Thailand to recruit 10,000 foreign teachers to boost English standards of Thai kids

[toofarnorth]

14 hours ago, Ventenio said:

EXACTLY!!!  You get what you pay for...

 

AND everyone is sooo mad if you make 30,000, but then you look at the exams and find tons of mistakes.  Once I saw a school spell APPLE wrong on a massive poster.  APPEL.  Who OK'd this before printing?  LOL.   

 

Once I heard a teacher yell at her kids (she's NOT Thai, not Farang, do the math)....  If I say hi, you say HELLO not Hi.     ???????   

 

Then they go on their Facebook page and type, "Living in good place I eat food such wonderful."  How can you not laugh at this?  Definitely not an English teacher.  Hey, maybe a GREAT Teacher, but pick another subject.  

A few years ago there was a big do on the evening news.  Lots of stars , from TV as well as Thai pop stars etc.  The lady outfront as the stars were coming along was dressed to the nines , Behind was written  in large highlighted letters  ' Thai arwads of the year '. Me thinks it should of been 'Thai awards of the year '.  No award for English at this do.

[DrTuner]

Low cost flippers, most likely. 

[Dcheech]

We are going to be

 

A TEFL HUB ..................... WooHoo!

[DrTuner]

13 hours ago, Zillod said:

There are thousands of Farrangs in Thailand, with non imm visas that expressly state "no employment", which is fine.  However it also excludes unpaid voluntary work.  Thai schools tend to teach English as a collection of rules.  The missing link in the Thai school system is English conversation.  This is largely because of class sizes.  The large untapped resource of native English speaking Farrangs is always overlooked.

Can't have conversations with farangs, they got nasty ideas about democracy and other evil stuff like that.

[sahibji]

better later than never. while nationalism is important, english has its vital place now days.

are you recruiting some singapore. there are some excellent retirees who might be helpful.

[sahibji]

11 minutes ago, ehs818 said:

I think it is admirable for Thailand to want to improve the English skills of the students here. But adding only another 3,000 teachers to bring the total to 10,000 is woefully inadequate. It will be too little, and I fear too late, if more is not done soon. As for using 'native speakers', I would note that the country with more first language English speakers in world is India, and frankly I have a very difficult time understanding them. I'm an American. I think that utilizing teachers from Western Countries such as Canada, USA, England, Australia, and others, makes most sense. And this will cost more, but the benefits that come from being able to be well understood worldwide should be worth the additional expense. Provide decent housing with A/C, transportation and food allowance, PLUS a salary AND other perks to attract younger teachers with good teaching skills.

ehs818  are you serious? do you think americans, canadians and australians speak good english? i seriously doubt so.

[scorecard]

11 minutes ago, justin case said:

don't forget those thai teachers have jobs for life, whatever they do

 

borrow money like the sky is the limit

 

savings at 6 percent for deposits ...

 

a pension afterwards

 

sure you want to continue to complain and compare ?

I'm well aware of your point, there's still the point that the regular salary should be at a level comparable with other other professions. 

 

Another point is that so many teachers take out massive / multiple loans over 30, 40 etc., years, meaning that higher on-going funding throughout their working life is very expensive because of the overall massive amounts of interest paid.

 

Also in the picture is the other side of the loan scenario where lenders make massive gains through charging interest / exorbitant interest. 

 

 

[sahibji]

11 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Low cost flippers, most likely. 

pay peanut, get monkeys. it depends on the quality of teachers you need - there is a price for everything.

[jaffas21]

 

With regards to these 10,000 teachers they want, this is what will happen, more white non natives will be hired from eastern and mainland europe, more indians who are on holiday will decide they want to stay longer and will come and get jobs (they tend to be very qualified anyway) in all areas, their only barrier is language sometimes. They already have some sort of agreement to hire more filipinos so this will be expanded and more will come over, unless the filipino government give the teachers that payrise they have been promising for a long time.

More natives will come with short term agencies such as media kids who will stay for four months and be replaced this will make the figures look good as well. But any natives with brains will do the maths and realise you can't do any travelling after your contract is over on these salaries and not  bother. China pays a lot and even vietnam are slapping an extra 20,000 baht on salaries this is enough to save and have a good holiday when the chances come along. Holidays and money those are the real benefits of working ...if the kids are great to teach thats another benefit as well.

 

To get more teachers you need to up the salary modestly to 60k (many private schools could pay this). Offer a free flight home on renewal or not. Give a completion bonus like china vietnam so you can actually have a month off and then come back renewed and happy. I could go on. This is my personal experience of what is lacking after working in Thailand. After trying to go on holiday with my gf three times the same thing happens each time. Not enough money to do anything. Why do you think young teachers come here or even those in 30's and 40's its not to retire, they want to have fun and travel.

 

Thats how you get  more teachers .. my advice get TAT to organise it. The best advert i ever saw had a sexy thai government teacher .. on page two of the website .. come work for us and get a sexy girlfriend .. classic

[sahibji]

16 hours ago, RotBenz8888 said:

Sure they're any that wanna come?

depends on the carrot! peanuts will not do.

