Walen School Of Thai In Chiang Mai

[MacWalen]

Thank you for the positive comments. We continue to offer free lessons so it is really risk free to try. Hope you are not afraid that after one week you might actually like our school to the point of wanting to continue.

The teachers are trying their best and I can tell you they are practicing hard everyday. Last Friday two students from our morning group were telling me what great teachers Cindy and Ann were and how much they enjoyed the lessons.

Walen School

[el jefe]

Thank you for the positive comments. We continue to offer free lessons so it is really risk free to try. Hope you are not afraid that after one week you might actually like our school to the point of wanting to continue.

The teachers are trying their best and I can tell you they are practicing hard everyday. Last Friday two students from our morning group were telling me what great teachers Cindy and Ann were and how much they enjoyed the lessons.

Walen School

I'm still waiting for an answer to Mapguy's question about teachers qualifications.

Mr H may like "young enthusiastic teachers" but I'm more interested in whether they know how to teach.

[Drew Aitch]

I'm still waiting for an answer to Mapguy's question about teachers qualifications. Mr H may like "young enthusiastic teachers" but I'm more interested in whether they know how to teach.

No disrespects el jefe, but isn't one of the most valued occupational qualifications for English language teachers in Thailand that of being a native speaker? Oh, we all know that the official qualifications are a degree (in anything), and a TEFL certificate as the preferred requirement, but the reality is that it's 'Native Speakers of English' which is the most advertised phrase in almost all ads. In fact, the formal qualifications, although required by law (I think), are often not mentioned in job classifieds.

Point 1. If the tecaher is native to the language they are teaching, that has to be a good start. After all, Thais learn better with Brits, Australians, Kiwis, and Americans than they do with say the cheaper tutors such as the Filipinos, Indians, and west Europeans, all of whom we might consider fluent in their second language.

Point 2. One enthusiastic unqualified individual is better than 20 of those moaning disgruntled educated unemployables who are doing it as a pure means of survival yet resent every minute spent in the classroom.

Point 3. If the school in question has it own material, then the teacher only has to adhere to it and its methods and ensure the students follow through. If he or she has a cheerful and genuinely helpful disposition, then both student and teacher will prevail no matter what.

Being a totally qualified teacher (one who has the papers and experience), might be useful if all they had to do was walk into a classroom and improvise. But if the main objective of the teacher is to be helpful and considerate of those being taught, and guide them through the pre-prepared material, then i would say that the formal qualifications are really not the most important factor here.

I have no ideas about the teachers at Walen as I've not even stuck my head in the door yet, but I'm merely pointing out the good teachers from a bad. I do speak with some authority on this subject as i myself taught English at a number of schools some 15 years ago, and believe you me, a lot of these so called language tutors are a joke, both qualified and unqualified. I once asked a new teacher: "How's your grammar?" to which he replied; "Oh mate, she's been dead for 6 years!" Go figure!

Aitch

Edited November 24, 2009 by Drew Aitch

[amexpat]

Drew Aitch, some of your post might be relevant,

if we were talking about falangs teaching english to thais.

But we aren't.

[MacWalen]

Yes, I can assure you khun el jefe that our teachers know how to teach. If you do not believe please come and join free lessons. I am not sure how more convincing can it be than personal learning experience. If after one week you feel they are not qualified and are not capable of teaching you Thai please report to all the readers.

Walen School

[Mapguy]

Yes, I can assure you khun el jefe that our teachers know how to teach. If you do not believe please come and join free lessons. I am not sure how more convincing can it be than personal learning experience. If after one week you feel they are not qualified and are not capable of teaching you Thai please report to all the readers.

Walen School

I'll stand by my straightforward request (Post #107).

There is a post above talking about qualifications of teaching (not just teaching Thai) generally that begs the question about qualifications.

MacWalen speaks often about a particular method of instruction. Okay, in addition to informing us about the educational background and experience of the staff for teaching Thai, as originally requested, would he tell us also how long and how his instructors were trained in the "MacWalen Method?"

