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Learning a second language is always going to have its challenges, however learning a second language in one's home country can and will add to the challenges as there are not as many opportunities to practice with native speakers. I had the privilege of living in Southeast Asia, Thailand to be more precise and one of the many things I was privileged to do was teach English. I was able to work in a boys detention center as well as a volunteer with a local English club where the goal was to simply give young people a place to practice their English. So, what were some of the challenges and how did I overcome them. The first problem was rather simple, language rules. I am not talking simply about English rules, I am talking about Thai language rules. They would attempt to apply rules from their language,Thai, to English. For example, In the Thai language, language rules are always applied. So when a syllable in Thai ends in their equivalent of an “L” sound the sound changes to the sound of an “N”. Now they would simply try to apply this rule to English, thus the word “school” would be pronounced “schoon” or “football” would become “footban”. So as a teacher I had to research and understand a bit of the Thia language to better understand this issue, once I had it was easier for me to help students correct their grammar problems. Another problem for Thais in learning English is that they often will instead of saying the “R” sound they simple change it to an “L” sound. At first this was very confusing to me and why they were doing this. After discussing this with a local friend, she advised me that although this was not a formal rule, many Thais had this issue. And it did not just apply to English it applies to their native tongue as well. Again it was through much encouragement and gentle correction that some of them were able to correct these issues. The last problem I will briefly address is a cultural issue, shame. I found that it was at times difficult to engage the students. There were a variety of reasons why, but the main issue that I could surmise was that of shame or embarrassment. At times I could see that one or more of the students knew the correct response but was often to afraid of being wrong that they would simply not answer. One way that I worked around this was to at times that I made a mistake I made fun of myself. This very much put the class at ease and allowed for better participation even if mistakes happened. Also having the ESA platform to follow will help me to better engage the students. All in all, teaching English was both challenging and rewarding. I was able to make lasting friendships and get a better understanding of the difficulties of learning English. I look forward to putting the tools I have learned over the past few months to good use in the future. I know that I will be a much more effective teacher with the knowledge I have gained. Do I know it all? No, but I am better equipped to teach English effectively.
