Tag: students

Secrets of Hosseini – 3rd September 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

“Tell your secret to the wind
But don’t blame it for telling the trees”*
Like a mynah bird in your hands
Slacken your grip and away it flees

*Khalil Gibran
These two lines (modified slightly) appear within a few paragraphs of each other in Khaled Hosseini’s ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ and stood out immediately to me for their poetry. I take no credit, really, for jamming them together.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to have gotten an appointment for the Pfizer vaccine today. Let’s hope it all goes well.

Well, I surprisingly received an email late yesterday afternoon with an appointment to get the Pfizer vaccine – something I registered online for a few weeks ago. I wasn’t really expecting anything much to come from it but the appointment was for this morning! Typical Thai last-minute information!

Anyway, everything went smoothly with getting the vaccine at the hospital in the city. I was even in and out before the actual appointment was scheduled. No undue side effects that I notice and I go back for the 2nd job on 1st October.

I assigned work for my morning class to do and quite unexpectedly ha;f of them did it even though we didn’t have an online meeting. I’m in the middle of my afternoon class and they are all working surprisingly well too. Except for Dew.

Dew cannot understand English at all and shouldn’t really be in this class. Last year, he frustrated me in class a lot, not because he didn’t do the work but because he would always be talking to other students and disturbing them. And not just talk and stop but like an unbreathing radio DJ.

With studying online now, it is easy to mute him, when he even bothers to attend.

But I must admit, I like him a lot. He’s pretty funny and when I asked him to sing a song, he would do it. I think we understand each other well enough. We both accept that he is no good with English. Let’s see if he stays quiet when he’s back in the classroom.

Dust – 1st September 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

We are dust under the dust of the feet of the king
Now unsatisfied with the problems that you bring
Rising up to challenge centuries-old traditions
That led the country into these downtrodden conditions

What made sense once no longer really applies
The world has gotten smaller for information supplies
The dust, the people are not prepared to let it be
They are motivated to be the change they want to see

7th Nov 2024 – Shared with Ragtag Daily Prompt – dust

Weight: 78.0kg
Resting heart rate: 48

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to get through another month mostly healthy – just a little pain. Let’s see what excitements September brings.

Stuck at school all day but that’s ok as I can keep myself occupied wherever I am. Having pen and paper, a book and internet help and the two coffees I picked up this morning have kept me charged up well.

I’ve updated things on my blog, written my daily poem, played guitar for ten minutes – I brought my shitty guitar to school just for this purpose and bought a better one a couple of weeks ago.

I’ve taught three classes, marked their work, which I can feel is always improving; helped another teacher with their work – warning them not to ask questions that they themselves cannot answer!

Only thing I haven’t done yet is read some of my book, which I normally do at the cafe. I have read a bunch of articles online, though. My eyes are a bit blurry from staring at the screen.

The best thing about today is seeing my students ‘ improvements through the semester. For some reason, these things stood out a lot today. Anyway, it makes me happy. Some kids are sneaky and try and trick me but it’s out of laziness more than anything. I think I catch them most of the time.

The Week That Was – 25th March 1979

School Of Life – 4th August 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Even as a teacher, I am still a student of life
My own students teach me many things
Don’t take any learning for granted
Enjoy the satisfaction new knowledge brings

7th Mar 2024 – Submitted to Ovi Poetry Challenge 38

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the money I receive for my work. It helps us enjoy nice things when we would like.

Just looking back to this time last year I can see how happy I was with teaching at this school. Of course, it’s nothing to do with the school but to do with the students. They make it all worthwhile.

I saw that I was grateful to George for helping me get this job and it is only since then that I am aware of the differences between us. I rarely see him at school at the moment and haven’t talked to him for weeks, beyond hello and goodbye. I’m thinking I should at least make an effort to thank him again. It will be awkward but doable. It would make me feel good and perhaps do the same for him (not actually sure about that).

I had a really great experience with 2/9 this morning – the same kids I mentioned this time last year. We have been studying the story of the Eagle and the chickens, about the eagle who grows up with chickens and never gets to really achieve his potential, content just to be a chicken.

Many of the students answered the question about the moral of the story being that it is best to accept things and fit in. This took me a little by surprise and I had to explain about the different cultural thoughts around these things. As a teacher, I am still a student. I love that.

I would like to be able to explain to them more clearly about what I feel is the meaning of this story and encourage them to break free and fly higher. Awesome.

Just Words – 3rd August 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 12 Comments

I just want to play with words
Fumble them around my mouth
First, seconds and thirds
North, East, West and South

No serious poem is this
Just a pleasure for me to write
Pen on paper is bliss
Without them there is blight

The Week That Was – 31st December 1978

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the avocado season here, providing lots of fruit for us to eat. Hopefully one day our own trees do the same.

