Wide Pricing/quality Disparity In Private Thai Tutors

[Tod Daniels]

Being both bored, as well as curious ; I have recently begun calling and taking sample lessons from private thai language tutors in the greater Bangkok area.

Not surprisingly there is a HUGE amount of disparity in both their ability to actually teach thai to foreigners as well as their grasp of english to be able to explain the ins and outs of thai language structure rules so a foreigner can understand it.

Some people may argue that it is not necessary to have a thai language teacher speak english at a high enough level to explain things, but I disagree. At least for me, knowing the whys of a language rule helps me retain it better. Usually when a student first starts any thai language class, their grasp of thai is so lacking that asking even a basic question about a language rule is out. Couple that with the fact that all too many thai language teachers I’ve sat with use the catch all phrase, “That is how thai is..” (in other words, deal with it ).

Simply being a native speaker in what ever language doesn’t qualify someone to actually teach that language to another person. This is evidenced by the plethora of poorly trained (yet overly confident) foreigners here who are completely unqualified to be “engrish teachers”, yet do so every day often to the detriment of the thais they are teaching.

I recently met with three former thai language teachers of mine who have formed a loose ‘coalition’ to teach private lessons part time. They had the foresight to pool their language resources (as well as “borrowed” some of my stuff). They came up with varying methods depending on what a student is interested in learning. They can tailor the lesson plans accordingly. Because they do pool resources, as well as teach with the same approach, they actually can sub out for each other when there is a scheduling conflict, with no loss in teaching quality the student receives.

Unfortunately in all the time and all the teachers I’ve come across, I’ve yet to meet a single one who actually had a degree in anything resembling education. Teachers I’ve met have had degrees in art, english history, marketing, business, tourism, accounting, IT, even one in underwater basket weaving, <-(joking ), but alas no education degrees. Even the teachers I mentioned earlier are not education majors, although one is an english major.

That does not mean they hadn’t developed into effective teachers. It only meant that during their pursuit of higher education they didn’t care about the field of education nor thought about teaching thai to foreigners as a source of viable income. Most I have met seemed to fall into the teaching thai to foreigner field because of their good english skills, and lack of reticence in speaking to foreigners.

The same parallel can be drawn with the foreign engrish teachers as well. I’ve met many who were actually talented teachers in their own right, but had little in the way of real book smarts, or certifications. They were charismatic people who learned how to teach.

There is also quite a wide variance in pricing for private thai lessons. Thai Language Schools like Walen, Berlitz, etc charge about 750baht an hour for private lessons. I’ve seen ads or flyers for private tutors who are not affiliated with a school with prices ranging from 250-500 per hour. I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who is both qualified to teach thai, and who has the workbooks, lesson plans, etc to teach it for less than about 400 an hour. You might stumble onto one now and again, but for the most part I’ve found; “Good things are not cheap, cheap things are not good” in the private tutoring arena.

I would be interested in other peoples’ experiences that’ve used private tutors and their perception on ‘bang for the baht’.

[kokesaat]

4 years ago one of my old English students (from AUA days) moved into the neighborhood. She wanted English lessons, I wanted to learn Thai. She had no experience teaching (nor did I before AUA), but she was college education and her mom is a teacher. It took quite some time for me to convince her to be tough with me.....tones, spelling, vocab retention, etc.....but over time, she developed into quite a good teacher (for me). We met twice a week, 4 hours each time....2 hours for her, 2 for me. Only recently she stopped because she's building a home, but said she wants to return for more lessons. It's worked out well for me, and she seems to be happy with what I teach her in return.

Since we meet at my home, there's no commute time......that's a big bonus for me! All in all, it's been a positive experience.

[SoftWater]

I know this only anecdotal, but for what's its worth, my first ever Thai teacher was a Chula B.Ed graduate doing a bit of freelancing from her day job (working as admin support in an English language school). Her English was excellent (which is NOT the norm' for Thai B.Eds), but alas she didn't know the first thing about teaching in general or teaching Thai in particular (though she was well practiced in the art of flirting with foreigners).

I don't know what they teach in a B.Ed in Thailand, but it certainly didn't seem to have a lot to do with the practical art of second-language teaching if she was anything to go by.

I've found the best tutors are those that are outsourced from schools and use the school curriculum and methodology. That said, my sample is extremely small, so I wouldn't like to generalise.

Edited December 2, 2009 by SoftWater