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My Most
Memorable Teaching Experience:  High School bound Kornvit used to vomit after just about five minutes into each new lesson! In all of my years of
teaching EFL/ESL, I have probably had more than my fair share of happy
and rewarding teaching experiences – which, though they don't occur all
the time in an obvious way, are what make out jobs not just a means of
making a living,
but also a source of spiritual enrichment. And that counts, for those
of us who
have devoted our lives to doing something we believe in, namely
imparting the gift of English to persons of other nations who need and
want it. The teaching experience (or rather the
experience that resulted from my teaching) that stands out most in my
memory as rewarding occurred several years before I founded
TEXT-AND-TALK Academy, and quite some time before we developed our own
popular TEFL course. For four months, I made my way through heavy
traffic to reach the home of a very wealthy family, whose son, I will
call Kornvit
(pronounced 'Gawn-wit'), was scheduled to begin attending high school
in the United States from the fall of that year. The house was like a mansion, prestigious but
not gauchely new (as the 'Super Rich' might say), which sat on the
right
as one entered the gate of a large compound. The latter included,
besides maids' quarters and pens and coops for various animals, a
running area for
several dogs and a smaller house to the left of it, in which the
'victim'
of my English lessons was to be taught privately by me for a period
of one and a-half hours each weekday. I say 'victim' because poor Kornvit, age 15, not only spoke no English (despite extensive teaching of the subject at school), but seemed to be lacking in all but the most rudimentary knowledge of English vocabulary, grammar and structure – and now, in just four short months, he and I were to achieve the miracle of getting him ready to compete with American high school students of his own age. God help us both! (Of course, I silently sympathized with the boy for being under this pressure, but was aware that a lot of other Thai kids, as well as seasoned teachers, have had assignments like this thrust upon them by obdurate parents. There was no way out, as kids would always subject themselves to their parents' wishes, and parents would always procure a teacher who was willing – and, one could only hope, able – to achieve their target objective.) As it turned out, though, Kornvit was a bright
kid
after all, and appeared to learn quite a lot despite the fact that
most of the 'homework' I assigned to him was either not done or turned
in late. Kornvit was, without doubt, 'expected' by his dad to succeed in his studies, and each day would excuse himself to go into the toilet and vomit after just about five minutes into a new lesson! He never complained, however, and fully understood the need to learn each part of the 'course' that I was teaching him. These parts consisted not only of practice
conversations incorporating 'normal' American teenage usage and slang
(to help him fit in with his peers), but also the type of 'proper'
English which he would need to use in more formal situations, such as
in talking with teachers. To underpin all of this with the vital basics,
a virtual 'book' of vocabulary and word building instruction and
exercises, along with basic grammar and structural information and
reading comprehension and writing practice work, was developed by me in
order to help Kornvit (and his father!) achieve his special objective.
No existing book would have sufficed for such a four-month crash course. Kornvit progessed rapidly, though he continued
to vomit at the beginning of each lesson – after each session of which
the best I could do was teach with kindness and act like nothing had
happened. After class, however, we were
just friends, playing with the family's dogs. Having reached the end of my 'semester' with
him, I was duly thanked and rewarded by both Kornvit and his father,
and I left their house a final time not knowing if I had achieved a lot
of good, or a lot of harm, or maybe just nothing at all. Not long thereafter, I took a full-time
teaching position with ELS International, in which I taught both
conversation and reading, as well as writing, classes. I
was enjoying this teaching work when one day after about 10 months of
time had
passed by, I was quite startled – as who should walk right in and
interrupt my lesson planning efforts but my old student Kornvit himself! Kornwit, who had enrolled in a course at ELSI
to keep up with his English while on summer vacation, marched straight
over to me and hugged me as tightly as anyone had ever done in my life.
He then said, in absolutely perfect American English, "Acharn James,
thank you, thank you so much for your teaching! I needed everything you
taught me, and I am doing very well in school!" He then hugged me again. Well, I've been hugged a lot in my life, and I
especially love getting hugs from my wife, my daughter and my son – but
never
in my life have I had a hug like that, before or since, which made me
actually want to cry, so happy was I for my former student!
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