gerryBScot

I reckon it depends on what kind of visa you have for your stay in Thailand. If you are on a Non-immigrant Thai visa, that should suffice as proof of your current residence in Thailand and you should be able to apply in Khon Kaen. If you are on a 30 day waiver or a tourist visa, then in all likelihood you'll need to apply at the Visa for China place in Bangkok. Note that the Chinese visa place is a different place altogether than the Chinese embassy - you can even try their website, which should tell exactly where to go : www.visaforchina.org

I know of one person,  a US national,  who secured a China 'Z' visa at KK, that is the one you need for employment, at Khon Kaen; he had to produce his Non-Imm B visa and provide a copy of his work permit in order to get the visa.  In the great scheme of things getting a tourist visa for China should be relatively easy provided you have someone inviting you - either a Chinese citizen or a foreigner with a residence permit. 

If your paperwork is in order I would simply go into KK and try to apply there but Would check the webpage above before just to make sure.

Just returned from two week family holiday in Philippines. Mrs Portnoy is a Filipino so that helps. Been a fair few times before. I really rate Cebu City very highly despite a worsening traffic situation. Excellent shopping malls - SM Seaside and City, Ayala; reasonably priced food and lots of options in the mall. Filipino food is far from my favourite but I have to say I ate some delicious local food during this trip. Try the House of Lechon in Cebu, where we had a really pleasant feed on local food including blood soup. We spent a few days on Bohol which were disappointing - very touristy and commercial; Alona beach is cool but quite crowded. Then to Dumaguete in Visayas, a very popular destination for Americans and onwards to Bacolod City, which appears to be on an upward curve. One thing that made a huge difference was being able to use the Grab taxi app - only once did a driver up the price and my complaint to the company produced an immediate response. Yes it is dirty and can be dangerous but a lot of the risks can be minimised by not putting yourself on offer. I think next time we're going to tour, fly into Cebu and see where we end up - hopefully on some glorious white sand beach and clear blue ocean! Mabuhay!

I would suggest www.cimt.org.uk which has a full K-12 course  with many extras; www.nrich.maths.org . Also search for a couple of blogs by Maths educators, specifically  Don Steward and Mr Barton. This stuff is all in English.

1 hour ago, Greenside said:

The depressing truth is that if you want to give your children a decent start in life with an affordable education that will give them a fighting chance to achieve their full potential, you'd better be thinking about moving to a different country

Seconded......unless you have lots of dosh and can afford to enter your kids into one of the big name schools which have all the trimmings.

What might help is to try to find audio 'recordings' in Thai which have an accompanying text in Thai. Perhaps you could engage the help of a Thai friend who could transcribe the recordings in Thai for you, perhaps conversations. Then when you have a written script and audio recording, work on the written script first, making sure you know the meaning of everything; write out the text. Finally listen to the audio ... go back and do this as often as necessary and build up a supply of texts and recordings.

Also you'll need to go the embassy in BKK to collect the ETD; though I think you can apply on line. You may have to book an appointment to collect the ETD so I would suggest you act now. You may also need to attend an immigration office to get a replacement entry stamp put in your EDT. The whole  process can be quite a rigmarole.

I don't know how the licensing/regulation works in practice but it seems that anyone can call their school an international school. No surprises that smart investors are on to this because they understand that they can charge huge fees for an 'international' curriculum. ($20,000 US pa is commonly the lower end of the scale charge for sending your children to this type of 'international' establishment...though let me stress I do not know what Varee charge). And there are carpet baggers coming into schools simply as investors expecting to cash in quickly with little regard for any ethical considerations.

Many schools of this type will say they are seeking accreditation with the International Baccalaureate (IB) etc as evidence of their future intentions - it is therefore interesting to note  that IB or equivalent accreditation does not currently feature as part of Varee's goals ... although this may be something they will address in the future. However Varee's website claims "Cambridge" accreditation, a statement which is pretty meaningless on its own and to the uninitiated, ( ie prospective parents trying to secure a decent education for their minions)  is designed to mislead - in the sense of suggesting approval and/or quality.

Let me stress I am not challenging Varee's right to say it is Cambridge accredited, I am sure it is, but simply saying it doesn't amount to very much. Critically 'Cambridge accreditation' does not actually provide any means of assessing any aspect of the school's quality or performance . It simply is a descriptor - it means this school can teach the Cambridge curriculum and can enter students for Cambridge exams. As far as I know the 'accreditation' process is little more than a desk top review, as opposed to a detailed inspection following an extended process of continuous assessment  over two years, as in the case of the IB. The proof of the pudding will be the performances of those students when the IGCSE candidate students take the exams; that is if the school enters them. Perhaps further down the line some parents will learn their children have not made adequate progress and so will not be entered. Ouch!