By the way, I have absolutely no investment or other personal interest in any commercial school or tutor for Thai. If anything, looking at substantive comments from MacW, I agree with him --- and said it above a couple of times, certainly --- that the phonetic (through transliteration) approach to learning Thai is not the best way to do it ultimately, but that's not a revelation to anyone who has dug into it.

Edited November 25, 2009 by Mapguy

[keo]

Yes, I can assure you khun el jefe that our teachers know how to teach. If you do not believe please come and join free lessons. I am not sure how more convincing can it be than personal learning experience. If after one week you feel they are not qualified and are not capable of teaching you Thai please report to all the readers.

Walen School

body swerve!

[Drew Aitch]

I too have no affiliation with any school or person with regards to learning Thai. But all this forum banter demanding information about occupational qualifications, experience, methodology, and pricing, is a bit lame isn't it? Especially when we're talking about 139 Baht a lesson. I mean, what's that, Bangers and Mash down at the Mad dog? Surely there can be no better invitation to any product or service than that of 'Try Before You Buy', which I think is the offer here?

Ever heard the saying; 'Don't knock something until you've tried it?' Well, unless I'm reading this thread all wrong, there's an invitation here to try the Walen School of Thai for free before casting your judgements.

Even if a 3 breasted semi-literate teacher in her early 100's stood before you with more sagging flesh on the floor than over the her bones, yet managed to fire you up and get you chit chatting and communicating in Thai faster than a speeding bullet, then what does it matter what papers or experience she's accumulated?

Why don't all you folks that have so many unanswered questions about this subject just pop along and take up the offer of a free lesson(s)? After all, it's not as if CM is this huge metropolis that takes hours to get from one side of the city to the other! In fact, you could have probably had your free class, gone for lunch afterwards, and grabbed a foot massage on the way home, in less time than it has taken you to post your nit-picking, fault-finding, and potential dissatisfaction about something you have no first hand experience of.

Sheesh, there's none funnier than folks!

Aitch

[keo]

Aitch, I believe that in order to get the "free" week of lessons, you first have to buy the course book, to the tune of 400 Baht. Then if you decide to continue studying, you have to pay for your "free" lessons.

My past experience of studying Thai at a language school, and hearing many others' similar experiences at various other schools, has made me rather cynical about how Thai language is taught to foreigners in CM.

I would rather not waste my time and money repeating the experience.

Maybe Walen is different. Maybe they have teachers who know how to, for example, set up communicative activities.

However, Walen is way out of my price range, so I'll never know.

เรียนเองดีกว่า

[el jefe]

I too have no affiliation with any school or person with regards to learning Thai. But all this forum banter demanding information about occupational qualifications, experience, methodology, and pricing, is a bit lame isn't it? Especially when we're talking about 139 Baht a lesson. I mean, what's that, Bangers and Mash down at the Mad dog? Surely there can be no better invitation to any product or service than that of 'Try Before You Buy', which I think is the offer here?

Ever heard the saying; 'Don't knock something until you've tried it?' Well, unless I'm reading this thread all wrong, there's an invitation here to try the Walen School of Thai for free before casting your judgements.

Even if a 3 breasted semi-literate teacher in her early 100's stood before you with more sagging flesh on the floor than over the her bones, yet managed to fire you up and get you chit chatting and communicating in Thai faster than a speeding bullet, then what does it matter what papers or experience she's accumulated?

Why don't all you folks that have so many unanswered questions about this subject just pop along and take up the offer of a free lesson(s)? After all, it's not as if CM is this huge metropolis that takes hours to get from one side of the city to the other! In fact, you could have probably had your free class, gone for lunch afterwards, and grabbed a foot massage on the way home, in less time than it has taken you to post your nit-picking, fault-finding, and potential dissatisfaction about something you have no first hand experience of.

Sheesh, there's none funnier than folks!

Aitch

H, you've posted 10 times the number of words I have. You're obviously fluent in Thai now since you have the time to "nit-pick and fault-find" our posts here. Some of us are waiting for Whalin to answer Mapguy's simple question. We don't understand why you insist on helping Whalin avoid the question unless he's paying you to keep this thread alive.

