Thais pretending to be Filipino foreign language teachers is widespread, Thai media

[Robin]

Why do Thais think that anyone who can speak English can teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL)?  it is a skill that has to be learned, normally after taking a general teaching diploma.

As an English man living in Thailand, married to a Thai, I have often been approached by local schools or even Thai students, asking me to teach English.  Local school even offered to pay a alary and get work permit.

Protesting that I am not a teacher only get me thought of as 'unhelpful.'  

Attempting to teach friends of Khun Wife was not a success as I did no know what I was doing, but Thais continue to believe that as I am a native English speaker I can miraculously transfer that skill to them.  often without the Thai pupil needing to do any studying.

Attempts to help Thai pupils with their English homework only result in student leaving me with the work and they watch TV.  I despair of the standard of teaching of EFL in Thailand.  There needs to be a change of approach from the top.  To start with there should be definitive text books for the course, designed to teach English to Thais.

 

[Cake Monster]

Thais over time have been caught trying impersonate Doctors, Nurses, Dentists Etc

So why not Teachers ?

Any occupation seems to be fair game to these losers, who dont care about the possible consequences of their actions 

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

I am from Prathet Scandinavia maybe I can get a job in Thailand teaching French? They will not understand that I can't speak French.  

[DavisH]

"Thais pretending to be Filipino teachers is widespread". Having taught here for 20 years I have neither seen nor heard of this occuring. Post pandemic, perhaps. But generally, Finipino teachers are easy to fnd here. Any Thai who can speak english as well as a fluent Filipino speaker, can earm more money in other endeavours here. I'm sure parents and the students would soon see a charlatan after conversing with them. 

[Don Wood]

    Now lots of dodgy agencies that recruit unqualified "teachers" are posting that they are accredited by the MOE. Is the MOE aware of this ? Are they really trying to legitimize these corrupt schools and agencies ?

  Would someone please clarify how these agencies obtain these so called accreditation's ? Maybe someone from the MOE would like to comment ?    ;-)

[KhunFred]

I had a snooty ex-girlfriend who really looked down on Filipinos. She said that was common in Thailand. She didn't have many good things to say about Laotians and Cambodians, either.????

[Ventenio]

1 hour ago, Robin said:

Thais continue to believe that as I am a native English speaker I can miraculously transfer that skill to them. 

The people offering you the "job" as a "teacher" knows they can make more money with a native teacher.  It's good marketing.  Parents are happy.  It's a business, like hiring a professional football player to teach football to 200 kids a day and only has about twenty minutes a day.  A few kids learn, most don't, but nobody's upset.  yes, a massive waste of time on your part.  

 

i've seen backpackers go to school and speak to the whiteboard.  they still lasted a month.  another "teacher" talked so quiet nobody heard them.  he lasted two months.  and the vast amount of "teachers" who have NEVER taken one class on education.  but nobody cares about that.....lol

 

most do it for the visa.  

 

and i've never seen a teacher try to help kids write so this style right here would be appropriate which of course it's horrible but i'm anonymous and don't care right now.  it's all about just having them hear you talk and then they talk; however, try doing that with 40 kids.  especially without a teacher helping you and five kids in the back who aren't really paying attention.  you end up talking to the same 5-10 kids every class.  then you give them a speaking test and it's amazing how little they actually absorbed.  so back to the drawing board since you never studied anything that had to do with education.   

 

i'm retired.  

 

i can't imagine some kid in his 20's wasting a good chance at a real job to come and waste their time at a school.   there aren't many, so you get a lot from Africa and the Philippines who make more in Thailand and all they need to do is speak English better than a Thai teacher.  

Edited October 4, 2020 by Ventenio

[paulbj2]

1 hour ago, Fex Bluse said:

Plus Thais look down on Indians. The Chinese beat the Indians in southeast Asia. Half of Thai culture comes from India (including the MOST SACRED Thai traditions), but 99% of Thais I've met look down on them. Funny people 

...and Indians in turn look down on black Africans. In Delhi, if you're black, Indians will scratch their armpits and make "monkey" noises at you as you walk down the street!

[BritManToo]

22 hours ago, rkidlad said:

they thought parents, and fellow Thai teachers, wouldn’t be too happy if they knew a half Thai was making a farang salary. 

Foreign teachers get a lot less than Thai teachers IMHO.

No pension, rarely social security, short-term contracts, no access to the cheap loans, no health insurance for kids/spouse/parents.

Edited October 4, 2020 by BritManToo

[thecyclist]

5 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

There were a couple of Africans teaching English at our local school, at least Thais could not pretend to be one of them ????

Actually, some Isanites or Thais from the deep south are so dark-skinned, they might be able to pull it off. 

