Callan/walen Ed Visa

[mcfester]

Actually, having just browsed your site again, it couldn't be much more clear. Click on "Student Visa"and it is all there in black. One thing that is not entirely clear is that you need to get this visa out of country. The visa page does say, "on arrival, you will be permitted....", but you have to interpret that before arrival you need to depart.

Did you read the full page or just the first paragraph?

"Once you receive this letter you will need to go outside Thailand to one of the Thai consulates"

I looked at the site earlier before finding this thread, if someone seriously thinks about enrolling for a "one year visa" without even reading the details on the site they are fools to themselves, secondly, if they can't understand whats required and the extra fees from reading the student visa page they need to go and study English not Thai.

[MacWalen]

This is another example of how an ED visa looks like, it is a mulitple one year visa. This one is issued in Geneva based on the paperwork from our school. Swiss passport.

Walen School

[Tod Daniels]

I thought I would give my opinion about the Walen School of Thai, as I am enrolled there to further my language studies

First and foremost it is NOT a visa service, but a real honest to goodness thai language school where you learn to read and speak thai. True, it does offer you an education visa based on enrollment hours/classes, but it is a language school BEFORE all else. I doubt they would put the time and effort I have seen them personally expend to get your paperwork from the Ministry of Education, IF they were running a 'visa service' rather than a language school. It is not an easy process for them and much leg-work is involved. There are far less bureaucratic paperwork intensive methods for acquiring visas than this method. I just returned from Vientiane Tuesday nite with my Non-O-ED visa using their paperwork and it was as painless a procedure as anything can be dealing with thai bureaucracy.

About the school; it is certainly NOT for everyone, (especially not for anyone looking for a quick-fix for their visa woes to circumvent the 30-day stamp, or tourist visa rules in place now).

The material in the lesson book is well written, the visual aids are an adjunct to the learning, the teacher(s) professional, they enunciate thai words clearly and have no problem making a student repeat a word many times to 'catch' the correct tone. There is constant review of previously covered material to help with retention of words, and new material is covered thoroughly. The students in my class are a diverse mix of many differing nationalities, and yet all seem to genuinely want to learn thai. Classes are fun, dynamic, and not the canned lessons parroted out by disinterested instructors I have seen at other schools.

Because the lesson book is in thai, it is very easy for 'home study'. Some schools which teach spoken thai via transliterated english spelling of thai words are very difficult to study with outside the classroom environment. I have yet to meet a single thai person who is familiar with or can read english transliterated thai words with any proficiency. With the lesson book from the Walen School, any thai friend you might have can read along, prompt you for correct pronunciation, making in home review and study very easy to accomplish.

I would again caution someone who is thinking of this school as merely a quick fix for their visa woes to give it a pass. You will be doing the students who genuinely want to learn to read/speak the thai language a terrible disservice.

That being said; IF you sincerely want to learn the thai language, I would stop by the school, talk to Mac Walen, take the free lesson offered, and look into it further. I have toured, taken lessons, and talked with directors of more thai language schools than I care to remember. This is the one that works best for me. To each their own, good luck in your language acquisition endeavors.

[MacWalen]

Thanks Tod for your kind words, our school is indeed promoting Thai language and culture. As you rightly say most students enjoy their studies. We are also very happy to help with visas and there is nothing wrong with helping students to obtain them.

It is interesting that Thai visas may not look the same, sometimes it is a sticker, sometimes a stamp, even different consulates in the same country may issue diffenrent looking visas. Here are 3 examples from Coral Gables in Florida, Washington D.C. and from Geneva.

To all the students: do not forget about the student party on the 21st! The alcohol can be served, we have already checked it.

Walen School, Mac

[MacWalen]

I thought this might be of interest as some of our studetns were asking this question.

Staying in Thailand on an Ed visa can I get a Thai driving lincese and also buy a car/motorbike?

We have checked it with the department of transport and the answer is YES.

You will be required to provide:

1. Copy of your passport

2. Health certificate ( not more than 1 month old)

3. Letter from the school where you study that you are one of their students

4. Letter from you embassy to certify your nationality

I do not understand the last requirement at all, I thought your passport says where you come from but that is what they told us. With these documents you will be able to get your license as well as buy your car/motorbike.

I guess it makes it easier for some to live in this country.

