My name is Nikky and together with my friend Remke we have been working for 2 months at the pre-school in Thung Fon.

First of all... the children are very, very sweet!!! I absolutely love them and it's going to be hard to say goodbye to them one day. They always come to you and they want to play or just sit with you and have fun :)

The teaching is also very nice to do. In the beginning we had some problems about how we should arrange lessons for such young children (they're 3 to 6 years old), but once we really got started, it went a lot better. Mainly we teach them words and, at the end of the lesson, we play English games or they make a drawing about the theme of that day. It's difficult for them to pay attention for too long a time, so it's important to let them play games, sing songs or make drawings.

The teachers in my school are very nice. Tee, especially, speaks very good English, so sometimes she can help explaining a certain game or song. Of course, working in a pre-school doesn't mean that you can teach English for 4 or 5 hours a day... the children are really too young for that. In the first month that gave us some problems because we didn't feel very useful. But, since October, we also teach in the primary school in the afternoon, so that's a great experience as well. We teach class 2 and 3 there, so we have the chance to work with different levels. Every day is different and that makes it really fun to teach!

And then there is Thai culture. I live with a host family and so I learn quite a lot about the culture. My host family has shown me some things here in Thailand (like parks, temples and waterfalls). The food is great... fortunately they always make non-spicy food for us (I'm still not used to spicy food ;) and they make us try many things. Sometimes we like it and sometimes not (maggots are definitely not my favorite food ;)

In the evening, Mr. Kietnarong (the head of my host family) teaches us Thai. We've learned some words and now we're trying to learn the alphabet. I can read some simple words already, so maybe in 3 months....

Anyway, my time here in Thailand is simply great!! I love the country as well as the people and I've made a lot of new friends here. I hope my remaining 3 months here won't pass too fast, 'cause I don't want to go home anymore!!!

Greetz,