Hong Kong Phooey

Hmm, sounds like your TEFL provider will be laughing all the way to their bank.

£500 from you and let's not forget that it's usual practice in Thailand for schools to pay monthly "commission" to job placement agencies for finding the school a teacher. Highly unlikely that would be less than 10,000 Baht per month from the school to the agency.

If you've got a TEFL and better still, a certifiable degree, you'd probably walk into a job as soon as you landed. So long as your face fits, you'll be hired.

Consider your option very carefully.

I love this kind of stuff ! I used to use them for my intermediate Thai students.

Here's another one ...

Reflections On English Spelling

I take it you already know

Of TOUGH and BOUGH and COUGH and DOUGH?

Others may stumble, but not you,

On HICCOUGH, THOROUGH, LAUGH, and THROUGH.

Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,

To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of HEARD, a dreadful WORD

That looks like BEARD and sounds like BIRD.

And DEAD: it's READ like BED, not BEAD -

For goodness' sake don't call it "deed"!

Watch out for MEAT and GREAT and THREAT.

(They rhyme with SWEET and STRAIGHT and DEBT.)

A MOTH is not a moth in MOTHER,

Nor BOTH in BOTHER, BROTH in BROTHER.

And HERE is not a match for THERE,

Nor DEAR and FEAR for BEAR and PEAR.

And then there's DOSE and ROSE and LOSE -

Just look them up - and GOOSE and CHOOSE,

And CORK and WORK and CARD and WARD,

And FONT and FRONT and WORD and SWORD,

And DO and GO and THWART and CART -

Come, come, I've hardly made a start!

A dreadful language? Man alive,

I'd mastered it when I was five!

When I had mine checked, the school I was working for asked me to provide a letter of authority addressed to my uni confirming it was OK for the school to check with them. Even though I had the original degree and transcripts, the school went ahead and checked with my uni.

I was told by the school that they'd been burnt before by dishonest farangs and were held responsible by the MoE in Bangkok. Not sure how they resolved it.

Point of clarification: when we say "phonetic alphabet" do we mean a variant of the IPA for English, with upside down letters and backward letters that let you know that one "th" sounds different from the other "th" sound; and then there's the good old schwa? Literally, that's another alphabet, as tough as Greek.

Yep, that's exactly what I'm talking about ! What I'm referring to is the usual way it's taught in UK schools whereby the various sounds are attributed to each alphabet letter. To avoid the risk of boring the pants of people, the Jolly Phonics website explains it in layman s terms.

Hi Joe/Strawberry !

I know you said you don't access the internet very often but you might like to check these websites when you have time. You can print off the info and read it at your leisure.

http://www.jollylearning.co.uk/ - the Jolly Phonics site used in early years, esp in the UK

http://www.northwood.org.uk/literacy.htm - spelling games to reinforce sound patterns

http://www.northwood.org.uk/phonics.htm - interactive games for the kids to play, perhaps when they're at school or in internet shops (we can hope ! )

http://www.adrianbruce.com/reading/posters/index.htm - good Aussie site with some A4 size posters you can print which gives word groupings with similar sound patterns

Not sure I'd agree with Kenkannif's suggestion to teach the kids the phonetic alphabet at this stage. Many educators say that Thai beginners have enough problems learning the "regular" alphabet without loading another alphabet on them. It's great if they use dictionaries a lot but I've yet to meet any Thai who can navigate their way round an English dictionary with confidence. Moreover, the "regular" alphabet is what Thai kids will encounter most if they study the language.

Hope this helps.

Ah, you're probably thinking of the Universities & Colleges Admission Service.

Try here:

http://www.ucas.com/

I know of only one who did an astrology reading for me at the Red Cross Fair in Suan Amporn last year. I only did it for a laugh 'cuz my Thai friends egged me on but he was uncannily accurate. Interestingly, he does the Red Cross Fair every year and sees it as a way of making merit by donating his fees to the organisation.

His English is good and I was told he's a professor at a uni somewhere in Bangkok. Last year, he ran classes in astrology reading for Thais near Ban Phatom Market in Banglamphou, opposite Wat Bovorniveson Th. Phra Sumen. One of my Thai friends attended and said it was very good.

I'm away from Thailand for the holiday season but if you're interested, I can e-mail my friend and get his contact details. I'm pretty sure he does private readings and lives in the Bangkok area.

Post here if you're interested.

I was in the same predicament as you last December but decided to take a risk. I brought back over 30 T-shirts, along with about 200 pirated CD's and waltzed straight through Heathrow Customs without a sniff.

Many on this forum would say don't risk it but the worst I figured Customs could do to me is confiscate my goodies. Not sure about a fine though. Check that possibility (anonomously, of course !) with Customs.

I was at the end of a 6-month stay in LOS and feeling chipper, so I spread the stuff around my main luggage and hand luggage. I also dressed smartly so as not to look like some down-and-out backpacker. Appearance helped, I'm sure. I strode through Customs with an assertive air (not cocky) and made sure I was close enough to some other respectable looking passengers so that a cursory glance from some Customs officer would have dismissed us a group.

At the end of the day, how lucky do you feel ?

Flame on, all you sensiblle law-abiding posters...