Buying a house

Buying a house

This description will not be complete if I do not mention something about the house in which our family used to live when we're young. We lived in a typical village where there used to be one or two houses made of bricks and cement with roofs thatched with tiles. Most of the houses in our village were made of wattle and daub with a roof thatched with Cadjan (Cadjans are woven mats made from coconut palm leaves, used for roofing in some Asian countries like India, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka). Our house was not an exception to the rest of the houses in the village. Another striking thing that is needed to mention here is that our house was formally constructed to run a business by one of my uncles. Therefore, it totally looked like a small shop which consisted of one room with a small kitchen. In a typical Sri Lankan village shop, a row of wooden planks is used as a door. In other words, there is no single door instead several planks are inserted into a wooden frame in such a way that each plank, which is generally numbered from one, is fitted as a raw when closing the shop at dusk. Similarly, when opening the shop at dawn, each plank is removed and carefully placed by one side of the shop as a stack. 

                                 A typical house made of daub and wattle with a Cadjan roof

As I stated earlier, our house which was constructed to run a small shop earlier was later transformed into a house with our occupation there. It belonged to our grandparents who allowed us to stay there even though it was constructed for a shop. As far as I remember, we had one single bed, one table, one wooden chair, and a mirror. The kitchen was partly furnished with a few earthenwares and two hearths which were fueled using firewoods placed on the wooden frame erected over the hearths. This kind of wooden frame erected just above the hearths is called a “Dum Massa”. The two hearths in our house were built on a raised flat form so that one did not want to squat on the floor to kindle the hearths. In Sri Lanka traditional context, “Dum Massa” plays a crucial role in the kitchen where a number of functions related to cooking are done. The main purpose of erecting a wooden frame over the hearths is to keep the earthenwares dry and clean after cooking. In addition, “Dum Messa” is used for storing firewood that is collected from a garden or a nearby jungle. Village women use “Dum Messa” for drying lot of household stuff such as dry fish, chilies, and certain ingredients used in cooking food. Most importantly, when it comes to a place to hide something from the other members of a family, “Dum Messa” was then considered a more secured place than any in a house by most village women.

I have sweet memories of “Dum Messa” because my grandmother used to hide delicacies prepared at home in “Dum Messa” to safeguard it from us (My brothers and me) because we loved to eat sweets a lot as young ones then. My grandmother prepared different kinds of sweetmeat such as oil cake (Kewum) ‘Aggala’-is a typical dessert made from roasted rice flour and treacle honey which is formed into diameter balls and coated with rice flour (Please refer to the picture below), ‘Undu Wel’, ‘Aluwa’ and ‘Weli Thalapa- is a household sweet, usually prepared in a two-step process, first Pittu is prepared with rice flour and second, it is mixed with Kitul or Coconut treacle and cut into square blocks which are generally served at tea time were the most famous. In addition, she used to prepare a special delicacy called ‘Kee Roti’ on and off. Like other sweetmeats, preparing ‘Kee Roti’ is labor-intensive in that one has to go through several stages starting from the preparation of rice flour to the final product. As grinding equipment was not available at that time in villages, village women had to pound soaked rice in a mortar to obtain flour.

                                                                 Kewun ‘Athirasa’

                                                                         'Kokis'

                                                                       ' Aggala'
                                                 

                                                                        'Aluwa'

                                                                         'Arsmee'

                                                             'Unduwel' or 'Pani Walau'

'Unduwel' is a peculiar type of delicacy which is prepared for special social occasions such as wedding parties or especially during the Sinhala and Tamil New year. To prepare this sweetmeat, one needs expertise as its mixture should be in the right proportion. In my village, there was only one relative of ours who knew how to make ‘Unduwel’ correctly. If the mixture is not prepared rightly, ‘Unduwel’ gets hardened while frying and the honey in which ‘Unduwel’ is dipped will not absorb so that ‘Unduwel’ will become crispy like ‘Murrukku’ which is a savory and crunchy Indian snack. When a wedding took place in our village, making ‘Unduwel’ and ‘Arsmi’ were assigned to our relative who earned fame for making both these sweetmeats in and around our village. Being young ones, we loved very much to eat ‘Unduwel’ and ‘Arsmi’ prepared by this lady. ‘Arsmi’ is also a traditional sweet without which a tea party given in a wedding ceremony is incomplete. However, making ‘Arsmi’ also needs a special skill and only a few women in a village know how to make it properly. Another sweetmeat which is mostly prepared only by village women is called 'Kitul Talapa' for which you need 'Kitul Piti' (a kind of starch extracted from the pith of a 'Kitul' palm. 'Kitul' is a palm species which is native to Sri Lanka). I found an interesting recipe about making 'Kitul Talapa' published in Lankadeepa Newspaper by a journalist name Sisira Kumara Bandara, one of my old friends from Hataraliyadda. I wish to cite the web address of that article here so that any reader who wishes to know more about this traditional delicacy (Kitul Talapa) can access this (http://www.lankadeepa.lk/avurudu/1892/). However, a screenshot of this article is published here with a few photos of 'Kitul Talapa' retrieved from this website. This article was written by Mr. Sisira Kumara Bandara (A journalist of Wijaya Newspapers and Ltd, Colombo, Sri Lanka). However, the description of the recipe is in my native language (Sinhala)

Kitul Talapa partakes with a specially prepared broth called 'Kiri Pani' which includes several ingredients such as coconut milk, cardamom, pepper, a little flour of ground rice, and garlic.

