My Boy Maht

I have been teaching the same group of adult students twice a week for three weeks now. On the first day, I struck up a conversation with a student named Maht before class. He speaks better English than most in the class and is the most eager to ask questions and learn new words. When I told him my name was Forest he said "Hmmmm... no. I will call you Bob." I've been Bob ever since. This is especially funny/random since that was my nickname from ages 1-5 of my childhood. Maht offered me a ride home after class and we've been tight ever since. He is 53, maybe 5 feet tall, married with a 15 year old son and three cats, one of which he says is perpetually sick. (I hear kitty-AIDS is going around) Maht loves to constantly barrage me with questions about how to say things in English, and is dead set on teaching me Thai. We have hung out a couple times outside of class, which involves him running errands for his industrial cleaning products business and me riding along. Translation errors run rampant, especially because he often confuses pronouns. He often says your when he means hers or his. This leads to "He was with your wife" instead of "He was with his wife". Hilarity ensues. Maht loves to laugh, but I never know what will set him off. I might drop what I consider a great joke and get no response, but when I talk about how I have trouble remembering Thai words he will start laughing his ass off. Last week we went to a popular student restaurant that specializes in "toast", which turned out to be steamed white bread that you dip into custard sauce. This dish is accompanied by a mug of hot milk. I could help but laugh when he called the place the "milk bar". We sat around around for a while spotting cute college girls and debating which ones were actually boys. It was some of the most fun I've had here.

Maht has been incredibly generous and friendly to me. He now comes and picks me up from my house before class, often takes me out to resturants, and never lets me pay for anything. It really is some of that famous Thai hospitality. Next week I am going with him on a business trip for a couple of days to a resort up near the Myanmar border. It will be nice to get out of the city and see some of the countryside.

A few days ago Maht took me and some of the others from class out to dinner. It was an interesting restaurant experience, much different from the style I am used to. Each person got a bowl of rice, and then took little samples of the six different dishes that were ordered for us to share. I like this method, you can try many things and don't have to eat things you don't like. While we were eating, one of the students asked how long I would be teaching at the school. I replied that I wasn't sure, if I found a full-time job I would probably have to quit. She said that all of the students wanted me to stay, and that they had been gossiping about what a good teacher I was. I think my heart actually melted. It felt so good to hear this after my frustrating job search, where I seemed to get the brush-off at every school I applied at. Huge ego and confidence boost. It's funny how a small compliment like that can totally restore your motivation and make all of your efforts seem like they are worth it. That girl just earned a A in my class.