Welshman

I thought it was just the bread in Thailand, but having visited Penang recently, realised it 's a pretty standard thing out here.

The bread has a sweet taste.

Bloody awful if you're having scrambled eggs etc on toast. Just what do they put in it and is there any way to get bread without this sweetness?

Not sure if this and 'American' orientated string, so forgive a Welshman for butting in.

I think, in a nutshell, the advice is that you're not exchanging the worse for somethining better. You're quite simply changing for what you know for something completely different.

As Pearl so eloquently put it on the one hand you could be dealing with a bunch of respectful, eager students - the next minute you're filling in forms in triplicate or for the most basic requirements(or, as I heard from a colleague from a former school he taught at, book the photocopier 3 days in advance.

I taught for over 20 years in the UK in Further Education and had come to despair of the uncouth, ill-mannered, disrespectful and often threatening nature of students these days.

I've just started at a university here in Thailand and I can't say everything's perfect (one of the American staff walked out today) but I assume it's just what you're prepared to put up with for just getting by.

I'm on a good salary (for Thailand) and am looking to rent a property locally. Apparently you can get a good sized property in this area for around 3,500 Baht a month.

So, the short answer is what you want. You ain't going to get rich here - but if you're happy with a richer life (with many many many hassles) then hey, come on over (Thailand if full of us weirdies).

On the other hand, if you like the predictable, the faimiliar, the regular - then don't bother.

Before making the jump, try making contact with a teacher over here - come and visit him/her. Talk to them and possibly visit where they teach so's you can get an idea.

In the meantime, don't change what you know for what you don't!

OK, I have some friends in Phuket looking for teaching jobs.  Both are experienced and have TEFL's, degrees etc.   

Anybody out there who can help ?

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Have you tried the Ajarn website - I've seen jobs advertised in that area

Towards the end of my TEFL couse in Bkk, I decided to post my CV (Resume) on the Ajarn website. I was hit from all sides by emails from some organisation saying that they were recruiting for the Taiwanese government.

I ignored them but then got a phone call. I tried to fob the woman off but she insisted that she send me an email.

Does anyone know anything about this organisation - is it a scam or are they real?

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I think it is real. There are just an agent try to earn the commission from the Taiwan government. Taiwan government is promoting the english and plan to recruit alot of qualify native instructors to teach in the school.

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OK, thanks for that - just the 'in your face' stuff made me wonder. They'd already send me load of emails, then the woman phoned and I just couldn't seem to get rid of her.

I told her to email me, which she did within minutes.

You always get suspicious when someone's that keen I suppose.

Woody

OK, what city is this?

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Ripon or St. Davids ?

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Yup, the smallest 'city' in UK - St David's in south Wales

Southern Lady

About seven or eight years ago I went to Savannah with my family. We took a bus tour around the old section and our guide was this nice old Savannah lady. She said the people of Savannah call the bridge across the Savannah River The Big Bridge. The politicians in Atlanta named it and the people in Savannah didn't like the name. I can imagine her as being the lady in this joke.

A very gentle Southern lady was driving across the Savannah River

Bridge in Georgia one day. As she neared the top of the bridge, she noticed a young man fixing (ready) to jump.

She stopped her car, rolled down the window and said, "Please don't

jump, Think of your dear mother and father."

He replied, "Mom and Dad are both dead; I'm going to jump."

She said, "Well, think of your wife and children."

He replied, "I'm not married and I don't have any kids."

She said, "Well, think of Robert E. Lee."

He replied, "Who the hel_l is Robert E. Lee?"

She replied, ''Well bless your heart, just go ahead and jump, you dumbass Yankee."

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OK, what city is this?

Taking up a teaching post in this area and need a house urgently. Pref with garden and furnished.

Contact me via email.

[email protected]

I came over here to live in August and the best deal I could get was with Etihad airlines.

Flight from London to Abu Dhabi not bad but at Abu, the plane developed a fault and we were stuck there for hours (OK, it happens, I know).

But things went downhill from there. From Abu to Bkk probably 95% of the passengers were Arab - and didn't we know it! They were rude, loud and treated us non-arabs like crap.

One couple tried to turf me out of my window-seat (which I'd specifically booked) and got ratty when I wouldn't move. They complained to a stewardess who got sniffy because I refused to move.

Eventually, I had some guy sitting next to me who kept trying to shut my window blind (it was daytime) and kept sticking his bare feet just a few inches from my face.

I couldn't get off the damned plane quick enough.