4th Dec 2025 – both our trees died, eaten by some unknown bugs. We have a new one growing but it will be years before it may ever fruit.

Tonight I have no extra online teaching classes as Maeve will do her IELTS exam today. She is very good at English but I think she will fail the exam. I am not really an IELTS teacher and don’t really want to be seen as one. I much prefer just to have conversations so that the students feel more comfortable and familiar with the language. This is what I’ve been doing with Ashley. After a couple of cancelled flights to Australia, it seems she may suddenly be able to go there tomorrow. We’ll see. Especially as Australia is locked down and China may be headed that way too.

I was thinking how much I enjoy speaking with those two and why I am more comfortable to chit-chat with younger people in general. Perhaps I’m envious of their naivete and the possibilities they have for their futures. It’s why I want to push my students in the classroom to be the best they can be and I hope I can follow their lives into the future and watch all their stories unfold.

Most people around my age, and even a couple of decades younger seem stale, boring or dead! Or, sometimes like myself, feel so superior in our hard-earned wisdom, feel we are better than everyone else.

I love to teach my students how to find the answers to questions, rather than giving the answers. This skill will serve them better in the future.

In sad news, Mee’s father passed away from Covid at the weekend after being in a coma for a week or two. The cases of death are having less degrees of separation from my life and it is a confusing time. I would like to be locked up in the world of my home, just to venture out for supplies rather than having to come to school each day. Even with no students here it just all feels risky. Along with the vaccines – who knows how that will play out.

It feels like we are living through real history right now but we fool ourselves that we weren’t always doing that before. History is what’s happening, as they say.

I really must try and compliment someone today. I try to see so few people that it has been difficult for me to compliment others. I don’t count complimenting my students, baristas or Amy. That would be too easy. And I’m not about the easy!

Diaper – 27th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

When love has gone wrong
Run off to dark spaces
Desperately clinging to hope
Remembering those embraces

Butterflied chest and tears
And seething like a viper
In the car for 20 hours
Wearing an adult diaper

A last romantic gesture
To mend your broken heart
May push away with vigour
Forever to be apart

Don’t laugh at their madness
When Eros too was your sniper
At one time or another
We’ve all worn the diaper

Inspired by We Learn Nothing by Tim Kreider, recalling bad reactions to broken hearts

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the preserved cabbage that we got given by the Chinese students who went back to China. It was yummy.

I ended up sleeping at around 7.30 last night and I’m glad I did. Still felt dizzy and tired this morning but my mood picked up after my first class of the day.

Tigger is in the hospital again and Amy and I went to see him at lunchtime. He has some dodgy blood level count which seems to indicate a kidney problem but the vet said we caught it quickly before he had organ failure again.

I’m glad I cancelled teaching yesterday and tomorrow. I’ll have one class tonight after school but like I mentioned yesterday I’m in the right frame of mind as I already have the natural tension from teaching at school.

Perhaps I’ve been working too hard recently but I feel compelled to be doing things. The quote from Ryan Holiday that we are human ‘beings’ and not human ‘doings’ was interesting to me as at this time, with lockdowns and everything, we are not actually ‘being’ as much as we would like. I am always ‘doing’, I never stop doing things, and those things keep me happy. Sometimes I get too focused on some things when I could be doing more, perhaps around the house or in the garden, for example.

Sometimes I wish all my stuff was in the house (as opposed to my man cave outside), especially as I would have my music playing all day long, and would read books on the terrace more. Now I feel like I have to do all my things in my room so it divides everything up into ‘my’ time and ‘other’ time. It’s a first-world problem in a third-world country!

Face – 14th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Let’s be straight and say what we mean
Because saving your face doesn’t keep it clean
Words that please can be heard as lies
To misunderstanding they give rise

Are you really so delicate you can’t hear
The truth when spoken loud and clear
We’re going backwards, why not advance
Here’s the real world, given a chance

19th Mar 2024 – Submitted to Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge – Misunderstanding

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to be kept busy by my students. It is a difficult task to motivate them when teaching online so I spend a lot of extra time chasing them up.

Kim Chi is here in my room, and as she has stolen my chair, I have time to sit here on the floor and write this. I don’t want to push her off as she is very happy and relaxed with her paws over her eyes to block out the light.

I am home today, after arriving at school, out for a quick delicious coffee, back to start my lesson, only for Dylan to come and see me and when I saw he was wearing his backpack I asked him where he was going and he said ‘have you heard that there’s no classes today?’ Responding in the negative, he said that the Thai teachers were all going off for their second dose of vaccines and cancelled all classes – without telling us! So typical and annoying.

