A unexpected challenge...

Afternoon!

Well, I had an interesting class this morning and I believe I have to classify it as a 'kids will be kids' moment but one which was created by the fact that I'm teaching in Thailand in English. I've been teaching an ecology unit in my M1 class and we just started learning about energy flows and food chains today. As I was teaching there was one word which, after I said it, prompted the students to laugh. I said it several times as it was an fairly important word and my saying it elicited the same response every time. As I was teaching, I was racking my brain trying to figure out if this word meant something in Thai. I've run into that situation where a word in English (key in particular) means something very different in Thai (key in Thai means feces, poop, sh*t etc.). I first ran into that at the English Camp as I was explaining to the students what to do after they checked in. Not only did I say the word "key" many times, but I placed emphasis on it as we didn't want them to lose or forget their keys. At the time, I missed it. But Peck kindly related that back to me later. So with that experience behind me I assumed that this instance was somehow related. I racked my brain and couldn't come up with anything. Finally, I broke down and asked the students what was so funny. Here is a pretty close duplication of the conversation.

Me: In predator/prey relationships, the predator eats the prey and the prey is eaten by the predator.
Students: Hehehehehehehe
Me: Okay, why do you keep laughing after I say the word "eat"?
Students: Oh nothing. Sorry teacher.
Me: Like I was saying the predator eats the...
Students: Hehehehehehehe
Me (laughing...at that point I couldn't help it):Okay, so what is so funny about the word "eat"?
Students: Hehehehehehehe
Students: Because it's Nonn's (a student in class) mother's name.
Me: Oh.

I didn't know how to respond to that, but Nonn didn't seem to mind so I gave them one more chance to laugh as I said "eat" and then I told them to move on and that the next person who laughs when I say "eat" would fail! :)

About 20 minutes later, the laughing starting again. This time they weren't laughing when I said "eat" but when I said "dead". This time it was easier to get an explanation out of them and it was similar to the other - a student’s father's name is Dead. Then I pretty much went downhill from there. The students choose nicknames for themselves and they are usually simple English words or simple versions of their Thai names. At this point, the students were very attune to the exact words coming out of my mouth and over the next 10 minutes I said several students names which elicited laughter. I have a student named First, Far, and Us and their names came up during the class and each time I said them the students would laugh. At that point it was almost impossible to continue teaching and class was almost finished so we just enjoyed a good laugh and then they headed out for lunch. As they left the classroom, I just sat down and watched them while leave shaking my head and laughing. They never cease to surprise me.

RM