Mencken

I will be so happy when the government finally gets a clue and demands without exception all teachers to have a BA/S degree period, end of story.

What is keeping the non degreed teaching flotsam afloat is indifference, corruption, disconcern and laziness.

At 18/42.5k Thailand could change its education system overnight.

It's not just the nondegreed riffraff, it's the Africans, Filipinos, etc... with 'degrees', virtually any drifter that washes ashore that will work for 22+/32-35k can get hired. TOEIC 600 no plomplem.

I think the government should create a database of all teachers cleared to work in Thailand. Public schools hire out at rates according to provincial pay scale. Quality assurance for students (F the school admin) and decent pay for degreed teachers.

Schools don't care. They just want a cheap zombie. If students don't complain, it's all good and more money for Directors slush fund or Thai teacher conference in Phuket.

Thai administration will not do the right thing. This is what keeps all the contractors alive. Degreeless teachers are part of the corruption as are feckless teachers from 3rd world countries.

Are you people seriously worried about Filipinos taking your jobs? I see more jobs than ever on ajarn for 40k++ jobs.

Time to pull it up.

In a race to the bottom, no one wins.

If your school is offering peanuts and you take the money, don't look for sympathy, move on.

IMO school has no blowback on contracts. I'm sure all six yrs were one year contracts so no compensation.

If it's all so shitty, why you there? Loads of jobs out there already.

This is just a sad little scam. It provides no training and no serious learning outcome for student or teacher. The only help you are providing is to help the owners of this no doubt illegal company is to help them grow richer.

The entire program is put together not to help anyone learn English, but help themselves to your savings.

Six month contracts

Pay for TEFL class - guaranteed job (27k)

Complicated contracts, probationary periods

Accepting of non degree with degreed

Low pay/high requirements

Africans, Indians in employ

Huge schools with armies of teachers

All bad signs.

I honestly don't think the level of English as that bad. In fact, if it were most farang wouldn't live here bcz no one speaks a bit of Thai.

At the top, there are young people attaining a reasonable fluency. Most EP and Intensdive programs in BKK produce kids with reasonable fluency and skills, less writing. At the bottom, some will make up and learn it later as they take work as tour guides, hotel/rest staff, airlines, hospitality, etc...

Don't expect a forty year old person with no real reason to speak English to learn a language midlife.

The future for most of the world's workers is not at the top, but at the bottom in services. Thailand has proven a great success at this for decades, it will continue. It has more to worry about in an overvalued baht and restrictive tourism polices as well as undemocratic governance.

Thailand will do just fine.

What Thailand really needs is to restore democracy and get rid of the corruption. It doesn't NEED English.

Singaporeans teaching englishhahahahahahaha..now Ive heard it all.

Why not? They are native speakers as well. English is a national language of Singapore. Singaporeans speak English as Thailand could not even dream of.

I wonder if the old crone Thai teachers talk smack about them and complain about every petty bit of nonsense OR...just completely ignore them.

So now we find out more about the op which illuminates even less hope, no degree. Diploma from Russia despite living in NZ. Explain that to a Thai.

And to Zeichen, loving to "paint" me as some no-nothing, hack prole. I've had 12 units undergrad in fine arts at one of the best universities in the US despite this only semi related to my major.

I've visited all the best art museums in the US, many in Europe including the Hermitage.

You're angry, old, tired and bitter. You never miss an opportunity to disagree with me and point out how wholly wrong I am and why the world is doomed as long as I'm in it.

It all smells so pseudo intellectual.

The op is welcome to come here and try to teach Art. Good luck to him. He should be prepared to make 30k a month and have all sorts of issues and drama related to job, visa, etc.. as he has no degree. After a year, if he busts ass and has a great resume and interviews well, he might land a job for 32500-37500 mo. He will also burn a waiver and potentially lose a year. If he does a TEFL that's minimum 2k a month for two years to cover that. Good luck.

You think this is bad?

How about incessant talking, long glances at neighbors papers, literally turning around in their seats to copy, copying tests as they are passed forward but my favorite balls out copy tactic - take another test and hold it in one hand while copying it with the other.

If you fail them, you just make work for your selves. Give the group a grade one point above failing and your best students whatever you feel like that day.

