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Monthly Archives: February 2016
Family Life
Whilst I cannot claim to be any kind of expert on Thai or Karen life, it did not take much time here to realise that there are some profound differences between family life here and that in the UK. For … Continue reading
Posted in Living with Locals, The Karen
Tagged Culture, family, Hilltribes, Karen, Mountains, Thailand, Travel
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A Collection of Conversations
Conversation 1: It was not late, but it felt it. It was a few weeks ago and the nights were still drawing in quickly and thickly. Nuan and I were drinking Lao Kow (“White Whisky”) on the porch outside. One … Continue reading
Posted in Living with Locals, The Karen
Tagged Conversation, Culture, Hilltribes, Karen, Language, Thailand, Travel
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Fire
Thailand has just three seasons, the Cold Season, which we are just coming to the end of, the Hot Season which is just beginning and the Wet Season which happens later in the year. No prizes for guessing what each … Continue reading
Posted in Living with Locals, The Karen
Tagged Fire, Karen Hilltribes, Living in the mountains, Mountains, Southeast Asia, Thailand
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Scout Camp – Thai Style
Scout Camp in Thailand is different to that in the UK. For a start, whole schools are part of Scouts, and if so, one day a week they have Scout Day on which they dress in Scout uniform and take … Continue reading
Posted in People, Teaching English, Thailand, The Karen
Tagged Boy Scouts, Scouting, south east asia, Survival Skills
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Mae Sariang
Being the only “Farang” (Westerner) in the area is great, giving me a unique opportunity to immerse myself in local culture and practice Thai. However, sometimes it is tiring and I was excited at the prospect of a weekend away … Continue reading
Posted in Adventures, Southeast Asia
Tagged Buddha Statue, kindness of strangers, Mae Sariang, Mountains, Thailand, walking
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Pretom
The Pretom school in Mae La Luang is part of the same school as the Matteyum I work in but is located elsewhere in the town. Every day I ride my bicycle through the temple grounds to get to it. Usually … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching English, Thailand
Tagged Culture, English, Hilltribes, Karen, Living in the mountains, Mountains, south east asia, teaching, TEFL, Thai, Thailand
2 Comments
Celebrating in Style
Like a new house, it is Thai tradition to celebrate a new building of any kind. My Matteyum is opening to a further three year groups from May this year, the start of the new academic year, and as such … Continue reading
Posted in Southeast Asia, Teaching English, Thailand
Tagged celebration, Culture, English, Karen, Living in the mountains, new, photos, school, south east asia, teaching, TEFL, Thai, tradition, Travel
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Matteyum
Thai school is different to English schools in a thousand ways. This is the first of three blog posts I will write about each of the schools I am in. Matteyum is the equivalent of secondary school. The matteyum I … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching English, Thailand
Tagged Adventure, Culture, English, Hilltribes, Karen, school, south east asia, Southeast Asia, teaching, Thai, Thailand, Travel
4 Comments
The walk to school.
Last night I went with Cru Aew and her daughter, Boh Beng, on a spontaneous visit to Mae Sariang. Cru Aew works in Maela Suksa Pretom (primary) and speaks very good English. She used to be the English teacher in Matteyum. … Continue reading
Posted in Southeast Asia, Teaching English, Thailand, The Karen
Tagged Adventure, Culture, Karen, Living in the mountains, Mountains, Thailand, Travel
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A Perfect Evening
Last night was one of those rare perfect evenings. Not because of anything in particular, but a combination of lovely things coinciding. The evening started well with lesson planning over a rare fresh coffee at the cafe opposite school. It … Continue reading
Posted in The Karen
Tagged Culture, dancing, family, happiness, journey, Karen, Living in the mountains, Mountains, Southeast Asia, Thailand
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