flip side is that my income comes directly and indirectly from group 1 parents. So if the previous few paragraphs seem confused and disjointed, that is because my feelings are reflected therein. I do not have even an approximation of all of the issues I will face in the years to come resulting in at this point in time not having a clue how problems, having not yet arisen, may be dealt with. Watch this space.

These are great activities. Apart from being fun to do, they also teach a lot of vocab. I like to use them as a colour by instruction activity after they students have spotted the differences. No answers I’m afraid so you’ll have to find em yourself!!!

Spot the difference-1