The CITY ENGLISH PROJECT offers introductory English classes (City Talk) and advanced classes in English and Western worldview (Exploring Worldview).
The program's main offices and classrooms are located in a building at the end of a long driveway on Pan Road in the heart of downtown Bangkok. Pan Road is strategically situated in the city as it connects two of Bangkok's most important business streets: Strathorn and Silom. This makes City English easily accessible by all of Bangkok's public transportation services: motorcycle taxi, tuk tuk, conventional taxi, bus, and Sky Train.
Classes are not only offered at the Pan Road facility but also in various locations around Bangkok. City English Project has reached out to businesses and vocational schools throughout the city and made its teachers available to conduct classes on site and at times convenient to the businesses.
CEP has even begun to tailor instructional offerings to the needs of specific clients. A new course is presently being developed focusing on the conversational English needs of Bangkok's thousands of restaurants, coffee shops and cafes.
One of the more interesting and unique aspects of CEP's program is that it utilizes short-term volunteer teachers from the U.S. who come for one or two weeks to teach alongside a bilingual Thai translator in each class. The American volunteers each receive training in teaching English as a foreign language before arriving in Bangkok and serve as "native speakers" in the classes.
Beth and I taught two different classes: City Talk and Exploring Worldview. The classes met for an hour-and-a-half each day for one week. We really enjoyed both classes and found interesting and special differences in each one.
The people in the City Talk class had never met one another before the first evening's class and therefore it took a few days for them to become comfortable with one another - at the same time they were trying to understand the two new Americans speaking much too fast for them (even though we thought we were speaking slowly). However, by our final class we all felt more comfortable and, after each student received a certificate of completion, we all spent time exchanging contact information before we said good bye.
The people in the Exploring Worldview class had previously taken the City Talk class together and were incredibly friendly and engaging during our class times. We met with them in the early afternoon and on the final day they brought lunch for everyone to enjoy after class. What an incredible spread of Thai gustatory goodness they shared with us!It was an honor and a pleasure for us to participate in the work of City English Project.
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