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

[ParkerN]

20 hours ago, RotBenz8888 said:

Sure they're any that wanna come?

There'll always be a few backpackers that won't mind the spending time required to get a TEFL licence. No problem with getting a teaching job with one of those.

 

I've taught in Thailand, something I'll never do again, not ever; and I imagine I'm not alone...

[allenberg]

4 hours ago, sahibji said:

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

Yes! They also capitalize proper nouns, and the first word of a sentence, unlike some folks.

[AmericanSafety]

The amount Thai schools pay for foreign teachers, they’ll only get backpackers for that. 

[Hubble]

4 hours ago, sahibji said:

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

Are you suggesting that only English people can speak good English? Are you referring to those from Yorkshire? London? Somerset? Three dialects as diverse as those from Australia, the US or Canada.

[Odysseus123]

2 minutes ago, AmericanSafety said:

The amount Thai schools pay for foreign teachers, they’ll only get backpackers for that. 

No..they don't even get many backpackers anymore for the simple reason that the "backpacker" culture is fading fast in Thailand and not in favour anyway.

[lovethai123]

1 minute ago, Odysseus123 said:

No..they don't even get many backpackers anymore for the simple reason that the "backpacker" culture is fading fast in Thailand and not in favour anyway.

Backpackers teach for free to the Cambodian children and they work really hard. May be Thailand is missing on something. Why dont same young Western backpackers teach thai kids for free? 

 

 

[ChipButty]

I knew an English teacher she was Thai and worked in some collage up in Loei and she spoke with this awful American accent I felt sorry for her students and she couldn't understand me properly had to talk slow, Im English 

[Odysseus123]

1 minute ago, lovethai123 said:

Backpackers teach for free to the Cambodian children and they work really hard. May be Thailand is missing on something. Why dont same young Western backpackers teach thai kids for free? 

 

 

Because they can't.

[ChipButty]

1 minute ago, lovethai123 said:

Backpackers teach for free to the Cambodian children and they work really hard. May be Thailand is missing on something. Why dont same young Western backpackers teach thai kids for free? 

 

 

Cannot work for Free in Thailand, still need work permits 

[lovethai123]

1 minute ago, ChipButty said:

I knew an English teacher she was Thai and worked in some collage up in Loei and she spoke with this awful American accent I felt sorry for her students and she couldn't understand me properly had to talk slow, Im English 

I remember a thai teacher from Bangkok , who offered to be my girlfriend  at a salary of 20000 thb every month. So if the teachers are like this what values are they imparting in young pupils. No wonder there is never a shortage of girls in bars. 

[Tchooptip]

So a non-Thai teacher is supposed to be able to live on 30,000Baht per month but retirees cannot have less than 65,000Baht per month... the usual logic in LOS!

[lovethai123]

2 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Cannot work for Free in Thailand, still need work permits 

Ain't it stupid. these young backpackers especially young Western males and females would work really hard to teach kids some English. 

 

No matter they have a college degree or not? If they come from an English speaking country they can teach basic English. I understand in cambodia they are doing it as a volunteer work.  

 

Something thais can learn from their darker skinned neighbours.

 

 

[ParkerN]

11 minutes ago, Hubble said:

Are you suggesting that only English people can speak good English? Are you referring to those from Yorkshire? London? Somerset? Three dialects as diverse as those from Australia, the US or Canada.

It's true that native English speakers from Europe appear to be most favoured, followed by Aussies. It may or may not be true that their English skills are better than those from Canada or USA, but in Thailand, it doesn't have to be true to be sincerely believed. And acted upon.

[Assurancetourix]

28 minutes ago, Monkeycity said:

They need to be taught bilingually, where they are taught science, maths or a couple important subjects in English. Just having a few English lessons a week is not enough. It needs to be 50/50 if you want good English speakers.

Howcome Scandinavians can speak English almost perfectly?

It's very simple, foreign films that appear on Danish or Dutch or Swedish TV or ..they are always in VO with sometimes subtitling in the language of the country.
So if you want to understand the film, you have to start learning the language concerned: French, German, English, Spanish, Korean (I love Korean cinema), etc ... at school or on your own ...

When the American films which the Thais are fond of , will be in American and not double in Thai, you will see that the Thai will start learning English ...

 

But as the good general keeps repeating that Thailand is the center of the world and the Thai language is the best in the world.
It's not win ...

