onlycw

Cheers!

I hear you, loud and clear. As one of the people who are working for less than 30,000 B a month, I noticed a relentless drive by school directors to save money.

An American got fired. He had been earning 30 k when I came along, accepting 25 k. Next, they found a guy who hadn't been a single day at university. But hey, @ 20 k, they held on to him for dear life! Who cares if he is just 1 or 2 years older than the Mathayom 6 students?!

Fast forward to this school year. The director is over the moon. He found 2 Cameroonians who work for 15 k.

^^^

Take TOT: months ago, they promised that they would install "fiber optic" cable at my new development. Can't even get them to say when they will do it.

At my workplace, the internet has been iffy for many moons. Does anyone take ownership of an issue? Nope!

And employers are increasingly resorting to cons. Promising this and that (like 12 months' contracts), then presenting 10 months' contracts, to give an example.

since you are financially independent, this is a great life - just find some other place to stay a few months a year. Get the best of both worlds!

$ 1,800 is more than double what I make working full time. She will be able to survive on $ 1,800. Renting a decent home, having some shop deliver food 3 times a day or pay for a maid etc.

The "mild dementia" part makes me wonder and worry about her getting ripped off.

My landlady ignores needed repairs in a brand new home. The door to the yard won't close any more. And there are many plumbing issues. (Developers buy the cheapest and nastiest goods - knowing that those toilets won't work right from day 1).

Well, my sympathy to the OP. I was bitten while riding on my "work bike" to my place of work. It was a 2-lane highway and the dog belongs to someone. The same bunch attacked me while riding a Honda Wave as well.

Am sick of this!

They've also decided that all Thai English teachers from now on have to pass a TOEIC examination with at least a score of 850 points,as they're not native English speakers.

P.S. Sorry, that's just wishful thinking, but the Thai English teachers at my school have to pass such an examination now.And that's in the middle of nowhere in Isaan.

Really?!? Then why don't they get it right and demand the IELTS test?!???

I'm lost for words.

OTOH, a friend has had severe difficulties getting his "BA Hons equivalent" degree accredited by the TCT although he's a brilliant orator and was a solicitor for a few decades.

Now he's making 29 k teaching 24 periods a week.

850 points out of what, 950? Okay. But then they better enforce this ruthlessly on each and every non-NES!!

YMMV, but the few times I bought my condo's wifi scratch card, it was a complete waste of money. Dreadful "speeds" at all times... You gotta check it out first.

Yeah - who got to go to Canada and the USA? A: not any young teachers, but ... (hint: the fat cats get all the cream. Folks near retirement age who weren't teaching English due to being HoD etc. hogged the places, repeatedly).

Reminds me of Wai Kru Day this year. they brought orphans on stage who wept pitifully into microphones. But the money that was collected wasn't for those orphans, was it?!? I asked and was told "no" - can't understand Thai...

Prae is nice - go for it! Take the van to Nan nearby for a weekend or ride the Honda Wave you might want to rent. It's a lovely road with many bends.

Well, we have had internet trouble (school failed to pay the bills... ). Then there was a stopped up toilet. Moreover, there have been frequent repair requests for classroom equipment like projectors, loudspeakers etc. Each and every time, the excuse I heard was the budget...

There are xx unpaid students working as teachers.

While the OTPC policy was killed, the "smart classroom" initiative won't work when schools won't even keep projectors and loudspeakers operable

TBH, my school doesn't have curricula. When I raised this issue, I was referred to some book. Enough said. It's hopeless.

In my program, parents have to pay >17,000 Baht. But maintaining the teachers' PCs in just 6 classrooms is too much, with xx IT specialist son the payroll?!? You bet!

Maybe they need to pay us 10 k more and we bring in our own projectors and speakers, complete with some SLA?

I would love to see total TRANSPARENCY regarding a government school's finances and the "budget" preventing them from having unusable toilets cleaned.

Let's see. How many staff had participated in this scam? From the guards to the operator of the weigh scale? What about the management? Will all get punished, or is this business as usual?

One would expect this kind of fraud in other warehouses, too.

Cui bono - who benefits?

Find that and look for some money trail. Instant riches for some people, huh?

This is a unique opportunity to uphold the law and seize assets...

How you'll doing?

