jirikoo

hi guys, how difficult is to land a job as fitness instructor / personal trainer in bkk? well, i haven't got certified yet, but im planning to, soon (either there or in my country). thanks a lot, jiri

Hi guys, im new to this forum as well as to overseas tertiary educational system.

im weighing all the pros and cons as of getting degreed in Bangkok. I am thinking about taking one of the Bangkok Ram's courses. Currently, I am in the stage when I am gathering all my papers for an application but still leaving doors open.

What I am concerned most about is finance. I believe, at present, I have as enough funds as I could live in there for 2 years without doing work. As far as I know i cannot work on education visa. I would have to apply for work permit separately based on an employer acceptance... Is that right?

Could you elaborate on this, please?

jirikoo

Over the past few years on my numerous trips to Thailand, I have always stayed at KT Guest house in Din Daeng for about 550B a night. On this year's visit, i would love to change the lodging for more convenient one as I need to be closer to all the shopping malls, public transportation, and other amenities. Is there any chance to find a corresponding accommodation at the same price level (or cheaper preferably) in Sukhumvit area or somewhere in the CBD along the MRT routes?

For your reference: http://www.ktguesthouse.com/

Any tips appreciated.

thanks a lot

i would never pay even if they threaten me whatever way

Hi there,

still weighing my options about my next year university study, amongst others im thinking about taking the tourism and hospitality as a major.

Just need some tips, is here anyone who actually does or already finished this program at one of Bangkok's universities?

could you input some details, your experience, etc.?

cheers

hey guys,

i was just wondering if there is somewhere a comprehensive and complete list of language schools in Thailand (or only in Bangkok) including contacts (email addresses at best) and other details. I'm new to Thailand and need it for a quick reference. Having quickly tried to google it but i can't seem to find what i need.

much appreciate

Sorry, this isn't a pissing contest. You asked us what we thought you should do and what we thought of your chances, and I have told you so very directly. If you are one of those non-native speakers who is deluded about your abilities, it is your own problem (and a very sad one). I'm sure there are mistakes in what I write on here (which, as with you, is not representative of my best efforts); I am equally sure that my writing clearly indicates a high level of native proficiency. Yours doesn't; and when I correct grammar and usage I get paid. Happy to discuss my rates by PM if you'd like. As a starter, try copying and pasting your material into Microsoft Word first and let it show you some of your basic spelling mistakes and other basic errors.

Let me ask you. Was I the one who started to piss all around? I just simply asked a question towards non-native speakers. You should have more respect, mister. I do not really have time to react to your resentful posts.

P.S: I start questioning your English proficiency (see bellow)

You quoted: Happy to discuss my rates by PM if you'd like.

The correct form: Happy to discuss my rates by PM if you like.

Isn't it paradoxical?

hi, jirikoo,

Since you asked us to help point out any errors in your writing style, I will try to do so less directly than IJWT has, without mentioning my hourly rate.

I beg to differ. Most of native speakers just DO NOT have a better command of English syntax than non-natives.

Here, you overstate your position. You would make a better argument by using qualifying statements, such as "In my experience as an EFL teacher, I have noticed that many native speakers who are not teachers, and some native speaking EFL teachers, do not have a better command..." Also, we never say "most of native speakers." We either say, 'most native speakers' or 'most of the native speakers.'

From my perspective, I dare say, my lexis is richer and grammar a lot better than an ordinary ESL teacher's. The same applies to Germans, Slovakians and other Europeans who study or study to teach English.

You dare to say you have a larger vocabulary of English than an ordinary ESL teacher? I seriously doubt that. I suspect that your experience may be limited to your TEFL class fellow students, and a limited number of lower-level native teachers of EFL you have met in the bars or at lower level schools. Now, even some better-educated natives with huge working vocabularies may not be able to clearly explain, on the sperm of the moment, the differences between while and during, or conversant and conversational. But usually, overall, the non-native often has a working vocab that is far less than a well educated native.

Supposing, you, for some reason, start to learn my mother tongue (Czech) and gradually measure up to a certain level. After that your grammar will be far more developed than mine, in spite of being a native speaker. It is pure and simple: I learnt my language's morphology, sentence structure, etymology and so forth last time 23 years ago. Nativer speakers use their language automaticaly without thinking and analysing ...

Natives - Czech, Thais, Americans, Brits, Welsh - are taught grammar as infants, children, and teenagers. However, English grammar teaching has been largely neglected for at least sixty years. Therefore, most native speakers cannot distinguish details, such as the perfect tense and a participle. But when we start earning salaries to teach EFL, we surely should sharpen our grammar well enough to explain the tenses, prepositional phrases, punctuation, etc.

