Teaching English, Flemish, Tlingit, etc.

[Mobi]

If English-teaching commentary continues, I will split the thread and send the English-teaching posts to a new thread in the teacher's forum.

You can put me in detention as well

[HagenvonTronje]

Reading this reminds me of a new year party which an old school of mine held. All the teachers where there and it was very thai and highly enjoyable event , karaoke, whiskey, prize raffle and lots of fun.

But during the course of the evening a number of the staff and some of their kids got on stage and took part in a game. The basic rules were the this.

Everyone stood in a line facing the audience

They had to sound off every alternate letter of the Thai alphabet (in English this would be a , c, e, g etc.)

If they said the wrong letter - they sat down. The winner was the last one standing and won a prize

Pretty simple

By the end of the first round about 80% of the teachers had been knocked out. The game was one won by an 8 year old son of the art teacher.

I was kinda shocked that teachers were so weak in the basic of their own alphabet - Maybe the test should focus on the Thai language and English language

I also always think it's interesting, as a teacher, to see the pass rate for entrance tests for Thai and English. Surprisingly they are both very close around 35%. A figure which in its self is pretty poor.

Your are a teacher, a pedagogue, holding a degree in that profession, but can not understand why in a game these adults let an 8 year old win?

[HagenvonTronje]

If English-teaching commentary continues, I will split the thread and send the English-teaching posts to a new thread in the teacher's forum.

You can put me in detention as well

yep, why can it not a little bit a broaden topic on how teachers are teaching?

[HagenvonTronje]

It's my understanding that amongst Thai teaching profession that those that might normally fail at most other subjects in university, end up majoring in Thai language. Sort of like the old Western education line about "Teachers that can't teach, teach P.E." (physical education) to borrow a line of Jack Black's from the movie, School of Rock.

Thus it is further my understanding that amongst the Thai teaching profession, those that teach Thai are looked down upon by other teachers... and probably accounts for the dearth of those Thai teachers that willingly would teach Thai.

And so called falangs in Thailand, expats that trying to pretend they would have some insight knowledge and explain the world with quotation lines from funny movies can always become a teacher at some local school, despite their own education or the lack of it. And the sad thing is - they do it.

A university educated chemist or mathematician Ph.D. summa cum laude will maybe fail as teacher on a normal school. To become a teacher you need other skills. A professional qualification to become a teacher should include the study of pedagogy, study of methods of teaching. The subject plays a minor role.

and if you had mastered some education to get a degree in teaching you should have a brain big enough, to teach also biology or history or chemistry to 12, 13, 14 years old pupils even if that was not your field at the university. But there must exist some lesson plan and physics at school level isn't rocket science, biology not genetic engineering. I cannot believe that teachers in that subject would go anal about this and look down at professional qualified language teacher. Language would be a more advanced subject.

SJ claim is a complete false assumption, that is maybe only the case for foreign language teacher, who teach their on native language, but are actually not qualified and just having a native lingua, maybe some BA or MA degree in some applied nonsense, practical stuff but not pedagogy. The kindness of the Thaïs to foreigners paired with some supremacist attitude some people come to the delusion they had understand the system.

What is right, is that people don't have the highest opinion of native English teachers, amongst the expat community. Being English teacher is just a little bit above webmaster or SEO pro. And native English teacher are maybe to dumb for any other subject and failed in that.

However, the analogy, that would be for teacher of Thai language, in the hierarchy of the teaching staff the same, is wrong.

[PeaceBlondie]

Split off from http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Teachers-For...ts-t275576.html

Posters will observe local forum rules. Thank you.

[sriracha john]

It's my understanding that amongst Thai teaching profession that those that might normally fail at most other subjects in university, end up majoring in Thai language. Sort of like the old Western education line about "Teachers that can't teach, teach P.E." (physical education) to borrow a line of Jack Black's from the movie, School of Rock.

