Thailand: Where Teachers Aren’t Just Appreciated, They’re Revered

Educational Schadenfreude

The next part of the ceremony involved all of the teachers coming down from the stage and sitting side by side in a long line at the front of the room. Students broke away from their classes and individually approached the teacher of their choice. When it was their chance to meet with the teacher, they presented a small flower offering and said kind words of appreciation.

Several students lined up, but didn’t have any flowers (I never found out if this was from a lack of funds, times, or motivation). Teachers picked pieces from the top of their increasingly unmanageable pile of received offerings and gave them to the flowerless students. This part of the ceremony was a lot more fun as it’s far more personal (and sadistically humorous to watch students try to compose a relatively complicated thank you in English).

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I’m not entirely sure if the faculty had some sort of “take Ryan to lunch” schedule during my tenure, or if the responsibility just befell the first person I made eye contact with. Either way, I hopped in a car full of teachers that didn’t speak any English (see: 97% of the teachers) and headed to lunch. For almost two hours I sat in relative silence eating papaya salad before heading back to school.

I got out of the car and the teacher sped off. No one was on campus. I surmised that teacher appreciation day was over and, as per usual, no one told the farang.

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