When he first came to the school, Adam asked the head teacher, Prasert, if he could take his students on a field trip. Prasert said he would check if it’s OK and tell Adam later. Two months later, Prasert still hasn’t told Adam if it’s OK or not, so now Adam thinks Prasert is insincere and dishonest.
Adam thinks the students don’t respect him, because they always wai the older teachers before talking to Adam, and the students show more respect to the older teachers than to Adam.
One day, Adam told one student in front of the class that she made a mistake and he asked her to correct it. The student looked like she was going to cry, and she got up and ran out of the classroom. Adam was confused because he didn’t criticize the girl, but just said she had made a mistake. He thought about it and decided that she acted like that because Thai people are just too sensitive.
Adam wants to make friends with Thai people, so he invited Meechai, one of the Thai teachers, to go to Ko Chang with him. Meechai said he can’t go because he has to stay home and look after his parents, who are old but still healthy. Adam suggested that Meechai ask someone else to look after them for the weekend, but Meechai said he couldn’t do this. Now Adam thinks that Meechai doesn’t want to be friends with him.