Do you like teaching in Thailand?

[navara]

Hello,

I would like to know how you feel about teaching your students, what kind of school and level. I am very interested in teachers who have experience with Government schools.

I have some experience with primary and secondary government schools.

I think all students are very cute, but being cute doesn't bring you a good future. The most students are not interested in English. I see boys and girls graduated from grade 12 and still they can't speak a word English. (oh sorry; hello, goodbye, sit down, thank you) As a teacher your more busy with fighting their attitude than teaching English. Do you get tiered? YES, very tiered... of fighting.

The good students, the one who really would like to learn something, are laughed at, obstructed by the rest of the class. LUCKY you are, when you are smart. How sad for the ones who have to struggle.

This is my experience about government schools in rural areas.

[Neeranam]

Working in a government school is fine for a couple of years but certainly not for a career.

The novelty wears off and they drive you crazy(kids and admin.)

I was an English teacher here for 13 years and got sick of it. Would be harder when older, although I might go back sometime after a long break. It's been 5 years since I've done it and don't miss it a bit yet.

[SlyAnimal]

I've only spent a little over 3 years teaching in Thailand, but I think that people would be of two minds about whether they enjoy it long term.

Most of the teachers I've met, are both intensely frustrated and hate their job because of the administration and lack of motivation on behalf of the students, but at the same time often absolutely love their job because of the good students who make it all worthwhile.

For myself, I initially felt that huge frustration with the administration, but once I got used to living/working in Thailand it wasn't such an issue. Particularly as I've been at the same school for 3 years now, so I sorta know what to expect, and thus am not disappointed.

Also as I've been here, I've watched some of the students grow from M1 - M3 or M4 - M6, most of which have improved their English significantly and in general matured into young adults, having been a part of that change I feel very proud of my students and love my job because of them.

Next year I'm going to leave my school to study Thai, as I think it's the best long term option for me, but I'm already starting to almost regret the decision, as there are so many things I'd like to do at my school, and because I'm going to miss seeing my students grow up even further. However, I know that once I learn more Thai, I'll be a more effective member of the community, and my frustrations with the school administration will be even less than what they are at present.

Being a part of the community is one of the big drawcards for me, and what makes me enjoy my job even more. Because being a teacher at a rural school isn't just a job that you do and then go home, because the students are always around you in the community, and so by being a teacher you become a part of the community. I enjoy getting involved in some of the community events, but am not as involved as I'd like to be, since I feel that my Thai is holding me back (Although even when I can speak Thai, I'll then need to sharpen up my Isaan as well lol).

Edit: Oh and yes, I really enjoy teaching in Thailand. Getting paid to do a job you love, doesn't feel like work at all.

[hotrod4098]

teaching is hard work more poor pay.. if you need to teach,you dont have enough money to stay in thailand long time..

[sirchai]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Woke up, freezing cold and then this.- No.-

[AJ Alex]

I teach 6 different classes. 2 of them are great. 2 of them have good and bad days. 2 of them I have to take a deep breath before I walk into the room. But I live on a beach so....

I'm interested to know more details about administration issues. I have not had any problems at my current school. However when I was contacted about a new job at an international school I was over the moon but felt instantly let down by the admin department. They wanted to pay me 1;500 a day. The second month is in the middle of songkran and i would take home 18,000 in one month. I had to convince them to pay 30,000 which I am happy with as I want the experience. It took the admin 21 days to reply to my email. I called and they said they were just about to send it to me. I still had to wait another 5 days and make another phone call. Whats all that about!

Is there anything else I should be aware of when dealing with admin

Thanks

[navara]

Thank you of your reactions.

Mr. SlyAnimal: Yes, I reconize so much in what you wrote. Your a part of the community, which made it worth to put your effort in it. And those few good students (the ones who really try) to see them grow. But I also reconize your comment on the administration or The schools who really have no money to support you. The only thing I can have is some free A4 paper or a marker for the white board. Everything else: I pay myself.

Mr. Hotrod4098: The payment is a joke. You can't stay in Thailand of the payment they offer you. Beside that, is that every day off will not be paid, believe me: many, many days you will have days off or short hollidays. I know several directors who almost begg you to teach for FREE, simply because they can't have a budget from the state.

I feel like a social worker.

[brewsterbudgen]

teaching is hard work more poor pay.. if you need to teach,you dont have enough money to stay in thailand long time..

Not for me it isn't. I teach IELTS/TOEFL preparation to (fairly) motivated students and make around 80,000 a month for 23 hours teaching a week, and overtime, script marking etc. Plus being an IELTS examiner brings in extra cash.

I realise this isn't the type of information the OP is after, but the myth that all teaching in Thailand is hard work and poorly paid needed to be addressed!

[AjarnMartin]

I've only spent a little over 3 years teaching in Thailand, but I think that people would be of two minds about whether they enjoy it long term.

Most of the teachers I've met, are both intensely frustrated and hate their job because of the administration and lack of motivation on behalf of the students, but at the same time often absolutely love their job because of the good students who make it all worthwhile.