Edited November 26, 2009 by el jefe

[Drew Aitch]

H, you've posted 10 times the number of words I have. You're obviously fluent in Thai now since you have the time to "nit-pick and fault-find" our posts here. Some of us are waiting for Whalin to answer Mapguy's simple question. We don't understand why you insist on helping Walen avoid the question unless he's paying you to keep this thread alive.

Oh dear, here we go again! You're either with us or against us mentality! Who is this royal 'WE' anyway? Is there a bunch of posters here all waiting in eager anticipation to enrol at Walen based on the answers to a couple of recent questions? Look el jefe, all i'm saying is that surely the proof of the pudding is in the eating! How many derisive posters have actually walked into the doors of Walen and taken their offer of a free lesson? If I were going to buy a new car, i certainly wouldn't base my decision on reviews written by folks who have never even taking the model i was interested in for a test drive! How many of the cynical contributors to this thread have actually taken the Walen school for a test drive before posting their uninformed opinions?

There may well be people visiting this forum who are genuinely interested in the various options of Thai Language Schools in CM. Don't you think it's a little unfair for some posters to be slagging off a company (price, methods, staff, ED scam etc), that they have absolutely no first hand experience of? It's not fair for those looking for schools and it's not fair for the schools that are getting a potentially bad wrap from people who form and share their opinions based on imagination rather than personal experience.

Why not stick your head in the door and say hello? Have your lesson, or just sit in and observe one already under way, and then come back with a 'real review' based on your actual experience? Forums are a great place for information, but by crikey they're notorious for spreading misinformation and misery too, and it seems that many who frequent them have an unhealthy attitude to all things positive!!!!

I don't know why, but it sometimes feels like certain members of Thaivisa don't want to see anyone succeed in business for reasons known only to them.

Aitch

[MacWalen]

Mapguy, our teachers have bachelor's degrees, not specifically related to teaching Thai as we do not require it. Teachers have a method to follow and we do not want any free style Thai teachers as we are a system based school.

Regarding their experience it is not very large yet as we have opened our school just this September so they cannot have much experience, this however does not mean that they do not know how to teach. They receive intensive training each week.

If you think you can discredit them then you can try to do this in the classroom, this is the best way to test their ability to teach, otherwise judge by results.

I welcome healthy exchange of opinions and also critique as this helps us to improve our service.

Also for the record, we never pay anybody to keep this thread alive. There might be some truth in it that some readers would be happy to see us fail, if that was the case it would be very sad, very sad for those negative ones as one day they may indeed need our service and be happy that we are still around despite their death wishes.

Walen School - try first, judge later

www.thaiwalen.com

[el jefe]

Mapguy, our teachers have bachelor's degrees, not specifically related to teaching Thai as we do not require it. Teachers have a method to follow and we do not want any free style Thai teachers as we are a system based school.

Regarding their experience it is not very large yet as we have opened our school just this September so they cannot have much experience, this however does not mean that they do not know how to teach. They receive intensive training each week.

If you think you can discredit them then you can try to do this in the classroom, this is the best way to test their ability to teach, otherwise judge by results.

I welcome healthy exchange of opinions and also critique as this helps us to improve our service.

Also for the record, we never pay anybody to keep this thread alive. There might be some truth in it that some readers would be happy to see us fail, if that was the case it would be very sad, very sad for those negative ones as one day they may indeed need our service and be happy that we are still around despite their death wishes.

Walen School - try first, judge later

www.thaiwalen.com

Thanks for finally answering the question. I wish you the best of luck.

[MacWalen]

It's been a little over 3 months since my last post here. Time flies.

We are having a couple of groups during a week but it is not convenient for some students so we would like to open a weekend class. If there are any of you who would like to learn Thai on Saturday and Sunday at 10 am for 2 hours let me know. We are close to opening that group.

