Teaching In The Village

[nicelee808]

Hi All,

I am going to live in Thailand on a Non O visa this year, in my wifes village. I am well known as I have been going there for a long time and made friends there, in conversations, friends have made remarks such as "would I teach their kids English or they would book lessons with me for the children".

I am not a qualified teacher nor do I have a TEFL, but I have taught my own children to speak, read and write English, my son lived in Thailand for the first 4 years of his life before he came to England and adopted the English language after 6 months, it was hard work but valuable Experience.

Can I teach basic English on a private basis within the village? or are there laws to prohibit me from doing this.

Any input would be appreciated.

Regards Lee

[MAJIC]

Yes!

You need a work permit.

[BlackArtemis]

You can't "legally" do that on an O visa, but many teachers teach privately despite such laws. I have never had any trouble doing private tutoring, but just be aware of it things hit the fan, which would be a next to 0% chance.

[garro]

I worked for 5 years in a village school, and it was a wonderful experience. The problem is the work permit - the administration office in most of these schools will usually not have a clue about the application process. In the end I worked voluntarily in the school without a work permit. I actually contacted the local immigration office, and they did not mind one bit so long as I was not charging money. I'm not going to advise you to break the law, but I thought it fair to share my experiences. If you do decide to do something like that I would advise against advertising the fact on forum like this as there are too many fear mongers who will be prophesying all types of tragedy in your future. There is going to be a risk even when you work for free without a work permit and it is probably best to avoid it.

Edited March 10, 2012 by garro

[Scott]

The law requires a work permit. Somewhere around 80-90% of the teachers I know have done or are doing some private tutorial that is technically illegal. I've not known of anyone who got in trouble for private tutorial work, but forewarned is forearmed.

If, however, you decide to work at the local school or any other facility as a teacher, then you may draw unwanted attention to yourself and that might cause a problem.

If you have no experience and if you have the resources or a TEFL course is available, it's well worth it to get the knowledge and a little experience. Language acquisition is not easy, unless you have some experience in teaching it.

Best of luck.

[otherstuff1957]

You can't "legally" do that on an O visa, but many teachers teach privately despite such laws. I have never had any trouble doing private tutoring, but just be aware of it things hit the fan, which would be a next to 0% chance.

If you have a Thai wife type O visa you can work legally - I've done so for years. However, you cannot work legally with a type O retirement visa.

[nicelee808]

You can't "legally" do that on an O visa, but many teachers teach privately despite such laws. I have never had any trouble doing private tutoring, but just be aware of it things hit the fan, which would be a next to 0% chance.

If you have a Thai wife type O visa you can work legally - I've done so for years. However, you cannot work legally with a type O retirement visa.

This is the responses I was hoping to hear, thanks for clearing this up otherstuff.

[woody087]

You can't "legally" do that on an O visa, but many teachers teach privately despite such laws. I have never had any trouble doing private tutoring, but just be aware of it things hit the fan, which would be a next to 0% chance.

If you have a Thai wife type O visa you can work legally - I've done so for years. However, you cannot work legally with a type O retirement visa.

you cannot work in los without a work permit

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

[jaideecm]

Just go for it, don't worry about the work permit at this time. If there is a problem you will be told to stop, it is that simple. I taught at many high schools in Chiang Mai, temples, hill tribe villages, tourist police, regular police in north Thailand and the army for years. I even have framed awards from the schools thanking me for my help. Just don't charge or be with an NGO but do it from your heart.

Good luck, the experience is rewarding and you will make many friends in high places for doing so.

[sirchai]

I wouldn't start to work at a school in said village. You can tutor many of them, but don't start to work there full time at this school. Villagers mostly don't even know their own laws, so please be aware that you could be imprisoned and then deported.

You could gain some experience and it would be a nice opportunity to make money plus learning Thai.

Wish you good luck! Cheers- .

[SlyAnimal]

If you have a Thai wife type O visa you can work legally - I've done so for years. However, you cannot work legally with a type O retirement visa.

To clarify his statement:

With a Marriage "O" visa, you can obtain a work permit. So you would for instance, be able to apply to work at a school and then have them arrange a work permit etc for you. You would need to still meed the requirements for a work permit (You'd likely need a TESOL/CELTA Cert).

Without a work permit, you can't legally work (or even volunteer) in Thailand.

With a work permit, you can legally work at the location which is specified in your work permit (e.g. your school), but not outside of it or at another company (Unless you got the school to specify on your contract (and thus work permit) that you may also do tutoring at another address.

As to whether you would be caught etc, I don't think anyone would exactly go and dob you in to immigration etc. However, if you are going to teach, you try to do so legally (Having a work permit does also make things easier in Thailand too, as then you can more easily put vehicles or monthly accounts into your own name, rather than your wife's)

[brit1984]

It will be fine as long as your good standing in the community continues. If possible try to make friends with the headteachers of the local schools as they can help you.

I did something similar (made a classroom in the in-laws house and taught English to local kids at weekends) - it was good fun.

Don't worry about teaching qualifications as they are not necessary to be a good teacher.

[jaideecm]

I wouldn't start to work at a school in said village. You can tutor many of them, but don't start to work there full time at this school. Villagers mostly don't even know their own laws, so please be aware that you could be imprisoned and then deported.

