Tasty dish. Northern style Thai noodle

10 July 2020
Bangkok

Hi There,

My lunch today was  very tasty. It's called Kanhom-jeen Namngiew.  Here's how it looks like. 

Gigi

Back to class in person, first ever since Covid-19 spread

Thursday 9 July 2020

at 7:07 AM.

in Bangkok

Hi there,

Today is  the first day I  am going to return to school once again.  Since mid-March 2020 when the language school I work with had to tempolarly close, all classes including mine have been suspended, following the government's order to different types of businesses and establishments due to the spread of corona viruses in Thailand.

I am very happy to meet my student (today is my private class with one student) although still cautious about the virus and the risk.  Seeing students, discussing various topics with them and questioning and replying them in person are totally different from and  much better than doing such online.  Speaking from my direct experience, for I have returned to teach through online classes since last month after the school informed that some of my students requested for my online class.

And I agreed on the requests despite I am really not a big fan of new IT technology.Give me the best smart phone and what I can do is  calling, sending messages and recently, learning how to check my e-mail via the phone.

Still, I hurried to self-study how to use various measures such as google class, zoom, loom, etc, through Youtube clips and from my IT expert friends, absolutely for survival like others in this world of work. It's not easy at all for a person like me to excel that in such a short period with those methods, but after learning by doing and experiencing trials with errors, I could handle them with less and less frustration.  Okay, I survive.

During the past months I have observed and been aware of what happened to my students and myself in online classes and the results of our teaching and learning. There are some big differences compared with learning in face-to-face class including students' attention in class and understanding the topics.  I would say I prefer face-to-face classes a lot better although staying at home for online classes is such a convenient life.  Maybe, too convenient.

Soon I am leaving for the class, and I would love to meet my student, a university student who wants to improve her writing.  There are several things to update for both of us.

I know that online teaching is already a trend and becomes a new normal that I must get myself used to it as long as the deadly corona virus infection still hang around us  and no ones knows exactly for how long it would be.

Gigi

Do we really get back to normal after no more lockdown due to the spreads of COVID-19 in Thailand?

Hi there,

Since June 15, 2020 when the curfew ended officially in Thailand, I have observed that many people here quickly return to enjoy their lives as usual, which somehow I am not sure if it is good for themselves and the society as a whole. 

Why am I not sure about that?  Because there are several reasons that we should be concerned  especially when we look around and see what has been going on about the spreads of this colonar virus around the globe.

According to the government daily report, although Thailand has shown no new case of infectious patients locally, there are new infected cases coming from abroad almost everyday--from the Middle East, UK, Japan, India, Korea, US, Brazil, for example. Meanwhile, news coverages around the globe show that tens of thousands of people still get infected daily in some countries led by the US, Brazil, India, and others, while no vaccine has  not been available yet.

And it is too bad that many people in those societies with  high infection rate seem not aware of how terribly it could affect them and their society. Some might not well understand and do not follow good advice by the medical experts while others  not only refuse to take  any recommended measures that can help protect themselves and others from the spreads but also go against those and put themselves and others at risk.  For instance, protesters in the US and Europe with different issues of their protests, American youngsters network that promises to give money as reward for their members who got infected with corona virus first. That sounds incredibly idiot,too sad, but it's truly happened.

Look back here in Thailand now.  Many people no longer wear masks or clean their hands often as before. Not to mention about keeping themselves distance from others. Although warning of wearing a mask, washing hands, keeping distance from others and staying away from the crowd are still promoted by the government through various media, I have seen fewer and fewer people following.

 Since shopping malls are already open as usual, crowds of people rush to shop, dine and meet with friends. Over the long weekend,  people packed at different tourist destinations, even on the tops of the mountains and the beaches, and famous restaurants.

Many people do think they now get back to normal. But when I look at them, I just hope that this normal would last long enough for us to get  ourselves ready for the second wave of the covid-19 spreads that could be more severe and scarier.

Gigi