Again, if you think most native-speaking EFL teachers in Thailand speak, write and teach poorly, you might find a pub where the international school teachers hang out. Or at least, EFL teachers who earn over 35K per month at EP and bilingual schools. Thanks for listening. Good luck. Please feel free to respond online or by PM. You make some good points.

...are you off to a hair-splitting convention? I didn't mean to attack/offend anyone and never ever did, so please let's all loosen up.

Incidentally, after skimming your post, I may say that the word vocabulary is a mass noun so we cannot say a large vocabulary or vocabularies. Moreover, the verb dare is commonly used in either lexical or modal (auxiliary) form, therefore you can easily create a question by inversion if you want...;-)

Most of native speakers, see: http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&amp...sa=N&tab=wp

What do you know about me? How long do you think I have studied the language? Anyway, I've never said that non-native ESL teachers have a better command of English. What I said was, that the level of grammar (definition, terminology, etc.) of the ordinary native speakers - teachers does not measure up to the level of those who are proficient non-native speakers.

Nobody is infallible, though.

I think it's fair to say that when schools request that applicants are native speakers they expect their first language to be English. I am from England and am currently working as an English Teacher and I am the only native English speaker, the other x3 English Teachers are from the Philippines. I don't pretend to be an expert on the English language & grammar and don't have a PhD in Linguistics but I don't need to be, I teach basic English Conversation to 8-12 year olds. But I do think that if English is your first language and one that you have spoken all your life it is definitely an advantage over someone whose first language isn't English. The Filipinos at my school are good at English but far from perfect, they make numerous mistakes with pronunciation and grammar every day when talking to me and also when teaching/talking to the students. I know this isn't the case at every school and there are many good NNS who are teaching English but IMHO I think it's more likely that a native speaker would make a better English teacher than a NNS.

I think you're probably right, all things being equal (relevant qualifications and/or experience, teaching ability, personal qualities, etc).

Assuming these things are equal, the native speaker has what has been labelled "authenticity of language" - an important attribute for a teacher of English. However, if you have a trained, experienced, pedagogically able and English-competent teacher who is also a native speaker of the students' first language, you have a very valuable asset. That teacher hasn't the same "language authenticity", but has "pedagogical authenticity". He or she knows what it's like for, say, a Thai student to learn English.

Unfortunately, there aren't many of these people around. There probably aren't all that many other NNS (outside some near balanced-bilingual Europeans - Dutch, Finns, etc.) from other nations either that fit that profile, but there are quite a few that are quite competent both as speakers and teachers.

A good teacher who is also a native speaker (and whose language ability is suited to teaching) clearly has an advantage over a good teacher who is not native and whose English ability is less than fully "authentic". However, the latter can do a very good job teaching the content areas (e.g. Maths) in English.

I agree, in a perfect world an English teacher would be able to speak their student's first language proficiently as well as being a fluent English speaker but, like you said yourself, these types of people are few and far between, especially in Thailand. And as this website is predominantly used by people living/working in Thailand I think we should concentrate on Thailand and the truth is that the average Thai students English is usually quite poor. A native English speaker who is also a qualified teacher in their home country is more than likely going to seek employment at one of the international schools paying a significantly higher wage than the 25-30,000 Baht that most government or bilingual schools currently pay or even go elsewhere in Asia like many are doing so. So that leaves us with the other type of people, like myself, who I believe are the majority of people currently teaching in Thailand, who are not qualified Teachers in their own country but, as a native English speaker, have one distinct advantage over a NNS whether you agree or not. So when schools ask for a native English speaker it is because that persons English is more than likely going to be of a higher standard than a NNS, we all know that isn't always true but surely you can understand that the odds are that a native English speaker will probably have a better command of the English language, grammar and pronunciation than a NNS.

I beg to differ. Most of native speakers just DO NOT have a better command of English syntax than non-natives.

From my perspective, I dare say, my lexis is richer and grammar a lot better than an ordinary ESL teacher's. The same applies to Germans, Slovakians and other Europeans who study or study to teach English.

Supposing, you, for some reason, start to learn my mother tongue (Czech) and gradually measure up to a certain level. After that your grammar will be far more developed than mine, in spite of being a native speaker. It is pure and simple: I learnt my language's morphology, sentence structure, etymology and so forth last time 23 years ago. Nativer speakers use their language automaticaly without thinking and analysing syntax, terminology etc.

Other parts of systems of liguistics such as phonology and phonetics as well as the English language skills (productive ans receptive) are already a different subject, in which native speakers obviously dominate.

