6 Month Ed Visa With Thai Language Solutions

[bangkok blue]

Hi,

I have recently noticed a company in Bangkok called Thai Language solutions.

They offer a 6 MONTH Thai Language course for 12,500 bht which also allows you to obtain a 6 month Education visa (an initial single entry extended by 90days at immigration)

One of my friends has enrolled with them on this 6mth option and obtained an ED visa without a problem.

However I live in Chiangmai and I cannot enroll with them. I know you are opening a school in Chiangmai soon. I would like to enroll with you when you do that but the fees for the whole one year are a bit much to pay in one go.

Will you be able to start offering a 6month course similar to Thai language solutions in the near future?

[MacWalen]

At the moment we do not have such a plan. How well they do the job the time will tell, there are more and more schools offering Ed visas which is good for customers. We do not sell the programme of our school based on offering ED visas only but on offering the fastest way of learning Thai. There are several schools going bankrupt at the moment, so potential students beware.

Also trying to pay less and less is not a great encouragement to make investment into opening new schools as anybody who knows anything about business should understand. We are not a charity so if we cannot get our investment back plus some profit we would not have any motivation to open more schools. Also some schools look terrible, cheapest chairs, dirty looking, one of the schools I visited, Pro in Chiang Mai, even had a squat toilet!

Is 27,900 Baht for 180 lessons really that expansive? Well, lets kill the market. Instead of having the attitude of trying to encourage investment and making it more available and convenient for students in other locations to learn Thai and obtaing ED visa assistance there is push to make it cheaper and cheaper and who will be the winner in a long run? A student who saved 2,900 Baht a year? What is that, 241 Baht a month or 8 Baht a day. Are any people interested in actually learning Thai out there? We are interested in you becoming our students. As far as ED visa goes we will provide the best and most reliable service but the price wars usually do not benefit growth and are discouraging. Tomorrow there will be anohter guy offering 5 month visas for only 11k and so on. Inevitably many of them will not be able to succeed and the little some student pay they will lose with additional complications with the immigration and the ministry of education. Eventually they will come to us for help.

We are to spend about 4 mil Baht for our new school in Chiang Mai, already have a great location in mind but did not sign a contract yet however all those new 'Thai' schools popping up make it a risky decision.

We do not have a plan of 6 month courses with ED visas assistance at the moment. Also 27,900 a year which is 2,325 a month or 77 Baht a day to learn at a quality institution with an incredible method is affordable in our opinion. Also we can take good care of our students for years to come. Have been on the market for 8 years so if you want to pay your money to a school that opened a door a few months ago it is your right. Go ahead.

Walen School

[bangkok blue]

Mr Walen,

Thanks for the reply, yes I am aware quality is an issue. I would like to go with a reputable company like your own then risk my money with a new and possible "Mickey Mouse" company. But I also have to watch the bank balance. Yes, what you offer is good value for money, I never questioned that. two chunks of 14,000bht would be more manageable than one big chunk of 28,000... Hence the reason i asked the question.

Incidently CMU also offer a 1 year course for the same price as yours (again though full payment in advance) would a Thai course Cert from them look more favourable with prospective Thai Employers?

Rest assured I have watched the growth of your school with interest and fully believe you are doing a good job with your method of teaching. Once you open in Chiangmai be sure to let us all know and I will look forward to attending a demo class.

Good luck and all the best

[Tod Daniels]

While in macwalen's mind he believes he has the best method to teach thai; that fact is actually in the eye of the student, not the 'creator' of a method. Believe me, there are more methods to teach the thai language than there are schools out there. I've seen them and have toured 25+ thai language schools in the Bangkok Metro area. You need only look at the sponsors of this forum to see 4 or more thai language schools advertising.

Some are better than others, and depending on what you want to achieve, i.e.; speaking, reading, writing, etc. Different schools (different methods) may bring your goal to fruition faster than others.

Chiang Mai University's Thai Language Class is a very highly regarded thai language course. It is up there with the ones offered by the major universities here in Bangkok. It is intensive, well thought out, and taught in a methodical manner which builds on previously learned lessons. I have a set of their course books myself, and I can say, they are well written and well laid out.

I must disagree with our illustrious forum sponsor in the statement that if a school offers a 6 month visa program for less money it can somehow be inferred to be of lesser quality or less qualified to teach thai to foreigners. That fact alone is neither a positive nor a negative. What a student should look for is "bang for your baht". I also disagree that a new school has any inherent quality deficit than an existing school. If that was the case, wouldn't Unity Thai, AUA, and PRO Language (all LONG TIME schools in teaching thai) be perceived as better quality than the "walen method" which is a relative newcomer in the "teaching thai language" sector? Believe me I attended mac's school a year, and it is an interesting method. It may or may not, become a viable way to teach the thai language. Only time will tell, as unless I am mistaken it has only taught thai language less than 2 years and was an english language only school before that.