There is sadly a lot of cynicism in all of this but this is the niche market in which I work and over the last few years I have seen things going down in schools that once would have been unimaginable to me.

On the matter of unruly children in a school as per  @Robert Schueller, it is always evidence of poor leadership and management, if there is a distinction between the two. It's actually quite simple to stop students galloping around a school. It needs management support. In these types of schools, however, let us call them aspirant international schools, cash is king and usually nothing will be countenanced by school owners and their managers that might result in a  parent taking a child away from the school. At $20,000 US a pop this is big money. (One student probably pays for 3/4 of a teacher.) Staff on the ground quickly sense this so they turn a blind eye and the students continue to maraud around the school. Of course the students clock this rather quickly as well and soon learn that they can do whatever they want. I really don't know whether this is indicative of what's happening in Varee but it does sound familiar.

It's really simple. You appoint teachers on the basis of  ability, experience and qualification. You have a pay scale which stipulates where new hires start on the basis of previous experience etc; you go up that pay scale as you progress. In the world of Thai education few schools have a published pay scale, there are no rules ... it's part of the answer to the recurring question as to why the system is so bad.

* Deleted quote edited out*

The exclusive responsibility for the state of these programmes is the school's administration. They hire and fire, or don't fire as the case may be. They are the same people who appoint white folks to jobs on the basis that they can stand up and a noise emanates from their mouths when it is open... ideal candidates for teaching!

@ozmeldo .... well good to know the Klan is alive and well in Thailand!

4 hours ago, MikeyIdea said:

Sarasas: Not the first time I've heard about the Sarasas Iron Wall. It's a cheap way of keeping the noise down instead of addressing problems, nothing else. What they do is very unacceptable. There is nothing a foreigner can do except change school because Thai parents accept it.

Spot on MikeyIdea.

On a recent trip back to Thailand while driving along the Pra Rama II highway from Wang Manao into Bangkok I think I went past three huge Sarasas schools and I must say, having directly experienced their approach as a teacher a few years earlier, I was surprised to see them apparently in such vigorous good health.  I am amazed, though hardly surprised, to read that Sarasas is now branching out into the international sector.  As I recall it their mantra was: we are a Thai school, for Thai parents and children, promoting Thai culture and values..... etc - at the time, being relatively new to Thailand, it was personally shocking to encounter such xenophobia, even in a provincial, bilingual school. Not exactly the foundation of international-mindedness, one of the key values underpinning international education! However they do like money and there is a huge amount of money in international education, especially of the type that can lead to entry to the world's top universities, so no surprises they are going that way. 

I got out of Thailand to get my my family out of the Thai education system. We are both teachers and have two young kids. We are now in China, in the snow right now, but one year on, no regrets, from anyone's perspective. 

Bottom line, he signed a contract, you signed a contract. If he doesn't like the terms of his contract, too bad. It's exclusively his problem. What can you do about it? Likewise it's not your responsibility to fix his resentments. If the teacher has broadcast his feelings and those can now be said to be known to the school administration, then it is up to those people to deal with the situation. I wouldn't complain or comment if they don't do anything. Just get on with the job. Avoid this guy like the plague. Get on with the PGCEi and get out. 

check this out for info about the  airport. it says you can exit on transit visa if you have a booked seat, presumably meaning you are ticketed the whole way through from Thailand. However some of these airlines don't ticket you the whole way and require you to collect your bags and check in again - I experienced this with C Southern on the Shanghai - BKK route via Kunming - pain in the a**. 

People break contracts every day of the week. It doesn't follow they are bad for doing so. Circumstances change. Progressive employers recognise this and are usually happy to enter into a negotiation process to facilitate early release from contractual obligations. Who really wants to hold some one to a contract if they don't want to perform that contract? If the OP wants to do the right thing then s/he could attempt to negotiate  their way out and could offer, for instance, to pay a part of the other side's costs. However if this route is taken, and agreement is reached the OP, as part of the deal, should formally cancel the WP and visa and obtain a release letter and testimonial from the employer by which they formally discharge the OP from all contractual obligations. I advise this as ....errrr, circumstances change, don't they, and the OP may find he wants to stay in Thailand and work somewhere else. If s/he has broken contract,  getting another WP might be potentially problematic.

But this is pie-in-the-sky stuff - typical school administrators and the wider society don't do negotiation, as we know. But this is the route to go down if the OP wants to do the right thing.

12 minutes ago, ThaiFelix said:

........ working for one of a large chain of private bilingual schools ........... my school would stop at nothing, and I mean nothing, to save a few baht.

 

 

Must be the one that rhymes with Kiss my A**!

As far as I know it costs 1900 THB to extend the visa and lots of paperwork the most difficult bit being a confirmation from the local education board that they are happy for you to be a teacher. The likelihood is one of the admin goes to the education office and gets them to sign the letter - it's a standard format sort of thing. Not exactly burdensome ...

