My volunteering experience Danielle,
but you can call me Dani.

I decided to apply to volunteer in Thailand for multiple reasons. First and foremost, I am a big sister. I really like children and spending time with them. I have my fair share of experience with little ones - such as taking my siblings out with our family dog, solving problems with them and taking them for small trips. From past experiences, I felt I would make a good addition to the classroom. I try to be patient and adaptable. The next reason is selfish and I wanted to come here because my dad has lived in Thailand for 3 years, so I was eager to see the country he fell in love with.

Induction

On Sunday 15th June, we all met up in Chiang Rai airport. This is where we met our supervisor Jujai, fellow volunteers Nadja and Fynn, Teacher Nuii, and all the other volunteers. We all sat on the bus, buzzing with nervous energy, unprepared for how the next 3 weeks would shape us. Noor hosted a game of “Mafia” to break the ice, and involved verbal reasoning and voting who was the “gangsta” in the game.

My first impression of the school was being waved at by several young, sparkling faces, who had spotted new comers arriving in the school bus. It warmed my heart to have such a loving, respectable welcome, from the students.

We all ate dinner together, on that Sunday night. Jujai taught us how to Wai correctly, to prepare us to introduce ourselves to 1000 students at the assembly tomorrow. We all went to unpack, I was sharing a room with Molly and Ella, something that probably brought us closer than we realised.

On Monday we had our assembly, and we spoke into the microphone, introducing ourselves to the students we would be getting to know over the course of our placement. I was extremely nervous at the assembly and had spent at least 10 minutes dawdling over which shirt to wear, before settling on borrowing a collar shirt from Seb. We had an induction where we were welcomed by all the English staff of the school, as well as the chancellor. We were given teacher buddies, to call on if we needed anything. My teacher buddy was Teacher Ohm. I was made to feel extremely welcomed by everyone's warm greetings - smiles, verbal welcomes and several speeches.

Monday we were not given lessons but we were given our partners and timetables. Teacher Saddam showed us around the entire school on Monday, its size surprised me. There were several aspects to the school that I was not expecting, such as a gym, a small market, a hair dresser, and a cafe.

On Tuesday, we had classes for the first time with our timetable partners. Me and Ibrahim were paired together and tackled this new experience together, our first class M3. Cor Jae advised us to throw a ball to and from the children, and have them answer questions from us. We did it and it was inspirational to see the children come out of their shell slowly, gaining confidence in speaking to us in English, and supporting each other in understanding the English questions we were asking.

On Tuesday evening, we were welcomed with a lovely meal and drinks with all of the English teachers, director etc. We all sang karaoke together and ate lovely Thai food. It appeared to be tradition for this school that newcomers should all sing a song and so should the hosts. The director of the school gave us a wonderful speech personally welcoming us. It opened all our eyes into just how accommodating, warm and friendly thai culture is and made us all feel at home.

Wednesday was for teacher training, and us volunteers had prepared a heads up to play with the teachers to help them to improve their English. The game involved teachers holding up an object of a specific category. It was then up to the other teacher to answer questions to help identify what the object was. This activity got the teachers communicating together in English and also broke the ice for us.

English classes

Over the past 3 weeks, our English classes have primarily consisted of helping out the English teacher with what they have planned, occasionally taking charge of the lesson. I feel I have taught about several different subjects, such as time telling, directions and occupations.

My classes with Teacher Yupha involved working alongside Noor and Ash to teach the kids how to tell the time in English. We spent the two hour lesson going through some of the basic timings, and how to say it. We collaborated as a trio to come up with some essential knowledge for time telling in English, we tried to ensure the kids retained this by quizzing them afterwards.

Classes with Nui were always a lot of fun, often playing some game that incorporated English language, such as “Chinese whispers” or drawing the word that the volunteer says to end up with one big drawing. I had a lot of fun playing the sock game, where the students were required to listen carefully and place their hand on the given body part, but reach for the sock when it was called. This was beneficial for listening skills as well as key vocabulary such as “head”.

I met some lovely students in Teacher Jae’s class, where our last lesson was spent trying to learn about occupations. The students were forced to be brave and bring their work up to me or Fynn to be marked and approved. I noticed one student struggling, near the back. I went through the vocabulary with him one by one to try to nurture his understanding and build his confidence. Make sure he knows that he, too, is important.

During my class with Teacher Ohm, I recycled my Heads up game used for teacher training and the children really enjoyed taking it in turns to come up and have a go at guessing what vehicle they are, using a set of questions. Heads up with the whole class invited team work and fostered a supportive environment from the other students.

I helped out with one of Teacher Ice’s classes. Me, Nadja and Seb conducted a lesson about directions. We drew a map for the students and asked them to describe how they would travel from one place to the other, using key vocabulary such as “Left”, “Forward” etc. At the end we played a more light hearted game where we challenged them to a directions themed “simon says” game. All of the students were much better than me as I was first out each time.

Music/dance

We were lucky enough to be shown, as well as, immersed in Classical Thai music and dance.

We learnt how to play several songs using a traditional thai instrument, using guidance from the music teacher, who gave us hand signals of when to shake our note. We did several songs such as Chang, which has become a favourite among our group of volunteers. We also learnt a Thai new year song. The students performed several songs for us using several different instruments and it was clear how much effort they had put into learning and practicing, becoming comfortable with their instruments and becoming confident enough to share it.

