The Big EC

English Camp 2009. Two full days of English immersion. Two days of English songs, games, and activities all run by native English speakers.

That would make sense, wouldn't it? Well, this is Anuban Khon Kaen, so English Camp did not quite fit this description. More accurately, it was a title used to require foreign teachers to attend and supervise. If the field trip were named Thai Camp, none of us would have to go, and the Thai teachers wouldn't have had babysitters for the students!

The Planning:
English Camp was planned for the end of November. Then the beginning of December. Then the end of December, and so on. Basically, we knew to have our bags packed in case we received calls that EC would start in the morning. Planning, however, went on for ages. For two hours at a time all of the teachers in the English Program would be required to attend meetings about the camp. Who was with the students during these times? Good question. I have no idea. Probably no one. The meetings were mostly conducted in Thai because the head of the English Program, and my Thai teacher, cannot speak English. Hmmm.... The best part about the meetings were when we finally received the English translation. The Thai teachers would literally lecture the foreign teachers for 10 minutes at a time before it was translated. When Dave would finally translate, it would come down to one or two sentences stating, "please stay with the children in the rooms. Don't let them move the furniture, there have been problems with that in the past." Wait, Dave, was that it? They just spent 10 minutes talking, and that was it? No wonder nothing is ever accomplished around here.
We each had to plan stations for groups of 45 students to attend at a time. We would have an hour with each group. There would be two foreign teachers and one Thai assistant working each station. The activities were to be focused around English. All of the foreign teachers came prepared to one of the many meetings with activities and lists of materials. We were ripped apart. For one, all of the explanations had to be translated as we explained... aren't these teachers in the English Program?! Why can't they speak English? Well, I am going to have to get over that. But, as we explained, the teachers tore all of the games and activities apart. Either they didn't involve enough English, or they weren't appropriate for the age group, or the group of students would be too large. It was always something.
I walked away from the meetings very discouraged. But thank goodness for the experienced foreign teachers in the building. They very quickly explained to me that the teachers will tell us to change the activities, rip us apart, and we will ignore them. Basically, the teachers won't know any better when we are at the camp. And, they want the activities to seem very educational when the program is presented to the vice principal for approval. But, it is camp! All of the foreign teachers understand this. The activities are supposed to be fun and exciting. And of course the students will speak English, because we don't speak Thai!

The Journey to Camp:
Holy Moly. Thailand loves karaoke. In every mall in the city there are huge hallways of karaoke rooms. There are are at least 30 karaoke rooms in the old mall alone. The school children flock there every day after school to scream their little hearts out in front of a big tv screen. I knew this was a popular activity, but I didn't realize it happened on the busses. The bus was to leave school at 7:30 am. I arrived at 6, as instructed, and I waited. I waited for teachers to arrive. I waited for the busses to arrive. I waited for students to arrive. But this is Thailand, times are just suggestions.
When we finally loaded the double decker bus, I was relieved to get on the road. We were only 45 minutes late, so I thought we were doing well. But then we stopped. And we waited. We waited for another 45 minutes for a student that was running late. We were finally on our way to Khao Yai, a national park about 2 hours south of Khon Kaen. Even though we were late, we had planned not to stop during the trip, and we should still arrive at reasonable hour. Teacher Am On turned on Monsters vs. Aliens in Thai and the students were ecstatic. Teacher Meaghan was even more ecstatic. The students were quiet! They were listening to the movie. I started to drift asleep, and the noise began. As it turns out, about 45 minutes into the movie, Teacher Am On decided the G rated movie was too inappropriate for third through sixth graders. So instead, drum roll please, it was time for karaoke.
I have never heard this volume of sound come from a bus before. Every other seat had a massive speaker pounding the Thai karaoke music. And even better, there were 4 microphones on the bus. And all of them were being used. As soon as a song would end, the students would begin screaming into the microphones for another song. It was ear piercing. My head was pounding. And now, they wanted Teacher Meaghan to sing. Anytime a song title was in English I would be passed a microphone and asked to sing. I had never heard of a single one of the songs! It was madness.
Of course we ended up stopping along the trip, and our two hour journey took four. I just continued to smile, because I was sure this was only the beginning.

The Camp:

When we finally arrived it was lunch time. The morning activities would have to be skipped, and the schedule was being changed. Our hour with every group was cut down to 45 minutes. The 45 minutes were later cut down to 25 minutes. The Thai teachers did a lot of speaking in Thai, and the foreign teachers did quite a bit of waiting.
We brought different people from the school including the principal, vice principal and other authority figures. Each of these people said a few words at the opening ceremony, and disappeared. We later found out that they had taken the school van to go shopping at the outlet center. Unfortunately, all of the luggage that the foreign teachers brought was in the van.
The one thing that had not yet been taken over was the evening show. The foreign teachers had put together a variety of different things including a Miss English Camp Pageant where the students would dress up the male foreign teachers. We had also planned a limbo competition for the Thai teachers and various other games, activities and songs. Well, surprise, surprise! The Thai teachers took over again. And English camp became more and more like Thai camp with foreign teacher accessories.

The camp was interesting, and not at all what had been planned for hours on end. But, it was pretty wonderful to be off campus and getting to know the students better. Here is a link to the video of different student performances from the bus ride and the show that the Thai teachers took over. You should have a look, these kids are pretty crazy!

Oh, and I almost forgot! Students and teachers sleep together! Teacher Meaghan and 5 third grade girls all sharing one room with three twin beds. Oh my.