One of the old jokes about engineers goes, "I never could spelle enginear and now I is one!" Engineers have never been well known for their ability with English or in communication. It's quite ironic then, that now I'm a missionary, I get called to teach English to Thais in my local area. Teaching English isn't my calling in life, nor is it something that I would seek to do out of choice. But as we've spent time in Thailand, we've realised that one of the major social needs is in the area of learning English. Normally, we teach a bit of English conversation in schools in our local area and have regular private classes at our home. But recently we had the opportunity to assist over 100 teachers to improve their English language abilities in a three-day course.

As part of the national effort to upgrade Thailand's ability in English language (see other blog about the soon to be ASEAN Economic Community), teachers are be assessed according to the Common European Framework Reference for languages, or CEFR for short. Those teachers who don't achieve B1 level are given an opportunity to attend a English language refresher course. Jonathan Thomas, Daniel & Megan Grandemange and myself were asked to put together a three-day course and teach two different groups of teachers from the lower part of Nakhon Si Thammarat province. The course was run at a hotel on the outskirts of Nakhon Si Thammarat city. We taught listening, reading, grammar, speaking and writing skills based on the CEFR framework. We had more interactive activities on the first two evenings as well. It was good to be able to assist the key people in our province who will be teaching many thousands of school students. It was also a good opportunity to get to know some of the teachers who live in our local area. Who knows what opportunities will open up through these contacts? All in all, it's not bad for a former "enginear"!