“I give my boyfriend a banana” Christmas lessons

This week’s lesson dove into the topic of Christmas. I pondered how to present this subject. I wanted to be sensitive to my Buddhist students presenting the subject as cultural awareness rather than indoctrination. With my M1-3 students (7^th-9^th grade) I presented a role-play in which Santa was explaining to a Thai student the Christmas holiday.

I first presented vocabulary that was in the role-play through flashcards I had drawn because my school has very limited printing abilities. The vocabulary included: symbol, holiday, ornament, on top (the star), gift, under (the gifts), birth. After about the second time teaching this lesson I realized my students didn’t understand birth of Jesus, so I made the concept even simpler. I said “Me: Jesus. You :Buddha .” and wrote on the board Christmas = Jesus Birthday . This still elicited some odd stares, but I was at least able to rationalize a holiday somewhat.

For those of you who may question the political correctness I want to admit this is not an aspect I focused on, but decided it was at least worth mentioning. I wouldn’t be offended learning about Buddha’s birthday (which I think is celebrated in July) if I was taking a Thai course, and I noticed that on one of the bulletin boards there is a picture of Jesus with Thai subtitles explaining the origins of Christmas. As a teacher of American culture (as a whole) I have to be very careful in explaining that not all people celebrate Christmas, but I wish I could say that I was able to communicate this aspect. Unfortunately my students with such limited English would not comprehend such deep subjects; therefore, my M1-3 students think that Christmas is a unanimous holiday. (I didn’t even approach the religious aspect of Christmas with by B4-6 students. I only explained it is a time to give gifts and share with family.)

The role-play continued with Santa explaining about the Christmas tree, gifts, and celebrating at home with family- the very commercial aspects of Christmas. This made more sense to my students. Thais give gifts all the time or at least that is how my experience has been for the last several months. I have a book case shelf collecting the random hair pins, notebooks, and pictures I have received from the kindest people over my time so far. The other big gift is food and Kanoms (snacks!). Just yesterday I was riding a bike when I ran into a woman I had met before Thanksgiving while on my daily run. We exchanged the limited Thai I have, and then she handed me a bag of oranges from her bicycle basket. Clearly she had bought these are these with the intention to take them home, but here she is just handing over her food to an almost stranger.

After several beautiful renditions of the role play by a variety of students, I asked my students to write 3 “I give my (who) a (what).” The typical answer was “I give my father a book” or “my friend a card”, but I have to admit one of the best aspects of teaching is reading some of the crazy things students write. I know to them this seems normal or maybe the direct translation is normal, but I must share (anonymously of course) the most amusing assignments I graded:

I give my father a salmon.

I give Jammie (Me) my love.

I give Jamie my heart.

And for those of you that enjoy slightly perverted humor

I give my love a hose

I give my boyfriend a banana

Every day is an obstacle and a new adventure in Thailand. I am constantly reminded that almost everything is different: the flow of traffic, the water buffalo in the river, the gigantic goats, the spicy food, the sticky,green snacks, the lack of self transportation, the baby powder on my students faces (sunblock?). But it is the funny moments like I give my boyfriend a banana that I am able to remember my “normal”. Balancing my normal and the deep entrenchment into Thai culture is the only way to remain who I am while still gaining and growing from this experience.