Seeking Private English Teacher

[Dustoff]

~

We are headed for the States in the spring with a 14-year old who is in dire need of intensive private instruction in English. Prefer an American or Brit who is actually a teacher, not just someone who is willing to do it.

Personal experiences please, not just someone you heard about. This is preparation for my stepson to enter the American school system without going back a few grades due to his lack of comprehension in English.

Someone in the Southern half of town would be nice but quality is the most important.

[Gladiator]

Dustoff,

Please see PM

Gladiator

[DavidOxon]

I know and English english teacher in MWT, worked for my friend's Thai company teaching his staff English. Don't know his address, but have a 2 mutual friends in MWT who would know.

D

[mania]

Good Luck and hopefully your stepson already has a good start in the English language from living with you. There are many English teachers in CM so that should help.  

Hopefully he will not be overwhelmed if he does not already have a good grasp on the English language. Spring is less than a year off and none can get from scratch to a high school level of speaking/reading comprehension in that amount of time. 

I am guessing he will be in the ninth grade when arriving in America.

Good Luck, I have friends here with teen Thai children brought over, most like it after an adjustment period. Maybe a bit tougher for the young teenagers due to the usual stresses of that age group.

Edited September 15, 2010 by mania

[farangajarn]

Dustoff

I have sent you a pm, please check that.

Farangajarn

[Dustoff]

~

Yikes! I am a bit overwhelmed with PM's and it is obvious that I should have been more clear.

By "personal experiences," I meant from parents who have hired a private tutor and were very pleased with the results.

I have been getting everything from "I know someone who knows someone" (above) to someone who's qualification is being a retired truck driver.

On the good side, a few current International School teachers are available but 500B/hr is a bit dear for the number of hours of instruction I am seeking.

If any of you watching are parents who have had an excellent experience with a private English teacher, I would love to hear about it.

Thanks everyone for your responses (excellent one, Mania)!

~

[Johpa]

Find a young bi-lingual (I assume Kham Muang- English) your son can relate too, someone young enough to be fun to hang out with, probably a guy in his young 20s. You can get an older professional teacher, but in a one-on-one situation the social dynamic will be more important than the pedagogic dynamic. A formal teaching background is essential to manage a large class to obtain a modicum of success across the group, but is far less essential for a private tutorial and may actually be counter productive. So let your son spend a few hours with the countless applicants you will get and see who he would be motivated to hang out with for awhile each day.

[Dean1953]

I moved back to the U.S. with my Thai wife and her 3 children (18, 14 and 11 at the time) two years ago. I had the two youngest take group classes from a man from Singapore for a year before coming and the lessons were of marginal help. Your children will be placed in an ELL (English as a 2nd language) program, devised mainly for spanish speaking children. The english courses are entirely made up of ELL students. Other courses are not, but ELL students are given helpwhile taking the non-english courses. Besides taking English, the first year is composed mainly of math and lots of art courses. The second year, besides math, they throw in a social studies course. Usually, the ELL program lasts 3 years. Every year, the students are tested to evaluate their english skills, and they are placed in either level 1, 2 or 3. My 16 year old is in his 3rd (hopefully last ) year and my 14 year old quized out after two years (but is still receiving help in her 8th grade studies by the ELL department, if she needs it. The eldest, a 20 year old girl, had no problems making friends in school. The other two have had problems but the 16 year old does have a couple of friends. The 14 year old has friends in school but is not as outgoing as the 20 year old but is a much better student. All in all, I will be glad when the next 5 years are up and the youngest is in college and I can move back to Thailand.