Walen School, Mac

[Naam]

I thought this might be of interest as some of our studetns were asking this question.

Staying in Thailand on an Ed visa can I get a Thai driving lincese and also buy a car/motorbike?

We have checked it with the department of transport and the answer is YES.

You will be required to provide:

1. Passport

4. Letter from you embassy to certify your nationality

added to my collection of worldwide curiosities

[Maestro]

...4. Letter from you embassy to certify your nationality...

From another thread I read today I understand that what they really want is a document certifying the current address of the applicant for the driving licence. Available free of charge from the immigration office if one is on an extension of stay, from the embassy for a fee.

--

Maestro

[MacWalen]

It is a bit confusing as they did not mention anything about certyfing the current address but we will check it again. Is there anybody there who already got his driving license based on an ED visa? Or bought a car/motorbike? Please share how you went about it step by step.

Walen School, Mac

[Parvis]

First of all, this is supposed to be a Thai language school. It is not. It is a Thai national standing in front of a bunch of begiinners in a cramped room with no whiteboard reading thai text from a worthless book. The Thai national just reads exactly what is in the book and you answer what is in the book. No improvisation, or extra questions, PLEASE! That only throws an unnecessary wrench into the mix! Learning is not the objective. Getting through 20 pages of text is.

Now about the "one year visa" that is promised and that you pay 29,500 Baht up front for. I was there not even 3 weeks and I was toldW that I would have to pay an additional sum every three months. That would be 1900 baht. When I signed on, my understanding was that

Walen would cover any costs for one year. Who knows what will change next?

Be careful with this option of visa extension. The jury is still out,but I can tell you the learning method sucks and school seems a bit fishy with all the rule changes and extra fees that keep popping up.

In general - the majority is always negative - especially when someone comes up with an alternative. Everything new is "frightening and not consistant with everybody else".

The best method of learning a language is being FORCED to use it. The Thai script makes it somewhat more difficult. Therefore for a temporary visitor to Thailand whose only interest is to learn a few basic phrases - it seems reasonable to "learn" Thai with transliteration. But for a serious student of Thai - why go to the additional step of trasliteration - which is worthless to be able to communicate in Thai in writing.

Is Walens method "new"? Well not really - 50 years ago when I immigrated to Australia the method used to teach English to perhaps 10 different nationalities in one classroom was to SPEAK ONLY ENGLISH. From my personal experience this was the most effective method to teach a language. You are being FORCED to think in the language you study. The difficulty with Thai is the Thai script - "frightening to a lazy individual who does not want to be confronted with something new".

[LivinLOS]

It is a bit confusing as they did not mention anything about certyfing the current address but we will check it again. Is there anybody there who already got his driving license based on an ED visa? Or bought a car/motorbike? Please share how you went about it step by step.

Walen School, Mac

When getting a license on any long stay visa you must show either a work permit, an immigration confirmation of address, or an embassy confirmation of address.

This has to be repeated a year later when changing from the 1 year (temporary) license to the 5 year also.

[abdulrahman]

When getting a license on any long stay visa you must show either a work permit, an immigration confirmation of address, or an embassy confirmation of address,or the ,yellow,Tabien ban.

This has to be repeated a year later when changing from the 1 year (temporary) license to the 5 year also.

Edited December 21, 2007 by abdulrahman

[jetzie]

Thanks Tod for your kind words, our school is indeed promoting Thai language and culture. As you rightly say most students enjoy their studies. We are also very happy to help with visas and there is nothing wrong with helping students to obtain them.

It is interesting that Thai visas may not look the same, sometimes it is a sticker, sometimes a stamp, even different consulates in the same country may issue diffenrent looking visas. Here are 3 examples from Coral Gables in Florida, Washington D.C. and from Geneva.

To all the students: do not forget about the student party on the 21st! The alcohol can be served, we have already checked it.

Walen School, Mac

*off topic*

nice party mac:) are we gonna have some pictures?

[MacWalen]

Hi there, here are some pictures as requested, I did enjoy myself a lot, hope those who came too. We had about 100 people at the party, serious dancing started about 11 pm till 2 am. I love the tables at Larry's, solid wood, they take even 6 dancers although 4 is comfortable. Without the music you cannot really get the atmosphere.

If you attended the party let us know how you enjoyed it! I did not take too many pictures as was mostly busy taking care of things.

