Followup

[uncrebel11]

I wrote a post a few months ago about trying to teach maths in a bilingual school in BKK in July of 2012. After researching, I've found that is not a good time to find work in k-12 schools in BKK. I might get lucky, but don't count on it (this seems to be the sentiment of everyone I've talked to). Just to remind everyone, I teach maths in a bilingual school in Honduras and will have over a year experience in the classroom by May of this year.

I've decided to come over to BKK in early-mid July and hit the pavement to try and find a language academy to start out. I do NOT have a TEFL certificate and I'm still having trouble figuring out if this is going to an issue or not finding jobs that will pay 35,000 or so baht per month and get me a work permit. I'm only planning to stay in Thailand for one year because I want to start graduate school in the States in August of 2013. Is a TEFL cert. necessary to get a job that makes ends meet for me for the one year. I don't need to save anything really (maybe $100 or so a month would be nice), and I have no dependents or significant other to support. I'm just looking for a good year in Bangkok where I don't lose money (other than the startup costs and flight, of course), have a good time, work, and just live decently. I've found to live VERY frugally here, on a $525/month salary in Honduras, so I hope that helps me adjust. I'd rather not drop $1200 + on a TEFL if I don't need it. I'm hoping the teaching experience I have here is relevant on my CV for these language academies too.

If anyone has any advice, please respond to this post or PM me if you would rather do that. Thank you for your help in advance.

[Scott]

You should be able to find a language school job and you should be able to earn 35,000 per month. You do not need a TEFL, but it helps, especially with language schools.

Local schools have openings periodically throughout the year, so you will probably be able to get into a regular school, but much of that depends on luck.

The work permit may be an issue because many language schools don't provide them, but regular schools should and usually do.

If you are only going to be here 1 year, it might be hard going as it takes time to find work and get settled. Teaching in Thailand is not easy and employers can be quite demanding.