Both notebooks only boot partially. Under XP, the message is

LSASS.EXE system error, wrong image file format, no initializing... does not begin with MZ

Under Win 7, I was watching a movie with the VLC Player. The movie crashed and there was just a loop of 3-4 seconds of the audio, repeating endlessly. again: "HDD won't initialize"or something similar.

It boots till the Windows squares appear (also in Safe Mode). But then, nothing, nada.

Any ideas? This is the 2nd notebook this happened to in a few days. Am needing this resolved for work...

Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

How you'll doing?

Both notebooks only boot partially. Under XP, the message is

LSASS.EXE system error, wrong image file format, no initializing... does not begin with MZ

Under Win 7, I was watching a movie with the VLC Player. The movie crashed and there was just a loop of 3-4 seconds of the audio, repeating endlessly. again: "HDD won't initialize"or something similar.

It boots till the Windows squares appear (also in Safe Mode). But then, nothing, nada.

Any ideas? This is the 2nd notebook this happened to in a few days. Am needing this resolved for work...

Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

....I now see (May 16th) the very same schools advertising for teachers...now using the words/abbrvs "Urgently start tomorrow"...."ASAP" etc etc. (These comments are on both agency and direct with school employment advertisements)

You really have to wonder what the hell happens to emails you send to agencies and Thai schools let alone receiving a response from them (simply does not happen does it...!!!)

Are they binned because the "office girl" cannot read English....I heard once that this does in fact happen ocassionally and of course her boss is not ever going to know that the email was binned/deleted.

Or is the sheer volume (possibly) of emails received applying for a particular position so great that half are binned and the remainder read through and some applicant receives the nod?

It would appear from the number of teaching jobs currently being advertised throughout Thailand, that there is a shortage of NES teachers......maybe I am wrong in this assumption, but it certainly looks that way, so why aren't the schools and agencies more "proactive" in chasing up and replying to applicants.

Rant over

Scott has previously said that at his school the girl trashes emails in English as she cannot read them. If that happens in his school where Scott seems to have a well running department it would seem emails are pretty useless as a form of application.

Well, like Scott, I responded to each and every applicant when I was recruiting for an old school. Then there were the calls. 99% of those Cameroonians had a terrible accent and limited vocab. What a way to screen oneself out! One guy ignored me as point of contact and began pestering the school itself. They were livid!

Back to the topic at hand, them not reading e-mails.

Got some long-winded cover letters. some ran many pages. Serious teachers outlining things they want to do / to change / to accomplish. To be fair, I pointed out that IMHO, the Thais in charge of hiring teachers would never bother reading more than a page. Ask me how I know!

TBH, there is another aspect which I do not understand.

1. So they hire people without a single question about handling certain situations / their style of teaching etc.
2. They don't do a Skype interview either (letting people sit by their computers all day in vain). "No call, no show" - just like those professionals who hadn't cancelled with Scott's school.
3. Then they want an ETA on the weekend!!! Why oh why? No explanation given, as usual.
4. Okay, so they hire someone without a single professional test question. But why are they then revisiting the online CV on Ajarn.com on a Sunday morning at 1:36 ?!? (And many times at odd hours).

Doubts?

Buyer's remorse?

...?

I would like to know! It's clear they are sloppy and have no process in place. Nor do they have a list of questions to ask like

i. how do you handle an extremely noisy class?

ii. One student is acting out, disturbing all others. what do you do?

iii. ... Something, anything.

Punctuality? Willingness to do extra and unpaid work?

...

No information regarding the grades I will be teaching, the schedule, ... So I asked to get in touch with existing foreign teachers so that I may ask them questions and (hopefully get some answers).

Nope. Nothing, nada. and the school's website is down.

Let the adventure begin!

Recommendations, anyone?

Thanks a lot!

I resigned from the Thai school I had been happily teaching at for 4 years. It was time for a change and my resignation was for no other reason. This was on Feb 28.

I then searched the web (3 sites offering many teaching jobs both in Bangkok and greater Thailand)

I applied by email for no less than 15 positions in Bangkok that matched the qualifications/paperwork I have being a NZ University degreee - TEFL and a police clearance.

