Bad experience teaching in Thailand

[Liverpool Lou]

22 hours ago, bimbumbam said:

it seems more than what locals get but in reality for all this BS this is a crap salary

The crap salary is obviously commensurate with the ability to do a crap job.

[steven100]

I'll take ' your English is not that great '  for 500 Tony ....

[G_Money]

1 hour ago, Ralf001 said:

these people get paid 30K ?

Approximately, give or take a few thousand 

[Italian guy]

This is what teaching in Thailand means in most places but not everywhere. I've been teaching here for almost 18 years and I've seen enough to write a novel. In my early days I used to keep quiet and bear the unbearable most of the times.

Now, I reached the point where I simply show them the middle finger if I have to.

I understand Thai and if they try talking bs about me I fight back on the spot. I'm fully qualified and have the Thai teaching license, so finding another place to teach isn't a big issue. 

They tend to behave like this especially with young, newly qualified or underqualified teachers (no judgement here, no one was born fully qualified) or with those who struggle to find a job because of their nationality or color (yea, Thais are extremely racists). 

In the end, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Time to move on.

[bimbumbam]

On 12/1/2024 at 11:57 AM, Italian guy said:

This is what teaching in Thailand means in most places but not everywhere. I've been teaching here for almost 18 years and I've seen enough to write a novel. In my early days I used to keep quiet and bear the unbearable most of the times.

Now, I reached the point where I simply show them the middle finger if I have to.

I understand Thai and if they try talking bs about me I fight back on the spot. I'm fully qualified and have the Thai teaching license, so finding another place to teach isn't a big issue. 

They tend to behave like this especially with young, newly qualified or underqualified teachers (no judgement here, no one was born fully qualified) or with those who struggle to find a job because of their nationality or color (yea, Thais are extremely racists). 

In the end, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Time to move on.

You are right…it was my first job experience so perhaps this is why I feel like a failure

 

i found rural thai to be unpleasant, the agency told me they liked foreigners…that itself was a red flag, how can you like a whole category of non defined people?

[youreavinalaff]

6 hours ago, bimbumbam said:

You are right…it was my first job experience so perhaps this is why I feel like a failure

 

i found rural thai to be unpleasant, the agency told me they liked foreigners…that itself was a red flag, how can you like a whole category of non defined people?

How can you not like a whole area of Thailand, an occupation and a whole group of non defined people based on one experience?

Edited yesterday at 09:41 AM by youreavinalaff

[Sydebolle]

Do-gooders and tree huggers; just make sure you hug the right tree then 😉 

[john donson]

so spanish with a strong accent?  I plan to move to spain...at least free healthcare...

[jippytum]

For an educated person to relocate to work and live in a foreign country without a modicum of preparation or research had a  predictable outcome. 

[TheFishman1]

If you don’t like a situation get out of the situation if you don’t like being in Thailand then leave if you don’t like teaching find something else to do TIT

[Umlungu]

Ignore your experience, put it out of your mind, look for a position elsewhere, preferably in adult education. I lasted three days in my first job (high school) in Bkk, threw in the towel even though the principal begged me to stay. Tried primary school level, which was even worse. It's all politics in Thai schools, utterly and totally disgusting conduct towards foreigners, jealousy and covering up their incompetence. It is all about show, appearance, fun and frolic, entertainment, games - like eternal play school. It is not about teaching and serious learning - and the general educational outcome level proves that, not only in regard to English language acquisition where Thailand ranks last in ASEAN.

 

After a bit of experience you should try private students, online or in person. Companies also pay well, you are teaching adults, who are occasionally more motivated because English language might be an obligatory qualification for career advancement.

 

Thailand doesn't deserve foreign teacher input, effort and commitment. Pity the kids, though, they are missing out big time, with a bad education system and very questionable tertiary qualifications.

[ericbj]

The reason many Thai, and Burmese, pupils and students have poor spoken English, despite in some cases having years of learning the subject, can be attributed to:

 

teachers who cannot enunciate clearly and correctly (whether native or non-native)

 

lack of motivation, from boring classes

 

For about half of each year for a dozen years, my job as an unpaid volunteer was to teach exiled Burmese, mainly, by choice, adults and older teenagers.  In some cases their knowledge of vocabulary was quite good.  But initially, when speaking, I could not understand them and they could not understand me.

 

Their previous teachers had been unable to speak the language.  But classes of such students, some with Burmese university degrees, with strong motivation to improve their knowledge in the broadest sense, made impressive progress.

 

On one occasion, twenty-two years ago, the headmaster of a large Thai school, adjacent to where I was teachng, asked that I take his senior class (standard 12) once a day.  A sort walk across the playing field.

 

On my first visit there I was greeted by one of the three teachers of English, a Thai woman.  Most embarassing.  Not a word of what the other spoke was understood.

 

The class members sat rigidly at their desks.  I had them push the desks aside and sit in a semi-circle.  Impossible to get any response from the students.

 

I moved us all following day to the neighbouring single-storey teak building, where classes were held on the large verandah.  The six boys sat on chairs at the back, the six girls on the floor in front.

 

They became relaxed enough to constantly interrupt me to chat amongst themselves in Thai.  My other students intervened to shut them up.  But I asked them to desist.  I had achieved my first objective, of getting the class to feel at ease.
But how I hated taking this class !

