White or wrong?
The strange fixation that Thai people have with white skin.
If we look at Thailand’s cultural products – that is, when we look at how beauty is represented in the media, in literature, in people’s popular perceptions and so forth – why do we so overwhelmingly see that white skin is thought of as more beautiful? Let's delve into this issue and perhaps find out where exactly the root of the perception lies.
Bananas and condoms
How some EFL teachers are attempting to proselytize the flock
Every now and then we come across ethnocentric people who believe that their culture and society are vastly superior to anything the "socially depraved" West has ever produced. There are two sides to this debate. This is the other side.
Copland - becoming a tourist police volunteer
Tazza joins the Thai Tourist Police as a volunteer
What happened during the two-day training seminar organised by the Thai Tourist police. What exactly do we foreign civilians have to go through before we're given our uniform and badge and we're ready to patrol those mean streets.
Understanding culture
Or the culture of understanding?
If knowing more about a specific culture can make me a better teacher while I'm living there, then I'd be more than happy to sign up and pay for some culture course. But keep the "My Culture Is Better Than Your Culture" crap out of it
Further unfurling of the Chinese situation
Cultural observations of Chinese students
I've found out why some of my Chinese students aren't participating in lessons as they should. They've been partying all night and getting drunk and smacked out. The problem is - I'm finding it so hard to tell.
Sick of eating white bread?
ESL theory and the framework it revolves around
To be a teacher you have to have an ontological and epistemological perspective, right? You have to have a grasp of the nature of our universe, and of what knowledge is and how it operates in human terms. Is this not, I mean, one of the most integral platforms from which your practice – course and material design, and methods of instruction and evaluation - will arise?
New year best seller's list
A list from my beloved Isaan
All of these titles are available in hardback, paperback, or 7-11 plastic bag (straw optional).
Finding the poetry
English teachers, Sonny's outcry, and finding the poetry
Governments and Immigration officials in various countries, including South Korea and Thailand, are finally starting to crack down on English teachers who have proven themselves to be less than desirable.
Abandon all logic
Thailand's unfathomable logic
One of the great joys of travel is to experience the exotic; to find oneself immersed in a culture which holds little or any resemblance to that which we call home.
Not in my classroom
Dopey foreigners and mentally deficient Koreans
It's not that I love to discipline students. I don't. But it is part of my job and I accept that. I have precious little time as it is to teach my students the English they need to know, so I would rather not waste class time telling students to sit down, keep quiet, and stop throwing things.
