My experience in Thailand with VSA

Hi! I’m Vladimir, I’m 24 and I’m from Italy, I just finished my 3 months volunteering project in Songkhla province, from November to January. In particular, I volunteered in Na Thawi Elementary School as a teacher of English for communication.

I decided to try this experience because I never went out of Europe, and I wanted to see different cultures and try to open my mind once I finished my bachelor’s degree.

Speaking about the experience, first, I had the opportunity to experience teaching and live the Thai educational environment and I am very grateful to school staff and the students’ kindness and availability.

In specific, the school gave me the topics I had to teach but then I was free to organize my lessons as I wanted, sometimes I also spoke about topics such as sustainability and the environment, personally I think these issues are very important to deal with future generations, and they should be more discussed in school. Managing the lessons was not always easy, I always had to try to be the most interactive, engaging and entertaining possible to make students enjoy and participate the lesson, that was the biggest challenge in this teaching experience.

During my stay in Thailand, I also had the luck, thanks to my local coordinator P Nat, to meet many other foreign professors working in Thailand and other very interesting people working in the education sector. I found the education system very fluid in Thailand, foreigners (not only English native speakers) are highly appreciated and sought after as English professors and it is very easy to get a job if you have a valid teaching certification and you have passion in teaching.

I would like also to say that Thai people are very welcoming and friendly, in Songkhla province not many people speak English but they are always trying their best to communicate with you and help you. I also think that Thai are very genuine, I think many of them love to live a slow life and appreciate small things, and in general I felt there is a lot of humanity, trust and compassion between people.

To conclude, I want to mention a very beautiful phrase an old man told me before I flew to Thailand: “let yourself be carried by the cyclone of life”, with this experience I have understood more the importance and the meaning of this phrase and I suggest to everyone to travel, volunteer, live intensely and challenging experiences and live your lives as an adventure.

Thanks to VSA Thailand, P Tum, P Nat, Na Thawi Municipality School, all the nice people that I met during this amazing experience and you for your time.

Vladimir

Novem 2023 - January 2024