     The above is the recipe in Sinhala 

My memory with places is curiously vivid. One such place is our grandparents’ kitchen. The kitchen in our grandparents’ house was bigger than ours and had two levels of which the second level was so high that we could not reach it without a prop. It was the practice of our grandmother to put whatever sweetmeats she made into an earthen pot and cover it with a piece of clean cloth and put it on the second level of the ‘Dum Messa’ in her house. As young ones, we knew where she kept it so it was not difficult for us (My brothers and me) to find the pot which contained the sweetmeats. When she was not at home, we either as a collective or individually began to search ‘Dum Massa’ for sweetmeats on a condition that neither one of us should tell grandmother who ate the sweetmeats if found concealed there in ‘Dum Massa’. However much we were careful in eating one or two pieces from the receptacle in which they were kept, our grandmother had such an instinct that she knew it had tampered and she used to inquire about it from us to know who did it. In such a situation, as previously agreed, we did not disclose any one of our exact identities saying that it must have been eaten by so and so (Two of my brothers’ names). Incidents of these kinds were many and each time most of us got blamed for eating stealthily. 

This is my friend (Udaya Wijekoon) with whom  I ate 'Aluwa' in the classroom at Rangamuwa School.

During our younger days, our grandmother and our mother used to prepare sweetmeat at least every week and when sweetmeat was prepared, it was generally shared with our neighbors who were also accustomed to this great culture-specific practice. We not only shared such things with our neighbors but also sued to share with our friends at schools. I remember one incident in which I took some sweetmeat (Aluwa) prepared by my mother to my classroom when I was studying in grade one or two in my village school. My mother gave me a few pieces of ‘Aluwa’ and asked me to eat them during the interval. However, before the interval, during the class time when one of our teachers was conducting a lesson, my friend who was seated next to me began to eat little by little stealthily. Our teacher noticed this and asked us what we were eating and we kept silent. Then, she asked us to go out of the class and eat whatever we were eating. We both felt shy and stopped the action of eating and focused on the lesson which our teacher was teaching. Since then, I never tried to eat anything in the class while a lesson was in progress until my primary education was completed in my village school.

When we were very young, living in a village was not complicated as it is now. We did not have any infrastructure facilities such as electricity, water supply, telephone or motorable roads. Most of the families in my village depended on rice cultivation except for one or two families who were employed in government or private sector jobs. Since electricity was not available, we used to illuminate our houses with oil lamps. It was easy to make a simple oil lamp using a small glass bottle as shown in the picture below.

                                               Normal oil lamp                          

                                                        A chimney lamp

                                                                A kerosene lantern                                                  

                                                                 A mantle lamp

In our house, we had one chimney lamp and one oil lamp whereas my grandparents’ house had more oil and chimney lamps including a kerosene lantern and a mantle lamp. Of these all, the mantle lamp produced a bright white light so it was used only in important occasions such as having a religious function, family gathering, funeral, wedding, or agricultural work done at night (paddy thrashing). It was lighted by one of my uncles and it was not allowed to handle by others because you need to know the procedure of lighting it. So, what we did was to stay around looking at how our uncle lighted it. The mantle lamp our grandparents had was a pressurized mantle lamp and it contained a gas generator and required preheating the generator before lighting.  

As noted above, we used to play with our friends all afternoon until dusk and when dusk approached, we began to reach our respective homes. If we did not come home when dusk approached, our mother used to call us by our names. As soon as we returned home, we were led to the well to take a bath. The well that we used to take a bath in was not properly constructed with cement and stones. It was like a pit dug out from the earth. A few stones were placed from one side where bathing was done standing at the edge of the well. Most of the water that was taken out from a bucket to pour over the head and body generally flew back to the well and after some time, the water in the well got muddy making difficult to continue bathing. It was at this point we used to stop bathing and returned home quickly. Some days, we used to go to a ‘Pihilla’ to bathe. ‘Pihilla’ is made using a stem of bamboo or an Areca nut tree. If it is an Areca nut stem, its inner part is removed to make it like a tube through which water can flow. As such ‘Pihilla’ is fixed to a watercourse that descends over a steep surface of the ground. As a result, a column of water is ejected through the Areca nut stem to a few feet from the steep surface so that one needs to stand under ‘Pihilla’ and hold his head to an outflow of the water. Therefore, bathing from a ‘Pihilla’ is easier than taking a bath from a well. It was not only the village folks that used to bathe from a ‘Pihilla’ but also the kings of Kandyan kingdom in the days of yore. History records that King Kirthi Sri Rajasinghe bathed from a water spout which is now known as Rajapihilla or Royal Bath found situated in the vicinity of Dalada Maligawa. 

       

A photo of Rajapihilla (Royal Bath) Photo credit: http://amazinglanka.com/wp/rajapihilla/

‘Pihilla’ or water sprout which most villagers use to bathe. As described above, for this Pihilla, an iron pipe has been used, whereas, in villagers, bamboo or Areca nut log is used.