I know that this is an old string, but just in case some are still reading it - I finished my course at Text and Talk a few weeks back and would most certainly recommend this course to anyone (I've been teaching for 20 years, but wouldn't have passed up on it).

Try to get on a course run by a guy called Brooke. He's very thorough, very knowledgeable and an excellent tutor.

You have to do practical teaching before you get your cert, and I certainly found this an eye-opener and a great help as you're teaching different levels of students who are, of course Thai.

Thanks for the advice, looks like I will be missing them out..........

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Try Text and Talk, Bangkok. Not as cheap but I will be doing my TEFL there in August, hopefully.

I was recommended to them by my son and daughter in law who both took a course there. I've seen some of the course material which they were given (and brought it back here to UK for TEFL staff to look at) and all agreed it's of the highest calibre.

One word of caution, both son and his wife said that you'll know that you've been in a fight by the time you finish the course. It's very very intensive and they're very very keen on quality, etc.

Hope this helps (and no, I'm not on commission!)

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Cheers, I have been looking on there website and it does look impressive. I also like the fact that they offer a free thai language course and the fact that the course is over 6 weeks as opposed to four, which may make it less intense.

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I was in Penang a few weeks back and a Penang native recommended the Crystal Guesthouse in Chuliah Road. Going from Jalan Penang, you have to go right down past the 7/11 store and you'll see it on the left.

I paid 40 Ringgits a night for a double room with ensuite. I don't think it's been operating long but It was clean and the hosts were very friendly.

You can get a pretty decent breakfast at a restaurant called Jim's Place about half way down Chuliah.

I start work on Tuesday at an International college. I went there today to get the sylabuses, etc and found that, for some modules, they had no more any idea what I was supposed to teach than I did!

Hairy moment, but realised that management knew less than me about what was to be taught.

OK, I'll go along along with it and design the course as I go along. Most of the big Unis etc have strict guidlines about what you teach but, in many, you're on your own.

The only consolation is that you probably know more about the subect that they do (even if you know f**ck about it).

You have to be flexible here and be prepared to cut and run if you think the organisaton is taking the piss.

Sorry to sound negative, but will come back to you with my experiences ( after I have experienced them myself!).

bumped again for the benefit of job hunters.

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Hi guys. Im brand new to all this and am interested in teaching in Thailand. Im finding most of these posts both amusing and alarming. Upon landing yourself an English teaching post in Thailand, am I to believe that you are not to follow a scheme of work, national syllabus or have any of your lessons observed at all? Also if this is the case then are there masses of non-teaching staff doing the job just thinking up lessons off the top of their heads without even having textbooks?

I can see that if this is the case then you may have a wide scope for creativity and originality but I think I would have to begin donwnloading National Curriculum standards from the U.K. to ensure I wasnt wasting both the students and my own time. Would that be a good idea or would it not be applicable over here? If I have used any bad grammar, punctuation, spelling etc... please dont tear me to bits Im a science teacher with PE teacher literary skills!

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I need a car urgently in the above area. Would prefer an ' offer roader' type vehicle under 200,00 baht.

Anyone in that area has a car for sale please contact on [email protected]

Cheers

Welshman

Aw, come on - most of us came to Thailand to get away from this polically correct crap.

Let's face if, most people take people on their personality and how they they get on,

So PURR-LEEIZE, let's leave all this behind us here in Thailand !!

If anyone has taken the trouble to read the posts of this Merton guy, you'll see that most of them are are to provoke responses to his fadish liberal opinions.

After all, anyone who could get wound up about criticism towards Government sponsored courses for lap-dancers or who could try to turn the film King Rat into some kind of homosexual statement has to be pretty desperate.

So guys, leave it alone - all this chap wants is to prove how human, liberal and touchy-feely he is about the world.

Just read this thread and it was news to me - pretty sad news too.

There's a deminishing band of British comedians and actors who can take on any role and still nail you to your seat. Ronnie Barker was one and David Jason, who appeared in Open All Hours is another.

The wide scope of the roles they played was quite incredible.

Sadly, as each of these dies, so does British comedy. Do we really have a high class comedian any longer?

Seems that all of our so called "comedians" these days rely entirely on obscenities and lavatorial humour.

A reflection of what British society has become, perhaps - crudeness, cruelty, in-your-face, loutishness and the culture of the lager-lout?

