Tuanyoh Nisani, teacher, Pattani Province, Thailand: “In daily life, I mainly speak Patani Malay. I do not speak central Thai that often. When I was growing up, everyone around me spoke Pattani-Malay. All of my friends and family spoke it and we never heard Central Thai outside of school. Class made me uncomfortable because I couldn’t understand what the teachers were saying. Sometimes they helped by translating the parts I didn’t understand; still it was barely comprehensible. Because of that I came to believe that as teachers would treat our students as if we are teaching our own children, looking for whatever methods we can to help them learn. MTB-MLE makes us proud of our mother language, which is our identity. Nowadays, we love to speak Pattani-Malay and feel we should preserve it. Previously, my teaching approach lacked structure, but after I participated in the teaching training, I now know how to teach so that students can understand. When they are capable of studying, I am truly happy.”
