In Thailand there tends to be a culture of fun especially where education and learning are concerned. The Thai word for fun is(sanuk) and it's ingrained in their culture and society.
Now how is this going to affect you as an esl teacher? Well it's going to affect you greatly especially in the classroom. You see for Thais everything has to have the sanuk element in it or it's simply not worth doing. This is something you'd better get used to and quickly if you intend to teach in this country for any length of time.
What not to do in the classroom
A lot of new and inexperienced teachers that come to Thailand simply turn up with a book under their arms and walk in the classroom and just teach from the book. This style is called chalk and talk. This is definitely a no no for teaching in Thailand!
If you decide to teach using this method your students will get bored and tire of you in no time at all. Then you'll start to have discipline problems with your students who will simply get restless and tired. This in turn will lead to you getting poor feedback and in the end you'll be given your cards!
How to create sanuk in the classroom
This is the rather easy part, your lessons have to be fun and entertaining, with lots of games and activities. The games and activities you use should really reflect and be connected with the topic of that particular lesson that you've been teaching.
For instance if you've been teaching a class about fruits, then to add the sanuk element you could get some fruit and veg flash cards and have a two team game, to reinforce the language you've already taught.
After that for a follow up you could take the flash cards draw a tic tac toe grid on the board and stick the flash cards in the spaces. Then have a game of two teams tic tac toe, where as the students put x's or o's in the grid if they get the names right. easy!
So remember your lessons have to be fun, easy going, lively with plenty of games activities and plenty of variety. If you stick to this simple plan then you shouldn't go far wrong.
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