Hi, I have taught in Thailand for 2 years. I taught in a Bilingual school and found my Thai language ability to be useful for three main reasons. First, it made my relationships with the Thai staff closer and fostered greater understanding. Secondly, as the students realized that I was going through what they were going through in learning a new language and being subjected to hours of a foreign langauge a day, there was more respect and a kind of empathy. Third, because I was teaching very young children, I found it useful to use Thai for classroom management issues, be it comforting a crying child or disciplining their bad behaviour very effectively in terms they completely understood and respected!!