A Matter of Class

We had been studying Thai with a tutor that came to our place every Sunday morning.  Several difficulties arose from this arrangement.  First, being that it was only once a week, carryover from one lesson to the next was quite difficult.  Also, Sunday was really the only day Tim had free time.  So not only was he being robbed of a day off, he also had little to no time during the week to study.  It just wasn't working for us.  We stopped the lessons when we went home in April, and decided not to start them up again when we returned, at least for a while.

Fortunately, I learned of a language school in town that was offering 30 hours of Thai lessons, every Wednesday and Thursday for seven weeks, for free!  This sounded like a good alternative, for me at least; I could do it while Tim was at work.  Also, I had someone to go with; my friend, Mika, told me about the class and signed up for it as well.  Several language schools offer Thai classes in the city, and I couldn't really tell which were reputable.  As far as I can tell, no accreditation criteria exist, or if they do, it isn't well-publicized.  But for free, you can't really go wrong, can you?

I met my friend for lunch before the first day of class at a new restaurant just around the corner from the school.  "Loaf" just opened their third location here, and we had enjoyed lunch at their other cafe' in the past.  It's a trendy little coffee shop with a pretty good lunch menu.  This location, on Soi Town in Town (street named for the Town in Town Hotel), is quite a bit bigger than the other, where a group of us squeezed in for lunch a while back (the staff kept moving us to bigger tables as they became available.)  The new location is just off Central Pattaya road near Foodland, the "farang food emporium."  "Loaf" a feel-good, upbeat vibe as is illustrated on their logo that uses the "o" and "a" as the eyes of a happy face.

We had a quick lunch, then ventured out into the heat for a quick walk around the block to the Wardtawan Language School.  Lots of motor bikes were parked out front, along with several pairs of shoes.  Mika had given me a heads up that I needed to bring slippers to school since shoes were to be removed at the door.  This is a common practice in homes and temples, but I rarely see it in places of business. 

The new students all gathered in the shiny, new lobby, where a giant chess board was set up in one corner.  Must be a good place, right Wagners, Johnsons, Dustin?  My classmates were an interesting mix - Mika, me, and a young woman from Russia were the only females.  The other ten or so males on first glance were all white men in their fifties and sixties, the typical farangs that populate the bar stools of Pattaya.  One forms a certain impression of these expats fairly quickly upon arrival in this city, so it was enlightening to me that some have interests other than beer and bar girls.  This class will be educational in more ways than one!

Our teacher (Kru in Thai) arrived promptly at start time, a petite little woman with a professional, "teacherly" manner.  She led us to our classroom, up a narrow back stairway with steps of varying heights, to our "upper room," like the twelve apostles, and we squeezed into the Thai-sized desks. 

After one class it was clear that this teacher knows what she is doing.  I think I learned as much in one class as I did in all the Sunday morning sessions combined.  And it feels so good to be back in a classroom, one of the greatest pleasures in life when a good teacher is presiding   I can feel the satisfied sigh of my brain after these sumptuous "meals."

Now that I am four weeks in, I am amazed at how much more I have retained.  I am getting a lot of enjoyment testing out my new skills on poor Mick, whose frequent reaction is, "Huh?"  Guess I've got a ways to go...