[sahibji]

16 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

Another roundabout way of getting rid of some westerners !

three years is too short a span. i would think one school generation ( number of years to graduate) will do not job provided the momentum is maintained. 

[herwin1234]

i was an English teacher for abrief period. The problem is not a lack of English teachers, its the schoolsystem itself. Students are encouraged to study together as oposed to study individually. If a student doesnt know something, just ask somebody who knows. This is encouraged. The most important is to get the right answer on the test, so the school can present nice results from their students. 

It really sucks for the few students who do seriously study english. 

 

[LawrenceN]

The article states he talked to embassies. That would be the way to request those other nations' volunteer services (such as the US Peace Corps) to be involved. I know the Peace Corps is still active in Thailand. Not sure about CUSO (Canada), or the Brits or Aussies. 

[HuaHinHim]

The foreign principal at my daughters school that has Cambridge accreditation told me that he won’t display the accreditation because there’s a push to charge a lot more money if it is, and he said he could not justify it. So how are schools going to pay for these teachers? Only way I see it is to raise fees?

[donnacha]

14 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

Does using the word Farang make you think you can speak Thai? How about saying foreigners. 

Truly one of the more risible examples of virtue signaling I've seen on this forum.

1. Farang does not mean foreigner.

2. It is actually a Persian word that has been used for centuries in many different countries, cultures, and languages. It qualifies as an adopted word in the English language, with over a century of both common and print usage.

3. Practically everyone using this forum knows exactly what it means, no politically correct replacement comes anywhere close.

It depresses me that people increasingly feel it is acceptable to attack others to demonstrate their own virtue, and that they do so with so little hesitation and so little self-consciousness about how little they themselves know.

 

 

 

Edited February 16, 2020 by donnacha

[lumply]

16 hours ago, RotBenz8888 said:

Sure they're any that wanna come?

Wanna? Well that rules you out for starters

[DavisH]

Thailand should think carefully about their source of new teachers. 

http://factsmaps.com/pisa-2018-worldwide-ranking-average-score-of-mathematics-science-reading/

[Lacrimas]

LOL My wife is Thai, speaks perfect English, teaches English at a local high school and they pay her peanuts (15k). Start paying better your teachers and you will see better results. 

[spiekerjozef]

What's the point if you won't provide them a visa?

[mickey rat]

10,000? I didn't realize that the Philippines had so many available! 

[RedPill]

Policy U-turn from 2015, and the Thais teach English to Thais program.

 

2015 "BANGKOK: -- Although Thailand ranked at the very bottom of the English Proficiency Index by EF, the government's next move is to cut back on hiring foreign English teachers and have Thais teach English to Thais.

 

 

 

Edited February 16, 2020 by RedPill

[fxe1200]

Ten years ago I received 250THB for every hour of teaching in a private school. Trying to get a job at other schools was a complete waste of time, as I am NOT a native speaker, and would have been paid less than those teachers from Scotland and Wales with their wonderful pronunciation. It did not count, that I worked in the U.S. for a couple of years, or did professional translations of workshop manuals for VW and Renault, plus a diploma in social education, teaching experiences in Sweden, and so on.

 

Luckily I am in the position, that I do not have to teach, and with the salaries offered today, I doubt the government will find any professional staff.

 

 

[ChipButty]

Is China a better option for English teachers?

[KKr]

17 hours ago, spinner2020 said:

They'd be too expensive (fortunately!). Think Filipinos instead. "Native" speakers.

Indians are usually as bi-lingual similar to Pilopinos  !

[natway09]

You can lead a horse to water ,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Ventenio]

9 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Is China a better option for English teachers?

Wuhan is lovely this time of year.  

 

And Chinese teachers in Thai schools feel at home as everyone thinks they have Koorona (in Thai, it's a K, not a C).  

 

 

[toofarnorth]

My eldest daughter in England is a part time stand in teacher , she is going to university as well to become a full time teacher later this year.  I said ( as she like it here ) she could teach here. But with only knowing about 6 words of Thai now could she get by teaching  here without speaking Thai ? So my point is how many English teachers are fluent in Thai ?

[Grumpy John]

Indians and Filipinos to teach English......really!  What they really need is 3000 stralians as the spoken English in stralia is the purest English of them all! 

[toofarnorth]

7 minutes ago, Ventenio said:

Wuhan is lovely this time of year.  

 

And Chinese teachers in Thai schools feel at home as everyone thinks they have Koorona (in Thai, it's a K, not a C).  

 

 

Wuhan is indeed a lovely place , somewhere not to be sneezed at.

[sanemax]

1 minute ago, toofarnorth said:

My eldest daughter in England is a part time stand in teacher , she is going to university as well to become a full time teacher later this year.  I said ( as she like it here ) she could teach here. But with only knowing about 6 words of Thai now could she get by teaching  here without speaking Thai ? So my point is how many English teachers are fluent in Thai ?

Why would an English teacher need to be fluent in Thai ?