Appears test taking in classes above /10 is largely group effort but cheating occurs at all levels.

I like the response from the guy who says "get to know the Thai culture and you won't have it so bad". Having something put in a contract and then having it changed on a whim, has nothing to do with the Thai culture. It's called getting taken advantage of because there is really nothing we can do about it, except quit. I started with 18 contact hours and once a week gate duty. Now I have 24 contact hours, gate duty, English day activity on Monday mornings for 45 minutes and during the holiday breaks I teach the Thai teachers English. So yes, I am one who has been taken advantage of and I am looking to go elsewhere, but very difficult to do in the middle of the term. And who is to say its going to be better in the next school. I was even told by one of the Thai teachers whom I have become friends with, that that is why they cannot keep foreign teachers, they reel us in and pamper us, then slowly suck us dry.

My school is also a bastion of sub-mediocrity. It's so bad the only people that stay on are the lazy, geriatrics, the non NES and the non-degreed.

It's too bad, the place has potential, sucked down in a vortex of passive aggressive, incompetent low achievers.

He wants to leave for another job. Not showing up to me is an issue and they may arguably not pay him for March if that's what he also wants. This is not honest and he might not get paid and in labor court if the school can somehow show concurrent contract he might be in the shit.

But this is about getting paid for Feb. That's what was asked. I say, doesn't matter, in the end you are going so, go.

Give notice, last day Feb 29 and if you don't get paid, hash it out in court.

Absolute rubbish. Spoken like someone who knows nothing at all about either art or teaching.

Check out International school fairs and recruiters like search associates.

But really need to have a good portfolio, because if you cannot get hired in your home country as a full time art teacher, there is no way you can here.

You usually get international school jobs out of country not in country so another piece of worthless advice from Mencken.

I'll bookmark the thread and follow it up to see the op's grand success when he lands a full package, from NZ no less (basket case economy, low population/few schools, not a top NES country to be sure, appears to have zero experience teaching). In fact, I bet they'll be fighting over him. Let the bidding war commence!

Funny how you have taken the reality of the op situation and my comments and contort them in such a way to insult me and somehow demonstrate some specialized, inside knowledge of this issue.

I state to you in return, rubbish. This person appears to have no teaching credentials or even experience, the need for a farang Art teacher is next to nill, the international fair came and went and the ONLY schools that hire from abroad are the top int'l schools in the world, which honestly how many does Thailand really have?

This guy has ZERO chance of being hired to teach Art and less than zero from NZ. I bet one of these sorts of jobs opens a year in Thailand, for a credentialed teacher.

So, come to Thailand and when you arrive, get a TEFL and slog it out in some public school.

Too funny, truly.

Without a college degree...

Why even bother?

Non NES

No degree

Already has waivers against your name

What is your future and income here?

Exercise in futility

Get a degree and a PGCE or don't waste your time. Seriously, just like squerking thru life with no degree, you are asking how you can squeeze thru this one.

After your grades are in you're done. The school should be happy you are not sticking around in Mar if you've no interest in renewing. If you are in part leaving bcz they are not offering, they will be overjoyed.

Having stated that, there is no telling what small minds get up to.

In the end, you have a better gig, you are going so just give notice.

Good luck in your new job

99% of everyone here will teach EFL. It's really only the International's where you might be arguably teaching ESL in some situations, debatable.

Sort of irrelevant topic for Thailand.

EFL, I mean the op defined it...

Keying in on the culture thing, I tend to think that the kids Ive taught rather enjoy learning something about other cultures.

Football is a great entry point BUT if you think so too you'd be wrong cuz how many Thai M4/6 girls follow ManU? You've just bored 50% of your class.

We are foreigners, our jobs in some way is to bring our foreign language and to some extent, culture.

My kids love to chat about foreign foods and dream about distant shores. They enjoy my world travel photos and family life.

Whenever I see a teacher pull out some exercise and the theme is Thailand, I just cringe.

Ss had all that crap rammed down their throats in various Thai courses and then the farang do it all over again. Its never even something totally cool and unknown about the country. Usually, its some tired, boring tripe that is a rehash of every uncreative teacher their entire lives.