[robsamui]

20 hours ago, darksidedog said:

This subject comes round and round and never gets anywhere because they are not prepared to pay the money required to get decent staff. They always cheap out and employ those for whom English is often a second or third language. The other issue of course is one of face and paying a farang more than Thai teachers who in their minds are superior causes a problem. Those looking for teaching work need not get excited. This will go no further than the countless identical promises made over the years and the kids in ten years still won't be able to speak English to anything close to an acceptable standard.

POINT 1
Thailand would do well to take a peek at what's happening in Vietnam, where (unlike Thailand) the populace is keen to learn English. There is a huge subculture of small private language schools - many of them not properly registered and not declaring taxes. These schools are paying bottom dollar to their 'teachers' - many of these are not native English-speakers (Russians, Italians, French), are barely literate and have no formal teaching qualifications.

Which is EXACTLY what Thailand is going to get if they offer an unrealistic salary to these proposed new teachers

POINT 2
The government has done such a good job with its unofficial 'anti-farang' campaign that none of the kids now coming through school can see any point in learning English.

POINT 3
As long as the Thai school system continues to give free exam passes to anyone who (basically) isn't continually absent, nothing is going to motivate Thai kids or make them learn how to study. Education can't move forward until day comes that Thai schools and teachers start marking and grading their students accurately according to their achievement, and actually FAILING students for under-performing.

 

POINT 4
The entire basis of 'Loss of Face' in Thai society has to change right the way across the board before the standard of English teaching can be realistically addressed - along with many other inadequacies.

 

And that's not going to happen for a very long time.

 

Edited February 16, 2020 by robsamui

[melvinmelvin]

 

I'm a relatively experienced teacher, not languages though, other subjects.

For the salary that I understand foreign teachers are offered in Thailand I would not lift a finger.

 

There is one issue that surprises me (and annoys me a bit) every time this "learn English" issue surfaces;

Why the strong focus on native speakers? What is really the point of this?

The important part here must be degree of command of languages and the ability to teach, me thinks.

 

Looking out the window;

there is an awful lot of teaching of foreign languages going in most of the world,

a very very small percentage is done by native speakers.

 

[ChipButty]

16 minutes ago, lovethai123 said:

Ain't it stupid. these young backpackers especially young Western males and females would work really hard to teach kids some English. 

 

No matter they have a college degree or not? If they come from an English speaking country they can teach basic English. I understand in cambodia they are doing it as a volunteer work.  

 

Something thais can learn from their darker skinned neighbours.

 

 

Thailand being the center of the universe its not happening

[ChipButty]

14 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

It's very simple, foreign films that appear on Danish or Dutch or Swedish TV or ..they are always in VO with sometimes subtitling in the language of the country.
So if you want to understand the film, you have to start learning the language concerned: French, German, English, Spanish, Korean (I love Korean cinema), etc ... at school or on your own ...

When the American films which the Thais are fond of , will be in American and not double in Thai, you will see that the Thai will start learning English ...

 

But as the good general keeps repeating that Thailand is the center of the world and the Thai language is the best in the world.
It's not win ...

He said the whole world will be speaking Thai in the next ten years

[Assurancetourix]

3 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

He said the whole world will be speaking Thai in the next ten years

He must have been wrong; I think that within 5 to 10 years it will be Chinese which will be mainly spoken in Thailand since this country will have become a Chinese province as are almost Laos and Cambodia

[tomauasia]

They won't pay enough. Nobody will be interested 

[Selatan]

Like I have said before - get Chinese Malaysians to become teachers in Thailand. They can teach English, Chinese and also Malay (Southern Thai people speaks a form of Malay).

[ParkerN]

29 minutes ago, lovethai123 said:

Ain't it stupid. these young backpackers especially young Western males and females would work really hard to teach kids some English. 

 

No matter they have a college degree or not? If they come from an English speaking country they can teach basic English. I understand in cambodia they are doing it as a volunteer work.  

 

Something thais can learn from their darker skinned neighbours.

 

 

I've never really understood the child-like assumption made by lots of Thais that a degree in English is a reasonable qualification to be a teacher of English language in Thailand. I don't know if it's still the same now, but post-GCSE English always used to focus on English literature not English language. I would have thought a teaching degree would be much more useful, but then I have no idea how many backpackers would have a teaching degree.

