CrunchWrapSupreme

9 hours ago, EricTh said:

Do all Thai schools have two English teachers for the same batch of students? One to teach grammar and another one to teach speaking & listening?

Yup. The Thai English teachers focus on grammar, while the native speaker is allowed to put the language in action, with conversational exercises, speaking activities, Q&A, etc. Dept heads especially love photo ops where the students are taking turns giving recitals, as the farang guides them along. Look, they're speaking English.

The rationale is that the Thai teacher's limited English is sufficient to teach them grammatical rules, while the assets of native speakers can best be used to actually demonstrate the language, so that students can hear it spoken with correct (or closer to it) pronunciation, which they're unlikely to get anywhere else in their daily lives in Thailand, especially out here in the countryside.

I don't mind at all as I hate teaching grammar, and my MA in English actually took pains to tell us not to teach it explicitly. Don't teach the rules, show them. Give them language they can immediately put to use. They can't ask for help at the grocery store with a table of past perfect and past continuous conjugations. That's what Chinese and Japanese students typically get, which is why they now come to me online, telling me that after their years of English in high school and university, they can barely speak it.

I'd say over half the Casio G-Shocks on Lazada are fake. A dead giveway is that they're under 1k baht, while real ones are 3k+. They are shameless listings with Casio logos, shields, and "100% genuine". They go through the trouble of photoing fake boxes, manuals, and even fake CMG stickers implying they came through the Central group. If you look closely you'll see the fonts are a bit strange and the printing is sloppy. Lazada does nothing about them.

These stories make the news. But 99.99% of the time in Thailand, there is no recourse at all to student behavior. They are allowed to get away with murder. I have some classes where half the students show up. Students repeatedly get up to goof off around a classroom, ignoring both farang and Thai teachers. When this is brought up, shoulders are shrugged, and "up to them" is always the answer.

Is this another, or the same one? Thai Rath reported another similar story about a week ago, soldier and maid of some high ranking lady. The abused had set up a hidden camera to catch the abuser inspecting the floor, then smacking her while going "mai sa-ad, mai sa-ad!" (not clean, not clean!) The news then showed a bruise on her leg, but none of the other gruesome details told here.

I wish I had recorded all the insanity the psychos at that joke of a certain famous BKK private school had said to me while working there.

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Daily News reported that the doors would be closed at midnight to put police off the scent. 

Mmm. Good memories of Soi 22 Queen's Park Plaza, when the mamasan would draw the curtains and turn down the lights, to keep the party going.

I also was once in this Sukhumvit pub. A beautiful lady was sitting at the bar alone, playing on her phone. You know the type. It's a regular pub and not a girly bar, but there's occasionally one resident lady they have made available, should any of the patrons desire company.

I stayed until closing watching football, and gradually the crowd cleared out. Then it was just me and her there alone. We looked at each other and smiled. Poor thing, waiting there all night with no takers. If I wasn't already married... The manager then began closing the roll down gate, and asked for my last order.

Just then, creeping under the gate.... OI! OI! OI! What looked like a whole rugby team strutted in, about a dozen guys, all kitted out in sport gear. The lady had been wearing a trench coat, and then she took it off. Ooo hoo, nothing but a lingerie teddy under there. I suppose the team had her booked. The manager then closed the front gate completely, and told me to go out the back. Looked like they had quite the match lined up. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay.

On 8/11/2022 at 2:29 AM, it is what it is said:

 

any qualified and experienced teacher worth their salt is adept at basic classroom management. if you are unable to manage a difficult class/students perhaps you should consider a different profession/career.

And so the teachers are doing just that. In the United States 300k have been quitting every year. Then during the pandemic nearly 3 million quit. When you have that many quitting I don't think the teachers are the problem. It appears the education system is at fault.

Kids are running amok. They mouth off, throw tantrums, destroy classrooms. Teachers aren't getting the support they need from useless administrators, and certainly not the parents, both of whom have jobs they should be doing, but aren't.