This actually happened this year to me. A co.teacher handed me some crap lesson about some tired aspect of Thailand most likely done by every farang teacher since forever. I refused to teach it.

New arrivals to Thailand especially those that have done little if any travel and if honest know next to nothing about the culture and country need to realize that because they found something on the Internet about Thailand that they think is teachable may not at all be interesting.

What might be somehow interesting to them, the noob arrival of 1-5 years is most likely a real snoozer. In fact, they're embarrassing themselves.

I totally agree about lesson relevance. Teaching ten year olds about jobs is a perfect example. Yeah, intellectually its a lesson to engage and present language. Could be goldfish or desserts. But the more relevant and simply interesting the better.

I do use a bit of Thai in some classes for levity or if the kids are stuck and its against policy, but I find it works on many levels including the kids live it, especially low levels. I use it as a tool to get them to speak in English, clarification or just a laugh. They feel I am more clued into them and respect me more - as well as remembering names and faces.

But please kill yourself if the best thing you can come up with is a lesson on: floating market, royal palace, some <deleted> monument, auyuthya, banal article on hill tribes, etc.. You need to get out more.

Teachers won't want to here this but most have a superficial knowledge of the country at best. They are too broke, too old or too disinterested in traveling the country.

They don't eat Thai, live like Thais, married to Thai, travel in Thailand... but everyone is such an authority of the country.

There is a time and place for using Thailand and not using Thailand in curriculum or lessons.

My experience in Thai public school is only ten percent are worth employing. I myself really need to break out of this system, I'm trying.

It's not just a job. You are teaching in a foreign country's school system. You need to do your best every day. You have no right to blame the system for anything, you signed up. If you are incapable of working in it you need to leave.

That means if you are a lazy teacher doing nothing and stealing a paycheck OR if your standards are simply too high for the schools and you are driven mad by it all. Either way imo.

But please..no lessons on floating markets or Chaing Mai.

No problem keeping a job. Huh, cuz seems to me your sorta worried about the evaluation, and presumably your job.

Apologies if I was not able to clue you in properly.

By all means. Show up five minutes late in the same pants you wear all week, make sure they are riding below your hips and your tired, crumpled shirt is sufficiently untucked. Those off color grey/blue shirts the English are partial to are perfect, they look fashionably working class as well as worn and soiled bought new.

Be certain your yellow, cigarette stained teeth and foul breath from a lack of hygiene and dentistry are placed close enough to students so they recoil in horror and you smell like benzine and the street from the ride to work.

As you make your way about the room, please rip a few loud enough that your students rush for the doors. This always makes a stellar impression upon the Thai Director and evaluator.

Be certain not have a lesson plan nor practice it as well. Never attempt to teach the lesson prior in another class. Have a few drinks the night before, just enough so the alcohol shows on your face and clouds your thinking.

Knowing your students by name and calling upon them is another horrible idea. Look clueless, point and say...hey, you there...or simply -student. Show the evaluator indirectly, prior that you get on with your students well by brooding and stressing alone at the desk prior to your lesson.

Never meet with your evaluator prior and overwhelm them with your charm, cordiality, charm and kwam pen Thai.

All the teachers complaining about their evaluations before they even start really speaks to the heart of how unqualified and barely presentable they are.

In the end, the evaluation is just you, presenting yourself to your Thai students, standard lesson, best foot forward. If your are struggling with that concept, I'm afraid the pixie dust is all sold out at Big C.

Maybe you could work that farting thing into a lesson as an activity.

Hey, if you fail and they shitcan you, always know that you have no problem.

Maybe you should have a look at all the well pressed and scrubbed Thai teachers. Perhaps a consult with dozens of websites stressing the importance of dressing properly in Thailand - and Asia.

Evaluation... what is there to say? Do the lesson to the best of your abilities and map it all out including contingencies. Make sure to circulate in the room, check students books, call upon them by name. Show that you have a prifessional yet personal relationship with the students. Be warm, smiling, deferential. Control and guide the class with an iron fist wearing a velvet glove.

Or...you could just rip a big fart and say - class dismissed!!

Well, of course your breath and shoes come into account. But of course!

Who cares about standards of Thai teachers. Different standards, measures, this that wah wah wah.