We were taught a traditional Thai dance using hats. It was a lot of fun to learn and rehearse the dance. I felt all of us volunteers tried to do the dance well and put a lot of effort into learning and practicing.

Art class

I had a lovely time in art class. On two occasions we participated in the lesson. The first time we used plastic dishes to carve our picture, and then we used it as a stamp to imprint our picture onto the paper. The art teacher showed me how to paint it properly, giving it a nice gradient so that the stamped image would look nice.

The students are extremely talented in art, as we witnessed. I made a friend in the class who told me about her favourite anime and showed me some of the art pieces around the art room, asking me which was my favourite one.

Planting and Sugar cane

We got involved in the Student planting class during the first week, they were using knives to make an incision on a mango plant, and connect another mango plant to it. This enables the plants to grow quicker. Embarrassingly, both me and nabil cut ourselves, and definitely need a few more lessons with the students. It was nice to immerse ourselves in something different than general classroom activities, especially as Mangoes do not grow in the Uk, so it was a brand new experience for us all.

On a later occasion we got involved with the sugar cane harvesting, as well as general farming activities. It was alarming for me to see a young student wielding a scythe to skim the sugar cane, but they did it with so much care and consistency. We had a go and collectively took much longer than the students. We also used a small machine to skim the sugar canes.

We had a wander around other parts of the farm, helping with tending the land ready to grow. We all used a hoe and tried to ask the students about what we were doing there. It was nice to see all the kids working together, without complaining, to get this job done.

Primary

On our last day we were given the opportunity to spend 3 periods with the primary. It was my first experience helping in a primary class because my schedule did not change. We did basic activities with them such as action bingo, which they loved. All of the young children were very energetic and excited, which was needed on a Thursday morning to wake us all up.

It was a lot of fun to play duck, duck, goose with the kids, seeing how they tried to include everyone into the game, and gave their all into playing. Compassion from such a young age.

English camp

I did an English camp station along with Seb. We went with a science experiment because we knew that it would be very exciting for the kids. We used vocabulary and a worksheet to incorporate English learning.

Our first on Sunday, with the students of Rajaprananugroh, went well. I hope that it was enjoyable for the students, and that they learnt some vocabulary and gained confidence about speaking. It was nice to have the assistance of Thai University students to guide us and help us with our first English camp.

Our second English camp was with older students. They were perhaps less excited about a pretend volcano, however, I felt it was extremely enriching for all parties when we sat in small focus groups and had conversations with them. For one hour, after English camp activities finished, the volunteers rotated around speaking to small groups of students. I felt I met some really interesting characters and that the students we spoke with, gained from the experience of talking to a native speaker.

Our third English camp had a wide range of students, they performed a Thai dance for us, as well as a mini concert to welcome us to their school. The landscape behind the school was really beautiful and all of the students enjoyed our volcano experiment as well as learning something new and building confidence.

Our last English camp was with primary 1 to primary 6 and our station was very successful because the young students were really excited by the volcano. I think that it was probably also exciting for them to have so many visitors to their school.

Walking with Teacher Yupha

I have really appreciated every single teacher I met here. From Teacher Ice’s giggle to Teacher Saddam’s generosity, rushing me to the nurse’s room for a minor cut. This school has got such a charming work force alongside it, but there was one teacher who I feel I made a deep friendship with. The head of foreign language department, Teacher Yupha, has shown me such kindness and generosity.

I joined Teacher Yupha on several of her walks around the school in the evening. This gave us almost an hour of conversing, about our lives, about our cultures and just how our day had been. This hour for exercise and friendship became something I really looked forward to. Aside from walking together, Teacher Yupha treated me to a coffee, more than once. I tried Matcha and green tea for the first time.

Students

I met some really nice students, such as Kamanee, “Nee”, who came to interview me twice and clearly studies very hard in English as she tired her best to pronounce the English questions perfectly, understand my answers to her interview and also build on my answers. She is a very lovely, dedicated student and I am really glad I got to know her.

I also met a student who played a song for me on her guitar, along with her friend who likes lady gaga a lot. It was a really lovely experience to listen to them play and talk to them about music, what they like and what I like. I hope this student continues to practice guitar and English because she is very gifted.

Reflection

Looking back on my three weeks volunteering in Thailand, I'm overwhelmed by how profoundly this experience has shaped me. What began as a desire to work with children, transformed into something far more meaningful – a journey of cultural immersion, personal growth, and genuine human connection.

Our supervisor, Jujai, has been imperative in guiding us along this transformative path. Not only did he help us navigate the practicalities of teaching, but he also embarked knowledge about Buddhism and Thai culture that deepened our understanding of the community we were serving. His support and wisdom helped us bridge cultural gaps, build confidence and approach each challenge with patience and respect.

Teaching taught me as much as I hope I taught the students. Watching them slowly gain confidence in speaking English, supporting each other through language barriers, and celebrating small victories together showed me the universal power of encouragement. Whether we were playing the sock game with primary students or discussing occupations with older classes, each moment reinforced that education is about building confidence as much as conveying knowledge.

The warmth of Thai culture blew me away. From the moment those sparkling faces waved at us through the school bus windows, to the karaoke nights with teachers, to the director's personal welcome speech – every gesture reinforced how hospitality is crucial to Thai society. I learned that the Wai is more than a greeting; it's a symbol of the respect.