Chiangmai is not the easiest place for business but we are still getting your support so for this I would like to say thank you to all those who supported our school. We are still offering free demonstration lessons so if someone is interested in joining please do.

We have 4 full-time teachers now, they have done a lot of hours each so some of you who were concerned about their experience can be assured that the quality is very good.

On the topic of ED visas, we have already processed quite a few ED visas for our current students and no one had any problems whatsoever. Also a good thing about Chiangmai is that the immigration gives 9 months extensions and not 3 like they do in Bangkok or in Pattaya, there is really no reason why in the mentioned cities they do only 3 months (90 days to be specific), at least in Chiangmai they do the right thing and extend for the actual period of learning. Hope it does not change as everything is possible here.

Job Vacancy:

We are looking for an English teacher in Chiangmai , at first part time hours

Qualifications:

Native English speaker

Easy to understand accent (no regional accent)

Good voice

Pleasant personality

Fast learner

Dynamic

Disciplined (needs to be happy to follow a method)

Presentable

Walen School - life is too short not to learn!

www.thaiwalen.com

Edited March 1, 2010 by macwalen

[CMX]

"Regarding their experience it is not very large yet as we have opened our school just this September so they cannot have much experience, this however does not mean that they do not know how to teach. They receive intensive training each week."

A lack of experience absolutely DOES mean that teachers have not yet met their stride - by far. Whether an instructor is a "natural teacher" or formally trained to teach, it takes some years (whatever the method used) to hit their stride.

And this is particularly important when cultures differ. Thai education today is rather strict and severe, not unlike public (US meaning) education some years ago in Western nations. Teachers at Walen, if encouraged, will be learning as much as their students for some time.

In my view, the OP's questions (and positions) were most valid of this string. In favor of the school is a part of its approach (for those who do not wish to waste time learning someone's temporary alphabet). Salesmanship and business models are what we make of them, but the program is what counts.

Against the program so far are the prices compared to established schools in the community (I do not speak of overpriced coffee) and a track record as reported by longtime students , poor or excellent. No new enterprise can have that. (One positive testimonial was nice to read, as it was, I think, legit.)

By contrast, AUA's reporters are sorry about 1 instructor mostly and may prefer sweet young things to battleaxes. I attended and had a v. good one and I met students who had others that they regarded as helpful; strange people, my fellow students there - they did not report on looks but rather upon learning experiences; focus I guess.

(However, ten hours of study each week for me meant another 30 of study and travel, as AUA is serious. Well, language schools must be.) Walen might allow me some time for study AND life, if one has the money remaining to live it.

[Loaded]

"Regarding their experience it is not very large yet as we have opened our school just this September so they cannot have much experience, this however does not mean that they do not know how to teach. They receive intensive training each week."

A lack of experience absolutely DOES mean that teachers have not yet met their stride - by far. Whether an instructor is a "natural teacher" or formally trained to teach, it takes some years (whatever the method used) to hit their stride.

And this is particularly important when cultures differ. Thai education today is rather strict and severe, not unlike public (US meaning) education some years ago in Western nations. Teachers at Walen, if encouraged, will be learning as much as their students for some time.

In my view, the OP's questions (and positions) were most valid of this string. In favor of the school is a part of its approach (for those who do not wish to waste time learning someone's temporary alphabet). Salesmanship and business models are what we make of them, but the program is what counts.

Against the program so far are the prices compared to established schools in the community (I do not speak of overpriced coffee) and a track record as reported by longtime students , poor or excellent. No new enterprise can have that. (One positive testimonial was nice to read, as it was, I think, legit.)

By contrast, AUA's reporters are sorry about 1 instructor mostly and may prefer sweet young things to battleaxes. I attended and had a v. good one and I met students who had others that they regarded as helpful; strange people, my fellow students there - they did not report on looks but rather upon learning experiences; focus I guess.

(However, ten hours of study each week for me meant another 30 of study and travel, as AUA is serious. Well, language schools must be.) Walen might allow me some time for study AND life, if one has the money remaining to live it.

