English Program And Thai Program At Same School

[lost_in_isaan]

We started an english program (EP) at our school this year for kindergarten level. The school already has an established Thai program with 200 students. We were thinking of sending EP kids into the Thai program for their Thai culture and Thai language study.

What are the experiences of other members about Thai Program and EP at the same school? Do the children from the different programs get along or is there friction? Are the EP and Thai programs integrated for thai parts of kept separate??

Any help or insight into this would be greatly appreciated.

[Ijustwannateach]

Your question is a big one, but there are some common problems I've experienced/heard about, including:

1. Salary differential - somehow, every single Thai employee (and probably all the parents and students, too) will know exactly how much you make and resent you for it, even if your presence is one of the things that creates the jobs that THEY have. You, on the other hand, will only find out what THEY make in a roundabout way. You will not hear directly about the small shops on the side, tea money, bribery, and illegal businesses that allow many of these teachers [who nominally make less than you do] to drive BMWs and Mercs. Furthermore, no matter how much explaining you do about the student loans you have to pay, the rent that *they* don't have to pay, and the cost of basic imported amenities in your language (like books), the only thing that sticks in public awareness is the number.

2. Benefit differential - Thai employees are treated like dirt- and not only that, but dirt with no personal life. If you called a meeting for the afternoon of the same day in an American school, you'd be lucky to get a quarter of the teachers. In Thailand, it's normal for all to come. Weekend meetings and extra work are normal for the Thais, as is a lot of after school decoration, pageant rehearsal, tutoring, and other flim-flam that would have a unionized Western school foaming at the mouth. Many of the theoretical holidays between terms are just that for the Thais - theoretical.

Schools which aren't totally dimwitted will realize this difference between working condition expectations for foreigners, and make adjustments [or else lose their foreign teachers on a regular basis until they figure out what's happening, or the director dies]. This can still be a cause of stress between the foreigners and the Thais, however. In the better managed schools, the management will adopt a "that's the way the market is" attitude and advise their Thai staff that it's the only way to keep farang staff, while asking the farang staff to be considerate and not to flaunt the differences.

3. The envy of experience - Many of us farang workers have had interesting and varied lives. Talking about these experiences with the Thai staff, who are often young and, to say the least, not very wealthy, will naturally result in envy. Best to keep up the appearance of grey blandness at work.

4. Insane management - Incompetent or insane managers will use the complaints of the Thai staff (imaginary or real) as an excuse to curb benefits or impose restrictions on the farang. This is a sign that the school lacks an understanding of the market and is about to lose all its competent farang employees - if you are in this situation, get your resume polished because you'll need it (unless you want to wind up in exactly the same boat as the Thai staff, which is not a goal for most of us). A sign of creeping insanity is when the management starts to try to change details of your contract without negotiation or consent, simply because they CAN do that with the Thais.

5. Delegation to incompetent staff - schools which do not bother to hire a fluent and/or competent manager of farang teachers will often pass the buck to the young, just-graduated-from-Rajabhat Thai English teacher, who must then manage to explain all the curriculum (in all subjects), the school rules, the contracts, and government immigration and labor regulation to the farangs in English.

6. Lack of communication - there are schools which solve their communication problems by not communicating at all. Farang do not attend staff meetings [a mixed blessing, as who wants to attend bureaucratic meetings held in a 2nd language?] but are not informed in English about the results of these meetings. School calendars, plans, and curricula go untranslated. You, however, are typically blamed when you are unprepared for some important event or deadline.

In short, there are no end of things that can go wrong between Thai and farang staff.

As for the students, typically there is a year or two of adjustment difficulty and possible resentment for being in a "special" program. Most schools seem to get past this, however.

"Steven"

[lost_in_isaan]

thanks steven thats some good information. i was actually thinking about the integration of thai and ep from the childrens perspective? how do the kids in the thai program treat the kids in the EP program? has anybody had mixed classes of EP kids and thai program kids for thai language classes.

[Rhys]

Sad to say.. experience has shown.. it always.. comes down to them vs us.. theres no working Third culture of cooperation..

Years ago.. we had a program like this..full of good intentions..and the lot.. When the private school in Mae Rim open.. Everyone colors showed...and the founding staff.. left..

Do what you can.. Accept what is.. then Consider your options.. Because the kids and the love of teaching is not enough to sustain the effort. Cheers

[Covertjay]

I've been working in Bilingual programs, mostly teaching Social Studies for 5 years, and they are generally better than most programs.

We do our thing- English, Science, Math, Social Studies, and they do theirs- Thai, Thai Social.

However some things they just don't get culturally no matter how well intentioned they are.

Thai's view history and social studies as a royalist chronology and are quite revisionist. Difficult historical things are to be overlooked as 'unpleasant' like Japanese involvement in Thailand during WW2.

Greater than that though is if your EP students are not to go overseas for university they then have to fit back into a rote learning system. The problem solving skills, indepentent thought, and constasting analysis the will learn in an EP will not serve them well at Thai uni where many undergrad degrees and 100% multichoice.

I'm not blaming them- it's the reality of being catapulted from the agrarian revolution to the computer age. It's just the way things are- development is incremental- and they are doing well considering......

Students will learn in a Thai program........just in a rote style. They will learn Thai just don't count on them learning history, geography, or any other social studies related thing as we know it.

Good Luck