We are nearing the end of our first full week of classes, so I thought I would take this opportunity of having cooperative WiFi to talk about my school a bit. My school is called Kanchanapisek Wittayalai Nakhon Pathom School (KPN or Kanchana for short). There are 9 affiliate Kanchanapisek schools around the country, so ours is distinguished by putting the province, Nakhon Pathom, in the name. It's a "royal project" school, so it attracts the best students from around the area. Thai secondary (Mathayom) schools are divided into levels M1 - M6, with M1 being 7th grade, and M6 being 12th grade. I am currently teaching 2 levels: M3 (so freshman) and M5 (juniors). I have 10 M3 classes, and 8 M5 classes, and I only see each class once a week. Since each class has about 25-30 students (maybe a few more), that's a lot of kids whose names I am definitely not going to remember at all.. I am not even going to try.
What I do want to learn is some of my students' nicknames, because these things are HILARIOUS. Sometimes they will have a short Thai name, but often times they (or their parents I think) have picked random English words. So I have students whose nicknames are Champ, Cartoon, Ice, Boat, Best, View, and Toffy. Some other teachers have other ridiculous names, such as Oil, Pond, Curve, and Biggy. I am not sure what the reasoning is for the choices, but it's amusing nonetheless.
Even though I have told my students my name, the title of this post is one phrase I hear from Thai students constantly. "Teacha, teacha! How old are you?" "Teacha, where you come from?" "Teacha, how long are you in Thailand?" These are the tame, expected questions though; often they like to get a little more personal, or downright absurd. Some of my favorite exchanges so far:
Male Student: Teacha, do you have a boyfriend? Me: No, I don't. Student: I am single. Me: I don't date students.
Male Student #2 (it's always the boys): Teacha, why do you have light skin? Me (a little flabbergasted): Why do you have dark skin???? (That one was a hit with the students.)
Female student: Teacha, what color are your eyes? Me: They are hazel, which means green and brown. Female student: Oooohhh suay, suay [beautiful]! (Kid, you get an A from teacha.)
Sigh… kids are kids no matter what side of the world you're on. I know I am probably forgetting some silly student stories (there's a new one everyday), but that just means I will have to same them for another post. Stay tuned, and sawadee ka!