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Teachers travel to Thailand to help students anxious to learn English

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Susanne Nelson talks with students in a classroom in Sadao, Thailand. She and her husband taught English and helped in classes during an eight-week stint last summer.

Teacher Ron Nelson looks over the pages of a book made by former students in Thailand. Nelson, of Delavan, and his wife Susanne, spent eight weeks last summer as volunteers teaching English in a teacher exchange program. Nelson is wearing a shirt made in Thailand that was given him as a gift. Terry Mayer/staff.

Teachers travel to Thailand to help students anxious to learn English

DELAVAN -- Last summer, teachers Ron and Susanne Nelson spent their summer back in the classroom, but this time, in Thailand. In return, they gained hundreds of photos, fond memories and a really good green curry recipe.

The classrooms were in Sadao, Thailand, where they were volunteers in a teacher exchange program.

The couple got the opportunity when they befriended Sawonee Ponglimanont, a teacher from Sadao who came to Delavan-Darien High School in 1999 as part of the American Field Service exchange program. She returned for visits over the years, and encouraged the couple to come to her country, where she was trying to start an English language program for her school.

Ron Nelson, a sixth-grade reading teacher at Elkhorn Area Middle School, and Susanne Nelson, a kindergarten teacher at Delavan Christian School, both plan to retire at the end of the year.

"In Thailand, English is a big deal," Ron Nelson said. "Teachers especially want North Americans who speak English to come and teach."

In Thailand, the Nelsons taught English language skills to students in three of their own classes, and helped in other classes when needed. They also taught an English class for adults three times a week.

The Nelsons watched as each morning the entire student body gathered on the grounds outside the school to sing the national anthem, say prayers to Buddha (almost 95 percent of Thailand's residents are Buddhist, according to the CIA's World Fact book website) and hear teachers give "life lessons," ranging from honoring parents to proper haircuts for boys.

The couple also educated themselves on Thai life while there, visiting a rubber plant, a tsunami center that commemorated victims of the 2004 disaster, a teachers' convention and even a wedding, complete with an eight-course Chinese sit-down dinner for 900 guests.

Read the full story in the May 2, 2010 e-edition of Walworth County Sunday, PAGE 14A.