Returning to the topic of this description, I should say that our family moved to a house in a housing scheme which was constructed under the concept of village reawaking movement initiated by R. Premadasa, who was the third President of Sri Lanka and before that he was the Prime Minister when J.R. Jayawardane was the president. This housing scheme consisted of 20 houses with a land of 6 perches. The house consisted of two rooms with a kitchen and an attached toilet. The kitchen was not used and we had a small kitchen built attached to the house. Since our house was in a scheme, there were two houses close to ours: one was behind while the other was to the right. The people who lived in them had come from various villages in Galagedara Electorate. Therefore, neighbors were united and friendly unlike in villages where people mostly pretended that they were friendly from outwards but envied each other inwardly. However, if someone got into a trouble, the whole village tended to act as if they were members of one family which we should consider as one of the greatest qualities of villagers.   

Once we settled down in the new house, my visits to our grandparents’ house as well as meeting my village friends became frequent because our new house was situated about 10 kilometers away from my village. I lived in this house until I got my job as an English teacher in a government school after that I went to different places in my country to serve so my visit to this house was limited to once or twice a year to see my family members. Later, this house was sold and my brother and mother moved to Kotmale because my brother found a teaching position in a ‘Pirivena’ there. I got married and moved to my wife’s house which was in Danovita. At that time, I worked in Kandy while my wife worked in Colombo. So, both of us left home in the morning for work and returned in the afternoon. Even though my journey from Danovita to Kandy was tedious, I could come home earlier than my wife who had to undergo numerous troubles in transportation from Danovita to Colombo, Pelawatta. Since our son was small, we had to employ someone to take care of him. My wife's mother also stayed with us. However, we finally decided to move to Colombo for thinking about our son’s schooling. There were no good schools nearby Danovita on one hand and on the other, transportation to either direction (to Kandy or to Colombo) was rather difficult. Those days the roads were not in good condition as they are now so it took many hours to get to Kandy or Colombo from Danovita. Given all difficulties mentioned above, we rented out a ground floor of a house in Pelawatta, Battaramulla near to my wife’s place of work (Isurupaya) and I also got a transfer from Kandy to Dehiwala. The portion consisted of two rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. The portion was not roomy enough to keep any furniture except the most required ones. However, the location was very convenient for all of us. The house owners did not poke into our affairs so we stayed for nearly 10 years in that house. By this time, I was out of the country (Thailand) and I visited Sri Lanka during a vacation. Time passed and I left Thailand and went to Oman where I could save some money. One of our biggest dreams was to buy a house of our own. So, we began to search houses in and around Thalawatugoda. Pelawatta and Battaramulla area became urbanized and the prices of land and house went up to a great extent which we could not afford to buy a piece of land or a small house in that area. Therefore, we decided to look for a house in the vicinity of Battaramulla.

                                               The garden of our Danovita house

                                                      The garden was full of flowers

                                           We had a concrete bench erected in our garden

                                                          Now the house is abandoned

                                                        Another view of the house

                                       The house we rented out in Pelawaata on MDH Pura road

                            Another view of our rented house located on MDH Pura Road

                      How Pelawatta city, once used to be a sleepy town, looks at present

We used www.ikman.lk website to search for a house and after searching for a few months, we found one house in Kothalawala, Kaduwela. Kaduwela is a city situated along New Kandy Road around 10 kilometers away from Battaramulla. The house looked nice and consisted of a 3-bed room with a big living room and a bathroom and a small kitchen. The original price the seller told was reduced to a little and we bought the house at 5.2 million in Sri Lankan rupees. The only problem we had was that it was situated around one kilometer away from the main road. Once my wife and son went to live there, they found traveling rather difficult from there to the workplace of my wife and to a school of my son. One of the strangest things was that I could not stay in that at least one night. We bought the house in 2014 and moved all our goods there during August. We made some renovation to the house so it looked new.

My wife and son stayed in this for 3 months and then they complained about the difficulties they had to undergo by staying there further. So, we rented out another house from Koswatta, close to Battaramulla again, and occupied it soon. Some of our goods were taken there. It was a storied house in which the owner lived on the ground floor while we lived on the first floor. It had two bedrooms and a large living and a kitchen with a bathroom. It was spacious for a small family like ours. Now my family began to stay there and our House in Kothalawala was kept under lock and key. My family sued to go there once a week and do some cleaning and came back. This routine went on for time and finally, we decided to sell that house so I put up an advertisement on the same website as above and found that it was not easy to sell. Later we reduced the selling price and re-advertised. After a few weeks, we got an offer from a buyer and who agreed to buy the house at the price we wanted to sell it. Ultimately, we could sell that house at 5.3 million Sri Lankan rupees which was a loss in terms of money. 

                                       The house we bought in Kothalawala, Kaduwela

                                                          Front side of the house

                                                                    The garage

                                                                     Small compound

                                                             Spacious living room 

                                  Following are some photos of the rented house at Kowatta.

We stayed at Koswatta house for one and half years and then we found that the owners of that house wanted to increase the rent. Another reason was that this house was not comfortable to stay in because of the heat. As we stayed on the upper floor, during the daytime, inside the house was very hot and we started to sweat all the time. Because of this and the other reason as mentioned above, we decided to move from that house soon. We searched for another house for rent in and around Battaramulla and we found one in the heart of Battaramulla on Pannipitiya road just opposite the Electricity Board of Battaramulla. We could rent the ground floor of it. The house consisted of two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room. As this house is located close to Battaramulla junction, transportation to anywhere was not a problem. Now, this house became the third we rented out in the Battaramulla area.

