Please answer this poll if you can remember what you earned as a farang teacher, coming to Thailand for the first time to teach here, within the last 8 years. From the day you arrived in Thailand, until 365 days later. I tried to make it a double poll, and couldn't, so limit your calculation to your first year, please. There's a typo on the last option; it should be, "for the first year."

Thank you.

Shouldn't this be in the Teaching forum?

I started teaching more than 8 years ago, can I answer?

It was about 160 baht an hour.

Probably about 200,000 for the first year, which was what I was used to getting per month at home.

Best move I ever made!

I messed up. Moderator, please move to teaching forum.

Okay, Neeranaum, you done good in your first year, way back then. You would have averaged 25 contact hours per week, 50 weeks. So, how quickly did you get hired? Any long breaks? Or, were you sometimes teaching 33 hours per week when you could get work? And how many visa runs in the first year, at what cost?

I got hired after 2 weeks. I had taken enough cash for two months and blew it all within two weeks. A simple case of looking in the newspaper and making some calls. Then I had no TEFL certificate but had a degree. Got a job for ECC, and they said my grammar test was the worst they'd ever seen! They don't teach grammar in Scotland.

Can't remember how many hours I did but I got private students straight away from the moo baan I was living in. Maybe times have changed and it is harder these days - probably 300 baht an hour. I have a friend in Bkk earning 1500 an hour every school evening, and he's not even a native speaker. If you're not a total pisshead and half half a brain it is easy - even if you are, it can still be done.

During the first year, I received remuneration in the form of a free lunch in the school cafeteria every day I was at school to teach. The students were required to pay 5 baht for this same lunch. The school also provided free transportation and paid my entrance to Dream World whilst on a school trip... so, based upon my best estimation, in my first year I believe I easily netted at least 1,600 baht.

Hmmm… drat… forgot about the other side of the balance sheet.

My expenses easily surpassed that sum. Typically they involved a few thousand baht a week on a range of student school supplies, various exceptional students' favorite kha-nom, or school sports equipment. So all in, I guess I "lost" about 120,000 for that year and the following three.

I'm nuts , but I miss it tremendously…

Without expounding, perhaps, eventually, situations will allow me to return to it at some future point.

Neeranam: that 1500B/hr sounds awfully a lot. Is that for one hour, on one evening, with a company class that gets cancelled about half the time? Sorry if I'm cynical, but these higher-rates usually come with caveats like that, in my experience. Better to warn potential new teachers about these prospective problems and give them a realistic view of what they're likely to get.

"Steven"

I came here the first year, promised visa/work permit but didn't get it, was on an official 32K/month salary which was actually paid except for 2 months (which was breaking the "contract" they had me sign at the beginning of the year) for summer holidays, and I had to pay for visa trips, which I count as a deduction from salary. So overall I earned about 22Kx12months=264K the first year.

"Steven"

got hired in my second week,

done two months at a highschool @28k/m, fall out over holiday pay, got a month off

hired by rajabhat,

done 9 months @25,

one term teaching (half a module) MAs

40k,

one term teaching PhDs (a third of a module)

15k

grand total of= 336k

cost related to work , about 15k

so 320 ....

last job in england, 220k baht/month

but here its sunny!