Teaching English

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latte Day Saints teaches English every Tuesday night at every chapel in Thailand.  We have been given an opportunity to help in this endeavor.  We taught the intermediate class for 6 weeks.  Three weeks ago we got "promoted" to the Advanced class.

We have four separate levels of English - 1: A, B, C's; 2: Beginning English, 3: Intermediate English, and 4: Advanced English.  The classes are intended to provide a service to the Thai community.  We provide the class free of charge.  We only charge for the materials.  The English manuals are 20 baht each (about 65 cents).

The church has found this program to be very effective in introducing individuals to the gospel.  We ask every student if they would like to know more about the church.  I believe a large quantity of the current converts have been generated thru the Free English program. 

When I was a Missionary here many years ago - we also taught English.  I remember that I taught English to Bank employees lunch time.  Another time I taught employees of the electric company.  I don't think that we were nearly as effective as the missionaries today are in introducing the gospel to interested individuals that they meet thru the English program.

I find that I have a lot of fun teaching English.  I make the Thai students teach me new Thai language vocabulary as I teach.  Several week ago we had a very diverse intermediate class.  I had students (youth and adults) from Japan, Pakistan, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand.  We teach every Tuesday Night from 6:30 PM till 8 PM at the Asoke Church building very close to our condominium.

By teaching English, our intent is to provide conversational opportunities to anyone who seeks it.  We are not professional teachers and desire that our service drives an opportunity to introduce the gospel to our students.

Sister Meeker (I am supposed to call her that in Public vs. Lois) and I team teach.  We take turns presenting parts of the lesson.  Today we used a section of the Disney Movie "Tangled" as a listening activity.  It is fun to teach them the meaning of some slang and how Americas use the language we are born with.