This picture shows our third rented house. (At the time of writing this, we are still staying at this house-7^th November, 2016)

Another view of the house just opposite the Electricity Board of Battaramulla. When talking about Battaramulla, it is difficult not to mention a public park called Diyatha Uyana which has been built on the bank of historic Diyawanna Oya. This park has recently become one of the attractions of both locals and foreigners living in and around Battaramulla. Since it has been built on the bank of Diyawanna Oya on one side and a famous hotel ‘Water’s Edge’ on the other side, it is visited by many people with their families every day. The lush greenery and the peaceful environment of this park provide the public with an ideal place to rest, jog, dine, listen to live musical shows, shopping and viewing different varieties of fish kept in Minmdura from morning till late night. This park becomes generally gets crowded during the weekends. The park was erected on marshy land between the Parliament complex and the Diyawanna Oya at the Polduwa junction to enhance the beauty of the historic city of Sri Jayewardenepura, Kotte, near Battaramulla. This park has become one of our family’s interesting places to visit at least once a week. The credit of construction this park should go to the former secretary of defense, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksha, a brother of former President, Mahinda Rajapaksha who got defeated in the presidential election held in 2015. When we visit, we are used to taking photos of Minmedura and other places in the park. Followings are some of  them.

                                             Some eye catching scene of Minmadura

                                  Minmadura houses a large variety of ornamental fish

                                                   How Diyatha Park looks at night

                          Another night view of Diyatha Park at Battaramulla during the night

My academic biography-Part 2

In the first part of my academic biography, I wrote and described the beginning of my career as an English teacher. As is often the case with our life, I also had to say goodbye to my teaching at schools because I was offered a position as an English Instructor at Sri Lanka advanced Technological Education effective from 30^th August 1999. I knew nothing about SLIATE first so I was curious to find out what it was. SLIATE, as it is popularly known, is one of Sri Lanka’s leading educational institutes, which conducts Higher National Diploma and National Diploma courses in Technological and Business Studies. The SLIATE is a statutory body coming under the purview of Higher Education Division, Ministry of Education.
SLIATE has been established by the Parliament Act 29 of 1995 focusing on fostering Advanced Technical Education at a post-secondary level and its head is Director-General appointed by the cabinet. It is mandated to establish Advanced Technical Institute (ATI) in every province for both Engineering and Business Studies. At present, it manages and supervises 10 separate Advance Technical Institutes and 7 Sections housed in the Technical Colleges under the Department of Technical Education and Training to conduct the courses of Higher National Diplomas and National Diplomas. Each institute has a Director and each section have an Academic Coordinator. (For more information, please visit http://www.sliate.net/about.htm).

I was appointed to Kandy ATI where I found one of my close friends work. He was in the Republic of Maldives when I was working there. I have known him for a long time (he still works at Kandy ATI as a senior lecturer). The academic environment in an ATI is comparatively varied from a school in that an ATI caters to students’ professional needs. The institution I began to teach had six professional courses ranging from Accountancy, Management to English diploma. I taught Business Communication for Accountancy, Management, and Business Studies courses.  Business Communication mainly focused on improving students’ reading and writing skills.  Writing included business letters of different genres that business establishments use to communicate. However, it is pity that Business Communication did not include an oral communication part which I still think it as a major weakness of this course. A manager or an accountant should be able to communicate in English because most of the private companies in Sri Lanka expect that applicants who apply to work with them should be proficient in oral English. I still wonder this shortcoming of the Business Communication subject has been rectified.

However, it should be noted that a majority of students who enroll for these courses except National Diploma in English has limited proficiency in English. Therefore, most of them cannot perform well at the final examinations. I found teaching boring at ATI mainly because most of the students (not all) showed a lethargic attitude towards English. I believe it should have been due to the constraints imposed by the syllabus, not because of any other possible factor/s.

SLIATE Lecturers’ Union

I became involved in union activities while I was working in Kandy ATI because I then was the secretary of the union. Our union was quite strong and could raise a voice against some of the unfair actions taken by SLIATE authorities. We held meetings to make our members aware of their rights as employees. As I remember, there were some members who were very active and devoted. Our union was very much cooperated by the then Director and the staff members of Kandy ATI.

                               
                               How Kandy ATI looks now

We could meet several ministers, members of parliament, and other officials involved in SLIATE administration to discuss certain issues that affected SLIATE in general. When I joined the SLIATE, the Director-General was Dr. Ariayaratne who was really a dedicated official who worked hard to develop SLIATE. However, with the change of the government, a new DG was appointed by the UNP government. He stayed for a short time and left the SLIATE. Another DG was appointed and it was during this period, a chaotic condition prevailed in the SLIATE set up. The situation became worse after the Director of Dehiwala ATI had been dismissed from his post. The reason for his dismissal was said to be a conflict between the DG and the director. The students from Dehiwala ATI began to stage demonstrations against the dismissal stated above. Somehow, the chaotic situation remained for some time and the government changed again. Then, the DDG administration was appointed as the DG of SLIATE. Even though some members of the Lecturers’ Union were not pleased with the new DG’s appointment, the Union did not show any negative response because he was a person who could be approached by anyone to discuss any matter affecting one. However, as time passed, some of our members wanted us to rebel against the new DG on many occasions but as a union, we always tried to solve our problems through discussion and there were times when we resorted to other means

After working for 5 years at Kandy ATI, I got a transfer to Dehiwala ATI because it was easy for me to travel from the place where we were staying in Colombo. When I reflect on myself, I find the period of time I spent in Kandy was full of unforgettable memories and incidents which have now added to the past.