Walen School, Mac

[kriswillems]

There is no transliteration (Karaoke Thai) in the book, from Page 1 of Book 1 it is all in Thai script. Granted in Book 1 they do seperate the words instead of being a long line of words which will confuse newer stduents (Book 2 removes the spaces between words so you will read exactly as a Thai reads). People may think it is too difficult to learn but you will be very suprised. Many students after only one month can following the questions and read (Or recognise) the words. It is an excellent way to teach and force the best out of you.

I went to this school to check out their teaching method (1 week ago). I saw book 1, it was too easy for me. I can't imagine how you can study with this book for a whole year. The book had a bad layout and it looked very "unstructured" (I couldn't find or recognize any teaching method in it). I asked to see book 2. The teacher said there is no book 2 yet. She still needs to write it.

Are you sure you're really studying there?

[cali4995]

Four hours per week of forced, rigorous study. It doesn't get much more

intense than that my friend. Definitely not for the faint of heart. I'm

surprised more students haven't buckled and cracked under the strain.

Judging from the photo album, there are apparently an excess of buxom

lasses to be had, Thai language student "groupies" if you will. I'm headed

over there myself next week. Who cares about the visa.

[jetzie]

that's really a good camera!

Mac, my girlfriend will need to head to the immigration to have her ED visa extended come 20th jan. what documents should she be presenting?

[MacWalen]

Ask her to talk to the ladies at the reception and they will prepare all the paperwork for her.

Mac

[jetzie]

got it, will have her ask khun Imm later.

[THAILIBAN]

the idea of starting to learn and READ Thai at the same time, and not using any nonsense-transliteration is actually good.

too bad that no other decent language school than this one seems to do it the same way....

and I dont need a 1-year-ED-Visa (at least not before March 2009) as I do have a new one..... so my main issue is REALLY learning Thai.....

[Guest]

You can try Nisa Language school in Soi Yenagart. They have an excellent reputation.

[Bertil]

the idea of starting to learn and READ Thai at the same time, and not using any nonsense-transliteration is actually good.

too bad that no other decent language school than this one seems to do it the same way....

and I dont need a 1-year-ED-Visa (at least not before March 2009) as I do have a new one..... so my main issue is REALLY learning Thai.....

I second that.

[Scott123]

First of all, this is supposed to be a Thai language school. It is not. It is a Thai national standing in front of a bunch of begiinners in a cramped room with no whiteboard reading thai text from a worthless book. The Thai national just reads exactly what is in the book and you answer what is in the book. No improvisation, or extra questions, PLEASE! That only throws an unnecessary wrench into the mix! Learning is not the objective. Getting through 20 pages of text is.

....

So far the focus all has been on the visa issue. Let's talk about the "Walen method" of teaching Thai language.

The class described by the original poster sound pretty scary. As a beginner, I would like to learn some basic vacabularies and pronounciations, not just being put in a class to listen Thai conversation.

My friend once went to Walen language school and ask for the start date of next class series, the receiptionist said there was no start date. You just come and sit in any class. So what is this "Walen method"? a method of making money? What is the credential and experience of their teachers?

[cali4995]

It hurts me to say this, and by that I mean actual pain in my chest. We have to give Mac a little

credit. He saw a niche opening with this language school in conjunction with the whole current

visa fiasco and he provided a solution for some. Anything extra you get like lessons is a bonus.

[kriswillems]

First of all, this is supposed to be a Thai language school. It is not. It is a Thai national standing in front of a bunch of begiinners in a cramped room with no whiteboard reading thai text from a worthless book. The Thai national just reads exactly what is in the book and you answer what is in the book. No improvisation, or extra questions, PLEASE! That only throws an unnecessary wrench into the mix! Learning is not the objective. Getting through 20 pages of text is.

....

So far the focus all has been on the visa issue. Let's talk about the "Walen method" of teaching Thai language.

The class described by the original poster sound pretty scary. As a beginner, I would like to learn some basic vacabularies and pronounciations, not just being put in a class to listen Thai conversation.

My friend once went to Walen language school and ask for the start date of next class series, the receiptionist said there was no start date. You just come and sit in any class. So what is this "Walen method"? a method of making money? What is the credential and experience of their teachers?