Always amazes me that someone thinks they can critique a service or product without having any direct experience of that product or service. I don't know anything about Walen or their product and therefore I don't comment on their product because that would just be stupid ignorance.

[Ijustwannateach]

Let's try to keep this thread on-topic. It is definitely NOT a 'compare the language schools' thread. Check the OP and the most recent post by Walen if you are confused as to what the topic of this thread actually is.

[newbie001]

I think that my only gripe is that from what I read on the website that all of their teachers are female. I am a male and I really don't want to talk like a female. There are certain language patterns that women tend to use in Thai language that men do not. I am not fully fluent but I have a strong working knowledge and would like to have some intermediate to advanced lessons but it seems that almost all schools have only female teachers.

Will Walen school ever have male teachers at their CM branch?

Though by the looks of the CM branch it does seem that the teachers do lack experience and a few of the posters comments here do seem valid, but I do respect that Walen does offer a trial to sit in on their classes, most other schools don't.

[canuckamuck]

It isn't hard, say pohm instead of chun and krap instead of ka. Don't bat your eyelids or swing your hips, and keep that wrist tight.

[newbie001]

I cannot believe that you are so ignorant about Thai language. First of all Thai people don't use the pronoun Pohm in common language. That is very formal.

You obviously know very little Thai. If you hang out with Thai men more often you will notice a lot of differences in word choices, language patterns and such not just the feminine vs. masculine modifiers.

[Puwa]

I cannot believe that you are so ignorant about Thai language. First of all Thai people don't use the pronoun Pohm in common language. That is very formal.

Wrong.

[venturalaw]

Mapguy, our teachers have bachelor's degrees, not specifically related to teaching Thai as we do not require it. Teachers have a method to follow and we do not want any free style Thai teachers as we are a system based school.

Regarding their experience it is not very large yet as we have opened our school just this September so they cannot have much experience, this however does not mean that they do not know how to teach. They receive intensive training each week.

If you think you can discredit them then you can try to do this in the classroom, this is the best way to test their ability to teach, otherwise judge by results.

I welcome healthy exchange of opinions and also critique as this helps us to improve our service.

Also for the record, we never pay anybody to keep this thread alive. There might be some truth in it that some readers would be happy to see us fail, if that was the case it would be very sad, very sad for those negative ones as one day they may indeed need our service and be happy that we are still around despite their death wishes.

Walen School - try first, judge later

www.thaiwalen.com

This is from my perspective only. I attended 2 classes at Walen. Here was the problem for me:

I was not only taught words, but the spelling, and the names of the letters and the order of the letters for each word. Now perhaps for one who has a superior memory, this method is excellent. But for me, I found it way too much to memorize. I just want to learn words, sentences, etc. I'll tackle reading and writing much later. If I am incorrect and it is the general professional opinion that one should learn reading and spelling at the same time as learning to speak the language, then perhaps learning Thai is not something I should tackle. However, I have since been in a weekly class elsewhere where I am being taught words, sentences and sentence structure. This is working for me.

[MacWalen]

Thank you guys for your comments, of course it is hard to come up with a program and method that would work or be liked by all. I would like to do that though. In any case it is better to have a choice than not to have one.

Regarding prices I have not done much checking around, our prices are on our website www.thaiwalen.com for the whole world to see. I do not know what constitutes expensive or cheap, also sometimes cheap is the most expensive! We charge for 60 lessons 9,900 Baht. around 200 Euros for 10 weeks (if 6 lessons a week) or 20 Euro a week. It certainly cannot be too expensive by European standards.

As Chiangmai is growing (expat community) there will be more and more demand for Thai schools and all good schools will get enough business to justify their existence. It would be much worse if there were no Thai schools at all.

Walen School - not the cheapest but good value

www.thaiwalen.com

[elektrified]

I cannot believe that you are so ignorant about Thai language. First of all Thai people don't use the pronoun Pohm in common language. That is very formal.

Wrong.