Going to Dehiwala ATI

Since I had known every staff member including the director of Dehiwala ATI, I felt no sense of unfamiliarity. However, one thing happened. After I came to Dehiwala, I was not able to involve in union activities as before I did. The Director of Dehiwala ATI assisted me a lot. He appointed me as the HOD of Management even though I did not like at first. As time passed, I got used to it so I did not feel any inconvenience of the position. Students had many problems and they used to report to me every day and I also tried to seek solutions for them at my best. Some were solved but there were other problems that I could not solve since they needed to be addressed by the SLIATE administration.

           The service certificate I received from Dehiwala Advanced Technological Institute

After working for 3 years at Dehiwala Advanced Technological Institute, I felt that I was becoming frustrated gradually so I decided to go in search of greener pastures. As is often the case with every employee who may work for a long time in one place, I also found that my work becomes monotonous. Furthermore, the salary I draw every month was not enough to meet the ends. Since we were staying in a rented house, our expenses became more than what we earned. Having thought that I would be able to put an end to my economic problems, I finally decided to find a teaching job in a country where a higher salary is paid. I searched the internet for teaching jobs in foreign countries and I found a lot but none of them was accessible for non-native speakers. I first tried Japan because I was very much impressed by the beauty and cultural diversity of Japan. I began to search for English teaching jobs in Japan but my attempts were in vain because of the native speaker issue. However, while I was surfing the net, I noticed an advertisement (I really can’t remember now where I saw the advertisement whether in a website or a Japanese online newspaper/magazine). It was about a place called Shin Shizen Juku, Natural School located in Hokkaido in Japan. I wrote a letter to the manager of Shin Shizen Juku stating that I wish to come to his place and teach English to community members living around his farm. I received a reply from the manager, Hiroshi Mine, expressing his willingness to accept me as a volunteer teacher to work there. Following is the letter, information sheet, sponsoring letter, and a picture postcard of Hokkaido which Hiroshi Mine had sent to me in 2006.

Visiting Thailand

The Kingdom of Thailand is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Asia. The inviting climate, charming people, and relatively low cost make it an ideal choice for a vacation. Thailand has a rich culture replete with age-old traditional customs, values , and norms. It was never colonized and enjoys deep traditions rooted in the Buddhist faith and devotion to the royal family. People are friendly, helpful, and charming by nature.

                                           One of the most striking scenes in Thailand

One of the tourist attractions in the South of Thailand

         

                      TEFL courses conducted by various language schools in Thailand                                  

TEFL course in Thailand

Even though I was very much impressed by the description of the letter which Hiroshi Mine had sent me, I had to give up the idea of going to Japan due to practical problems. However, I did not give up my idea of going abroad. When I was searching the net, I found a website that included information about a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course conducted in Thailand. According to the information given on that website, the course is conducted in a language school by native speakers and the duration of the course is 6 weeks with a total number of 120 hours of instruction including classroom observation. The website, furthermore, guaranteed to find jobs for those who completed the course successfully. The course fee was 17000 Baht. I made up my mind to study this course hoping that I can find a job therein Thailand. I sent an application to the language school and I was replied to immediately. I wrote a letter to the DG requesting leave for one month and I left Sri Lanka on 14^th August 2006 because the class was to start on 16^th of August. However, I could not get my leaves approved.

The TEFL class consisted of 10 or 11 trainees who had come from USA, UK, and Australia.  I was the only one from an Asian country. The class went well and our course tutor was an American called Mr. Ted. After one week, I was joined by a Sri Lanka friend so we stayed together in the same room in the apartment. The course was useful to brush up on my skills and knowledge of L2 teaching. At the end of the course, we had a test which I found was not hard and we were awarded certificates.  The native speaker trainees had no difficulty in finding jobs since there was a big demand for them. However, it was difficult to find a job for me and my Sri Lankan friend. When we inquired about it from the language center, we were told that they did not find jobs for us but we had to find jobs ourselves. Then only we got to know that we had been tricked. What they promised on their website, they did not keep. This is the nature of every language school run by native speakers here in Thailand. If it is for native speakers, there is no problem finding a teaching job in a university or a company-maintained school. However, non-natives especially Asians will find it hard to find teaching jobs in Thailand. This does not mean to say that there are no Asian teachers.

The following is the certificate I was awarded from the language school I did the TEFL course in August, 2006.

A visit to the Ministry of Education in Thailand

It is interesting to note what had happened to my friend and I one day once we visited the Ministry of Education in Thailand to find out whether there was a possibility to get some information about schools that hire foreign teachers. Communication in English becomes problematic for foreigners if they cannot meet the right person who can speak and understand English in Thailand. This is mainly due to the fact that English is not socially used. Therefore, most people are not proficient in English. As indicated earlier, one day my friend and I went to the Ministry of Education in Thailand in September 2006. When we entered the premises, we asked someone to direct us to the place where we can get information about schools which hire foreign teachers. As I remember, one gentleman who was very helpful took us to the building and asked us to go to the first floor. He could speak English. We were very pleased and went to the first floor of the building. We approached one lady and told her why we came there and asked us to tell her about schools where foreign teachers hire. She did not understand what we told her first but after some time she told us to go to another building to which we went. As we did with the previous building, we spoke to a gentleman in that office and told him why we had come there. Proving again that Thais are hospitable, we were made to sit and asked all our details for about ten minutes and then told us to go to another building assuring us that we might get the information we were looking for. By now we were very much frustrated; anyway, we continued our search again despite the physical or mental boredom we had been experiencing from the morning that particular day.

