If you were selecting people to teach English as a Second Language you could not find a less likely candidate than me.  My English skills can be described as good enough to get me this far but far from scholarly. 

I find that it is OK for me to try to help a bit from an incident that occurred when Pha and I were driving in Udon Than, Thailand.  The road was under construction and one of the 700 million motorbikes crowding the roadways in Thailand, decided to make a sharp turn in front of us.  Luckily I saw him in time to stop but was irritated by his decision and uttered a phrase that could explain the toilet like smell of his head.  Pha asked me what I said so I tried to explain to her that it was the same as cow poop (well known around here as fertilizer) inside his head instead of brains.  She accepted that explanation and a few days later another crazy driver did something that Pha didn't like.  She shouted at him, "Poop Cow Head You".

With that preface I felt that there was something I could do to help, even though I am not a Rhodes Scholar.  There are a couple basic problems that make English very difficult for Thai people.  First they have a very difficult time with the letters L and R and additionally find the "th" sound almost impossible.  Try saying a few words without l's and r's and th's and you will see what I mean.  The second problem that is common place is the very shy nature of the people.  They do not like to make a mistake and it is easier to not try to talk than it is to talk and get it wrong.

It was surprising to me to find that getting them over the shyness was much easier than getting their tongues to wrap itself around the letters and sounds that they had trouble with.  But we do try to work with them and get them to speak the words over and over again until they get close enough to understand what they are saying.

With that background information as a premise you can see where a class after school would help if someone that could properly pronounce the words were teaching.  We have enjoyed working with many kids at our house and additionally have spent some time at a nearby Wat working with a small group there.

Here are some photos of the class environment.

We have lately been conducting some English pronunciation lessons at our home during most late afternoons.  Some of Pha's friends asked her to help them learn English and of course the project ended up with me heavily involved with the addition of the baby to care for Pha just doesn't have time.  So we gather in late afternoon and just chat in English and it is very hard to tell what progress we are making.  One of the ladies is an English teacher which really highlights one of the problems in the Thai education system.  Most of the English teachers need much help with pronunciation and of course are presented with a most difficult task of trying to teach a language that is so different from yours.  Another of the ladies works directly for the Queen of Thailand as kind of an Omnis busman for the Queen in this part of the country.  She wants to improve her English and learn some better computer skills.