chonabot

I volunteered to teach English for awhile in Khong. It is useless if you do not know how to speak the Thai language. The students do not understand at all what you want them to do. I tried to have the teachers stay and translate what I wanted. None of them would, they all treated it like an hour off from the duties each day.

This is where some training comes in very handy.

The Thai English teachers can speak Thai very well, yet their English teaching is somewhat lacking compared to a trained NES who speaks very little Thai.

Again, a redundant point.

Not true, you do not have to speak Thai to teach English, I taught English for three years, and only used Thai for saying things like "be quiet", or "where have you been?"

Exactly my point.

I am English man from Birmingham and live in Thailand i have a nutral accent perfected over many years not posh i am working class,

it is no good someone with a strong local accent North South or Midlands teaching English to the Thai people thay need to speek good English with good grammer and pronunsiation.

I am English man from Birmingham and live in Thailand i have a nutral accent perfected over many years not posh i am working class,

it is no good someone with a strong local accent North South or Midlands teaching English to the Thai people thay need to speek good English with good grammer and pronunsiation.

Too funny - I'm assuming the errors are intentional

I hope the British students are qualified to teach English.

Needless to say, 'British English' is not common English.

As linguists have said - America as a new country needed to identify and codify the language the country would use, so Noah Webster created a dictionary of the American language - English as it was spoken in the 18th century and they way Americans continue to speak it.

Simple test - a much large population of native speakers call the last letter of the alphabet 'ZEE' than use the term 'ZED'.

Now the obvious step, is to ask the thousands of American retirees living here to assist their local schools - modify the immigration code...

Actually, American English (including Canadian) is the older form of the two Englishes. It has not changed as much from the English of the 17th and 18th centuries century as British English

I volunteered to teach English for awhile in Khong. It is useless if you do not know how to speak the Thai language. The students do not understand at all what you want them to do. I tried to have the teachers stay and translate what I wanted. None of them would, they all treated it like an hour off from the duties each day.

This is where some training comes in very handy.

The Thai English teachers can speak Thai very well, yet their English teaching is somewhat lacking compared to a trained NES who speaks very little Thai.

Again, a redundant point.

At my university, the only time you don't need high school diploma and transcripts is if you are going to study in a program that does not lead to a degree. For example, students who are only trying to improve their English and take some kind of intensive English program don't need a degree. However, if they want to study for a Bachelors of Arts in English Communication which is approved by the Thai Ministry of Education, then for sure our school would need to see the diploma and transcripts. As far as I know, Ramkhamhaeng is the same.

Not if it is classed as an Open University - The British Open University is the same and it is a chartered fully accredited uni ( Worldwide and in Thailand )

Will I need anything from the school to confirm I have finished my contract satisfactorily?

Aren't you marreid to a Thai citizen? If you have a Thai spouse oo child with Thai nationality, you can get a 60 day extension based on that.

I am but she is here on a non-Imm type O , loads of hassle getting her Thai Passport/ID card renewed - another story

I'm currently teaching in North East Thailand, my work permit end on the 15h of March as does my contract.

For some reason my extension of stay expires on the 31st March.

I do not wish to work at this school next year and will probably return to the UK in April.

My Boss is very slow at making any decisions, he wants all foreign teachers to stay at the school until the 31st of March - even though our contracts end on the 15th.

I want to get a tourist visa and stay until the 22nd April.

Here are my questions ;

1. If I work until the 31st will I be breaking the terms of my work permit?

2. How do I get a tourist visa? I'm assuming I will have to leave the country, but the boos inferred that the immigration division could give me a Tourist visa if I go there before the Non-Imm type B expires.

3. Am I in my rights to demand 2 weeks pay on the 15th and leave the school?

Thanks in advance

I was once told, in Queensland, by a wild life ranger who specialises in snakes,that a general 'rule of thumb' is, if the snake has a broad head it will not be venomous but if the head is narrow then expect it to be venomous. Bye the way, Queensland has the ten most deadly venomous snakes in the world, far more deadly than the Cobra.

Hmmm most vipers and adders, including rattlesnakes, have very wide heads.

Well the Head of English kind of apologised and paid us today.

He mentioned something about two teachers being late with the scores/grades last semester and that was that.

I'm still going to leave, but at least we've been paid.

Thanks Sly, I have decided to follow my head for now.

But I will not stay at a school that has such flagrant disrespect for hard working teachers.

It is a shame because you get kind of used to the place and the students are good, mostly

I don't have a solution. But you can make a few suggestions to the school. We also get paid at the end of the month, but our grades are due next week. Then we sit in the office till the end of march not doing much and also get paid for that.

