As part of the TESOL course offered at TEFL International I received two Thai language lessons. Within the program the language lessons seem to have a double function, on which I will expand below. First I want to tell a bit about my own experience in learning and studying foreign languages.

Since my childhood I have been exposed to a variety of languages. Being a national from a small country (The Netherlands) might have to do with this, as well as travels abroad with my family to most European countries during summer holidays. In school I studied Dutch, English, French, German, Latin and Greek, and in university my major was in Japanese. In the many language classes that I took various methods of teaching were used, some of which were distinctively more succesfull than others.

The two classes of Thai language that are offered in the TESOL course were eye-opening in two different ways. The first strong point about the lessons was that it exposed the participants of the program to the Thai language. Not many students studied Thai before. Learning basic phrases such as sawasdee khap (“hello”), sabai dee mai khap (“how are you?”) and khun cheu arai khap (“what is your name”) is important in that it enables conversation with Thai people, how rudimentary it may remain. Many of the students plan to look for a job in Thailand and make a living here, so any Thai language that is thaught is a big welcome. Mastering Thai fluently will inevitably take a lot of effort and demand a huge investment of time and energy. The two classes of Thai language offered in the TESOL course are a good beginning to prepare students for what is waiting for them if they will continue studying Thai in a more intensive way.

The second way in which the two classes of Thai language are important is perhaps even more eye-opening than the first. The methods that the teachers use to teach Thai is similar to the methods we are supposed to use in the TESOL course. In the Thai classes the engage-phase, study-phase and activate-phase were clearly recognizable. The teachers tried to elicit as many Thai words as possible from the students and thereby let us do the work.

They stimulated us in putting effort in learning and understanding Thai right there and then and in actively participating in class. In that sense We were put in a similar position as the Thai students whom we want to teach English. The Thai language classes not only had the function of allowing us to learn basic Thai but also reversed the roles that we were in. By experiencing a role similar to the role that Thai students experience when studying English with the ESA method, we were thaught not only Thai, but also shown in what way we should be teaching Thai student English and what kind of teaching style works best.

Finally, the Thai classes offered in the TESOL course are a little bit different from most grammar and phonology classes and in that sense a part of the program that is very much fun. They give the participants in the course the option to study some basic Thai phrases and allow for some conversation with Thai people. They show the participants in the course in which way a language that is completely unknown to most can succesfully be taught to students of this unknown language, in a similar way to which Thai students will be studying English. And most importantly, the atmosphere in the classes was good, and they are a very fun part of the course.

This makes the Thai classes offered in the TESOL course an indispensable part of the program.