Do you have an Ed degree, ten years experience and a native of Thailand? If not stop complaining. I hear this from a guy all day long at work all year long.

What I never here is what an awesome teacher he is and that's why he deserves more dosh.

All that matters is what you need to do to first, keep your job and second get more money.

You need to get off the pitty parade. Did your parents tell you life was fair or was it a teacher here in Thailand?

You are a package, each day, each moment, every interaction with each teacher and every student you are (hopefully) selling yourself.

Activities, gate duty, contests, large exams, comments on curriculum changes all contribute to a more positive you. Are you a part of the school? Do the teachers and admin see this? Do you sleep at your desk and slunk out the door asap?

Do Thai students smile and wai you, do you return the smile? It all gets back to the admin and teachers.

...that and a nice pressed shirt and clean breath.

When you are well liked, your evaluation will follow - or not.

My experience is that the +60 group does have something to offer but there is a distinct low energy issue. Each school needs to decide what works for them.

One thing sure, if I had to hire a teacher without a degree, it would be someone that was +53. Unless you just need a joker and edutainer of course.

Thanks, its more of a directory but interesting.

Chichester, Spencer too lol.

Do neither. Bust your axx sending out resumes and making visits. Take your best offer, work hard learning the craft, put up with the second year, try to learn new things, better classes.

Go get a better job.

TEFL is a total racket and CELTA is ridiculous insofar as its for adults and 80% of jobs are for teaching kids.

In fact, more jobs than ever now for teaching children in Thailand.

As for other countries Asian countries require a TEFL, CELTA this is a Thai forum for starts but even if you're looking eventually for greener pastures, do a DELTA after a few years grinding it out here.

These pieces of paper for 30-35k jobs, are you people serious? Of course, if your most marketable part of yourself is a tefl, well you're gonna have a bad time.

I was thinking that he retired or burned out and retired. Nothing wrong wit dat.

I've applied to a few schools and felt a may have been busted out because I don't have a TEFL despite having two tertiary teaching certifications that moron head teachers or a Thai with limited exposure to education outside Thailand might not understand.

So, I figure the guy is a real teacher but the idiotic school wants a tefl because someone said all teachers need tefl for hire.

Anyway, he's not been back to clarify.

I understand desire to be near MRT/BTS but dropping 50k on some toilet paper, I'd go to the best school possible.

Chichester looked OK but ECC was a better value. CELTA plus children's cert.

Many people get CELTA then teach kids adding to the further dubious value of such certificates in Thailand.

They teach you games and the best music to play in classes in order to kill as much time as possible - not teaching. +3

My take on the Philipino thing is that some schools may hire them, esp in Nakon Nowhere is that they may have a place in some schools in bkk but the kids at my school have rejected them in EP. Personally, I think only degreed NES belong anywhere near an EP and high level class such as /1 to /5.

I by and large think most Filipinos do a very average job, but I would rather have one with an Ed degree for 25k than what I'd get from non degreed western farang especially one without any solid career behind him or her. Goes for gap year too.

I presume he does? Teaching in US ten years?

Honestly, I would not be getting into the racket without a degree at this juncture given what's come out of the govt last six months.

Working here without a degree, twilight is upon them.

Thanks for that. Yeah, its really time consuming going site by site. Many don't have job postings or even HR email.

Difficult to craft a cover specifically for the school when you've no clue what is potentially available or the grade/s open.

I've had some excellent nibbles thus far and its only mid Jan, just want to take it to the next level.

I think I'll just send a generic cover but to one address at a time.

Anyway, thx

For clarification, a teaching position...

We have a new director and she is proposing that no holiday pay will be given if we leave the country.

Of course all of you told her she'd have your resignations forthwith lol.

Must be a damn good job.

I sure wouldn't bother, let alone the 50-60k in the bin.

Anything I'm missing outside of teachingthailand and ajarn? Looking for real jobs, 40+, bilinguals, privates, inters...

Dave's is bs for Thailand at least imo.

Visiting each school on interwebs is time consuming, navigating the sites.

Question: has anyone ever blasted their resume to several schools with any results? Such as your email as to: and bcc: all the schools

Question: If you have had some solid leads from good schools, would you mention this perhaps not in the cover, but politely in the email to other schools?

Thanks