Generous offers

Visiting the canal, I met a young man who asks me for food money. He sells goods at Klong Thom market during the day, and turns up at the canal in late afternoon.

He was fishing off the rickety pier when I met him yesterday. It had been raining all day. A group of school students in uniform – blue shorts, sweat-soaked white shirts, bare feet - were playing football in a fenced playing area next to the pier.

On the opposite side, the local eatery was doing busy after-work trade.

We exchanged a few words of greeting.

‘I am hungry,’ he said.

‘Where are your friends?’ I asked, as I gave him B25 for a meal.

‘They have gone to the funeral for a friend. He was our age...he was shot while trying to protect a woman,’ he said.

‘Did they catch the guy who did it?’

‘A group of young guys who knew the victim kicked him to death,’ he said matter-of-factly.

The young man lived on the Thon Buri side, as do we all. He thought of going to the cremation, but the rain put him off. No doubt his friends will tell him what happened. The victim died just a few days ago.

-

Ten metres down the road, I stopped outside a place that used to be an internet shop.

The owner, a man in his 50s with white hair, was outside. I stopped to chat.

Two years ago or more, I used to teach English on the footpath outside his shop.

He spread the word at his internet shop. Youngsters who were interested could turn up in the afternoons to get free English lessons.

Classes were open to anyone. A mix of school and university students came, plus a few office and sales workers.

Two afternoons a week, we would pull out a couple of tables and chairs, sit outside the shop and learn English.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked my white-haired Thai friend, whose name I have forgotten. Let’s call him Uncle.

‘I am teaching maths to a couple of students. They live in the area and come here to study with me,’ he said, pouring me a red drink in a bag of ice.

I don't know if he charges them for the service. ‘No one in this area has any money,’ he said sadly.

‘Do your parents send you money from overseas?’ he asked.

‘No...I do not bother them. I work full-time, and make enough to support myself,’ I said.

‘That’s great!' he said, sounding impressed.

Inside his shop, two or three secondary students were sitting at computers.

‘Would you like to teach English again at this shop the way we used to do?’ he asked.

‘I would. I do not have any students at the moment. I miss them,’ I said.

Uncle will ask among students who visit his shop. He has teenage children of his own who might also be interested in joining lessons.

'Do you have any new approaches to teaching?’ he asked, no doubt thinking back to the last time we met for lessons at his shop, which petered out after a few months for lack of interest.

‘Yes...much more conversation, and less book work,’ I said.

That should please the students, if any come. Many Thai teachers focus on grammar because they don't trust themselves to speak the language.

Assuming Uncle can rustle up enough interest, our first lessons will start next week.