Some of the lessons were quite hard today. It may have been because I had planned them a week ago or that being away on holiday made it hard to settle in again. In my G.10 class today they were learning new vocabulary about the city and the countryside. I drew a mind map with words about the city and the countryside, and drew pictures to explain some of the words they did not seem to understand. I then got them to copy down the mind map and asked them to write a sentence about what they like about the city and what they like about the countryside. However, I had not explained some of the vocabulary clearly enough so their sentences didn\u2019t make sense to me. One girl had written \u2018I like the countryside because of poor public transport\u2019. So I definitely need to work a more thorough plan for their next lesson.<\/p>\n
The rest of the lessons went well though. In my G.12 class I introduced them to new vocabulary as well. We were looking at problems that can occur in a house, such as a water leak or an ant invasion. I used the traditional method of a mind map and put down the issues you can have. I then extended it and explained what you do as a solution. Aum was translating various words and phrases, so the students managed to guess some of the solutions, such as fire fighters. After copying it down I then gave the students hand written card each and they had to get up and find the student that matched their problem or solution. This worked quite\u00a0well. The students had to translate some words and phrases, but I only found two pairs that did not match, so I think it went well for a first lesson. Hopefully this will mean they won\u2019t need to spend too long on it.<\/p>\n
This evening we had a small dinner party with Aum, Yang and Dong, the Chinese teachers, and the principle. Tonight we had hot-pot, which is basically a quick slow cooker that goes on the table and is filled up with stock. After the stock is boiled, you start throwing in the ingredients and wait for it to cook. You then refill the hot-pot when it empties. We had pork with shrimp, crab sticks, cabbage and some noodles. It was really nice. Somehow after four portions of hot-pot I managed to fit in a small dessert of bananas in coconut milk. It was incredibly sweet but a good contrast to the Chang we were drinking. During dinner we introduced Aum to snapchat, so we won\u2019t get too bored in the staff room. We\u2019re also organising to go to visit him in three weeks; hopefully we\u2019ll be able to book a bus or train soon! So I\u2019m going to bed very late, hopefully I\u2019ll still wake up at 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some of the lessons were quite hard today. It may have been because I had planned them a week ago or that being away on holiday made it hard to […]","protected":false},"author":1058,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[270],"tags":[93,44,280,57,60,114,142,97,102,120],"class_list":["post-846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-summer-programmes","tag-asia","tag-food-and-drink","tag-internship","tag-local-cuisine","tag-making-friends","tag-teaching","tag-teaching-abroad","tag-thailand","tag-ubon","tag-work"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4QQbz-dE","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6524,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/meet-the-exchange-ambassador-emma\/","url_meta":{"origin":846,"position":0},"title":"Meet the Exchange Ambassador – Emma","author":"Global Opportunities Globetrotters","date":"June 5, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Name: Emma Small School and Degree programme: ENCAP - English Language and Linguistics Host University: Queen\u2019s University Host Country:\u00a0Canada Tell us about why you chose to study abroad I had planned to study abroad even before starting university; a large part of my decision making during university applications was influenced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GO Student Ambassadors"","block_context":{"text":"GO Student Ambassadors","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/go-student-ambassadors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2026\/06\/ADE7F933-D322-4AC5-BD4F-6C6FEA8E1E34_Emma-Small-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2026\/06\/ADE7F933-D322-4AC5-BD4F-6C6FEA8E1E34_Emma-Small-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2026\/06\/ADE7F933-D322-4AC5-BD4F-6C6FEA8E1E34_Emma-Small-scaled.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2026\/06\/ADE7F933-D322-4AC5-BD4F-6C6FEA8E1E34_Emma-Small-scaled.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2026\/06\/ADE7F933-D322-4AC5-BD4F-6C6FEA8E1E34_Emma-Small-scaled.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2026\/06\/ADE7F933-D322-4AC5-BD4F-6C6FEA8E1E34_Emma-Small-scaled.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":848,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/aum-less\/","url_meta":{"origin":846,"position":1},"title":"Aum-less","author":"Samantha Edgson","date":"July 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m not sure if the lack of sleep or if I was the Chang the night before was making me feel bad, but I decided to take my berry tea and pug-shaped tea dispenser into school today. According to the others, my pug tea dispenser apparently looks like a pig!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Summer Programmes"","block_context":{"text":"International Summer Programmes","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/summer-programmes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"13883681_10207037353151669_545412871_n","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/08\/13883681_10207037353151669_545412871_n-450x338.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":720,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/english-quiz\/","url_meta":{"origin":846,"position":2},"title":"English Quiz","author":"Samantha Edgson","date":"July 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Today we did not get pancakes. It was incredibly disappointing during the early morning after a weekend of relaxing. We did get fried egg and rice though, so it wasn\u2019t a bad consolation prize. My only lesson today was with G.12 and all we did was play games. It was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Summer Programmes"","block_context":{"text":"International Summer Programmes","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/summer-programmes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":884,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/ceilidh-dancing\/","url_meta":{"origin":846,"position":3},"title":"Ceilidh Dancing","author":"Samantha Edgson","date":"July 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Ben was back in school today! He\u2019s still a bit ill and still as busy as ever, so he couldn\u2019t make it to my lessons to translate. He had to sort out papers for the midterms that G.7-12 have next week (Hannah\u2019s and my year groups), so it\u2019s a reasonable\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Summer Programmes"","block_context":{"text":"International Summer Programmes","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/summer-programmes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6007,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/my-opportunity-to-conduct-research-in-japan\/","url_meta":{"origin":846,"position":4},"title":"My opportunity to conduct research in Japan","author":"Global Opportunities Globetrotters","date":"June 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Name: Otilia Ojeda School: Biosciences Global Opportunity: Professional Research Year at Kumamoto University, Japan What motivated you to take up a Global Opportunity? I was motivated to take up a Global Opportunity because I\u2019ve always wanted to learn Japanese. 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