You can suggest to the school: the school holds the exam papers. You collect them during the day and do marking. Then return them to the office at the end of the day. They are not to be taken home. Before the exams, the school asks the teacher to supply an answer key for the exams. Even if the teacher does a runner after pay day, the school still has the exams and an answer key. All is not lost. And you get paid on the correct day also. Are you not also paid in March? No April holiday pay?

Yes, I mentioned we are paid in March earlier. My contract ends on the 31st of March.

We were told to hand the grade books and flash drives in next Tuesday, but that is 3 working days after our payday.

This deadline has been common knowledge for the last 2 weeks, which is why today was such a bombshell.

I will probably be able to finish mine tomorrow.

The Final test marking was done last weekend by the machine, what we are doing is transferring those grades to the students records and the school database.

All of the Thai teachers have had this process completed by the help of assistant teachers, well actually the assistants did all of it !

The NES teachers each have 18-20 books of student records, whereas the Thai teachers have 6-8.

I'm not going to accept any further offers of employment from this school as I have lost any smidgeon of trust that I used to have in them.

Thai schools have had experience of foreign teachers getting paid and then disappearing the next day. The grades are very important to the school and delaying salary payment until they're in is covering their back. It's pragmatic, it's not in the contract and the Labour Office isn't interested unless the salary is never paid.

Four of the six teachers have worked here for over three years, plus we are getting paid for March as well.

Covering their back may well result in them looking for six new teachers, hardly forward thinking IMO

On an amusing note, our landlady is a teacher at my school. My wife called her to say we will not be paying the rent until I am paid.

Her response was fairly hysterical

Does your contract specify a specific date by which you will be paid? If so, are they violating it? I know some schools pay on the last working day of the month, some will pay no later than the 1st or 2nd day of the following month, depending on how the days fall, but it is usually specified.

The contract specifies the last working day of the month - today

They always pay promptly on the last day, so I am fairly shocked at this action.

Another amazing gripe from my school

We were handed the results from the Final exams on Tuesday.

We have to put these into the student record books and process them via the Access database into the school records.

The whole process takes about 2 days, I have 1000 students.

This week we had a visit from 3 foreign schools and were put on activity duty Tuesday, Wednesday and today.

So this afternoon we started doing the grades and were told we must hand them in by Tuesday next week - no problem.

Today is our payday and at 15:00 we trudged down to the cash office.

we were told by a smug cashier that we will not be paid until the grades are handed in.

We confronted our Head of Department who sheepishly told us the same, but it was the director's decision, not his ( His usual response )

Had we not been helping the school with the activities we could have handed the grades in already.

I was tempted to blow a fuse and just walk out, telling him to call me when my money was ready.

I calmed down and continued processing the grades - but surely this is illegal?

This only applies to foreign teachers.

This is Thailand and as such we have very few rights, but I am f+cked if I will spend another year at this school

I have actually met the OP in person, he used to teach at our school. He seems like a decent individual IMO.

I hope you can walk away from the mess safely!

Feel free to close this thread Scott - Issue resolved

OK it's like this, might is right. If the on coming is bigger than you, give way. Dead is dead, and if you lose you won't give a shit at the outcome if you don't give way. The other driver will run away any road.

Unless you are ex special forces and have a bazooka strapped to your Nissan Micra

An example to use is that of the old Space Race anecdote.

In the space race, once you are in orbit, gravity is greatly reduced. Ink pens (then) relied solely on gravity to work. NASA spent a year and many million dollars and invented a pen that would write upsidedown.

The Russians used a pencil.

priceless

I can confirm that this is a decent way to earn extra money without leaving your home

Even I can see that a & b are correct, and I'm not English and neither am I a teacher

Like I said, it can be easy to make a simple mistake when you are over worked - I hold up my hands and admit to that

Teaching a group of 50-60 kids, twenty times a week, is a different matter altogether; whether you are a NES or not.

I agree that we should not be setting these tests, but it gives an insight into how seriously the Thai School consider the 'English conversation' syllabus.

Sorry but a or b.

maybe you should take a leaf out of the O-net and ask them to pick the most correct.

Please take the time to ensure your tests are grammatically correct. Its bad enough the students have to go through this with their thai teachers.

Sorry M'lud

I agree - that's why I asked her to check.

A few teachers left us in the lurch and as a result we are swamped.

I'm currently still marking mid terms re-sits as well as setting the M1 and M3/M4 final tests.

I made this mistake by quoting an example from the current coursebook - and as a result I am still okay with the mistake.

Had I been sloppy and not asked anyone to check, then I would be angry with myself.

Being busy isn't always the best recipe for accurate testing; hence the use of a colleague

I'll get my coat ...the one I prefer......