Self-study and classroom lessons based on newspaper feature stories

This column is for self-study or classroom use and gives guided help with reading the wide variety of writing styles and topics that appear as feature articles in the Bangkok Post. The lessons include background information, skill-building practice and vocabulary explanations.

August 12, 2003

In honour of Mother’s Day

INTRODUCTION

Queen Sirikit If you were asked what makes the perfect mother, how would you answer? Would you say she has to be beautiful, has to do my homework for me, has to give me whatever I want, has to cook delicious meals and clean the house every day? Are those the qualities that make a perfect mother?

Not so, according to Mahidol University. Good looks and giving in to every childish demand were not the criteria they used to choose seven mothers who were honoured as part of the nation’s celebration of our Queen’s birthday — Mother’s Day. Today you will read about the lives of the seven women chosen and learn what characteristics were used to choose ‘outstanding mothers’.
Winning qualities

Certainly the strongest quality for any mother is her way of showing her love for her family. After you have read about each of the winning mums stop and ask yourself what she did to show her love.

There are other qualities, too, that caused Mahidol University to choose these remarkable women. Here is a possible list of qualities with a brief explanation.

Dealing with adversity: Adversity means a difficult or unpleasant situation; dealing with it often takes great patience and perseverance.

Perseverance is the quality of continuing to try to achieve a particular goal in spite of difficulties; never giving up is another way of talking about perseverance.

Flexibility is the ability to change to suit new situations; to do whatever is necessary to get along in changing conditions.

Hard work simply refers to a lot of heavy physical labour.

Sacrifice means to give up something important to you in order to get or to do something that seems even more important.

Ambition is a strong desire to achieve a goal, and willingness to work hard to reach it.
Choose one

As you read about each of the chosen women, think about the qualities above and decide which one she most strongly shows. For each of the mothers, write one sentence explaining how she demonstrated that quality in her life.

Here’s one example of a sentence about the Queen herself: Her Majesty showed her ambition to prevent the skill of weaving Thai silk from dying out by supporting village weavers.
Make today personal

All these mothers seem to have had bad luck; they were born poor, have children who are disabled, or had accidents. In spite of those misfortunes, they persevered. Fortunately, most of us – mothers and others – don’t have such bad luck; our lives are easier than these women’s.

However, there are less obvious situations that call for perseverance, flexibility or sacrifice. What about your mother? Which of the winning qualities does she exhibit? How are you going to tell her today that you appreciate those qualities in her?

Acharn Tom in poet tree (page 4 here in learning post) has one idea. Read his creative steps and see if you can write a poem to honour your mum. Or, is there another act of love and appreciation that your mother would love to get from you? Make this Mother’s Day personal for you Mum.
Looking at language

There is one other interesting way to look at today’s story. There are several examples of what is called politically correct and euphemistic language.

Politically correct is a recent emphasis in language and means using words or phrases or being careful in your behaviour so that you avoid making any particular group of people feel badly. For example people are now called ‘disabled’ while in the past, others may have joked about their disability. Even ‘handicapped’ is thought by some people to be a hurtful word. ‘Mentally challenged’ has replaced ‘retarded’; and ‘having a nervous breakdown’ is less hurtful than calling someone ‘mental’ or saying someone is ‘mentally screwed up’.

A euphemism is a word or phrase that people use to refer to something embarrassing or unpleasant, or to make something seem more acceptable than it really is. The example in this story is ‘passed away’ which means ‘to die’. The euphemism is thought to be more gentle.

OUR STORY FROM THE BANGKOK POST

Mums most outstanding

Seven mothers will be honoured today at Mahidol University
To honour Her Majesty the Queen's birthday, _ Mother's Day, August 12 _ Mahidol University will honour seven mothers from different regions who have dedicated themselves to the future of their children.

Three of the mothers have disabled children. They are:
WILAIWAN CHANSAWANG

Wilaiwan Chansawang, 64, from Pitsanulok, has cared for her mentally challenged son for 41 years.

Since the income from her husband, a soldier, was not enough to support the family, Wilaiwan had to both care for her firstborn son and earn extra income by offering a laundry service.

Wilaiwan's life was bettered with the birth of her healthy second son, who helped around the house. Good times did not last long, however, as Wilaiwan later had an accident and had to have her leg amputated.

Wilaiwan is currently being helped by her husband, who is now retired, and her second son, who is in military service. She still cares for her mentally-challenged son in her old age.