I also decided not to study there for 6 reasons:

1. The book too easy for me

2. The book had a bad layout and it looked rather unstructured

3. They had only 1 book. If they use this book since the school opened:

- the students didn't learn much

OR

- they don't have any long term students (which is not a good sign)

4. You could start anytime you wanted, that means the class is a mix of absolute beginners and advanced people, which in my opinion slows everyone down

5. The classroom had no white board, the chairs looked rather small and uncomfortable and I believe (not sure) there was no window.

6. In the same building is unity language school, which has a long and good reputation, they have many classes and books (about 8) and the cost per hour is lower.

[Maestro]

...So what is this "Walen method"? a method of making money?...

I should hope so. Any business – and operating a school is a business – needs to make money or it will go bankrupt very quickly.

--

Maestro

[MacWalen]

First of all, this is supposed to be a Thai language school. It is not. It is a Thai national standing in front of a bunch of begiinners in a cramped room with no whiteboard reading thai text from a worthless book. The Thai national just reads exactly what is in the book and you answer what is in the book. No improvisation, or extra questions, PLEASE! That only throws an unnecessary wrench into the mix! Learning is not the objective. Getting through 20 pages of text is.

....

So far the focus all has been on the visa issue. Let's talk about the "Walen method" of teaching Thai language.

The class described by the original poster sound pretty scary. As a beginner, I would like to learn some basic vacabularies and pronounciations, not just being put in a class to listen Thai conversation.

My friend once went to Walen language school and ask for the start date of next class series, the receiptionist said there was no start date. You just come and sit in any class. So what is this "Walen method"? a method of making money? What is the credential and experience of their teachers?

I also decided not to study there for 6 reasons:

1. The book too easy for me

2. The book had a bad layout and it looked rather unstructured

3. They had only 1 book. If they use this book since the school opened:

- the students didn't learn much

OR

- they don't have any long term students (which is not a good sign)

4. You could start anytime you wanted, that means the class is a mix of absolute beginners and advanced people, which in my opinion slows everyone down

5. The classroom had no white board, the chairs looked rather small and uncomfortable and I believe (not sure) there was no window.

6. In the same building is unity language school, which has a long and good reputation, they have many classes and books (about 8) and the cost per hour is lower.

1. The book too easy for me - I am not sure how much time you spent looking at our book,hope it was not 1-5 min., although I believe it was not longer than 5 min. There are 700 words in Book 1. If you looked at pages 1-5 maybe it was too easy but if we tested you on the whole book you might find out that there is still a lot you could learn.

2. The book had a bad layout and it looked rather unstructured - Again, we have spent 2.5 years working on that book but you are so smart that in probably less than 5 min. you had already decided that it had a bad layout and was unstructured.

3. They had only 1 book. - We actually have 3 books completed with over 2,500 words and hope to have 5 in the near future. We have 2 classes studying book 2 and tomorrow we are starting our 3rd so what you are writing about is obviously rubbish, books 2 and 3 are not fully tested yet therefore we are making improvements to them and we will do it as long as it takes to our full satisfaction. Our school has been attacked so many times that I am not surprised if we have yet another critic spending 5 min. at our school and already knowing it all.

- the students didn't learn much - and how do you know? Have you spoken to any of the students?

4. You could start anytime you wanted - I would think this is a good thing, most people want to start when it is convenient to them and not wait say one month until the next course starts, also being able to change groups and times with ease is a good thing in our opinion.

that means the class is a mix of absolute beginners and advanced people, which in my opinion slows everyone down - book one is designed for a begginer student not for advanced learners therefore students would just be at a different stage of their beggining studies. Students have various linguistic abilities and those who join may actually and often do speed up those who joined earlier, the teachers are controling the classes and it works very well. So how can you say that is slows everyone down? Maybe you meant that it could slow down those who joined the group earlier but how can it slow down those who join later? You need to be careful with those "everyone, always, every" generalities.

5. The classroom had no white board - that is a part of our method, we do not use white boards, are you a communicative method teacher? If you are then you already have a formed opinion on how the language should be taught and your concepts will be different to those of a direct method and I will not be attempting to change your views. You should certainly try another school and I would recommend to pick one that has massive whiteboards in their classrooms.

the chairs looked rather small and uncomfortable - you mean our chairs are any smaller than at other schools in Bangkok? They are padded and most students are very happy with them, as you had a one minute look I guess you did not have time to sit down in one of them to test them as to their comfort. Believe it or not people ask us where we bought them as they would like to buy similar ones. Our chairs are probably the most comfortable of most Thai schools but again you might find a school that teaches

better Thai because they have more comfortable chairs than us.