When I called our coordinator, he just said, ‘Oh, I thought you knew!’ How the fuck were we supposed to know!?

In the past, I would’ve gotten really wound up by this bad communication – especially as I’m always well-organised and have lessons planned around a regular schedule. Today, though, it’s just, oh well, at least I can go home and relax.

First, I went with Dylan to his girlfriend’s cafe, Tongsiam and had a coffee and chat there. His girlfriend, Wa, is a nice, level-headed girl, just out of Uni and looking for a more rewarding job.

Two coffees later (another delicious one at Utopia), and I got home for lunch – much to Amy’s surprise. And now, I’m relaxing in my room – after a quick go at the grass with the cutter, until it ran out of petrol. I feel compelled to get it back into proper working order again and make a little more effort in the garden, which is totally out of control at the moment due to constant rain this year.

I’m finding it a little difficult to love it here at the moment, but I must remember that I will be here for another 5-10 years at least, as I will stay here for our cats. I guess it’s all the frustration of not being able to go anywhere at the moment, too, and the Covid situation getting worse in Thailand. It’s hard to see an end to it or even the much-touted ‘new normal. ‘

Still, it’s my mind that needs to get in order – the world is going to carry on.

Poems on this day – 16th June 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

He Is Not…….

What am I? The hip-priest? Unappreciated?
I have feelings too, though I often hide them well
Words cut deep until your appetite is sated
Where do we go from here, only time will tell
Just a little confirmation, inquiry on my state
Will go a long way to making me feel okay
Let’s make it good again before it’s too late
And regret all the things we forgot to say

In Your Head

There’s a coward in the room
Hiding out of sight
Stuck alone with you
Through the day and night
A shadow of a being
Testing all your ideas
Teasing and twisting
Pushing the buttons of your fears
Naggin’ at your noggin
You listen to each spell
Mixing up your emotions
You can no longer tell
The differences of what’s right
And wrong at all
If you keep listening to that devil
You will surely fall

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that despite all the negative things that happened during the day with my immigration visa application – I was still able to go back to school and have a fun class with new students.

Annual Caper – 15th June 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Running around, filling in forms
Photocopying passports and paper
Wasting time and wasting petrol
On this stupid annual caper

“You’ve done it wrong, take it back”
Take it to another station
Always use blue ink, never black
For those lovely folks at immigration

“Thanks for coming, we’ll take your money
But go away and do it right”
Said one thing and meant another
“Now get the hell out of my sight”

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full
Please let me stay in your land
It’s enough to make you want to leave
This isn’t what I’d planned

It’s like you don’t want us here
Unless we pay through the nose
Your useless corrupt system’s
Designed just to keep us on our toes

I’m trying to make it along here
A house with pets, a job and a wife
But maybe it’s time to reconsider
Where I spend the rest of my life

Does anyone read promotional blurb anymore? Is it necessary? I say No! But this is what is done, so this is what we’re doing.

For those in the know, Trumans Water have been deconstructing indie rock conventions (and grammar rules) for more than 100 years now (or at least since the early 90s) and there’s a reasonable chance you have totally missed out! But Trumans never stop.

Too true, the vet American “spazz-rock”/”squiggle-core” quartet has been scarce in their native land in recent years: releases mostly on Euro-labels (and now a label based in Thailand!); touring almost exclusively “over there.” One co-founding Branstetter brother, singer-guitarist Kevin, even settled down in France; the other, guitarist-vocalist Kirk, remains in Portland, Oregon, where TW set up in 1995 (formed in San Diego circa 1991).

The 14 tracks of O Zeta Zunis, album #13,14,15 or 16 depending on how you may wish to count, manage one helluva collective double-feat: sounding like distinct, engaging, chance-taking, raw-boned guit-stoked rock to any given listener — whether they know the Water or no — and coming off to TW fans as strikingly fresh while hearkening back to classic Trumans material.

Yes, the latter means going all the way back to 1992’s debut Of Thick Tum — enthusiastically tracked by legendary Brit radio DJ John Peel in its entirety, c’est vrai — and their 1993 2xLP follow-up, Spasm Smash XXXOXOX Ox & Ass. (Note: you’re still on your own in unravelling Trumans-ian title-age.)

O Zeta Zunis sports a few slowed-up passages that help accentuate the melodic riff-drive of “Last Time” or the balls-out whizz-bang of “Greased Water,” the twitchy-catchy frolic of “5-7-10 Split” or the rubbery buzz-chug of “You Live Out Loud.” There’re loping jams and snappy sonic sputter-blasts as well. Essence of Trumans.