[djayz]

22 hours ago, baansgr said:

Although Asian...Thais and Filipinas are easily told apart. Mannerisms, skin tone, facial features and accents. No way could a Thai pass off as a Filipina.

Maybe people like you and me, who've been around the block a few times, would pick up on this, but, the majority of these people haven't left their hometowns/villages or provinces. Practically zero contact with the outside world. They'd never cop the difference. 

[Grusa]

22 hours ago, cjinchiangrai said:

What about the Russian English teachers posing as Brits for a lot more money?

 

They should let the retirees teach part time, except the Scots. ????

Whit? Hoots mon, ma Aberdonian accent is unco better than ony sassenach. Ah dinny think ye wid ken ony diff'rence 'tween masel' and Queen Lizzie or her ilk. An, ye ken whit, there's mony a Fifer who wid leave me to shame. Rabbie, the Bard, spoke the finest English ever, an' it's 'mortalised in yon sang, ye al ken it, "For auld lang syne".

Ah huv bin wantin' tae post this link fur an age, but niver been gi'en the appertunity, please enjoy!

 

[Albert Zweistein]

23 hours ago, Blumpie said:

Anyone english teach can.  Sentences can get in structure, and then you can speak it now.

Happily, all enjoying can english teach.  

Thank you all and happy day.  

I am not surprised about the article reading your post.

[Albert Zweistein]

22 hours ago, cjinchiangrai said:

If they are serious about teaching everyone English, they should hire from India. They could get certified teachers for Thai wages that speak English very well. The accent is a little odd but nobody would know and English speakers don't care that much anyway.

A LITTLE od ?

[Albert Zweistein]

7 hours ago, thecyclist said:

Disguise as a Brit :the Farang look could be a problem, the accent is easy: pretend to be from Yorkshire, nobody can understand their English anyway, if you wanna call it English 

What about Cockney ?

[StayinThailand2much]

3 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

It's just to make money.  Has nothing to do with actually wanting to be from the other country or feeling any shame.

Everyone gets a cut and is happy. All Thais know that foreign teachers, at least at government schools, are paid (on paper) a salary of "60,000 baht+" thanks to the government. In reality, however, the salaries are more in the range of 20,000 (Filipinos) to 35,000 baht (Caucasians). The rest finds its way into the deep pockets of shady agencies, school directors and administrators, as well as corrupt immigration officials... Everyone wins! And the cheaper and less qualified the teachers are, the better, as salaries can be lowered, leaving more profit for the other parties to take advantage of.

[Ventenio]

42 minutes ago, StayinThailand2much said:

All Thais know that foreign teachers, at least at government schools, are paid (on paper) a salary of "60,000 baht+" thanks to the government.

no transparency on this one.  i heard the schools can only pay up to 48,000 for a foreign teacher.   i have no idea if this is true.  Are you 100% sure about the 60,000 number?

 

if looking for a job, always ask for more.  you can usually get above 40,000.  

[johnray]

This is a real thing.  If you say you are from England or USA you will be ignored by many schools.  If you put Filipino they are all over you.

[from the home of CC]

On 10/3/2020 at 8:33 PM, baansgr said:

Although Asian...Thais and Filipinas are easily told apart. Mannerisms, skin tone, facial features and accents. No way could a Thai pass off as a Filipina.

When my wife and I were in western Canada there were many times when we were served by Filipinas in fast food restaurants and they would address my wife in their language believing her to be a compatriot - she's South Thai..

[BangkokReady]

5 hours ago, Fex Bluse said:

Half of Thai culture comes from India (including the MOST SACRED Thai traditions),

I think it might be more accurate to say that they share an origin, rather than anything coming from India itself.

[whaleboneman]

Four hundred and eleven teachers at one school??? This whole article is suspect.

[briansbiology]

On 10/3/2020 at 8:10 PM, steven100 said:

Thais caught cheating and lying ......    who would have ever thought that   !!

you have one of them in your profile pic. 

[rkidlad]

13 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Foreign teachers get a lot less than Thai teachers IMHO.

No pension, rarely social security, short-term contracts, no access to the cheap loans, no health insurance for kids/spouse/parents.

Sure, but that's looking at the bigger picture.

 

All the parents will care about is that they're paying for a whitey and getting a Thai face. And as for the Thai teachers, all they'll see is a half Thai teacher being paid maybe 40k a month with less of a workload. 

 

 

 

[BritManToo]

20 minutes ago, briansbiology said:

you have one of them in your profile pic. 

I've got one of them in my bed.

[TonBrow]

On 10/3/2020 at 8:33 PM, baansgr said:

Although Asian...Thais and Filipinas are easily told apart. Mannerisms, skin tone, facial features and accents. No way could a Thai pass off as a Filipina.