You could gain some experience and it would be a nice opportunity to make money plus learning Thai.

Wish you good luck! Cheers- .

Start with a village that has a school already. The kids there are very young mostly under 6 years old. Once they get older they will go to school in the nearby town. Talk with the teacher and find out how you can help. Most of the teachers in these villages speak little English so you knowing Thai would be much better. The small school I taught at we started with pictures of animals and saying what they were in Thai and English. We then moved on to objects such as car, train, airplane, store etc. All the time teaching the ABC's. These kids can only do maybe 30 minutes to 1 hour a day so don't expect to much too fast.

The important thing is to work with the teacher and his or her plan. We both came up with the picture teaching aids as he already had the drawings for teaching Thai we just added the English teaching to go with the Thai.

For teaching at a higher level school go to the oiffice of the school and talk with the headmaster. It worked well for me when I taught at Mae Ai Hign school for 2 years. They had an English lesson plan I had to follow and they used me mainly as a native English speaker working along with the teacher. They even had me teachiing the police 2 nights a week. Helping the tourist police in Thaton and teaching the monks and novices at Wat Thaton temple.

That was a lot of fun.

[nicelee808]

Sounds like you people have had some good experiences with this,

I think I will try to do something similiar, probably starting in the village just helping out with English or even Football or something fun, would I have to apply for a volunteers work permit for this to protect myself and can I get one on a Non O visa.

Regards Lee

[sirchai]

It will be fine as long as your good standing in the community continues. If possible try to make friends with the headteachers of the local schools as they can help you.

I did something similar (made a classroom in the in-laws house and taught English to local kids at weekends) - it was good fun.

Don't worry about teaching qualifications as they are not necessary to be a good teacher.

"Don't worry about teaching qualifications as they are not necessary to be a good teacher."

That sounds like the local mechanics here.. Ain't got no qualifications, ain't know sith.

[SlyAnimal]

Sounds like you people have had some good experiences with this,

I think I will try to do something similiar, probably starting in the village just helping out with English or even Football or something fun, would I have to apply for a volunteers work permit for this to protect myself and can I get one on a Non O visa.

Regards Lee

I'm not sure, best bet would probably be to post a new thread in the visas section about that one, as you'll have a decent chance at finding someone there who knows the ins and outs of them. If it looks really difficult, then there is the option of just doing it regardless on your Non O. If you're not charging money, and don't piss anyone off, I couldn't really see anyone complaining, although if you can get a visa/permit to do it, then that'd be ideal.

[NotEinstein]

I volunteered at the local village school for 5 years, starting from your position of being on a marriage visa.

I had to organise all the paperwork myself, which was the best course of action, as I had a handle on it.

This involved getting a work permit, which at the time only needed a valid visa, letter from the Local Education Authority and a contract from the school. At visa renewal, when they saw my work permit, the Immigration dept. changed my visa from marriage to work, but as I was a volunteer, they didn't need any financial info.

Three years ago the school was told that all teachers must have a teacher's licence, and so they obtained a 2 year waiver for me.

This waiver became the important paper at visa and work permit renewal time.

When the school attempted to extend the waiver, they were eventually told that I did not qualify (I didn't meet any of the requirements from the outset), so I applied to renew my visa based on marriage. The Immigration dept. needed to see that my work permit wasn't extended.

The Teachers Licensing dept. did change their mind after a couple of weeks (probably because of it being brought to their attention on a forum such as this), but by then it was too late, as the work permit was about to expire leaving no time to 'jump through the hoop'.

My advice: Do take the time to get the correct paperwork, because the consequences are dire.............

[nicelee808]

I volunteered at the local village school for 5 years, starting from your position of being on a marriage visa.

I had to organise all the paperwork myself, which was the best course of action, as I had a handle on it.

This involved getting a work permit, which at the time only needed a valid visa, letter from the Local Education Authority and a contract from the school. At visa renewal, when they saw my work permit, the Immigration dept. changed my visa from marriage to work, but as I was a volunteer, they didn't need any financial info.

Three years ago the school was told that all teachers must have a teacher's licence, and so they obtained a 2 year waiver for me.

This waiver became the important paper at visa and work permit renewal time.

When the school attempted to extend the waiver, they were eventually told that I did not qualify (I didn't meet any of the requirements from the outset), so I applied to renew my visa based on marriage. The Immigration dept. needed to see that my work permit wasn't extended.

The Teachers Licensing dept. did change their mind after a couple of weeks (probably because of it being brought to their attention on a forum such as this), but by then it was too late, as the work permit was about to expire leaving no time to 'jump through the hoop'.

My advice: Do take the time to get the correct paperwork, because the consequences are dire.............

NotEinstein,

Sound unfortunate, goes to show how all these rules are not always going to benefit the average people in Thailand, thanks for sharing.

Regards Lee

[NoshowJones]

You can't "legally" do that on an O visa, but many teachers teach privately despite such laws. I have never had any trouble doing private tutoring, but just be aware of it things hit the fan, which would be a next to 0% chance.

nn

[NoshowJones]

You can get a work permit with an O visa just as with a B visa, O means other, ie Marriage.