Trivial Fever
My students and I had a great week. I spent the first three days of the week explaining the concept of an opinion essay that employed a narrative as support, which I think after the third straight day the finally absorbed (we'll find out next week what stuck) so on Thursday, the last day of the week here, I decided to let them have shot at some extra credit, something every last one of them desperately needs. I thought I'd make it fun for them, so I split them into teams, let them compete against each other. I then gave them 16 trivia questions which each team had to answer--in complete sentences and in English of course. The answers were pretty enlightening. Well, perhaps enlightening isn't the word.
I attempted to ask questions that were not from the perspective of an American education, and were rather pieces of knowledge that would be universally taught or understood. I did throw in a few that might be new to them, just to make it difficult, but otherwise the questions I asked were fairly simple. For instance, "What is the world's largest mammal?"
The answers I got were often less than simple and rarely grammatically correct. They also displayed an eerie lack of world historical knowledge or even Thai historical knowledge. I had done some research beforehand and come up with two questions that seemed like they would be relatively well known to many if not all Thais. I asked about the Revolution of 1932 in Thailand (a bloodless coup that resulted in the King abdicating some of his powers and the first constitutional monarchy in Thailand, similar to the government they now have.) and many of my students, native Thais, had a great deal of difficulty telling me anything about it. Similarly, nearly half of my students were unable to tell me who was in control of Nazi Germany during World War II. On the upside, all of them knew exactly who I meant when I asked them who the "King of Rock and Roll" was. Hitler eat your heart out.
This weekend I came down with some sort of Bangkok Bug, and was in bed with a fever from about Friday morning to Saturday afternoon. I have no idea what caused this illness, though it's possible that the cricket-like insects I enjoyed Thursday night may have had something to do with it. In which case, I blame the girls who foolishly dared me to eat them. You would think being bed ridden all day would have been an excellent opportunity to catch up on grading, but let's be honest, I watched movies all day. Pineapple fried rice with pork is my new favorite comfort food, in case anyone was wondering what one feeds a fever with around here. Next time, I'm skipping the cricket-like bugs and sticking to the frogs.
I attempted to ask questions that were not from the perspective of an American education, and were rather pieces of knowledge that would be universally taught or understood. I did throw in a few that might be new to them, just to make it difficult, but otherwise the questions I asked were fairly simple. For instance, "What is the world's largest mammal?"
The answers I got were often less than simple and rarely grammatically correct. They also displayed an eerie lack of world historical knowledge or even Thai historical knowledge. I had done some research beforehand and come up with two questions that seemed like they would be relatively well known to many if not all Thais. I asked about the Revolution of 1932 in Thailand (a bloodless coup that resulted in the King abdicating some of his powers and the first constitutional monarchy in Thailand, similar to the government they now have.) and many of my students, native Thais, had a great deal of difficulty telling me anything about it. Similarly, nearly half of my students were unable to tell me who was in control of Nazi Germany during World War II. On the upside, all of them knew exactly who I meant when I asked them who the "King of Rock and Roll" was. Hitler eat your heart out.
This weekend I came down with some sort of Bangkok Bug, and was in bed with a fever from about Friday morning to Saturday afternoon. I have no idea what caused this illness, though it's possible that the cricket-like insects I enjoyed Thursday night may have had something to do with it. In which case, I blame the girls who foolishly dared me to eat them. You would think being bed ridden all day would have been an excellent opportunity to catch up on grading, but let's be honest, I watched movies all day. Pineapple fried rice with pork is my new favorite comfort food, in case anyone was wondering what one feeds a fever with around here. Next time, I'm skipping the cricket-like bugs and sticking to the frogs.
posted by Ryan at 4:53 PM
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