From my experience teaching in Thailand, Thai students don't pay attention to foreign teachers. So, as long as they were told by a Thai school teacher or administrator that their teacher is Filipino, they will never notice.

[BTB1977]

Was introduced to my nieces Philippino teacher once. I tried to have a conversation with him for about 5 minutes. He didn't understand me and I didn't have a clue what he was saying. 

[thaibook]

On 10/3/2020 at 7:05 AM, samsensam said:

 

can you tell the difference between someone from france and quebec speaking french? differentiate between spanish spanish, peruvian spanish, argentine spanish, chilian spanish? unless you're a native speaker or fluent (proficient maybe) speaker you wont be able to differentiate accents.

It is not just the accent.  Word use is different as is sentence structure.  Malaysians and Singaporeans frequently add "la" in their conversations, a Philippino never says "old chap", a Indian may speak well, although many do not, but is likely to be found out by his nodding head.  And then the critical test would be the teacher's knowledge of cricket and rugby.  Almost all self-respecting native English speakers would be able to talk about one or the other of these two sports - Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, South Africans, West Indians, Canadians (perhaps), Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, etc - with the possible exception of Americans but perhaps they do not speak English either.  

[anterian]

I am always puzzled by this talk of teaching certificate/license, I am a UK retired teacher, head of department. I have no document to prove this other than my monthly teacher's pension, but if not retired I would not have this. A British school can verify me via the department of Education. What does a Thai school do?

 

[FarangULong]

On 10/3/2020 at 4:25 PM, Almudena said:

Regarding Spanish, after a while of living in spain and learning the language, you do start to recognize the regional accents and the South American different accents too.  

While I most likely can't tell apart the various S. American country accents, I can definitely tell apart Spanish and those from Spanish speaking countries. The most easily distinguishable feature, is how the Spanish say S (ie "Sevilla").

 

Then there are idioms, ie Mexicans say stuff like "Vete a la verga", whereas non Mexicans would probably substitute "vete" with "chupa". Then again those don't come up as much in normal conversation, but since I'm not nearly fluent enough in Spanish (I can speak it only somewhat, I can understand a lot more than I can speak, let alone write), it was the first thing that came to mind, lol. I apologize.

 

As for Quebecois and French, they're not particularly hard to differentiate either, and I'm definitely not a native speaker. Quebecois speak WAY more nasally, the vowels are pronounced differently, etc. In fact the difference is bigger, than it is with British and US English.

 

As for whoever said, that Thais and Philippinos are easily distinguishable by skin tone, facial features, etc., that's imo not so true. Maybe if you've lived there for ages. There are plenty of brown, as well as light skin Pinoys/Pinays. Same for Thais. And for both you have plenty of ppl using skin whitening creams and other procedures. There's also a variety of facial features. Some have features similar to Europeans (not the eyes, obviously, I mean noses, etc.), others have more "negroid" (for a lack of better term, I don't mean to offend, feel free to edit, mod) features (thicker lips, broader noses/thick nose tips, etc.).

 

It's far easier to distinguish Koreans, Japanese, Chinese from Thais, Pinoys, etc. In fact I have an easier time to tell Koreans (even though plenty of Chinese claim Koreans are all Han anyway, yet to me they look closer to the Japanese, and their languages - to a non speaker - sound much more alike than either Korean or Japanese, compared to Mandarin, Cantonese, Fouzhounese, etc.. although now I can - sometimes - tell Korean and Japanese language apart) and Japanese apart from Chinese, than Pinoys from Thais. But I guess that's subjective, as are most things.

 

 

As for the topic itself, that's hilarious. It's probably not even a bad idea (if the teacher is reasonably sufficient, that is, and it isn't just an attempt to extricate more money from the parents/students, believing they'll get a better English teacher), considering I've previously said in another topic, that immersion is key to learning languages. Holding the class exclusively in the language to be taught, forces the pupil to rely less on their native tongue. I know the usual nay sayers will mimimi, saying "it's easier for Europeans to learn English bla bla", and while that is true, I still stick with what I'm saying. If Mongolians, Nepalese, and other "exotic" nationalities/ethnicities can learn French reasonably fast that way (as per my then example of the French Foreign Legion), then it should work for Thais as well, esp. considering that English is a rather simplistic language, compared to most European languages (esp. conjugation).

 

However I do think, it would be a good idea to allow retirees to earn an extra buck (if they choose to do so), provided they have sufficient grasp of the language.

[Rhys]

Sadly, the English Language Teaching will always remain buried in well meaning inept Thai So call Educational Adminstrators.  A good English Teacher is universal, training, education, and the degrees...improve the capacities.  Many fine English teachers about.... Retired teachers, some would never want to return to the ungrateful students, and coworkers and the 30k.