We are very happy to be here. But, we only have 4 weeks in Damrong, and here is the last day i am in Damrongratsongkroh School. . Last night, we have a dinner with Kru Pim and his wife, Kru Ooh. They picked us up to the halal restaurant in Chiang Rai. They are very kind people, and hardworker. We talk each other, told our family in Indonesia, education system, and opportunity to be a professional teacher in Damrongratsongkroh School. Thank you Kru Pim and Kru Ooh, wish you all the best. . At the morning, we were getting late. The activity in the last day in Damrong was same like before, teaching. I teach 3 classes in my last day in Damrongratsongkroh School. I took a picture with all Social Studies teachers. One by one and together. at 4 PM, Kru Pim asked me to have a meeting near by the teacher office. I was shocked that all social studies teachers was there and i have to make a last speech for the project, for the experiences, and for the teachers.
. I was very happy to met all social studies teachers. It looks i have a new family in Damrong School. They all are kind teachers, hardworker teachers, and students will be success because of them. I hope i can give a sweet memory for the school and for the teachers. I hope they will always remember me, like i remember them. and i hope i will have a chance to meet them again soon. . I write my thai name and my real name on the table as a sign that i have been a teacher in Damrongratsongkroh School. . Then, Kru Sunny asked us to make a last speech in the school tomorrow. And she will picked us up at night for last dinner.
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Another challange for muslim living in muslim minority is to pray jumat. . Because, on friday, every man have to go to the mosque for pray. One of the worried things living in Thailand is hard to find mosque. . Fortunatelly, teachers in Damrong understood about the situation. He gave me free time in every friday afternoon. So, i can go to the mosque. And again, i was very lucky to be placed in Damrong, I just walk arround 10 minutes to get the mosque. Not all school located near by the mosque. The mosque called Darul Aman Mosque. The biggest mosque in Chiang Rai. Located in the middle heart of Chiang Rai.
. I saw a lot of chinese muslim there, malay, an middle east. I didn't find Indonesian muslim. There are a muslim community arround the mosque. After class observation, i have to prepare about the lesson in the class. Kru Pim told me that i will teach in two subject: ASEAN subject and Governance subject. In the first week teaching, i will teach ASEAN subject, and Governance subject for the next week. Total, i have 13 period of teaching.
. In ASEAN subject, i have to teach about comparation between Indonesian culture and Thailand culture. In creating lesson plan, i have to make sure that i will give a great treatment with the language problem. I tried to find a solution with looking for the best method for the lesson. Fortunately, i brought Indonesian hat like a peci, sundanese hat, and balinese hat. It could be helpfull for the lesson in the class. . I thought i found a good method to solve a language problem: more pictures, videos, practice, and fun games. I tried to find a basic Indonesian culture that will representation of all Indonesian with the diversity inside. Simple things like manners, traditional dance, favourite sports. . Another problem is about Thai culture. I dont know much about thai culture. I dont want to gave a wrong information about thai culture. and i guess the students will know better than me. So, i asked to Kru Pim to sent me any references about Thai culture. and he sent me a picture of thai culture, but i still dont have any idea how to explain it to the students. and i thought i will ask the students to explain their cultures. and i prepared a google translate. . In the last, i want to play a fun games to the students. Its called talking stick. I will give a things to a students and ask them to give to their friend while the music played. And when the music stopped, a student who hold the item have to answer my question. . I hope the lesson plan will be success. On Thursday, we have a trip with students and teachers from Philiphines to some tourisity places in Chiang Rai. Fortunately, Chiang Rai is a tourism place, you can see tourist everywhere. Mrs. Sunny told us that we will go to Singha Park, White Temple, and watching crocodile show. The first trip was Singha Park. It was such a huge garden made by Singha Company, and you can look arround by shuttle tour and there was a tour guide to explained about Singha Park, but s(he) spoke Thai. The view was wonderful. The first top was tea plantation. we can took picture there. They have a traditional northern costume for farmers and i tried to wear it to looked as a native people. . After looking arround Singha Park, we went to the Wat Rong Kuhn or known with White Temple. The first impression when we saw white temple was beautiful. All white, and the detail was perfect. The last trip was watching crocodile show. Arround 20 minutes from white temple, we arrived at Chang Puak Camp Chiang Rai. We watched 2 people control the crocodile to open their mouth and put their hand into the crocodile mouth. and the sound effect always made us shocked. . Novita told us that she saw karen people behind the crocodile show arena.and yes, i saw them. I really want to meet them, because i am very corious about their community. I felt luck to can saw them directly. But, i thought i was not in the real place. They come from Myanmar 5 years ago, and come to the place like to 'show' themselves to the public. In my opinion, there's nothing different between crocodile show, elephant show, and karen long neck people on that place: as a tourism object. I felt lucky and sad to met them. But, it was amazing experience for me. And the last, we watched elephant show. They kissed me with the proboscis. They can draw a trees, they can played basketball, and they can do the thai massage.
