Living the good life

Two months already passed since I first came to the project site and I have to say: time flies. Every week I can learn so much in this beautiful country with all the super friendly people. This month I finally started to teach regularly in school and I fell in love with my future job. The kids are super cute and willing to learn. As I want them to be able to speak a bit on their own, I focus now on teaching sentences. My goal is one question and one answer per week and so far, it is turning out great. I already knew, that especially at this age (primary school) games and mixture of methods are important. Here I experienced the extent of the importance. The more games I play with them, the more fun they have, the more they learn. Once I tried a mini presentation to present Austria but although I tried to make it as interactive as possible, I could feel how hard it is for this age to focus. Especially for the youngest, who understand the least of what I’m saying. So next month I’m going to play even more games which is also most fun for me.

Another thing, I’m learning here is spontaneity. Every day can happen something unexpected or plans can change like four times in one hour. I really like this experience since I myself am not quite the spontaneous type of person but I’d like to integrate some of it in my future life. It strangely enables you to appreciate experiences even more.

In the last week of January my sister travelled to Thailand too. As she had not much time here, we decided to meet at her first destination – Bangkok. My host family and the organization were very understanding and approved my days off without further questioning. Apparently family time is valued highly here. I really enjoyed seeing my sister and now, after my trip, I have a lot of feelings. I really started to miss my home and looking forward to go back to Austria and at the same time I’m super happy that I have another month here with all the people, my hostfamily and the kids. Knowing that I don’t have much time left here makes me appreciate it even more. I will enjoy every single day that is left.

-January 2023-

Lisa, Volunteer from Austria in InterCultural and Language project 3 months in Nakornratchasima, Thailand (December 2022- February 2023)