Well,

I have a million bucks in the bank

I have a 9 inch penis

I look like Michael Douglas

I drive a Porsche

I can pick my nose with my tongue

I have the stamina of a plains stallion

I have an incredibly dirty mind

I always wear designer clothes

I have faultless manners

I speak the Queen's English

I have an aristocratric background

I am on first name terms with the Queen (of the UK, that is)

I treat all women as Princesses

I have wit

I have charisma

I have the physique of an Adonis

I'm also a fantasist

Towards the end of my TEFL couse in Bkk, I decided to post my CV (Resume) on the Ajarn website. I was hit from all sides by emails from some organisation saying that they were recruiting for the Taiwanese government.

I ignored them but then got a phone call. I tried to fob the woman off but she insisted that she send me an email.

Does anyone know anything about this organisation - is it a scam or are they real?

When I was serving in the RAF it was customary for officers and NCOs to refer to you by you by your last name as in ..."Wilson, get your arse over here'.

One of the technicians in our unit was called Darling - caused no end of problems!

It is a very fine line between irony and sarcasm - as I experienced to my cost,

I'm a Welsh speaking Welshman but spent many years away from Wales including several years in the RAF (where irony comes as part of the package).

I returned to Wales, to a very rural farming community, working as an insurance agent, I thought a bit of humour wouldn't go amiss - and suddenly found myself as 'persona non grata' in many households.

Problem is, they took my banter as genuine sarcasm, My sales took a nose-dive and I often felt that I had the numbers '666' on my foreheat.

The upshot is that one man's humour is another man's insult.

Yes, I went out and bought one here - a nice Pulsar Titanium.

Then, a few days later I was speaking to one of the tech guys here at the college (in the UK). We were talking about watches and he showed me his - a bloody gorgeous Rolex.

I asked him how much he'd paid for it and he just laughed and said 10 quid (ten GBPs).

Turns out he was in Bkk and bought the thing at Pat Pong. Thing is, I always thought that these fakes looked like sh*t and broke down within a few days. But his really looked the business and he said he'd had it for a while and it kept perfect time!

Looks as if I'll have to pay Pat Pong a visit when I arrive in a couple of weeks time!

In comparing beer prices here in the UK, you have to bear in mind the tremendous gap between what you pay at a supermarket (see my previous post) and what you pay in a pub.

This has largely led to the demise of several 'decent' pubs where you could go and have a quite drink with your mates. With their overheads, etc, their prices just couldn't compete with the take-it-home-with-you stuff (even though it's probably the same beer).

As a result, a lot of the 'decent' and ordinary pubs have either had to shut or change over to accommodate other audiences, in particular the younger market with loud music, Sky sports 24 hours a day etc, binge drinking etc. Others have changed over to 'family friendly' pubs which welcomes whole familes - and their damned kids.

Who wants to drop into their local pub for a quiet pint and have kids screaming round their knees?

As a rule, you'd now expect to pay at least 4 times as much for a beer in a pub than the same stuff at home.

I think the OP was on about "thai" whisky, Sang Som, MeaKong, Mungorng Tong ect. Which in comparison to "thai" beer is a lot cheaper. You can but in beer(archa, chang ect) for about 25 bhat a bottle, but when you think a bottle of sang som is 130 bhat and you can get Mungorn Tong (very simular to sang som) for 90 bhat a bottle it is comparativly cheaper to drink whiskey. (they are wholesale prices BTW).

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Sangsom is actually a rum. It says it on the bottle. It doesnt even smell like whiskey. The only similaritiy is the colour. BEER expensive. Give me a break. Its ######ing cheap as chips here. Less than 50p for a 600ml bottle. Expensive? What planet are you on?

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So what does a 600ml bottle of cheap bear cost back in Scotland..or wherever it is you are from?

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I generally buy my beer from either Tesco or Kwik Save. Mainly, I drink Skol which (I think) is quite a reasonable beer.

If you buy the 12 boxes from either of the above, you'd pay just over 6 pounds for 12 400 ml cans. Occasionally, Tesco or Kwik will have the 24 packs on offer usually at just under 10 pounds which works out at around 42 pence a can.

Tesco have their own brand which generally sells cheaper but wouldn't trust the taste.

Of course, if you insist on the 'designer label' stuff, the price goes up.

Thanks for all the responses. I just wondered whether tax on such items was lower in Thailand than here.

I've never looked at the prices of watches at airports but have noticed that, what is on sale in duty free shops, is usually aimed at the first/business class type passengers at Mickey Mouse prices.

Unfortunately, I don't live in London so wouldn't know about Selfridges sale so will have to stick with the local shops.