 

However, over the next few days things began to improve.  They were beginning to take an interest at last.  It reached the point where, when the boys at the back began to chat amongst themselves, the girls would turn round and tell them to shut up.

 

Afterwards, as they walked back to the school, chatting and laughing amongst themselves, my ABSDF friends on occasion remarked how much the youngsters were enjoying themselves.

 

And we made good progress with English.  The headmaster wanted me to take more classes.  But I declined.  It was a long way to Mae Sariang where I was staying.

 

He then asked me to take an improver-class for the three teachers of English.  To this I agreed, as any improvement in their English would be passed on to many pupils.  But despite them being scheduled to come several times, they never turned up.  It would doubtlesslly have resulted in loss of face to admit their English was inadequate to the task.

 

[FritsSikkink]

On 11/29/2024 at 4:46 AM, Tokyo Dodge said:

Jaysus, I thought she was writing her biography, almost dozed off reading it !

She should have read it to the kids when they couldn't sleep.

[FritsSikkink]

On 11/29/2024 at 8:31 PM, bimbumbam said:

Eh you are right

 

it seems more than what locals get but in reality for all this BS this is a crap salary

Crap experience results in crap salary.

[recom273]

On 11/29/2024 at 11:29 PM, bimbumbam said:

Eh i don’t know

 

the woman from the agency told me to avoid but everyone else including the preferred teacher did, he even picked the kids up which I didn’t 

 

i thought they didn’t like them getting too close to foreigners tbh, they want you there for status  and that it

 

Sorry, I didnt read all the post but Just to say, keep on going - you got this, you just haven't found the way yet.

 

Your experience is very similar to a lot of people. I got the boot from my first 3 jobs after a term. 

 

You will experience a lot of politics, a lot of prejudice. You are a female and that's a good thing in Thailand, you are a rare commodity and will never be without a job!

 

You are correct, you know you shouldn't be touching kids, some teachers get away with it, these are the teachers who speak more Thai than English, who everyone mumbles about in the staff room, who run about the class not really teaching anything but make the kids laugh, they have a stamp pad with little stars and cartoon characters when they mark the kids books and TT's won't have a bad word said against them.

 

Kindergarten is difficult, I prefer P1, the kids understand a little more. After primary schools, I went on to teach older Mathayom, classes which is alright. I then went on to teach Tech college, which was even better, there was less of the ceremonial crap and more "teaching". The older kids are more about the relationships you build.

 

Find somewhere you feel happy. Dont' let it get you down.

 

 

 

[recom273]

On 11/29/2024 at 11:29 PM, bimbumbam said:

Eh i don’t know

 

the woman from the agency told me to avoid but everyone else including the preferred teacher did, he even picked the kids up which I didn’t 

 

i thought they didn’t like them getting too close to foreigners tbh, they want you there for status  and that it

 

Sorry, I didnt read all the post but Just to say, keep on going - you got this, you just haven't found the way yet.

 

Your experience is very similar to a lot of people. I got the boot from my first 3 jobs after a term. 

 

You will experience a lot of politics, a lot of prejudice. You are a female and that's a good thing in Thailand, you are a rare commodity and will never be without a job!

 

You are correct, you know you shouldn't be touching kids, some teachers get away with it, these are the teachers who speak more Thai than English, who everyone mumbles about in the staff room, who run about the class not really teaching anything but make the kids laugh, they have a stamp pad with little stars and cartoon characters when they mark the kids books and TT's won't have a bad word said against them.

 

Kindergarten is difficult, I prefer P1, the kids understand a little more. After primary schools, I went on to teach older Mathayom, classes which is alright. I then went on to teach Tech college, which was even better, there was less of the ceremonial crap and more "teaching". The older kids are more about the relationships you build.

 

Find somewhere you feel happy. Dont' let it get you down.

 

 

 

[bimbumbam]

1 hour ago, recom273 said:

 

Sorry, I didnt read all the post but Just to say, keep on going - you got this, you just haven't found the way yet.

 

Your experience is very similar to a lot of people. I got the boot from my first 3 jobs after a term. 

 

You will experience a lot of politics, a lot of prejudice. You are a female and that's a good thing in Thailand, you are a rare commodity and will never be without a job!

 

You are correct, you know you shouldn't be touching kids, some teachers get away with it, these are the teachers who speak more Thai than English, who everyone mumbles about in the staff room, who run about the class not really teaching anything but make the kids laugh, they have a stamp pad with little stars and cartoon characters when they mark the kids books and TT's won't have a bad word said against them.

 

Kindergarten is difficult, I prefer P1, the kids understand a little more. After primary schools, I went on to teach older Mathayom, classes which is alright. I then went on to teach Tech college, which was even better, there was less of the ceremonial crap and more "teaching". The older kids are more about the relationships you build.

 

Find somewhere you feel happy. Dont' let it get you down.

 

 

 

I always tried to make the kids laugh and happy and it worked as there were easy to please…the other guy was known bu the parents, spoke a little more thai and generally put on a scene everytime a parent came

 

 

i was new so i was not familiar with people, so i just wai and smiled