Americans teach Thai teenagers English

  • Published
  • By Army Spc. Steven J. Schneider
  • Cobra Gold Combined Joint Information Bureau
KORAT, Thailand (AFPN) --  Passakorn Bungaow never spoke English with a foreigner before.

That changed May 21 when Airmen visited a local school to help teach Thai students studying English. The visit was part of the speaking and listening program run by English teacher Sompong Phothijark.

“The (Airmen) are very, very good at teaching,” Passakorn said. “I learned how to talk with a foreign teacher.”

Volunteers from Cobra Gold 04 -- an exercise designed to improve U.S., Thai, Singaporean, Mongolian and Filipino combined readiness and interoperability, enhance security relationships and demonstrate U.S. resolve in the region -- visit the school every day to help teach the children. Nearly 80 percent of the school’s children come from Camp Suranaree, Thailand.

“The volunteers can help my students because I speak English with a Thai accent, and [the] words sound different,” Ms. Phothijark said.

Talking with Americans allows the children to understand words when they are pronounced differently, she said.

The students’ improvement is evident to the servicemembers, said Senior Master Sgt. Richard Coyle of the 13th Air Force headquarters at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.

Sergeant Coyle said he has worked with many different students for three years and has seen some progress in 10th- to 12th-graders.

“There’s been a huge improvement,” Sergeant Coyle said. “(The students) work very hard at their English.”

Sergeant Coyle, who has tutored English at different Thai schools about 35 times, said helping the children never gets old.

“I think we get more out of it than the children do,” he said.

Interacting with Thai children, learning the culture and the feeling of just helping people are what make it enjoyable, he said.

Thippawan Satrawaha, a 12th-grader, said he has fun studying English and plans to continue studying it and become a doctor. Thippawan said he also enjoys learning about American culture.

The knowledge gained is priceless, said Mark Anderson, an American who teaches English at the school through the U.S. embassy.

“They gain more confidence when they work with foreigners,” he said. “They get to work more on communication.”

Both Sergeant Coyle and Ms. Phothijark said they hope to have more Cobra Gold volunteers come in the future.