SOME VOCABULARY HELP

disabled
unable to use a part of your body completely or easily because of a physical condition, illness or injury

mentally challenged
not having full mental abilities

amputate
to cut off an arm, leg or finger in a medical operation

polio
an infectious disease that can cause temporary or permanent paralysis (loss of control or feeling in part of the body)

procure
to get something, especially with difficulty

propagate
to produce new plants from a parent plant

distraught
extremely upset and anxious so that you cannot think clearly

womanising
the fact of having sexual relationships with many different women

shoulder (v)
to accept responsibility for something

nervous breakdown
a period of mental illness in which somebody becomes very depressed, anxious and tired, and cannot deal with normal life

abandon
to leave somebody you are responsible for and never return

severe
extremely bad or serious

take (something) into your own hands
to take on responsibility for something

make ends meet
to earn just enough money to buy the things you need

ARUNYA NATETHIP

Arunya Natethip, 46 from Nonthaburi, was formerly a factory worker, yet wanted more from life. She learned how to make clothes and used her skills to help her husband earn a living.

Arunya has four children, one with brain damage. As one who does not yield to difficulties, Arunya both works and takes care of the house, looking after her children, her own mother and mother-in-law, as well as an orphaned nephew.

Arunya continued to provide motherly love even though her disabled child was sometimes violent.

Arunya has managed to save enough to buy a small house for her family.
SOMJIT KHAMDAENG

Her son's leg was weakened by polio, which struck when he was two, but Somjit Khamdaeng is not the kind of mother who gives up. A rice farmer in Chaiyaphum province, Somjit carried her son to school when he was young. When he grew older, she procured a wheelchair so that she could push him to school. She gave him love and encouragement and all the while worked hard in the fields, growing rice and looking after vegetables, mushrooms and bamboo shoots to sell to earn income for her family.

Thanks to the education she procured for her children, her polio-stricken son has already graduated from Sukhothai Thammathiraj Open University. Her other two children work as teachers. Somjit, 64, is currently being helped by her husband and son to propagate seedlings for sale.

The other four outstanding mothers are:
SOMBOON WONGTHEP

At one point, Somboon Wongthep, 76, was so distraught over her illness, poverty and womanising husband, that she thought about taking her own life. She didn't because she cared too much about her children.

A mother of nine, Somboon, a native of Chiang Mai, battled poverty by raising pigs, selling vegetables and other miscellaneous items at temple fairs.

Even though the family was so poor that she sometimes had to feed her children little more than sticky rice and salt, she tried to send all her children to school. Her hard work paid off, because all her children have degrees and work as civil servants.
THA PRAIKET

Tha Praiket's husband left when she gave birth to their daughter. A poor woman, with little education, Mrs Tha had to shoulder all the hard work in the rice fields by herself. The responsibility proved too heavy. She had a nervous breakdown and wandered around the village begging for food.

She never abandoned her daughter, though. A doctor was kind enough to treat her and give her a job. She managed to save enough to buy a tricycle, which she used to sell fried peanuts to earn money to send her daughter to school.

Mrs Tha had three accidents, the last one so severe that her tricycle was ruined. She didn't give up, however. She still tried to sell her goods using public buses.

Her only daughter has established herself well, thanks to her mother's perseverance.
THONGYOI SIJANKANE

Since Thongyoi Sijankane wanted her children to have a good education, she decided to take the family's finances into her own hands. With some skills in the field of horoscopes, Thongyoi offered fortune-telling services at Sanam Luang.

Although she had to be prepared to run whenever city police appeared, she didn't give up and continued to work until all eight of her children finished college.

Thongyoi, 84, is now suffering from partial paralysis but still teaches her children to have good thoughts, to know the value of money, and to be grateful to those who are good to them.
LIAN NOPANIT

Lian Nopanit was once her district's beauty queen, but she didn't believe that her appearance would do much to help herself and her children. Rather, she preferred hard work and responsibility.

Lian not only took care of the house, she helped her husband with the farm and orchard work. She had 12 children, and sold whatever she could to make enough money to send them all to school.

Lian's husband passed away when she was 57. The mother of 12 had to struggle to make ends meet. At one point, she had to sell her orchard and house so that there was enough money to pay for her children's schooling.

As proof of how much importance she gives to education, Lian regularly donates money to scholarships for needy children.

•This lesson was prepared by Maureen Paetkau, a professional teacher of English as a second and foreign language and Assistant Manager and Webmaster for Learning Post at the Bangkok Post.

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