Sexual Identity Disorder, or Sex in the Classroom

The field of teaching English as a second language is fraught with opportunities, opportunities for misunderstanding and confusion.

The other day I was teaching one of my Junior classes (7th and 8th graders). I wanted them to pick a superstar who would eventually become their husband or wife for the activity. I wrote on the board, "Write down the first name of your favorite movie star or superstar of the opposite sex." They were reading along as I wrote and when they got to the word sex there were several gasps from the room. I knew exactly what they were thinking, "Teacher Bob just wrote SEX!" I turned around to explain what I wanted, but one of them beat me to the punch. Little Som piped up, "Teacher, what is opposite sex?" I misunderstood the question, and being tired and not thinking straight, I answered truthfully, "Well kids, the opposite of sex is marriage." A great deal of consternation ensued as they fell to talking with their neighbors and trying to parse the meaning of my words. At this point I realized that I had wandered into a minefield of linguistic and cultural difficulties and I beat a hasty retreat. I explained that I wanted the girls to pick a boy's name, and the boys to pick a girl's name. We went on with the activity, but it reminded me of the first rule of teaching young teens, "Always think twice before you say anything."

House Photos

I know that I promised house photos a long time ago, but I have been busy and have had technical difficulties with my camera. But at long last, here they are!



Front of House. I can't get a good angle due to the narrow street and other obstacles, but here is the front of the house.


From the Front Gate



The Front Yard



The Side of the yard.



The Rather Unimpressive Backyard

All Moved

Well, I am finally moved in. Moving was more stressful than I thought it would be. I am working six days a week and the next to last weekend I got food poisoning and lost 2 and a half days. But I finally got everything sorted, either thrown away or moved, got the apartment cleaned and got checked out. On the upside I got back 11,000 of my 13,000 baht deposit. An extra 270 dollars to play with! I still haven't taken any pictures of my new place, but I will. Now I have a head cold, and am taking it easy. I have to work tonight, so I need to do some lesson planning. I also have to attend a Teacher's Exchange Meeting this afternoon, so I better get on with it.

Moving

I will start moving into my new house this weekend. (Although I expect it will take me at least a week to move all my stuff, and clean my old apartment). I will post some pictures after I am actually in the house. But as a teaser, I will tell you that it has three bedrooms, two baths, a full kitchen, a large living area, a carport, a lawn, banana trees, a full wall with gate, and a fish pond. Sounds nice doesn't it?

Thai Ukulele Craze

The latest craze among Thai teens is playing the ukulele. I don't know why they became so popular in the last several months, but anywhere you go you might see a kid strumming one. Several of my students have brought them to class, and one even played for us.

My student Nine brought hers on Friday and agreed to pose with it for me.