chonabot

Mahasarakam has loads of bars, a big student population and is pretty lively on the weekend - Kalasin on the other hand....

All original - how much ?

It depends what part of SA they are from, certainly the ones from the Orange Free state and parts of Transvaal would use Afrikaans.

Cape and Natal are less inclined to and use English as a first language at school and in work - the 3rd/4th generation South Africans from Dutch origin prefer to speak Afrikaans and the schools they went to would use it over English.

But overall the first language is English - and they realise that Afrikaans has little value as a first/international language.

I have a South African friend.... it's quite unfair as English is her mother tongue...

Put three South Africans in close proximity, and tell me if you hear English. I think not.......

English is not the 1st language of South Africa. I have a friend from South Africa, and they only use the phrase "English is our first language" to land teaching jobs here in Thailand...

I have met plenty in Thailand, as they are coming over by the plane loads. Most of them early to mid twenties as they are upset by the way things are going in South Africa, and they can earn a better wage here...

Side note: I could care less, if you are NES or not. As long as you are trying to help the kids ...

I lived in South Africa for 8 years - English is the first language.

Afrikaans is used plus Zulu/Sotho and a host of ethnic languages.

But English is the first language..unless you're a rocspider

ps that's not a racist term - ask any South African

pps I was a rooeineck

think he meant to say jai yen yen no wonder if this is standard of English teachers why kids are doing so badly in school in learning English language.

Lovely English....

Last Offer 6500 including free EMS plus extra game - Dante's Inferno

No - it's used online regularly.

No.

He wants my bank details and says God Bless a lot..set off a few alarm bells

Hi all

I'm advertising my xbox360 plus kinect and games on the calssified section.

I have someone who is interested but is in the US.

He is willing to pay the 7500 plus 4000 baht for ems to USA.

Is this unusual?

I would have thought it would have been cheaper to buy over there?

Thanks for any responses/opinions

Still avail ---- now 7000 baht and free EMS anywhere in Thailand

t, but yes the majority of the teachers are very bad who don't give a crap.

I'm sorry but have you been to every school in Thailand?

How can you possibly come up with such a sweeping statement?

I live in a private complex on the outskirts of bkk and am the only farang here. people refer to me as teacher before i even confirm that is my profession. in this area if they see a farang they just assume. when friends come to visit i tell them to tell the security guards either "ban farang" or "ban teacha"

Or if Poanoi came, he would refer to it as Ban (monolingual) Scam.....

I'm enjoying this thread but it seems to contain a lot of posts where non-teachers are lecturing to active teachers on how we should teach .

Is it me or isn't that a bit daft?

Altho i did some minor teaching,

my aversion to monolingual teachers stem from my experience as a student.

Going from a teacher that could explain my nosy questions in a language i could appreciate in great detail, (more than i even asked for with noun etc)

and then replaced with teachers that at best could hold up a pen and say 'ni alai'# <deleted> ?

the incompetent teachers couldn't explain squat, best they could do was the

'repeat after me even tho you have no clue, and i have no clue how to explain either' junk

# ni alai = whats this, in case you're monolingual

Poanoi - what is your first language and what language did you learn?

Sorry but it's not obvious from your posts in this thread.

As I mentioned before my verbal Thai is ok - I've spoken and listened to the language for 24 years - reading writing Thai ?....let's not go there

I taught a few classes today - M3 - and managed to get the principle of Opposites/Comparatives and Superlatives across without using L1 once.

Perhaps when teaching threshold students, the use of L1 is more necessary.

Yes, i was never good at abbreviations

whats 'NES', as in NES teachers ?

Non English Speaking??

Native English Speakers....

I'm enjoying this thread but it seems to contain a lot of posts where non-teachers are lecturing to active teachers on how we should teach .

Is it me or isn't that a bit daft?

Isn't it funny how these 18+ classes "Englishteachers" can be posting atm. Are you running a tape/cd etc. and (ab)use the school's internetconnection?