Chèvre Au Lait slows things down with subtlety, yet remains as twisted as ever, in the fashion of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, fusing madness with restraint and even devolving into post-punk reminiscent of England in the early 80s, which has become popular again with the punk youth of today.

Folks, this ain’t history — this is … living, loopy rock and/or roll! Trumans Water never left so won’t you please welcome them back?

Thailand based label tenzenmen has long been a fan of Trumans Water and was so disappointed that their last two albums were not available on CD, and unable to complete the collection in their music library, that they invested their inheritance monies into bringing these albums to the most unpopular format in recorded history. 

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to meet my students again and to meet some of the new classes. It was a lot of fun and I felt relaxed and enjoyed the day very much despite other stresses going on.

A connecting principle, linked to the invisible – 17th March 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Pic: cat waiting for quote

“A person who knows little likes to talk, and one who knows much mostly keeps silent.
This is because a person who knows little thinks that everything he knows is important, and wants to tell everyone. A person who knows much also knows that there is much more he doesn’t know. That’s why he speaks only when it is necessary to speak, and when he is not asked questions, he keeps his silence.”

-Jean Jacques Rousseau (via Tolstoy’s Calendar of Wisdom)

“I’m not sure of much of anything these days. Maybe that’s why I talk so much.”

-Robert Pirsig from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I read these two quotes from different sources today, also reflecting on the ‘loud’ Thai people in my work environment and it was made more poignant as at this time they were congratulating two other foreign teachers for picking two correct numbers on the lottery. No one won anything that I could discern, as more correct numbers were needed but because they had two correct this seemed to indicate a mad belief in their fortune-telling skills.

This nonsense talk went on for a while and at a volume that chased any hiding cockroaches out of the room. I think for a lot of Thai people, it is all about the show and not about the reality. I’ve mentioned before my sense of this whilst living here. It still jars but rather than say anything this time, I tried to see things for what they were – and kept my mouth shut. (Until writing this, of course!)

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the foam rollers that help me to massage out any pain and tension in my back. Sometimes the relief is awesome – especially after sleeping awkwardly.

The best things today was that everyone was in a fairly happy mood as students were celebrating graduation. They all complained about having to wait, especially as the temperature rose up to 38 degrees or so.

It was a lot of fun to see everyone so relaxed. I especially enjoyed talking with Porpieng, Momo and Junior in the morning. I also talked with Baitoey and Bonus. Baitoey had written about her family situation and how unhappy it made her and how difficult it was for her to concentrate on school work. She wrote that she was depressed, her parents fight all the time – it seems her mum was only 17 when she had Baitoey – and her dad is not much older.

Baitoey had also thought about suicide. I told her my own dealings with depression and that she should know that she is loved – by me, Bonus and her friends. But also that she must consider her own love first and that is important when she can’t get it anywhere else.

I think she felt happy and relieved to write those things down even though it was so hard for her and she still can’t see a way out of the fog. I care about my students so much.

I taught online this evening and although I wasn’t really looking forward to it, even thinking of cancelling, it went well. Luckily this student is fairly capable and seems very motivated. Sometimes it’s hard to stay motivated went he student doesn’t really understand you or doesn’t have enough vocabulary to think deeper.

We got that attitude! – 15th March 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

I am so happy and grateful for all the apps I use in the morning. Home Workout, Samsung Health, Yoga and Smiling Mind. How easy is it now to find and follow information for health benefits? We used to have to go to a GP who would just tell you you need to exercise more. I am so lucky to have these tools available to help my life.

Two weeks into March already and I haven’t been back here to write. Have I been busy? Obviously – but with what, it’s difficult to say.

Dylan and Champ asked me how my weekend was this morning and what did I do? I told them that I played with a dog, looked at the sky and watched a tree. They chuckled but I was semi-serious.

Of course, I could’ve told them we took the cats to the vet and had lunch with my in-laws but really that mundane stuff says nothing. When I mentioned watching a tree it sparked thoughts and minor conversation as to its purpose. I said trees are important, to which all agreed but, to watch one?

To be honest, I don’t believe I did watch a tree though I did look at quite a few – some nice gum trees at the cafe where we had lunch. But now I’ve mentioned it I think I will watch a tree and see what I can figure out from it.

The best thing that happened today was talking to some grade 8 students in the canteen and getting them to stop being scared to try to speak English. I also talked with Alice and Kam about next semester’s classes and it was interesting to see how more confident they are since I was teaching them a year and a half ago.

It’s very relaxing at school at the moment as this is the final week for students and no one is seriously teaching. Both students and teachers are very relaxed and happy.