Thus it is further my understanding that amongst the Thai teaching profession, those that teach Thai are looked down upon by other teachers... and probably accounts for the dearth of those Thai teachers that willingly would teach Thai.

And so called falangs in Thailand, expats that trying to pretend they would have some insight knowledge and explain the world with quotation lines from funny movies can always become a teacher at some local school, despite their own education or the lack of it. And the sad thing is - they do it.

I am a farang, not a so-called farang. I've worked with a lot of Thai teachers who taught the full gamut of subjects. That has given me a certain degree of insight. Please share your own experiences on the matter.

SJ claim is a complete false assumption, that is maybe only the case for foreign language teacher, who teach their on native language, but are actually not qualified and just having a native lingua, maybe some BA or MA degree in some applied nonsense, practical stuff but not pedagogy.

What do you know of my education and training? Absolutely Nothing.

Why is my assessment, not assumption, false? It is based on many interactions with Thai teachers who tended to put down other Thai teachers that taught Thai language. What has been your experience with Thai teachers and their impressions of Thai language teachers?

The kindness of the Thaïs to foreigners paired with some supremacist attitude some people come to the delusion they had understand the system.

I made a reply, based upon my experiences, to an Admin post regarding the subject of Thai language teaching. Please point out (without flaming) where this assessment is wrong.

Edited June 27, 2009 by sriracha john

[Scott]

Let's try and to stay on topic and keep personal attacks to a miminum.

There are a lot of problems in teaching in Thailand and enough blame to go around. There are poorly trained teachers on both the Thai side and among native speakes.

There is poor curriculum development, which would allow for a step-by-step learning of the language.

There is the constant problem of staff change over among foreign teachers and Thais which give little continuity to the teaching process.

Finally, there is the problem of linguistic distance. Thai is a very, very different language than English, everything from the alphabet to the grammar are quite different.

All of these contribute to difficulties in learning the language.

I know that when I speak Thai, I sound more ridiculous than most Thais trying to speak English--and just as unsuccessful at communicating my point sometimes.

[HagenvonTronje]

Finally, there is the problem of linguistic distance. Thai is a very, very different language than English, everything from the alphabet to the grammar are quite different.

All of these contribute to difficulties in learning the language.

There is also a big difference in learning the skills to read and to write the signs of a language system at first. to know how it works that you can transform spoken words with the help of alphabetic characters into written text. And to follow grammar rules, orthography, and what this is at all.

Teaching a foreign language, a secondary language, a language you didn't grow up with, is often based on other method.

For me learning Thai would be easier with an advanced linguistic approach that operates with analysing syntax structure rules of word formation and derivation and phonetic charts like the vowel diagrams. Instead of rote learning of vocabulary list. Thai becomes easier for me to learn and understand when I know what a pro-drop language is and so on.

I think that is also the reason why "Thai language forum moderators agreed that some well-trained farang could teach Thai to farang better than many Thai teachers.", I only would replace falangs vs. Thai with linguistic approach vs. basic teaching method.

[PeaceBlondie]

By popular demand - moved to Feneral

[astral]

Did you mean General???

Having been back in the UK for 3 months I am appalled about how the English speak English now.

Elocution seems to have gone out the door.

Every second person in TV is talking about how bwilliant things are, and the like.......

It is a real joy to hear the Indonesians speaking and the way the enunciate, even trill their R's

[mahtin]

a poorly educated teacher with a lotta reputation is the norm

i was over-ruled by a head of english department when i asked the students if they were ready, she jumped in front of me and shouted to not listen to the farang, its pronounced reedy...

id been there a week.

things didnt improve, although they now have split my salary between 2 much better phillipino teachers.

ef

when u are dealing with generations of ego, its an effort, especially when the parents arent listening.

sorry, i loved my job, but the politics is the same from bottom to top.

now i study.

Edited for spilling...7/10

You seem to be the epitome of the English-speaker who cannot write English, has no formal qualification, yet presumes to teach.