I have a few breaks in the day plus I can afford an old laptop and a wireless pay as you go card - sorry if that offends your sensibilities ( nosey git )

A serious question to the Teachers here ... what style of English do you teach?

What does the curriculum dictate?

The American style or the English style?

No so much the potato/tomato debate, but more the way a date is written.

For example the 11^th September, that famous day ... 9/11/**** in Thailand is taught as 11/09/**** ??

Spelling of worlds such as colour/color, neighbour/neighbor etc.

Is it the curriculum or the teacher who decides?

You should teach the English that you are familiar with - I teach British English - God save the Queen

I think that you will find that most of the people knocking teachers here are probably living on less money and have less to show for their times here.

Is that just some wild guess?

In my experience of people who hold teachers in contempt, they tend to be from all sections of "expat" society here, from elderly retirees to multi-nats with all the trimmings.

For many, the contempt is rooted from too many impromptu bar room lectures on Thai Language/History/Culture given by some nylon shirted fool with an inflated opinion of themselves - probably due to their new found "status" - when its obvious they've only been here for 6 months and they probably won't see out another 6 when they realise they can get lots more money for humiliating themselves elsewhere in Asia...

We should just give up then and heed the contempt from these trimmed experts........that would help the Thai students to gear up for 2015.....

40 kids....add 20 and welcome to my world

In each of my 18 classes

Must be tough getting to know all their names. . .

Impossible, yet I know about 5-10 from each class. These are usually the ones who have got my attention by being helpful and/or good.

Yes, that is the problem, and IMNSHO only a teacher with full command of both a language the student understand, and the language the student want to learn,

have the potential of being a good teacher

I beg to differ on this point, I have personally taught Thai's to speak good conversational English without being fluent in Thai or having studied at a teacher training college.

Teaching is all about the teacher and their way with the pupils.

Up four flights of stairs to a room full of 40 rowdy children from broken homes. A minutes listening outside the classroom confirms the dominant language spoken is Lao. Three bully boys beating up one gay lad in the corner (you know he is gay because he is wearing a bow in his hair). Two girls are picking lice out of a third girls hair. One little boy with a nose bleed is playing with his blood with two other children.

None of these children has any inkling of how to speak English. What do you do? A Thai teaching assistant? Ha ha sure. It's Farang sink or swim time.

You think teachers get paid to teach English? Ha ha ha.

You are an English teacher at a Thai government school.

Lesson plans? Ha ha ha. You just walked up 4 flights of stairs, it's hot enough to cook an egg on your desk and air conditioning is something you left at home. The toilet doesn't work and it's on the first floor anyway.

40 kids....add 20 and welcome to my world

In each of my 18 classes there are at least 2 ladyboys/gays...you can tell by the make up and the falsetto voices.

These are usually the ones doing the bullying, but you're right about the toilets and the stairs.

I sat in an air conditioned office for over 20 years - overrated

Yes, that is the problem, and IMNSHO only a teacher with full command of both a language the student understand, and the language the student want to learn,

have the potential of being a good teacher

In an ideal world.......we would all speak one language

In reality the Thai students would simply speak Thai to the bilingual God like teacher.

I think it's great to see someone below 50 in the kingdom,

but a 'monolingual language teacher' is an oxymoron

Do you have first hand experience as an English teacher?

Have you ever heard of the Communicative approach?

Unless the teacher can communicate and explain what 'atibai' means,

there is no reason to communicate with that teacher.

But there is a couple of reasons NOT to communicate with that teacher,1] waste of time, 2] waste of money

I'm sure the Thai English teacher can explain quite lucidly in Thai what 'explain' means...the problem is we are teaching English not Thai.

Guess guys joke about them because their pay isn't that great. Although 40k or whatever they make is not too bad for Thailand. Just glad I don't have to do it.

I'm glad as well , but it's by no means an easy job - maybe you couldn't do it?

And maybe some of us aren't chasing the baht over here