. We went home with the amazing experiences for a day trip with students and teachers from Philiphines. Thanks Damrongratsongkroh School. On Monday, January 29th 2018, that was our first day we go to school. The school introduced us to the student after Monday ceremony. They not just introduced us, but they also introduced teachers and students from Philiphines that will teach and study in Damrongratsongkroh School for two weeks. The ceremony was very special. A Director of the school gave us a flowers, and we have to speech in front of the students and teachers. At the moment, i have an opportunity to spoke in front of the students and teachers. I said thanks to the school, explain our purpose in this project, and suggest the students to ask anything about Indonesia to us because its time to sharing each others. . After ceremony, Mrs. Sunny introduced us to our mentor. My mentor is Mr. Pim. He is a head of Department of Social Studies. He teachs Law and Buddha. He carried me to the Department of Social Studies office and introduced to every social studies teachers. There are about 17 teachers teach Social Studies in Damrongratsongkroh School. Department of Social Studies has eight subject. There are Sociology, Geography, Economy, History, Buddha, ASEAN, Law, and Governance. Then, Mr. Pim took me to his class to observe the class. Actually, i didn’t understood about what they said because they spoke Thai. But, i asked a student about the topic of the lesson. And They talked about family law like wills after died. The students did the presentation in front of the class and audiences gave a question to presenter, and then the presenter gave a question to audience randomly by classtools.com. . We met a Philiphines teacher in the school. She is a teacher in Damrong School for about 2 years. We have a nice conversation with her. We talked about Indonesian, Philiphines, and Thailand. Mrs. Sunny came and gave us a Thai dishes to enjoy the conversation. They gave a table for me, and the Social Studies Teachers were very kind. . My first impression in my first day in the school was: Thai people are nice. After that, mrs. Sunny picked us up to the market to bought some food for dinner.
#4 SEA Teacher Project 5th Batch: Weekend in Chiang Rai; Walking Street, Cat Cafe, and Night Bazzar2/7/2018 “10 things to do in Chiang Rai” “Best Place in Chiang Rai” “Chiang Rai” That was my activity on YouTube and Google to facing the first weekend. There are so many tourisity place in Chiang Rai. But, for the first time weekend in Chiang Rai, i’m looking for the best place near by my hotel. Fortunately, mrs. Sunny will pick us up to the walking street in front of Damrongratsongkroh School. . Walking street will be held in the night. So, in the afternoon, we went to the Central Plaza with another SEA Teacher participants. We went to Central Plaza by ordered Grab Car. But, Grab Car in Chiang Rai has unique method. The car is Taxi. So, when i go inside the car, a driver asked me to cancel the order on Grab application. In Central Plaza, we just walking arround, and tried to Thailand’s KFC. The taste was different. For me, the seasoning was too much sour taste. It was not match in my mouth. When we walking arround, we met Indonesian people in Central Plaza. He is student in Mae Fah Luang University. We talked about Chiang Rai, Thailand, and also about Indonesia. He is so kind, and helped us to go back to the hotel and walking street. In the evening, we met mrs. Sunny to walk arround the walking street. There are a lot of souvenirs, Hill Tribe clothes, Northern Thailand clothes, and also Thailand food. Mrs. Sunny bought a Thailand extreme food. I thought that was worm and insect. When i tasted it, the taste was GOOD. I like it. We met a cute girl was playing traditional music. She played the music very well and so pretty. She can speaks english, and she is a student grade 4 in elementary school. I took a picture with her. Then, mrs. Sunny brought us to the night concert in Flower Garden. A name of the band is “Instinct”. So many girl shouted, screamed, and touched. They are band from Bangkok. But for me, i didn’t undertand the songs. . . Sunday! On the Sunday, i’ve searched about popular cafe in Chiang Rai. The top cafe in Chiang Rai was Cat Cafe. The location is near by my hotel. We just walked for about 15 minutes. Cat cafe. We can eat with so many cat. We can touch them, but don’t feed them with our food. The second location that i’ve searched on Google was Chiang Rai Night Bazzar. The location is near by bus station. They sold a souvenir, and street food.
