Thank You Thaivisa.com

[bow]

Thank you all for help and support regarding my question of September 4 about where I could pick up application forms for a teacher's license, because the school didn't seem interested in doing it for me.

The most useful information from a strictly practical point of view came from "Ajarn" on September 5. He suggested that it might be a good idea to have a look at the Ministry of Labour's web site and that I should try to find the Ministry's local office in my province.

I followed his advise: Looked up the Ministry's web site and made a print out of the Thai name for "Provincial office of the Ministry of Labour" (sam nak ngan raeng ngan jangwat). I then showed the print out to the ladies working with the school's administration. This caused an amazing chage of attitude, probably because raeng ngan jangwat was something that they knew about, understood and could relate to. One of the Thai English teachers was immediatly ordered to take me there and help me to get whatever I needed. The teacher didn't mind, she thought it was quite "sanuk' to be able to show off the school farang.

Everybody was very helpful when we arrived at the labour office. They explained to the Thai English teacher that farang needed a "work permit" and one of the ladies sat down with her to a friendly discussion about what documentation they needed, to be able to issue one of those. I don't know exactly what they agreed upon, but it didn't seem too bad.

The question of a teacher's license caused some confusion, but after a couple of phone calls the people in the labour office decided that a teacher's license was not necessary because it is a governement municipal school.

It fell on my lot to fill in a form, get copies of the degree and the TEFL thing, a doctor's certificate, two photos (big size) and copies of relevant pages in the passport (not every page).

It took the school about two weeks to fill in their forms and get the documentation that they needed to hand in. It then took the labour office eight days to process the application for a work permit.

The most difficult document to get, from the school's point of view , was a permit for the school to employ a foreigner, from the governor of the province.

I wrote in my question of September 4, that the people in the school said that they wanted to help me, but didn't actually do anything. I realize now, that this was just because they didn't know what to do. Once they were told exactly what to do, in Thai language, there were no problems at all.

To sum up the whole process:

1. A trip to KL, with a letter from the school (written by me and then translated into Thai by one of the Thai English teachers), to get a three months non-immigrant B visa from the Thai embassy (fee 200 ringit).

2. I then used the visa to get a temporary work permit from the local labour office (fee 850 baht).

3. I used the temporary work permit to get a visa extention from the immigration police (fee 1 900 baht).

4. I used the new visa to get a permanent work permit (fee 1 600 baht).

What about my original idea, to do most of the work myselt ?

In hindsight, no, it wouldn't have been possible. It is necessary to have the help of a Thai speaking person that understands Thai school administration and bureaucracy. Obvously, this person doesn't need to work in the school.

Again, thank you Mr. Ajarn, you saved my life !

[astral]

I am glad to hear that you got it all sorted out.

Your experience with the Thai school staff is quite typical.

If a Thai does not understand what is required he/she will just keep

quiet and hope the problem goes away.

Perhaps as a teacher you can address this in the classroom, by encouraging students to speak up when they do not understand?

Good luck.

[PeaceBlondie]

Bow, congratulations on getting your paperwork sorted out. I've worked at two schools where they just go numb when I mention 'work permit,' even though I show them the long list in English. If they haven't done it before they don't know how to do it. I see that having it in Thai language helps.

here's an analogy: if we were in our home country and a foreign teacher asked our help to go to three national and local agencies of our bureaucratic governments - and his information wasn't in English - we wouldn't know how to do it.

Astral's right: it's great when your students finally say, "Ajarn, I don't understand." Some students just can't do it. My TEFL instructor forbid us to ask the question, "Do you understand?" because in your first few months with students, they'll all say yes.