Teacher Trading

[The Gentleman Scamp]

Teaching kinders and primary students without a degree is one thing, but business English to adult students is another.

I am very soon to finish my job as a kindergarten teacher and have found another through an Aussie I met on my last visa run who has set up a fledgeling agency with his Thai GF.

Both seem friendly, decent people in their mid twenties and they have come up with several primary schools who are desperate for a teacher, plus extra classes after school and business classes for four hours a week in the evenings.

Teaching primary + is right up my alley, and I have a good way with words and enthusiasm for explaining the meaning of new words to adult Thai friends.

Ho0wever, Business English is something I have no qualifications in and is something that should only really be taught by those qualified as it is a specilist area.

The Aussie and his Thai GF handed me a simple unit curriculum and a couple of text books and said that I could use these to plan the lessons but when I asked what I am supposed to say should any student ask me what my qualifications are I was told to lie.

This I don't like... I have the intelligence, the smart suits and the charm to 'blag' my way through this but I'm not sure I have the nerve.

I was shocked at how easy it was. They did ask for my CV but I also heard them discussing going out on Kaosan Rd to find new teachers!!

I would rather be upfront and tell the students that I may very well have the basic knowledge and life experience to do the job but I don't meet the actual requirements in terms of my certificates. Then I would leave it up to them to take me on or not.

I would give it my best if they were desperate and I would certainly not expect the salery of one who was qualified, but at 400bht an hour, I can't help wondering what the couple who have put all this in front of me are making out of it if they are not fully informing clients on the status of their tutors.

I will be working very full 13hr days in total and only for an extra 5,000 on what I am currently making. I will be exhausting myself and being dishonest to adult students for 35,000 a month.

When I expressed the former concern, the young Aussie pointed out that this country is still under-developed in their mentality when it comes to employment and that initiative counts for very little unlike in the west and that Thai's look no further than the A4 certificate that states what qualification you have gained, regardless of how good ones brain is or how much their personality is suited for the vacancy.

He does have a valid point, one that the Discovery Channel's 'Faking It' often proves, but it doesn't change the fact that they are bullshitting students who have put their money and trust into their further education.

I can do it, but I'll never know exactly how well without observing a real tutor in action, though as well as being qualified he would need a personality that brought the best out of the students - that I do have.

Yesterday I got another call from a divemaster in his 40's, who knows me very well and has offered me a job teaching friends of his wife. He thinks I am more than capable and wants to know how much I would charge - a question I really can't answer.

Yes, I do earn shit and understandably I am trying to make life better for myself and earn more money.

I don't fit in well on ajarn.com because I don't feel I am on the same wavelength as the posters there and I get on far better with people who have life experience and wisdom.

I am not a Harry Palmer who enjoys teaching kids, nor am I an undesirable who doesn't give a toss so long as he can make some beer money.

I have a natural ability with people and communication that no university can teach, though I begin to draw the line at business English - the students have a right to know my limits.

If I was a little more smart then maybe I would have asked how much of a percentage the agency were taking and watched them stutter and squirm but so far I don't have any idea.

I don't feel I am being ripped off any more than he and his GF are ripping off clients, but I do feel I would be better going it alone, though I don't at this stage feel I have enough experience.

I need some constructive comments and sensible advice, however, flamers are more than welcome also.

[ambassador]

Flamers are more than welcome also.

Is that BK Flamers? ...I've read that you need to eat more.

Sorry Scamp, I sympathise with your cause but do feel you might perhaps get a better response on ajarn.com, they're all back there now.

[The Gentleman Scamp]

I was hoping for something a little more helpful, and maybe you're right about ajarn.com but I do find it to be full of irksome, 'I've got a wk permit and you haven't' spotty, young, student types with little life experience who have only recently finished university and travelling the world and feel that as a result they are on a higher plain and better than the rest of us as a result.

I want to avoid the association if at all possible.

[otherstuff1957]

GS - I agree with your comments about the Ajarn forum. Quite a few of the posters there spend all of their time puffing themselves up and attacking the less qualified, rather than saying anything constructive.

When I was really fresh in the biz, I had to teach a group of nurses. Before the class started I tried to bone up on medical jargon, but once I started the class, I found that they already knew medical terms, they just needed to improve their general English skills!

A friend who has been teaching EFL for years kept on telling me that there is no such thing as "business English" or "medical English" there's just English and after teaching a few business classes I tend to agree with him.

If you want to add a "business" flavor (or flavour if your a Brit ) to your classes, have them practice writing CV's, Job Descriptions, Reference Letters and emails. For spoken English, having them sit back to back and pretend to be talking on the phone to each other is always a good exercise.

If you're qualified to teach English, I wouldn't worry too much abou the Business part.

Hope this helps...

[12call]

How much do you charge per hour for private tuition Scampster??? Do you teach Polish also???

[ambassador]

If you're qualified to teach English, I wouldn't worry too much abou the Business part.

A good question - is he qualified to teach English full stop?

[12call]

[Sel]

So

1. You have been teaching kindie.

2. You haven't taught primary yet but you feel confident.

3. You haven't taught business English but you're semi confident in your abilities although you don't have the qualifications and don't want to lie.

4. You don't have a degree or any teaching certificates/qualifications?

5. You want to up your income overall by changing your bread and butter type teaching and pick up some extra hours?

Firstly 13 hour teaching days are a killer. You won't be doing your body or your students any good after a few weeks. And for an extra 5000 a month not worth it.

Start with just doing primary as bread and butter. Concentrate your extra work on secondary students or young adults if you feel confident. Start learning a specialty course now. I suggest academic writing. It is very structured and easy to learn if you are in to it. A lot of teachers (ajarn.com crowd) don't know anything about academic writing so you can get one up on the tugnuts. It is easy to teach once you know what your doing, it's in very high demand for young adults (people you feel confident in teaching?), you get bigger class sizes bumping up your hourly rate, you get staedy income as writing is always a set course and your students tend to usually post. it is very gratifying as you can see physical improvement.

Only a suggestion