I teach English to two girls every Tuesday and Thursday evening, and sometimes they bring their English homework along too if they want some extra help. One evening Nong M asked me to help her with her homework and, as it turned out, it was exactly the same homework that her friend Nong F has asked me about the week before.  As we went through the sentences, Nong F piped up and said, 'Aunty Sue you made a mistake with that sentence, the Thai teacher at school marked it wrong'. So, I tried to explain that in English, there are actually two different ways of saying it - both of which are correct.  However, in the end, they wanted it the way their Thai teacher would be expecting it.

That completed, we moved on to the next set of sentences using the verb 'to go' - I go, he/she goes...  As I started to explain how the verb changes, Nong F piped up again and said she had also done this piece of homework the previous week and that it should be I go, he/she go, etc and that her teacher had marked that as correct.  I tried to explain it was not correct, however, Nong M was much more concerned with following the way her clever friend had done it and the way they thought the teacher wanted it, even if it was actually wrong. So, I let it go.

The week after, Nong M brought her homework around again and showed me the sentences.  All of them had been corrected by her teacher, so we went through them again.  I guess it made me realise again that, even though English is my language (and that's not to say I don't make mistakes!), it takes time for trust to be developed and it is hard for the young people not to follow their friends or their teacher, even though the answer may not be right .