Well, assistant? Follower? I dunno, but I like the sound of minion. His name is Jin and he is in 6/5. It was kind of strange, he just randomly approached me as I was walking home early last week and started talking to me. This struck me as rather strange, because as friendly as the Thais are and as eager as they are to say "hello teacher" when in a group, they are also quite shy and unwilling to speak English unless forced to. So this kid walking up to me out of the blue to practice English with me, especially when he isn't one of my students, was pretty surprising. So the day after I met him he started coming up to my office during the days for chats in English. It turns out that Jin has family in Canada (a sister and an uncle) and desperately wants to go to college there. He adores English and loves to practice as much as he can--I discovered he likes speaking with me because the other native speaker, a Canadian named Linda, speaks too quickly for him to understand most of the time.
Anyway, Jin is a very nice kid. He is extremely enthusiastic about English, and quite frankly has a higher ability level in the language than most people in the school, teachers included. The sad part of this is his reputation in school. Ever since day one, I have been receiving cautions/warnings from the other teachers here about him. As they put it, he is "broken." Translation: he has issues with depression. His parents are divorced and he has had a very unpleasant time here at school. He really doesn't have many friends (I know of 2 though, so that's something), and the teachers here seem to treat him like he is an embarrassment to the school. He has major mood swings--when he is happy, like when studying English, he is positively bubbly. But when he gets depressed, he starts cutting himself. One arm is totally covered with shallow slices. My understanding from other teachers is that he is getting some treatment in Chiang Mai for this, but since that is hours away, it is sporadic at best (probably just the periodic check up to prescribe new drugs). One day not long after we met he came into my office crying--some teacher had said something mean to him (still unclear on the details), so he had started cutting again. I will be honest, I really didn't know what to do. As much as I want to help, I am not a therapist. So I just did the best that I could. I talked to him about what I did to make myself feel better and asked him what makes him happy. He told me about taking walks, music, and a spot on campus he enjoys. So he agreed that next time he felt bad he would try to use those things that make him happy and avoid focusing on the bad things. I know that is incredibly simplistic, and I'm not really qualified for any of this, but I haven't had anymore crying visits since then. So I guess that's a plus.
The thing is that I see a lot of potential in him. He is definitely conflicted. He is completely distraught over the fact that his class thinks he is an idiot--I am not sure why this is, but he apparently gets really withdrawn when in classes he doesn't like, so maybe it is just that he doesn't speak in class. He is also very upset that everyone thinks he is sick, when he doesn't think he is. Well, I do think he is sick, but certainly not the way the other teachers here do. They treat him like a plague on the community, something so irredeemably broken that he might infect the others if he gets too near. I, on the other hand, see a kid in need of some psychiatric help that really isn't available. It's too bad he isn't living in Canada right now--his life would be a lot different. As for his prospects of actually going to college in Canada, I really don't know the chances. I know his English abilities are very good, but I really don't know about his other classes. He does seem exceptionally motivated though, so I certainly wouldn't write him off any time soon. Plus he has his family in Canada, so he has that going for him.
He has become very interested in interacting with me. He comes in every day and has made me lunch a couple times--Pad Thai and Gimbap, a Korean style sushi. He has also been helpful carrying books to classes and whatnot. I think the other teachers find it all really odd--they often question him in Thai when he is here and have told him to leave because he is bothering me. Sometimes it does get a bit tiring, but it really isn't any of their business. I am sure they feel they are helping, but once again, not their business.
I hope I can help him. Recently we have been doing more English lessons to help improve his conversation skills. He has even asked me for additional homework! I know that Jin has problems that need some real work, but I hope that just talking helps and that he will gradually learn to deal with his depression by depending on himself...probably a pipedream, but whatever. I really hope that I don't get dragged into the darkness by all of this. My life has gotten so much brighter here, I can't afford to go back.
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