OP, to the extent that this country has a large number of Thai English teachers who can barely hold a basic conversation, I agree with you that there is a place for you somewhere in the TEFL world here. However, your OP itself reveals so many basic errors that I am sure the Thai students in the better EP programs- and even in some of the better regular programs- (and of course the international schools) would notice them, and that would be the end of you at those schools (and quite rightly so). Stick to teaching younger students or in more rural parts of Thailand, or in the richer private schools for dumb rich kids- but don't fool yourself that not being a native speaker has made no noticeable difference in how you communicate. If you were to work on your English- perhaps by further ongoing study, though the level at which you need improvement is high school, not tertiary, work- then you might have further options.

On a more practical note, if I were you I would look for any job ads offering less than 25K for a native speaker, anywhere. Ads in such ignorance of the marketplace reveal a management that is so out-of-touch that they will be forced to settle for anyone who can produce a fair bit of anything they might recognise as English.

I realise that this post may seem a bit cynical, but I think it's an accurate depiction of the OP's situation.

Dear Ijustwannateach, will you do me a favor and correct my "basic mistakes" that you found in my original post? I acknowledge some interpunctions and articles missing, but that is that. My post might not have sounded as well natural since i typed it quickly and did not do proofreading. You don't want me to go back and revise all your posts for grammatical errors, do you?

Thanks for taking your time, anyway. Hold fast, my friend.

jirikoo

But over here we have teachers ( english ) they come from India, Phillipines,Malaysia, and other countries. Ok pick on me but I can't understand any of them

Pick on you?

You ought to spell English with a capital E and the Philippines with a single L and with a double P. You shouldn't leave a space before or after the word that you have enclosed in the parenthesis. Ok should be written as OK or okay.

You are making a generalization here.

If you can't understand ANY of US then there might be something wrong with YOU.

did Fred say he was a teacher or a native speaker? I would just condone his errors. Nobody is perfect. (Gee, how I detest this phrase)

Hi teachers,

sorry for coming back, rehashing back and forth the same questions.

well, i am new to this forum as you may have learnt and still balancing my teaching prospects in Thailand.

After I have done a little random research of ads on ajarn.com and herein and I am becoming a bit sceptical.

The majority of the employers obviously require a degree and being a native speaker. The former's quite undisputable and I got already some info about that. The latter is still a pain in the neck.

Are here on this forum any non-native English speakers who taught, teach or are about to teach in Thailand and are in similar situation? If so, please I would like to know your experience or any comments.

No whining, I am just serious about teaching English in Thailand and will do my best to land job in Thailand.

Hello again,

I am starting to organize my trip to Thailand. You might have made of my last posts on this forum that I am looking to doing some teaching job while there.

Although, for this once, I'm seeking information on something else:

1) I am about to book an air-fare ticket. Forgive me this, trivial for someone, question. Is there any chance to book only one-way ticket? I might hold either "non-immigration B visa" or "double-entry tourist visa". If not, what about open ticket? How does work out?

2) Last time when I lived in Bangkok, I stayed in a 'hostel' on Kao San Road. This time I am after something more comfortable and more suitable for my potential needs of lessons preparations. Therefore, small rental appartment, studio, condo, etc. all will do. It could be share accommodation if this element exists in Thailand. How should I find it - websites or right on the spot once I am there?

Where should I start, anyway? How much can i expect to pay (share / short term own unit...)

My target areas are Sukhumvit district, area around the Victory Monument or around Kao San Road (its pretty rough to stay right therein) or actually anywhere else.

Thanks a lot for any contribution

thanks guys for your words of advice

so far, it has been the most useful information

could you tell me if i am supposed to leave THAI upon applying for the visa? I read somehwere that you can actually do it from Thailand (eg.: BKK)

Hi to everyone,

I fell in love with Thailand on my last visit and want to come back. So I've decided to set off sometimes around April or so.

My priority is to take a break and get away from and after the European winter, but as im a certified ESL teacher I am thinking of landing a teaching job once there.

The drawback is that I am 'only' a Czech, thus non-native English speaker and hold no uni degree. I live now back in CZ and start arranging for the trip including visa.

What is the best strategy to take? I have got a couple of questions that may sound silly (sorry for them upfront)

1) Should I try to arrange/apply for the work offshore while still in CZ before I fly out to Thailand?

Considering my education and nationality, it seems I have only a dog's chance to get successfully through an application process - is that right? I know, I can find out from the local embassy but I want to be ready before I call at their office. What kind of visa should I enquire after? What 'story' am I to come up with?

2) Or..., another option is to fly to Bangkok on tourist visa, turn up in some of Bangkok's schools and possibly get a teaching job. Then, if accepted, fly out, apply for visa and come back? May I apply for visa while in Thailand (Bangkok)?

Be sure, I am heading to Thailand in any case - if unsuccessful in teaching, I'll just do some travel and most importantly enjoy the sun!

Please clarify this for me,

The warmest regards