Tough talk solves nothing and only allows the problem to continue. "Don't like it? Find another job.", "Don't like the sinking ship? Learn to swim.", "Don't like drunken pilots crashing the planes? Bring a parachute." Hah. Why not just address the problem? Ah, difficult, I know. And talk is cheap.

Oh, if only we could take all the energy spent on this AN chest puffing and barstool banter, and channel it into something productive. Meanwhile, teachers like me are actually in front of the classrooms, continuing to do the difficult work that needs to be done.

It's a start. Several of my M4 students (16 years old) frequently show up to class hungover. I catch their Thai and they talk about going out to drink. I mention this and nothing is done.

51 minutes ago, Olmate said:

You trot out.this BS.tale from to time.  Is it based on a.monthly cycle perhaps? 

Yeah, I have mentioned it before, thanks for noticing. Why would it be BS? Why would it be something to lie about? Certainly much more to lie about on this site, like one's income levels, etc. I'm not the only one to tell such stories, they've become a sad reality throughout the pandemic. It's topical as per the subject of the thread. Times are hard, and people are sad. Sometimes I feel sorry for them, like if they tried to make an effort and couldn't make it work, but in this case I don't. There's also the issue of low effort posts, here and across social media, likely induced by boredom and beer. If the topic didn't interest you, you didn't have to click on it. Likewise, as you have nothing constructive to contribute, you shouldn't have done so.

Yup. There's been a former bargirl stomping around our village since the pandemic got going, and her BKK bar shut down. Couldn't find work around the village. Had a poor village BF promise her big dreams, sin sod and marriage, which of course weren't happening being a poor village boy. Grandpa then kicked her to the nearby town to work. Couldn't hold down the job, blah blah excuses. So now grandpa's shipping her back to BKK as they've been reopening. That fertilizer ain't buying itself. Now they sit together in front of the house all day without a word between them. She obviously not happy about the cards she's been dealt, but that attitude certainly didn't help her any. About 25, small, skinny, tatted up. Go say hi to her when she's back around Nana next week.

On 1/28/2021 at 6:39 PM, THAIPHUKET said:

Thai speaks English well, clean pronunciation. Better than most TV newscaster.

Basic Thai education.

Teach English online. Many services, just do a search. High demand from Chinese, Japanese, Korean students. If you speak well you should be able to pass the video interview.

Some want/prefer native speakers. If you think you can wing it, say you grew up in a Western country then moved back to Thailand. You should have some knowledge of that country to back this up. Into movies, football? It might be enough to satisfy students who are usually of quite low proficiency.

Rate is about $10 USD an hour. It's a good time to get paid in USD, as they're now approaching 37 baht. On that note I shall stock up on more Leos tonight. Cheers. ????

I teach English online to many older Chinese guys, who've been to Thailand before many times. They've said "It's really a magical place, enjoy your stay there". Yes indeed. 

A few months ago when I was at my local country bumpkin Issan govt hospital, waiting for the jab, I overheard the other farangs in line talking about their online work. Surprisingly I was the only teacher, though many foreign teachers here also earn on the side with online teaching. These guys were all techies, doing web development and e-commence, mentioning AWS and SEO and full stack UX, yadda yadda. Getting a legit visa explicitly for such things is next to impossible. They were all on visas for marriage or retirement, then doing this on the side, a grey area.

The USD's now nearly 37 baht. Woo-hoo!

Come to Thailand on a tourist visa, enjoy a little vacation. Be sure to have a decent nest egg of savings to fall back on. During this you can do your school shopping. Don't expect to have the school and contract squared away before you get on the plane. It's not like JP Morgan Chase is flying you out here, with a fat expat pkg and limo to meet you at the airport.

You've got 30 days visa on entry, extendable to another 30, or you can get 60 if you do a visa at a consulate, plus 30 for a total of 90. There's your time limit. Me and countless others have made it work. Line up some interviews, visit the schools. Get a feel for them. You'll know if it's a decent school based on how they receive you. If you get a bad attitude it's going to be a rough year. IHMO, go out to the provinces where there's less farangs and they're more appreciated. In and around BKK you're going to get more grief.