[newbie001]

Puwa. It is not common for Thai people in common everyday language to refer to themselves as Pohm. For someone that has lived here as long as you, you should listen to people communicate more. Ask any Thai male how often he uses the pronoun Pohm when talking about himself. I doubt that it would be that often. Pronouns are just not used that often as we do in English.

Have you ever heard a Thai person say "phom pai ban" I go home, no, they don't use the pronoun when talking in general communication. It is only used when it isn't understood who the subject is or in formal situations.

You can say that I am wrong, but I doubt that you can pass a highschool equivalency in Thai in either spoken or written.

Edited March 1, 2010 by newbie001

[amexpat]

........ It certainly cannot be too expensive by European standards.

Two thousand baht for a one-hour massage is not expensive by U.S. standards.

Relevance?

[canuckamuck]

I cannot believe that you are so ignorant about Thai language. First of all Thai people don't use the pronoun Pohm in common language. That is very formal.

You obviously know very little Thai. If you hang out with Thai men more often you will notice a lot of differences in word choices, language patterns and such not just the feminine vs. masculine modifiers.

Pohm is used by Thai males, I made no suggestion as to how often. The use of the word increases with the formality of the conversation, but it is sometimes necessary to refer to yourself in informal conversation too.

I think you should be more concerned with fluency than sounding manly. My guess is male language teachers in LOS are unlikely to be of the manly variety. You might learn how to speak like a katoey though.

[Puwa]

Puwa. It is not common for Thai people in common everyday language to refer to themselves as Pohm. For someone that has lived here as long as you, you should listen to people communicate more. Ask any Thai male how often he uses the pronoun Pohm when talking about himself. I doubt that it would be that often. Pronouns are just not used that often as we do in English.

Have you ever heard a Thai person say "phom pai ban" I go home, no, they don't use the pronoun when talking in general communication. It is only used when it isn't understood who the subject is or in formal situations.

You can say that I am wrong, but I doubt that you can pass a highschool equivalency in Thai in either spoken or written.

I don't want to get into a pissing contest on language ability--that's just silly and immature.

You are right that phom is more formal than other pronouns, but it's still used frequently. As you know, Thai speakers choose the appropriate personal pronoun based on situation. So, sure there will be situations like when farmers talk among themselves or people are chatting within their families where pohm wouldn't be used at all. But an educated male speaker who is sensitive to how language defines social relations would use it all the time in the course of a day. Pohm isn't rajasap, after all.

In fact, I think one of the most difficult things to learn as a speaker of Thai is how to switch effortlessly among personal pronouns in daily conversation. If I am at my office, talking to an elder colleague, I use pohm, but when speaking to younger co-workers I am "pi" (or "loong" if I am playing along with their teasing), and when my wife calls, I refer to myself by name or use "rao."

And by the way, you're right, I haven't heard "phom pai ban" very often because that's not idiomatic in Thai. "Glaap ban" is more the idiom.

[MacWalen]

I think that my only gripe is that from what I read on the website that all of their teachers are female. I am a male and I really don't want to talk like a female. There are certain language patterns that women tend to use in Thai language that men do not. I am not fully fluent but I have a strong working knowledge and would like to have some intermediate to advanced lessons but it seems that almost all schools have only female teachers.

Will Walen school ever have male teachers at their CM branch?

Though by the looks of the CM branch it does seem that the teachers do lack experience and a few of the posters comments here do seem valid, but I do respect that Walen does offer a trial to sit in on their classes, most other schools don't.

The answer is yes, if we have enough students. From my observations it seems that majority of students prefer female teachers so with still limited numbers of students in CM we now have only female teachers. In Bangkok we have a male teacher, only one so far but hope to have more in the future.

Walen School - learning is the best vitamin for the brain!

www.thaiwalen.com

Edited March 2, 2010 by macwalen

[MacWalen]

I think our job vacancy was placed in a wrong place. I heard there were a lot of English teachers looking for a job in CM. Maybe just not enough readers here. What is the best place to advertise jobs for English teachers in Chiangmai? Suggestions appreciated.

Walen School - not just hearing but listening

www.thaiwalen.com