I believe (not sure) there was no window. - Oh.....dear, you formed your opinion so fast that you did not have time to record in your memory whether our classrooms had windows or not? I am not sure if I should treat your critical post seriously or not. For you info as you did not have enough time to notice it we have windows in every class, some of the windows are massive.

and the cost per hour is lower.- So you were looking for a cheaper school or for a good school? We might not be the cheapest but we are also not the most expensive.

Walen School, Mac

[Maestro]

First of all...

...So what is this "Walen method"?...

...In the same building is unity language school, which has a long and good reputation...

Scott123, this thread has 174 posts so far and I am not going to read them all again but I clearly remember seeing at least one post, by macwalen or by a student at that school, describing the “Walen method” in detail. So what is your motive in digging up a 5-month-old post merely to ask a rhetorical question?

Kriswillems, I studied book 1 at Unity Language School (UTL) in January last year, intenstive course, and I still can’t say whether I liked their method. I do know that I would not go back there for another reason, the freezing cold temperature in the classroom about which they said they could do nothing.

Personally, I am inclined to think that there is not one good method to teach a foreign language. There are several methods, I am sure, and one person may like one method better than another. I have not studied at Walen school and therefore cannot make a subjective comparison of their method with the one I have been exposed to at another school.

If there were standard tests, like for example TOEFL and IELTS for students of English as a foreign language, objective comparisons between schools might be possible, but I am not aware of any such tests for foreign students of Thai.

--

Maestro

[Maestro]

... chairs...are padded...

This brings back another memory of the other school where I studied. The intensive course I took meant four consecutive hours, with a 10 minute break in the middle, and as I am of the lean type without fatty padding my butt was hurting on their hard plastic chairs. Why didn’t I think of bringing my own pad to sit on?

--

Maestro

[kriswillems]

Maestro,

There's the P.6 test organized by Thai government. That's an objective test. How many student of macwalen passed P.6 of end 2550? We still have to wait a while for the results (i believe the test will be corrected in February).

Macwalen,

1. About the the number books

I went to your school about 3 to 4 weeks ago. I am really not lying about this: the teacher said book2 was not finished. She said that at that moment there was no course for advanced learners, but that there might be one in the future. At that moment there was only 1 level/course according to the teacher.

2. Why the book was too easy

Book 1 was really too easy. I looked at the last pages of the book. The sentences where rather short and easy. I have followed many of the courses in the union based program (speaking 2,3, reading 6,7, social problems, P.6 preparation), except the newspaper course.

I am happy to hear you've a book 2 and 3 now.

3. About the fact that you can choose any time to start and why I said it slows down everyone

It slows down the people that have been studying for a while because they need to "wait" for the beginners who might be far behind.

It slows down the beginners, because they probably don't understand anything of what the other people are studying

We disagree at some points, but I appreciate that you took your time to write this long reply. It show that you're working hard.

[Onnutrd]

I was thinking of enrolling at Walen School of Thai so that I can start learning the language and be secured in knowing I got a Visa (the visa is what made me sit up though).

Now?..Nothing changed, still thinking about it..

Anyway, fact of the matter is this..

On the Walen website it states that the 1,900 Baht is for extension every 3 months, which is in addition to the 29,500 Baht compulsory 1 year fee. So I understood that the first time I read it (which was about 2 months ago, so unless they made changes to the site...). See reference page http://www.thaiwalen.com/html/student_visa.html

In addition, although I never heard of this kind of teaching method, what I did know is that it was different to the traditional style and what I was used to.

Like alot of foreigners who come to Thailand to teach English, Walen may be hiring teachers who seem to be inexperienced teachers..but, they might be qualified, just new. So give those teachers a chance.

Objectively speaking, perhaps one should check the contract to see what "extra fees that keep popping up."

From my perspective on how some thaivisa.com individuals feel on this matter, I now understand what Thai's feel like when a Westerner teaches without a qualified English certificate. Perhaps we're getting a taste of our own medicine.

Give Walen School of Thai a chance.