Dance With Me

So another one of Satit Bagna's famous traits is their amazing drive for new and enriching programs coupled with their lack of seeing it through all the way. I think that's bound to happen when you come up with so many ideas, but nevertheless it makes for a great story:

So the school subscribes to Highlights High Five, a Thai-English version of the awesome magazine that I'm sure many of you read as kids. The one with the stories and games and activities. Anyway, they have been trying to institute this program all year in which teachers (both Thai and foreign) read aloud from the magazine a few times a week. I know some of the Thai teachers do it, but they never set up a schedule for us, so we're still waiting. Anyway, Highlights caught wind of this 'program' and sent in a video crew to film us white people reading their magazine to Thai kids. Since we had never actually done this before, Dr. A picked Josie, Michelle and me to read aloud some stories to different classrooms of kids to be taped. Easy enough, we did it and thought that was that.

Well, last week we were informed that the crew would be coming back and they needed all of us teachers to be 'trained' in how to read aloud. So, everyday after lunch two of us go into a conference room and practice our reading aloud...not to students, but to the Thai teachers. I can't think of a more uncomfortable situation than reading a story meant for a 5-10 year old to a group of teachers who can't speak English and are older than I. To make it better, we read it once then read it again slooooooooowwwwllly and have them echo us...and then read it again and have them echo us. Yes, that is 3 times we must read the same story in a row.

Ryan and I were picked to do it one day last week and couldn't have been given more awkward stories to read. I started the group off with a rousing rendition of Dance With Me. For about 15 minutes I was saying things like 'Dance, squirrel, Dance...but the squirrel ran away...will no one dance with me today?' and then ' Dance, fish, Dance (pause awkwardly while the teachers echo') but the fish (pause) swam away (pause). As I was reading I was trying to hard to hold back laughter which is even harder when Ryan is giggling next to me. It's okay though, because he had to read the Kitten's Mittens which featured the classic line "do you want to snuggle, my silly kitten?" I admit I should be more mature than that, but when he read that line we both lost it. I had tears rolling down my face and the Thai teachers were also laughing as they think this whole 'practice' thing is just as hilarious. Then he got us both going again during his reading of Marching Band which included saying things like 'toot toot toot' and 'clang clang clang' which I had to turn around for as I watched all of the teachers mouth 'KRang KRang KRang.'

I know I know I should be used to it by now, but it was just one of those inopportune times where you get started and you just can't stop. I wonder what I get to read next time?!