As instructed, we went to the fourth building and entered the office. However, we did not spend even a minute there because we were told that it was not the place that handles the matters pertaining to teacher recruitment. From there we were directed to another building, to our happiness, it was the place and we went to and fro passing it several times. We talked to a lady who was very helpful and willing to help us. She first scanned our educational certificates and called a school. We were more anxious to know the outcomes of her conversation with the school. Looking at us, she told us that there were no vacancies in that school but she gave us a telephone number of another school to inquire about. We came out and called the number and a lady answered and told us that there were currently no vacancies for English teachers in her school. We were hopeless and desperate over the situation and we decided to return to our apartment. However, we thought that we should inform the lady who gave us the number about what we had told from the school. We again went in and told the lady about it. She said she knew no other schools and she was sorry for us. We thanked her genuine efforts she made for us and we got on a bus to get to our apartment. The conductor of the bus was a lady and we told her where we wanted to get down because we could not speak Thai. She told us ok and we got two tickets and sat in a seat. While we were doing the TEFL course, we were staying in an apartment near Thammasat University. As the bus was passing, we remembered the landmarks and we had no fear of missing the bus halt we needed to get down. We got into a conversation and did not notice the bus turn into another road after Chatuchak Market. The bus was going fast and what we saw on either side of the road was not familiar and so we called the conductor and told her the place we wanted to get down. She signaled us to sit and we kept quiet.  After two or three minutes, we realized that we were being taken to some other place because we could see the tollway leading to Don-Muang airport. We rang the bell and told the conductor that we wanted to get down and the bus stopped we got down quickly from the bus.

Later, we realized that we had got into a bus which goes parallel to the road where our apartment lies. Somehow, that day we managed to return to our apartment in the afternoon around 3p.m. We determined to keep on searching the net so every morning we used to go to a nearby internet café paid 10 baht per hour and began to surf. One of the popular websites in which teaching jobs in Thailand are published is www.ajarn.com Most of the private schools and universities demand native speakers so finding a teaching job for a non-native speaker is again a problem in Thailand. However, one day while I was searching the ajarn.com, I noticed a job vacancy publish by Prince of Songkla University and it did not specify what kind of teachers they were looking for so I sent an application online to the email address given there. I was replied to by the Department of Languages and Linguistics. I was asked to attend an interview. Prince of Songkla is in the south of Thailand about 1000km away from Bangkok. I informed my friend about the interview and booked a seat on the train soon because traveling by train was cheaper than by plane.

Where is Hatyai in Thailand?

Travelling from Bangkok (Hua Lamphong station) to Hatyai

                                   Inside view of Hua Lumphong railway station-Bangkok

                                    One of the platforms of Hua Lamphong railway station

The train in which I travelled

Hatyai Junction railway station

The train started from Bangkok at 3.35p.m and I was happy to travel by train since it was going to be a novel experience in my life. Since I booked a sleeper, I felt no difficulty during the journey. The train began to pass through major cities such as Chumphon, Suratthani, Phathalung, to Hatyai. Around 6p.m, I had dinner as every passenger did and around 8p.m, an attendant came and arranged the seat into a bed. So I lay down listening to the rhythmic sound which the train made as it moved forward. It was the last thing I heard as I fell asleep at night, the first thing I heard when I woke up in the morning- the rhythm of the train. At every main station when the train had stopped, hawkers with their products (mostly food, drinks, and sweets) got into the compartments and began their business work. Most of the food items they sold were quite cheap and fresh so passengers were not hesitant to buy what they needed. Around 9.30am it arrived at Hatyai railway station the following day.

I went to a budget hotel which cost 250baht per night and I spent the day walking about Hatyai city. Dinner which cost about 30baht was taken outside and spent the night anxiously until the next day dawned.   

     Hatyai is a flourishing city in the north of Thailand. This picture shows a part of Hatyai city

               

     
                                      A view of floating market in Hatyai

The job interview at the Department of Languages and Linguistics, Prince of Songkla University

The statute of Prince Mahidol erected at Prince of Songkla University, Hatyai Campus is the most venerated object among the university students, teachers, and the general public.

Prince of Songkla University

Prince of Songkla University (PSU), the oldest university in southern Thailand consists of four campuses and one education service area which offer multifarious education programs consistent with the need of the communities. For over forty years of existence, since its inception in 1967, with the stated vision of becoming a leading research-intensive university in Asia with the primary role of producing very capable graduates, providing excellent academic services, and actively involving in the preservation of national heritage in arts and culture, Prince of Songkla University, has accomplished much of its objectives. (For more information, please visit http://www.psu.ac.th/en/node/28)

History

On September 22, 1967, His Majesty the King graciously granted the University the name “Prince of Songkla University” in honor of his beloved father, His Royal Highness Somdej Chao Fa Mahidol Adulyadej Kromma Luang Songkla Nakarin. In commemoration of this auspicious occasion, the university has since proclaimed September, 22 of every year as “Songkla Nakarin Day”, one of the important dates in the calendar of yearly events of the university.