Finnaly ! A time that i waiting for a month comes. It’s my first time i have a travelling abroad. I was very excited to be participated for SEA Teacher Project 5th Batch by SEAMEO. I prepared all things very well from passport, flight ticket, insurance, luggage, and remembering some thai basic words ha ha ha. Sunday, January 22nd 2018. It was time to leaving Bandung. My parents and my sister accompanied me to the shuttle station. The shuttle will pick us up to the airport. . . There are 3 students from Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia who will be a delegates for SEA Teacher Project to Chiang Rai Rajabhat University. Me, Salma (Elemntary Education), and Tias (International Program Science Education). We met at the shuttle station to go together to the airport. The shuttle comes, and time to say goodbye to my family. We arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at 12 am. It was too early and we have to wait for check in for about 4 hours. Our flight is at 5.35 am, and we will have a transit at Kuala Lumpur before touchdown at Bangkok. But, Salma’s flight was different than me and Tias. Her flights is at 6.30 am and touchdown at Bangkok directly at 10 am. But we will have a same flight from Bangkok to Chiang Rai. I’ve been on plane before, but it when i was 4. So, i still nervous for my second flight in my life. Me and Tias use Malindo air, and we have some breakfast on the plane. We arrived at Kuala Lumpur for connecting transit. We don’t have any time for relaxing at Kuala Lumpur because we have to check in quickly. The location of the terminal from landed to was next fligt was quite far. We rushed to the next terminal and use airport link train. That was cool! Touchdown! Finnally we arrived at Don Mueang airport, Bangkok. The imigration process at the airport was quite long, but the process went smoothly. Then, we met Salma again, with another delegates from UNS, Novita. But, Novita’s flight earlier than our flight because we choose the cheapest ticket flight hahaha. We have about 4 hours to wait our flights to Chiang Rai. We found a halal restaurant at the airport, taking pray, and check in. We are really happy to the airport facilities. They have a clear sign to find muslim prayer, although Thailand is not a muslim majority country.
. . Welcome to Chiang Rai !! We arrived at Chiang Rai at 7 pm. Mrs. Nok, coordinatior of SEA Teacher Project from Chiang Rai Rajabhat University waiting for us. They picked us up to the hotel and meet with another delegates from Indonesia and Philiphines. We went to Seven Eleven together to find something to eat. And me, i tried to bought a sim card and internet data. I spent 30 minutes to bought sim card, because they can’t speak english. I boought tourist sim card with 4.5 GB internet data for a month. After that, the boys in this project have a small talks in my room. Eric from Bantul, Winthrop from Philiphines, and me. We have a shared about our places, discussed some recent topic in Indonesia and Philiphines. Long trip, new journey There was a lot of new experiences during my first week in Thailand. From the Thai lettering, thai foods, language, and the people. I think i want to tell it all in different article, and now, one of my huge obstacles in here is communication.
. As you know, thai people speaks thai and they have their own thai lettering. Not all people in thai can speak english. Actually, maybe this situation is almost similiar with Indonesia. But, Indonesian using latin writing. So, foreigner still can read some sentence in Indonesia. In Thai, you will feel like you were reborn. You can’t read, you can’t speak, you can’t hear. But you can cry. . Don’t worry. You have a desire to survive. You can solve that problem easily, because you need food, you need internet data, you need taxi to pick me up. Although they can’t speak english, you have to speak with them. Here is the tips to have a communication in Thailand. . Body Language is the Super Power! Communication is how to deliver a message to people that the people could understand what i mean and i can understood what they mean to. My college teacher told us that “Symbols don’t give any means to people, but people gives the symbols a meaning to be understood”. And, you have to know a forbidden symbols in your country. It helps you to be treated good in other country. Such a red light in the traffict light. The red light doesn’t give a means to stop, but we give it a meaning to stop. We have a universal body language. You can express anything with your body. You can pointed a thing, or create symbols with your finger. It may helps you a lot because they will understood about what you mean. You can combine your body language skills with speaking a basic english words. . Thanks to Google Translate That is the easiest way to have a communication for millenials. If you feel so hard to explain your words with your body language, google translate is the easy one. Open your mobile phone, go to google translate, and translate. Easy, right? And if you didn’t understand what they said to you, you can use voice translate, just let them speak into your phone, annd google will translate it. Life is so easy now! . Ask for Assistance One day, my friends and i want to go to Central Plaza in Chiang Rai by order Grab Car. We got a driver, and then he called me by phone. Unfortunately, he can’t spoke english. When i spoke in english, he will answer in thai. It made us confused and stucked. And then i saw thai police was walking in the street. I came to her ask him to answer my phone and tell him that i am here. The policeman can’t speak english, but they understand what they have to do from us. Thanks. Well, if you are in a urgent situation. You can ask people that you could believe to. I was so lucky there was a police near by me. I trust them because they work for government. If you were in tourism place, you can ask to the information center, or you can ask for help to the native people who speaks english. |
Muhammad RetsaSEA Teacher Project Batch 5th delegates from Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia placed in Chiang Rai Rajabhat University, Thailand Archives
May 2018
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