All clearly attached to my C.V. including my mugshot and pictures of myself in the classroom teaching, contact phone number etc etc

(For the "appearance" record I am white skinned - handsome - with glistening white teeth and a full head of hair...and don't smell of body odour...and have the correct visa)

I honestly did not receive one reply after 1-1/2 months had passed (April 15th).......not feeling dis-enchanted I sent the same email to the same advertisers again...I received 1 reply from a school in Chiang Rai (obviously my C.V had been passed onto them) I declined their offer.

I now see (May 16th) the very same schools advertising for teachers...now using the words/abbrvs "Urgently start tomorrow"...."ASAP" etc etc. (These comments are on both agency and direct with school employment advertisements)

You really have to wonder what the hell happens to emails you send to agencies and Thai schools let alone receiving a response from them (simply does not happen does it...!!!)

Are they binned because the "office girl" cannot read English....I heard once that this does in fact happen ocassionally and of course her boss is not ever going to know that the email was binned/deleted.

Or is the sheer volume (possibly) of emails received applying for a particular position so great that half are binned and the remainder read through and some applicant receives the nod?

It would appear from the number of teaching jobs currently being advertised throughout Thailand, that there is a shortage of NES teachers......maybe I am wrong in this assumption, but it certainly looks that way, so why aren't the schools and agencies more "proactive" in chasing up and replying to applicants.

Rant over

Wow, I'm seconding that experience with agencies. #1 knew me and their manager assured me I would have a job in Lopburi the coming semester. (He's from ZA and now left that formerly Thai owned agency and set up shop himself. We were Facebook friends and when I was working for them, there would be almost daily nocturnal Skype inquiries etc.).

#2. Applied for a p-t and temp job which was white hot urgent. It took me 90 minutes just to get there. a) A phone call saying "we filled the position, don't bother" would have been really appreciated. ** Okay, so the manager in that huge office with xx staff in a top location assures me that she will have a job for me in May.

So I called her a few days ago. She is still desperately needing teachers and it's affecting her clients and her bottom line. Why the hell doesn't she use her filing system? She grabbed my whole package, photo, CV, degree, reference...

A: "send me a photo, then I will remember you". Sent a photo and - no response.

Q: Why offer jobs without meaning to?!? As manager (!) of such a big operation with xx employees and the office next to a shopping mall costing likely a 6-figure amount in rent... So she gets some applicant and doesn't like him. big deal. Just sent him away!

Try proposing marriage while dating girls you dislike - it would make life "interesting", wouldn't it?

Something is very wrong. Like directors banning any attempts at hiring teachers "before June". Everything is happening for a reason, my friends. Cui bono? Who benefits?

And yes, many "managers" couldn't manage a piss up in a brewery. Eff up, move up? I dunno. But I've met some price cows as HoD And they all think of themselves as incredibly good at what they do.

Are you getting after hour calls as well? Seems like >90% call in the evening!

Well, on Friday after 6 pm, a school calls for the first time. Ten minutes after saying hello, they ask me to get on the bus to SISAKET that night. Yep, I swear that's true. Some "planning", huh?

As a teenager, I was selling my motorcycle. The buyer was a wealthy business man. He had come and done the test ride. Now he bemoans the need to rent a trailer bla bla. Okay, I agreed to ride the bike to his house, with him driving me back.

Well, everything went well - until he chose to squeeze me 200 on the agreed on price.

After that, would you want to go to the extreme and get on a bus the same night and hope to get that contract in the morning?

A previous school hired teachers and told them they would have to be here to sign the contracts bla bla. Guess what. Upon arrival, their agreed salary was slashed by 2,000 B a month. "The Remuneration Committee has decided..." Nothing to do with the director, of course!

Another school was holding an open recruitment event - all for 18,000 B (check Ajarn.com for this wonderful job ad. Don't bother unless you have an Ed degree).

So they hired me and I'm hoping for the best. But then the B-Visa will have to be paid by myself. They get what they negotiate: be prepared for such demands! I agreed and have seller's remorse!

Is it scary how they operate - or what? Need I elaborate that I waited all day for a Skype interview which never was even attempted at all?!? (Not some technical glitch or bad audio or something... so they hire people without a job interview. And expect people to spend x,xxx Baht based on the HOPE that they will be getting that contract. Have a tattoo or an earring and you might be out of pocket by x,xxx Baht).

Oh, and questions like "which classes would I be teaching?" Were never answered either. Seeing 20 classes once a week or 10 twice a week? M1-M6? Would be nice to know!

What's up, everybody?

