aarontendo

I really don't know why but it is funny to see people here talking about these salaries.  Fellas, if you're working for a public school and whining about salaries then you seriously need your head examined.  Those jobs always pay foreigners badly.  I suppose one can get into an EP or private school to move up a wee bit.  The reality is those jobs aren't unionized, and they'll never really raise your salaries for more experience.  Why should they?  There's always some fresh of the boat boy willing to stay in Thailand to get his you-know-what wet and accept low wages.

Get qualified and move into better positions.  This is the way.  I did the 40k baht for a year and moved on.  People who have been doing this gig for 10 years here and still can't break free of those jobs confuse the hell out of me.

3 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

That was all that was available when I went to school.

Given the level of education that today's pupils achieve ( apparently some can't even read or write properly when they leave school ) times have not changed much in teaching.

Less to do with the teachers themselves and more to do with the system in place, including apathy from policy makers and parents.  We're in an age where members of society simply feel the need to blame others for their own shortcomings.  Teaching as a profession will always end up criticized because as a governmental service policy makers can directly make changes to it.  In essence, it's a lot easier to blame teachers and to implement "No Child Left Behind" type policies than to get parents to raise their children better.  Many children cannot read and write properly, even given every technological advantage and innovation in education, because they simply don't care to and parents do not act as a disciplinarian to them.  Schools are also pressure to actually reduce discipline in many cases, as instances of being sent for such are recorded and make a school (and thus principal) look bad.  

I'll fully admit that there are teachers in the field who might not be the best, and that having a license and degree isn't a guarantee of any quality beyond a simple baseline standard to start or continue to work in the field.  However, I feel that many deficiencies in education today aren't necessarily due to the quality of teachers but has much more to do with the number of distractions in kids' lives.  It also doesn't help that in places such as America kids aspire to be influencers, Youtubers, and Tik-Tok'ers.  I don't know how to teach kids how to sing and dance on a camera, sadly heh.

2 hours ago, Isaanlife said:

USA ONLY see's Thailand as a strategic, geographic staging location in the event of War in South East Asia.

 

Other than that, they could care less.

 

 

Yeah I get ya, and I'd like to see that end.  Do me a favor though, and this goes for a lot of people here. I see a lot of "boohoo more Chinese coming, they don't like us farangs anymore here...why don't they like us..." Yeah, don't expect that to get any better for y'all when Thailand becomes cozier to China.  Guess the phrase here is som nom na right?

I actually wish we would back off our whole "pivot to Asia" and to a large extent treaties we have with other nations.  If China wants to roll SEA then that's a UN issue not ours.  Oops, well those are our troops so we won't be helping there.  Have fun getting your salad tossed by Mao 2.0 up in Beijing.

We were back on site for a week after Christmas break.  Online this week and will be a couple more weeks after.  Plan is to do hybrid once back on site start of February.

8 hours ago, car720 said:

No.  Just their women. 

Can't steal something that they really didn't want and cast away.

4 minutes ago, Bkktodd said:

My mate in Pattaya says he counted at least 50 farangs and one had a mask on. Another under his chin.  Reckless and yet now i maybe will need to quarantine yet again after 3 vax shots and pcr tests. Not fair

Gonna file this under things that never happened.  I'm getting sick of the couple guys who have gone local and decided to simply castigate foreigners in some sort of misguided attempt to endear themselves to Thai folks.  The people I see out and about, Thai and foreign, have for the most part been wearing their masks.

But sure chief, tell us more of your imaginary friend and the piles of  foreigners he's witnessed.

This thread has become just another reminder that the retired community here will take any opportunity to complain about "not being wanted here".

Seriously, this is a story about tourism.  Not every story is a chance to tell us you bought a house and car for someone.

We taking bets on if/when omegatron varient shuts schools down again?

17 hours ago, MarcelV said:

Indeed. The money comes rolling in and this dude is good to go.????

I say again what everyone knows I always say: the best class is a class without students at all.

Yeah I'm torn on it. We're back on site in January ourselves.  On the one hand, being there is probably better educationally and socially.  On the other hand, I've grown accustomed to having my coffee and working from my desk.  I suppose that's just life!

All you can argue until you're blue in the face but here's the truth.  If the government decides that proof of vaccination is necessary to stay in the future, then [deleted] or get off the pot.  Many people here are fond of saying "their country, their rules".  It really doesn't matter if you think it's just or even scientifically proven or not.

I'm in the pro-vaccine camp myself and got it back home and hopefully getting a booster before the end of Christmas break.  Granted, I work with students every day so it's a matter of necessity at that point but regardless would want it.

Welcome, and I mean I have to say having a master's in biology will make a huge difference in your job prospects.  I can only speak for America, but we have a phobia at times of STEM.  I believe there is such a critical shortage and if this holds for the Westerners in Thailand than your chances to earn money are much improved with that degree in hand.  Off-hand I'd say that I do seem to see a lot of jobs in math and sciences, and don't recall ever seeing a psychology one here.

Plus, I mean you did all the work I'd want the paper as soon as possible myself.  Get the loan and get your degree in hand to improve prospects, my friend.

Also, for what it's worth if you're from the states I would consider looking into an alternative license program to get qualified back home to teach.  Your earning potential goes up significantly once you have that.  I say this because I myself wish I had done mine years earlier.  Best of luck!

Happy enough here.  Teaching online has its ups and downs.  Working here of course pension and what the future holds is always a concern but I'm saving a fair bit enough I suppose.

I'm at an age where I realize that people will <deleted> and moan at times wherever they are (myself included).  There are a lot of amazing things here including warm weather, food, cost of living, cultural activities, and pretty ladies to more than offset the negatives.

Granted, some days are better than others but I am sure COVID is having some effect on people's feelings about being here.  One can only hope that soon enough we are past it enough to return to normalcy.

Yeah just to chime in it's been a long process so far but things are moving on mine.

Came in on tourist visa, renewed it at Muang Thong Thani temporary immigration office, went to apply for non im-b and picked it up as of yesterday.  Next step is to get my work permit this coming month and then extend the non im-b. 

I recall doing a visa run many years in the past, but I can only assume that due to COVID we are just processing extensions of stay (or visas or something) in country.

Sorry if the details aren't fully complete, I know there are differences between visas and extensions of stays I just can't keep up with it.  We do have an amazing HR person at my school who keeps busy getting all our paperwork done.

I have all the necessary paperwork including background check, college degrees, transcript, teaching license from back home, etc.  I can only suspect that many folks who are struggling with the visa are missing a degree or faced with an HR department that isn't being as helpful as they could. 

I suppose my point was to say that at least in my experience the process is ongoing. It's long, but it's going.

Isn't it issued for a specific date?

J&J, done while back home during summer

Having said all that, reducing classroom sizes is a good start. 50 kids is way too much, especially in primary education. I also read that there are a lot of graduates of Thai teachers colleges who need jobs so this is an opportune time to provide employment for those.

Now, question being where does the budget come from? Especially in light of some of the pushback against proposed property tax laws.