Learning Thai

Over the past year, I've had the opportunity to do a wide variety of English teaching. I've taught young kids, teenagers, and adults. I've taught people who were being forced to study by their parents, people learning for fun, people trying to pass a proficiency test that will allow them to study overseas, and people studying to improve their job performance. As you can imagine, I've enjoyed some of those assignments more than others! I'm finding that what I enjoy the most (and not just because it pays the best) is teaching adults in a corporate setting. And recently, I've had the opportunity to do more of that.

I'm currently teaching a class at a Denso factory (pictured above) about an hour away from where we live. Denso is a Japanese company that manufactures car parts (starters and windshield wiper motors among other things). I'm teaching a class of 8 fairly advanced students and it's been a lot of fun interacting with them. I'm glad for the teaching job, and I'm also glad that it gives me a chance to interact with people in a factory setting. As a team, we've been hoping for more opportunities to interact with the thousands of factory workers in this province. I teach two evenings a week, then ride back home on a company bus with the employees. It's given me an interesting glimpse into their lives and I'm hoping that I can develop some ongoing relationships out of this.

I'm hoping that this will be an ongoing job. Denso has 3 factories and there are at least 7 levels of English classes being offered by the tutoring company that has the teaching contract. So, it seems likely that I could stay busy for a while. You can join us in praying that these jobs continue and that I will be able to build good relationships with my students.

-Tom