• would a large memory stick be useful for copying data onto a SSD?

• I have a 2009 PC. It used to be pretty good back then - Core 2 Duo CPU, NVidia 9600 graphics card

1. May I just use the case and PS and put in a new MOBO etc.?
2. Is there a market for such old PCs? Hate to junk perfectly good computers - remember the 386 I had paid $ 200 for a RAM upgrade of 2 x 4 MB for It ran a good DOS program and never let me down... ** Maybe someone wanting to surf the web will pay 900 B?
3. My Dad is 80. He bought a new PC and I'm disgusted with sales people selling junk MOBOs (2 GB RAM in, only 2 slots and a RAM size limit of, forgot 2 GB?) ** A Thai friend had 2 GB installed. I gave her 4 x 2 GB and now her PC is much faster. Well, I would like a PC that can be customized and upgraded.

Cheers!

HSBC lowered the wire fee to 4 quid, I think. Mail it to your UK bank, then do an online wire to Thailand.

Last time I did that it took several weeks and the fees were outrageous!

Fire those bureaucrats and posers and hire a small team of rice traders. Let them earn a 0.1% commission. Challenge them to sell >15 million tons in a month for just a little bit below FMV. That would be a win-win, wouldn't it?

The Commerce minister is not getting it, is he? Perishable goods means it's a declining asset best disposed of asap.

I want to hear of actual sales as opposed to some "memorandum of intent" or whatever nonsense they engage in. Just like when it comes to buying tablets, huh?

A pro would convert the budget of billions of Baht and go buy tablets from established quality manufacturers, not some company o one ever heard of.

How can the taxpayers tolerate more of this utter failure?!?

They are hopeless. Remember the head of the education committee or something wanting to attract better teachers by making things tougher for them? No higher salaries, of course...

Folks who live in Ivory Towers are on course for destroying this country.

Vietnamese tourists now need to have $ 700 cash etc. etc. Me, I predict more and more folks will be voting with their feet.

Too much hassle for low pay. A friend is happy but still technically open to get deported any time as a NES. Because schools won't do the paperwork...

This will be huge - or teachers will learn that there is a skidzophrenic difference between rules and laws and the reality.

Kick him out. It's your home and your car.

I know someone who has been dragged down by a loser who makes her pay his truck's lease of 16,xxx Baht and him not even paying the 899 Baht for TRUE internet (after him cancelling her fine less costly 3BB service).

You can get him thrown out. Do it. Have the locks changed, maybe place a restraining order on him. Do not let him control your life.

He blew it - and 100,000 B is a joke. Don't worry about that. JMHO.

Hope you aren't trolling.

Well, offer her everything you got. Your love, a future together. Ask her to elope - like Tina Turner taking just her name.

Maybe they weren't even legally married?

Go get her and get the hell away, if you are serious. Don't pay $ 30,000. But be ready to elope...

Good luck!

She has no future with him, JMHO. He will never forget & forvice anyway. Help her, she already sacrificed her reputation and more for you...

WE or they?!? I think you are dreaming when you understand that they force you to buy a house for yourself and your future wife...

You get what you negotiate. What's new?

It should be a gesture, JMHO and don't feed people's greed and give in to outlandish demands!

Certainly do not assume that the money will be there for you lovebirds to build and feather a nice nest...

For your children's (born and unborn) sake, remove yourself from her house and preserve your assets.

Such a mad person may squander it all in a heart beat.

The way to get a divorce is NOT to be generous. She needs to be hurting financially to agree to the settlement, that has been my own lesson (in the USA).

All the best, stay away from this violent maniac and see if you could get a court approval for taking the son?

I tried standing up for myself, I got kicked out of the house. I told her she needed to do what she thought was right, marry for love not money, but she says she has no say in it. Everything is up to her father, do the girls here have no say in their own future?

Well, I've been here for years. Can't possibly comment on unknown folks, you and her. But don't like her family's attitude and expectations over and above the customary sin sod thing. (The gold gift used in another ceremony usually gets returned to the shop).

One cannot buy love, period.

I've sponsored some poor students, handed out notebooks and paid tuition fees. A few times, the reaction was ungrateful. Now, I would screen more carefully.

Forget them - there are nicer girls without such greedy families out there.

Be glad that the family showed their true colours before the big M!

Good luck - never look back!