Ask how soon you can get your visa and work permit. Ask if they've done this before, some schools haven't. Try to avoid agencies, deal directly with the school, though you might have to take an agency as a last resort. Ask for a one year contract and visa. 30k is old news, insist on 40k. Sell yourself with any experience, if you don't have any, mention volunteer work, any work with kids, babysitting, religious activities, projects you did in university. Try having some pics of this, prepare a portfolio. Agree with the other posts, people still aren't coming into Thailand given Covid still hasn't really ended, so it's still a seller's market for teachers. Leverage yourself, be confident. Cheers.

10 hours ago, proton said:

They normally stay for 5 years until their passports run out, they earn about 4x what they could here, mostly agricultural work.

Can confirm. Three in my village just signed up to go. My wife will now be able to pick up more sales in the market, given their absence.

Not exactly legal, but a grey area. The Korean government is well aware of it, as they rendered assistance to the many such Thais stuck there during the pandemic. They're there doing the work Koreans won't. The Thais book package tours, break away from the groups, then go to the farms. They work and work and bring home a bundle. A nice house down the road I'm told was built by working in Korea.

A shame these folks heard about such schemes, then just went with the wrong people.

6 hours ago, RafPinto said:

We are all digital nomads.
Being a member of ASEAN Now is hard work.

Indeed. ????

23 hours ago, giddyup said:

I still give her 20K baht a month

I give about the same, albeit not all directly.

8k car payment.

1.2k car insurance.

2k electric bill.

4k cash to the wife, 1000 a week.

1k cash to dad, for his misc cooking supplies. He's quite humble and greatful for it, as at 73 he remembers when this was a ton of money.

4k in monthly Big C and Makro trips.

23 hours ago, JAFO said:

I always laugh when people whinge about dual pricing

The other day I got coffee with a coworker. She ordered and paid first, 30 baht for her cha thai. I ordered the same, then got him to tell me 60 baht. Uh, really? I just looked a bit confused. Then my colleague enlightened me and said he thought I was paying for both of us, what any guy usually does for a lady, farang or Thai, and just forgot she had paid. An honest mistake. But if I weren't such a mind mannered farang, I could've created quite the incident.

Ah, I remember some years ago seeing a Citibank billboard around Asok, with a Thai superstar on it. She was out shopping or traveling or something, and thrust out in her hand, a Citibank credit card. On it you could clearly see her name, Thai first name, English surname. She's got the farang husband, farang credit card. The dream of many Thai ladies.

Yet apparently there weren't enough of them who made it a reality, for Citibank to keep their Thai business going.

"Under stress", "not to excess", "just threaten him".

If you've ever spent some time in a teachers' office in Thailand, you'd witness this familiar scene. A group of 3-4 students is called in to answer for some incident to their homeroom teacher. They get down on their knees around the teacher's desk. She grills them one by one like a police interrogation. I've picked up enough Thai to get the general gist.

"So you did this?", "Yes ma'am", "Why did you do that?", "Because I had to (blah blah)", "Oh, so you did (blah blah)?", "Yes, but not like that, it was (some excuse)", "Oh are you sure?", "Yes, I had to..."

And on it goes. The aim is not to get to the truth, or get a confession, but rather to explain it away.

Thus, an integral part of Thai education right there, beginning from when they're about 13 years old, is targeted training in how to make excuses, deflect attention, deny responsibility.

Could give this a shot. Walking distance of Bang Chak BTS. They get up in there and work some magic, supposedly. Well reviewed with a long queue of bookings. I'd try it if I still lived in BKK, with the wife being unaware. ????

Few years back I remember a story out in the provinces, of a lady who got an order for several hundred boxed lunches to be delivered to a factory, as a reward for the workers. Whoever did the order represented themselves well as part of the company. She gleefully prepared them all, only to arrive at the factory with the truckload which no one had ordered. The order was traced back to some lady in the village who had a beef with her. Terrible.

1 hour ago, Misterwhisper said:

While the whooping commenced for an hour or so thereafter, it subsequently got conspicuously quiet

Exactly what the Thais need, rather than yaba and lao khao. ????