57 minutes ago, Baht Simpson said:

I wasn't suggesting everyone should use spreadsheets.

Part of my journey into alcoholism was the drink diary. It didn't work for me. I was getting so drunk I couldn't fill it in and couldn't even remember what I had drunk.

A bender and chump change fine is a real insult given the astronmical sums of money that went undeclared. What about sequestration of assets, loss of pension and debarring from holding any form of public office? 

9 hours ago, Baht Simpson said:

The whole gist of my post is that you need to measure your  own drinking habits. If you don't it becomes a steady slide.

 I disagree - IMHO this is completely unnecessary for normal drinkers who enjoy a drink regardless of how much they drink. The essential point for normal drinkers is that having a few drinks does not affect any aspect of their lives. I'm glad to say that after almost 30 years of trying to drink normally  I now completely recognise that my relationship with alcohol was abnormal and for me the solution was to quit. This means no spreadsheet either, a mighty relief!

11 hours ago, dfdgfdfdgs said:

To the drinkers, and the bar-goers, I'm not trying to preach, and you can do whatever you like, it's none of my business, but I'm just curious what you actually get out of it.  I know having a drink or two can make you loosen up and have more fun, and that's great once a week when you're in good company, but there's a difference between that and sitting slouched over a bar every day, with a bunch of other 'like-minded' expats, all of whom are almost immune to the effects of alcohol.  All that is doing is slowly killing you.

 

Why don't you try not drinking completely for a month.  Find something more beneficial to do.  Fruit juice, smoothies, lots of other flavoured drinks all taste as nice/nicer than alcohol, really they do.  I hear a lot of people say after a hard day there's nothing better than having a cold beer.  Well there are, alternatives are just as refreshing.  Society is overexposed to alcohol in general and thus it is normalised and almost used as a substitute to water, when it should be seen as a occasional treat.  I think people associate beer with happy times from their past, and thus it remains their go-to drink.

 

I bet after a month, you will wonder why you drank so much beer before.

So logical, but there is nothing logical in either becoming an alcoholic or in recovering from that state. Plus for many people alcohol means great fun and does not involve any form of harm. As a recovering alcoholic I have no right to spoil other people's party because I can't handle booze myself. As Voltaire said: il faut cultiver votre jardin: you have to take care of your own garden, meaning I shouldn't be concerned about yours.

2 hours ago, ozmeldo said:

 An agency maybe but a school, that's pretty cynical.

11 month contract, to remove the need for the payment of a 'long' holiday, and engaging teachers as temporary when the positions are in clearly full time, ( Q. Why are they asking 'temporary' teachers to state if they intend to return for  next year? A. Because they are full time positions - they need to fill the same positions with teachers to teach the same subjects next year ....but sorry we don't do paid holidays!) ... I would say this is a deeply cynical operation. Does the school in question's name rhyme with Kiss My A** ?!

I'd be sweating about getting paid for February if your visa ends 27th February. If pay day is last day of the month, the admin will be aware you should be gone the day before. 

I moved to China after 8 years in Thailand. Been here for over a year now and just back from a Christmas/NY break to LOS. I have to say I love living in China even though right now it's freezing cold and there are snow remnants on the ground with more forecast. The visa thing is far easier here - there's a significant paper chase at the beginning but if successful it results in a residence permit, valid for 12 months, and with this in the holder's passport, s/he can come and go in and out of China as often as they wish during its validity; no 90 days reporting. Relatively straightforward bringing in dependents so long as you have the documentation. I doubt retirees, non-investors or those seeking long term residence would be eligible for official resident status but they should be able to get tourist visas quite simply. It's impossible to compare the two countries because they are so different. I really miss Thai food. However this is a really smart place and it is really astonishing what you can do here with a mobile phone linked to a bank account. Pollution is a palpable issue but it is relatively easy to avoid the worst places - information about levels is readily available. If I can keep going the plan is to flake out in the Philippines about age 70 but that is some time away ...

I'm not going to get involved in slanging other people here. But I need to thank Mr PT for the reference to the Eleventh Step prayer which had me googling it. I always knew it is as the prayer of St Francis. However what a truly beautiful prayer and timely mention of it because my prayer life needs something new. And I love that term  'disco drunk' -  wonderful, truly wonderful. The power of words!

25 minutes ago, MrPatrickThai said:

Please explain why you think I am a classic 2 stepper?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year Mr P T I know your question is not addressed to me but for what it's worth ... I would never challenge anyone's assertion that they are an alcoholic simply because I don't want to feel any sense of responsibility if they carry on drinking and die.  I might disagree with your approach but I have no doubt I am an alcoholic and that you are one too. Hope you have a great year of sober days. See you out there.