I was first asked to do a demonstration lesson while a few lecturers from the department were observing. I conducted the lesson and it was followed by an interview. The interview went well and at the end, I was informed that I was selected and I would officially be informed through an email. So the same day I went back to Bangkok by train and waited for the email. After two days, I was sent an email stating the date I should come to the department.

I came to Prince of Songkla University and assumed duties as the department of languages and Linguistics as a temporary foreign instructor in English on 26^th of October 2006. If I had not found this job, I would have gone back to Sri Lanka and resume my duties at Dehiwala ATI. For good or worse, I was lucky to get a teaching post at PSU. During the first year, I was assigned to teach two courses; English conversation 1 and the English Foundation course. After that, I began to teach English conversation courses only.

During the second week of assuming duties at the Department of Languages and Linguistics, I had to obtain my work permit. To obtain the work permit, an employee should have a non-emigrant B visa in Thailand. As indicated above, I got a non-immigrant B visa before coming to Thailand. However, my visa was issued for a period of 3 months and my visa was to expire in two weeks. To apply for a work permit, a foreign employ’s visa should be valid at least for two weeks. Now I had a problem with my visa validity period so the personal section of my faculty asked me to go to Penang in Malaysia and get my visa renewed. They further instructed me that I could travel by minivan which travels every day from Hatyai to Penang on land.

                                                        Aerial view of Penang city

                      I obtained a visa from the Malaysian consulate in Songkla to visit Penang

Leaving for Penang

Around 7.30a.m. on the 6th of November, 2006, I got into a van and left Hatyai hoping that I could get my visa renewed in one day and get back to Hatyai on the following day. I did not take anything with me except an extra T-shirt and a pair of shorts. The van took about 4 hours to get to Penang as it went quite fast. From Penang city, I took a taxi and went to the Royal Thai consulate in Penang. As is often the case with our wishes, I could not get things done as I had expected. When I went there, I got to know that they could not issue visas for Sri Lankan nationals and that I should go to Sri Lanka to get my visa renewed. I was so shocked to hear that because my office did not inform me about it. I immediately contacted the personnel section of my faculty and told them what the consulate had informed me. It was only then they got to know it. However, I asked the office to send me a letter to be produced at the Thai Embassy of Sri Lanka the next day. I told him what I was going to do next to the office and send an email to the course coordinator at the Department of Languages and Linguistics. The course coordinator also sent me an email expressing her apology over the matter and asked me not to get panic.

Now the problem before was to buy a ticket to travel from Penang to Colombo, Sri Lanka because  I had money enough for paying the visa fee at Penang and the fare for the van to travel back to Hatyai. My mind became a hell of pandemonium. While I was thinking of what I should do, I just remembered the international credit card I had obtained from the Bank of Ceylon before coming to Thailand. I felt my pules were normal after experiencing an indescribable mental trauma.  I quickly went to a nearby airline office and inquired about the availability of an earlier flight to go to Sri Lanka and was informed that I should travel to Sri Lanka via Bangkok. There was no early flight so I had to stay in Penang until the 10th of November. Since there was no alternative, I made a reservation on that particular flight and went to look for a room to stay. I found a room in a guest house which cost me 25 ringgits per night. The room was quite old and it had a fan, a bathroom with a bed. I did not care about physical comfort because I wanted to spend the night there.

The next day dawned and since I had a limited budget, I decided to find a cheaper room than the one I was staying. I found a room at 19 ringgits per night in another guesthouse to which I retreated with my small bag. However, this time the bathroom was not inside but outside. During the daytime, there was nothing for me to do so I strayed the length and breadth of Penang city until the Sun became hot. When I felt hungry, I entered a hotel and ate a scanty meal which cost me not more than 3 ringgits.

What’s Penang like?

The description below is found in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penang

Penang is a state in Malaysia and the name of its constituent island, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. It is bordered by Kedah in the north and east, and Perak in the south. Penang is the second smallest Malaysian state in the area after Perlis, and the eighth-most populous. It is composed of two parts – Penang Island, where the seat of government is, and Seberang Perai (formerly, and occasionally Province Wellesley) on the Malay Peninsula. Highly urbanized and industrialized Penang is one of the most developed and economically important states in the country, as well as a thriving tourist destination. Its heterogeneous population is highly diverse in ethnicity, culture, language, and confessions. A resident of Penang is colloquially known as a Penangite (For more information about Penang, please access the website stated above).

Penang is probably Malaysia’s most popular tourist destination. The food is truly excellent, and inexpensive (especially at the hawker centers), and there is a lot of local colors.

                                     Penang Bridge, the longest bridge in South East Asia

George Town was founded and built by the British as a free port in the 18th century. This attracts not only traders and merchants but a lot of settlers from the neighbouring region

On the 10^th of November, 2006, in the morning, I flew from Penang to Bangkok by a Thai Airways flight and waited for 5 hours at Dongmuang Airport because my flight from Bangkok to Colombo was to leave in the afternoon around 8p.m. Somehow, I went to Sri Lanka and obtained a visa. I then returned to the university after two weeks and continued my work as usual.