Sometimes people don't want or need to stay in thailand for a complete year. As with ANY private language school; the Ministry of Education ONLY issues visa extension paperwork in 90 day increments. I honestly can't see a down side to doing a 6 month course, and in reality, neither can I see a down side to just a 90 day course if a person just wants to stay here 3 months. Should a student wish to continue, he can pay for more schooling and get the extension paperwork which is provided for free by the Ministry of Education based on documents the school provides. While taking a year's tuition up front might be good business for the school, it becomes less so for a student not sure about staying in thailand a full year. A pay as you go plan might work well for both sides.

My advice; tour every school you can find, look at their materials, look at their methods, talk to currently enrolled students, sit in on the beginner class for free. It is your money, spend it wisely. Don't be sucked into a slick sales pitch by ANY school; once you pay you'll never ever get a refund, this being thailand and customer satisfaction being what it is here. Remember ALL schools are in the business of making money, that's just business 101. Don't be in a hurry to part with your hard earned baht.

[MacWalen]

While in macwalen's mind he believes he has the best method to teach thai; that fact is actually in the eye of the student, not the 'creator' of a method. Believe me, there are more methods to teach the thai language than there are schools out there. I've seen them and have toured 25+ thai language schools in the Bangkok Metro area. You need only look at the sponsors of this forum to see 4 or more thai language schools advertising.

Some are better than others, and depending on what you want to achieve, i.e.; speaking, reading, writing, etc. Different schools (different methods) may bring your goal to fruition faster than others.

Chiang Mai University's Thai Language Class is a very highly regarded thai language course. It is up there with the ones offered by the major universities here in Bangkok. It is intensive, well thought out, and taught in a methodical manner which builds on previously learned lessons. I have a set of their course books myself, and I can say, they are well written and well laid out.

I must disagree with our illustrious forum sponsor in the statement that if a school offers a 6 month visa program for less money it can somehow be inferred to be of lesser quality or less qualified to teach thai to foreigners. That fact alone is neither a positive nor a negative. What a student should look for is "bang for your baht". I also disagree that a new school has any inherent quality deficit than an existing school. If that was the case, wouldn't Unity Thai, AUA, and PRO Language (all LONG TIME schools in teaching thai) be perceived as better quality than the "walen method" which is a relative newcomer in the "teaching thai language" sector? Believe me I attended mac's school a year, and it is an interesting method. It may or may not, become a viable way to teach the thai language. Only time will tell, as unless I am mistaken it has only taught thai language less than 2 years and was an english language only school before that.

Sometimes people don't want or need to stay in thailand for a complete year. As with ANY private language school; the Ministry of Education ONLY issues visa extension paperwork in 90 day increments. I honestly can't see a down side to doing a 6 month course, and in reality, neither can I see a down side to just a 90 day course if a person just wants to stay here 3 months. Should a student wish to continue, he can pay for more schooling and get the extension paperwork which is provided for free by the Ministry of Education based on documents the school provides. While taking a year's tuition up front might be good business for the school, it becomes less so for a student not sure about staying in thailand a full year. A pay as you go plan might work well for both sides.

My advice; tour every school you can find, look at their materials, look at their methods, talk to currently enrolled students, sit in on the beginner class for free. It is your money, spend it wisely. Don't be sucked into a slick sales pitch by ANY school; once you pay you'll never ever get a refund, this being thailand and customer satisfaction being what it is here. Remember ALL schools are in the business of making money, that's just business 101. Don't be in a hurry to part with your hard earned baht.

You have visited at least 25 schools but you have chosen to become a Walen student so it in itself is a testimony to the 'interesting method'! Many schools have no method as such, just using books bought from a bookstore, every teacher different story in a classroom. I find it very difficult to believe that there will ever be a school teaching in a more consistent fashion than Walen.

Also readers are interested in ED visa, certainly you could not say you had any problems with the ED visa while learning at Walen, all extensions were also very well taken care of. I also have a feeling that had you not qualified for a different type of visa you would continue with our school for a second year.

I remember you saying good things about our method, the school, our teachers, our staff and the atmosphere. Also you are visiting our school on a regular basis, not less than once a week, and you are always greeted with a smile and made feel welcome. I am also sure you can see that we are a genuine Thai school, not just a 'visa shop Thai school' that all of a sudden opened recently to teach foreigners Thai.

The situation with the ministry of education is not as simple as you presented it, I will not go into it in more detail. We have helped a lot of students with difficult visa situations and will continue to do so in order to help them stay in Thailand long term to learn Thai. We can also do it if someone is interested in learning English.

It is also quite obvious that other schools are simply copying our business model, they must think that we do something right if they copy us.

I am not worried about the Walen Method's future in Thailand, it is here to stay for good. In the future it will be the preferred method of learning Thai judging but the response from our students. We can continue this topic when you drop in to our school for a coffee next time. Your comments are as always appreciated. Keep up the good work.

Walen School, www.thaiwalen.com

Thai Language - Think Walen, Visa Problems - Think Walen, Reliable Service - Think Walen