 

 

[tonray]

2 hours ago, DiJoDavO said:

An English teacher here has almost no work to do AND gets about 2x higher salary than a Thai teacher which works way harder compared to a foreigner.

????????????????

In many schools, the foreign teachers are assigned 18-22+ contact hours where the Thai teachers are doing 12-15 per week. Now granted the Thai teachers have other ceremonial obligations, meetings, putting on the dress uniform after hours..etc etc. But their teaching workload is generally less.

Edited February 16, 2020 by tonray

[ben2talk]

Fantastic. I remember a friend of mine working in a school with about 12 teachers, averaging between 38 and 42k.

Over a couple of years the holidays were mostly revised - apparently it's best for them to sit in school rewriting their curriculum (basically copied from the contents page of whatever books the school provided).

Some five years later they were all replaced with English teachers from agencies earning around 21 to 24k per month....

So apparently this kind of publicity is an excellent way of bringing in excellent teachers to teach English at lower prices.

I guess by now the salary should be down to about 10k per month with a free sleeping bag thrown in and bus fare home at the end of term...

[paulikens]

as long as you're under 25 and good looking <deleted>

Edited February 16, 2020 by paulikens

[tonray]

4 minutes ago, ben2talk said:

Fantastic. I remember a friend of mine working in a school with about 12 teachers, averaging between 38 and 42k.

Over a couple of years the holidays were mostly revised - apparently it's best for them to sit in school rewriting their curriculum (basically copied from the contents page of whatever books the school provided).

Some five years later they were all replaced with English teachers from agencies earning around 21 to 24k per month....

So apparently this kind of publicity is an excellent way of bringing in excellent teachers to teach English at lower prices.

I guess by now the salary should be down to about 10k per month with a free sleeping bag thrown in and bus fare home at the end of term...

Exactly what happened to me...wanted me to switch from direct hire to new agency affiliation going from 40 down to 35...with fewer benefits....so the director could potentially leverage the deal....

Edited February 16, 2020 by tonray

[Cereal]

What they need are native English teachers with more or less neutral accents. South Africans are not native English speakers, none that I've ever met anyway. Nor are Filipinos native English speakers. Most Aussies, Kiwis and Brits speak with accents that are challenging for a Canadian or American to understand let alone a Thai child in school. 

 

Thailand needs Canadians and Americans to teach English and they need to pay better. Korea pays well and has incentives like free apartments and paid vacation, health plan and paid holidays etc. That's why all the folks who desire to move to Asia and teach ESL predominantly go to Korea. The huge majority of them would prefer to go to Thailand but it just isn't worth it. 1/2 the pay and no perks and benefits. 

[Thian]

3 hours ago, emptypockets said:

Pray tell me who actually speaks good English. Please don't say the English.

Ever spoken to a Yorkshire man, a Scouser, a Geordie or any one from Cornwall?

The Dutch speak good english like the Queen....hence they are the best of the world after the Singaporeans.

[randy723]

how much does it pay?

[ParkerN]

43 minutes ago, robsamui said:

POINT 1
Thailand would do well to take a peek at what's happening in Vietnam, where (unlike Thailand) the populace is keen to learn English. There is a huge subculture of small private language schools - many of them not properly registered and not declaring taxes. These schools are paying bottom dollar to their 'teachers' - many of these are not native English-speakers (Russians, Italians, French), are barely literate and have no formal teaching qualifications.

Which is EXACTLY what Thailand is going to get if they offer an unrealistic salary to these proposed new teachers

POINT 2
The government has done such a good job with its unofficial 'anti-farang' campaign that none of the kids now coming through school can see any point in learning English.

POINT 3
As long as the Thai school system continues to give free exam passes to anyone who (basically) isn't continually absent, nothing is going to motivate Thai kids or make them learn how to study. Education can't move forward until day comes that Thai schools and teachers start marking and grading their students accurately according to their achievement, and actually FAILING students for under-performing.

 

POINT 4
The entire basis of 'Loss of Face' in Thai society has to change right the way across the board before the standard of English teaching can be realistically addressed - along with many other inadequacies.

 

And that's not going to happen for a very long time.

 

 

Good points all. But. Thais know best. They've made this mistake before and they'll doubtless be straining at the leash to blindly make it again. Learning from mistakes is hard when you don't make any.

 

And this will be another repetition of the same mistake. Leopards don't change their spots, even as they trundle down the slippery slope towards inevitable extinction.

Edited February 16, 2020 by ParkerN