Study at the University of South Africa

One of the crucial junctures in my academic life began in 2007 with my enrollment in the study program leading to BA (honors) in TESOL at The University of South Africa. I felt, according to my profession, a program of the study, as stated above, was very relevant and useful because an EFL/ESL teacher should have theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical knowledge and awareness of how he/she should help learners improve their language skills. I should say with no doubt that the study program I enrolled with the College of Human Sciences at the University of South Africa kept me in good stead as a professional with a sound knowledge of the second language acquisition process and classroom pedagogy. In order to complete my study program, I studied ten modules relevant to BA (TESOL) program for three years. Some of the modules were so interesting and thought-provoking that I was tempted to study some contents related to L2 acquisition in detail. It is common for anyone who studies a new subject to having some problems and confusion concerning the subject matters at the beginning. The subjects I offered for my study program were totally new to me. Even though I had heard the names of some subjects, I never knew what they meant. However, all the grey areas included in some subjects became clear as I continued to study them with special attention to them. I began to learn by making reference to a good number of books, research articles published in ELT journals, and other relevant internet-based materials so that some of the misconceptions I had had about L2 language learning and teaching became crystal clear. If I had not studied a module such as MAPP04-Language learning and teaching, I would have still been thinking that language is learned by means of an intellectual understanding of grammatical rules or the best approach to use in teaching L2 is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Based on my experience both as a learner and a teacher who has been engaged in L2 teaching to various kinds of learners, I would suggest that novice, as well as experienced teachers, should constantly update their knowledge in teaching and learning issues because the field of second language teaching has seen many changes over the last four decades and as a result, we have seen methodologies come into fashion and then go out of favor, as new ones attempted to replace them. Markwardt (in Brown, 2000, p. 130) describes the process above as a cyclical pattern in which a new paradigm emerges “about every quarter of a century, with each new method breaking from the old but at the same time taking with it some of the positive aspects of the previous paradigm”.   

The module I mentioned above categorically helped me refine my understanding of the teaching methodologies which an L2 teacher should choose to teach a particular group of learners. Based on my understanding and the literature in the ELT domain, I first wrote a brief article entitled “The the best method in EFL/ESL learning”. and later I modified it and re-wrote it to be published in a journal. It is available at http://www.researchers.in.th/blogs/posts/4329             

Another module that captured my attention was MAPP02T-Individual factors in additional language learning. Before studying this module, I had no faintest idea about individual factors that can impact on L2 learners’ success in gaining mastery over an additional language (AL). After I had studied the module, prescribed books, research articles, written the assignments, and received feedback from the lecturer, I realized how important this particular module for L2 teachers who every day notice that there are considerable differences in the degree of proficiency with which learners use their target languages. In this module, three main questions were discussed in detail: 1. Why do different AL learners achieve different levels of proficiency? 2. What factors internal to the learner affect AL learning? 3. How can we use our knowledge to answers to the above questions to improve our AL teaching?

There are three main individual factors that this module dealt with. They are namely maturational, cognitive, and affective. I wrote my second assignment so well that I had been given 77% which meant I received the highest marks of the 21 students who had enrolled for the MAPP02T module in 2009.

The following information is extracted from the MAPP27 Tutorial Letter 102/0/2009-Feedback on assignments: Individual factors in an additional language learning (Prof Lilli Pretorius, Module leader).

However, this does not mean to say that the other eight modules were less interesting than the two stated above. All the ten modules were equally interesting and cognitively demanding.

Publishing an article in a peer-reviewed English Journal

As stated above, one module that deals with “Literature in TESOL” became not only another favorite but also it broadened my awareness concerning the use of literary texts in teaching communication skills. I did not just write an assignment for the said module instead I selected a literary text from a famous novel, The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway, and designed several activities as suggested by Hess (2003) depending on the level, linguistic needs and interests of my undergraduate students (Prince of Songkla University, Thailand) and used them in the classroom teaching. At the end of the teaching, I analyzed the students’ responses to the classroom activities and found them positive. Therefore, based on the results I gained from the classroom activities, I concluded that literary texts selected in line with the criteria proposed by Brumfit (1986) could be used to enhance learners’ communicative competence in L2. (For more information, read the complete article available at www.melta.org.my/ET/2010/article%2011.pdf)

This is a screen shot taken from the MELTA on line journal available at

http://www.melta.org.my/The-English-Teacher/q?cid=25&doit=showclass

I successfully completed all the modules and final examination in 2010 and I graduated the same year with distinctions for two modules. Following is my degree certificates and transcription for BA (Hons) TESOL). All the lecturers were highly well versed in their chosen subjects, therefore, I could not only demystify some of the beliefs I had about L2 teaching and learning but also broaden my understanding about language acquisition issues. This description will be incomplete without writing something about the University of South Africa or most commonly known as UNISA.

                                                      My BA (Hons) Degree Certificate

                                                      Transcript of BA Degree
What follows are some of the questions papers I wrote in the examination held at the South African Embassy in Thailand in 2008. These papers were not allowed to take them out then. However, the invigilator forgot to collect them from me after my exam.

About UNISA

UNISA is Africa’s leading distance learning institution nurturing inspiring leaders of tomorrow. We are a reputable, comprehensive, flexible, and accessible Open Distance Learning institution that is motivating a future generation. It offers internationally accredited qualifications and has world-class resources that inspire learners to create meaningful futures on their own terms. Unisa’s vision “Towards the African University in the service of humanity” drives us to find answers to Africa’s education and developmental problems. By forming partnerships in Africa and throughout the world, we are able to help the people of Africa achieve their dreams.

(More information is available at http://www.unisa.ac.za)

Please go to my academic biography 3 once it is ready here. Thank you for your patience.