For myself, I initially felt that huge frustration with the administration, but once I got used to living/working in Thailand it wasn't such an issue. Particularly as I've been at the same school for 3 years now, so I sorta know what to expect, and thus am not disappointed.

Also as I've been here, I've watched some of the students grow from M1 - M3 or M4 - M6, most of which have improved their English significantly and in general matured into young adults, having been a part of that change I feel very proud of my students and love my job because of them.

Next year I'm going to leave my school to study Thai, as I think it's the best long term option for me, but I'm already starting to almost regret the decision, as there are so many things I'd like to do at my school, and because I'm going to miss seeing my students grow up even further. However, I know that once I learn more Thai, I'll be a more effective member of the community, and my frustrations with the school administration will be even less than what they are at present.

Being a part of the community is one of the big drawcards for me, and what makes me enjoy my job even more. Because being a teacher at a rural school isn't just a job that you do and then go home, because the students are always around you in the community, and so by being a teacher you become a part of the community. I enjoy getting involved in some of the community events, but am not as involved as I'd like to be, since I feel that my Thai is holding me back (Although even when I can speak Thai, I'll then need to sharpen up my Isaan as well lol).

Edit: Oh and yes, I really enjoy teaching in Thailand. Getting paid to do a job you love, doesn't feel like work at all.

I agree with your sentiments SlyAnimal and won't add to it further but I would be interested to know how you are going to learn Thai.

I've been here, teaching, for five years now and whilst I can get by in day-to-day life with my smattering of the language I would like to follow your lead. Are you signing on for a recognised course? Are you attending college or some such establishment? The greatest hurdle I have is the ability to recognise the tonal nuances and even more difficult, reproduce them in my speech! :-) Where are you, exactly? I'm in Phitsanulok.

Thank you.

[SlyAnimal]

To avoid taking the topic too far off topic, I'll reply to you via pm

[Scott]

A post critical of grammar has been removed.

[rct99q]

I enjoy the work. Some of the kids are fun, some are okay,and a few are putting in time. But all in all there are a lot worse ways to spend your time. I live in a rural area, sort of, the pay is okay and I can live off of it. For those who may be asking less than 25,000 baht. My time other than class time is my own. No set time to be at the school. Some days are difficult but I will be honest those are the days I am not well prepared, for whatever reason. on well prepared days with a good lesson plan and a bit of energy Teaching English here is relatively easy. I am in a government school and have taught/teach M.3,4,5.

Administration is however frustrating. As educators and public speakers they are terrible communicators. Lack of updates, inconsistent information, there always seems to be a lack of money (although they have NEVER missed a payroll), non existent supplies, thirty year old chalk boards in desperate need of replacing or upgrading, greed, corruption and a general feeling of mistrust. But that being said they never bother me. They process what needs to be done albeit a bit tardy sometimes and hand over a cheque at the end of the month.

I know some will voice their disapproval of this but I can live here in somewhat the same comforts as back home (ireland, canada and jamaica). But I have never had expensive tastes. I have a decent roof over my head, internet, more than enough food to eat (I have a small farm and grow stuff), a vehicle, and a few other "luxuries" as well as a wife and two children.

I do agree with slyanimal that speaking Thai well would be an asset in teaching here and in dealing with administration. It could also lead to other employment opportunities so a good idea.

[A1Str8]

I don't teach.

[DoctorG]

I only lasted 4 months in a Thai private high school before I quit, but, hey, I am a crap teacher.

Teaching university in China was good though.

[wileycoyote]

Eeks ,doesn't soung good !

[White Tiger]

I work at a Government school in a rural area – Chaiyaphum province. Go to school Monday – Friday. Teach 18 different classes a week comprised of:

• 
  
  6 classes M3
  
  
  
• 
  
  6 classes M5
  
  
  
• 
  
  6 classes M6.
  
  
  

There are some additional teaching duties on top of this. Once a week I take care of an ‘English club’ and I also spend some of my lunchtimes giving extra classes to students who have asked for extra help. Also involved with the school’s annual English camp. (I am employed through an agency and the agency has also given me extra teaching duties out of term time – training programmes for adults working at the district education office, adult education programmes for admin staff at the local ‘ampur’ office, and an ASEAN training program for school directors from our province which included as a student the director of the school at which I teach).

I enjoy teaching all the classes. The students in the top streams of each year are brighter and more willing to learn English than their counterparts in the lower streams. They are also better at turning up for class. But all students have discipline issues – for example, they come to class late, they will get up and walk around during a lesson, they will use mobile phones and tablets in class, they will wear ear-phones/plugs and listen to music (I presume) during lessons, & they will do homework for another subject in class. The school tolerates this kind of behaviour so it can be frustrating sometimes. I’m sure some of the behavioural issues are due to the fact that students of many different kinds of abilities are mixed up together – I reckon there are probably students in some of my classes who suffer from dyslexia or have learning disabilities that are undiagnosed and probably require special schooling. But it seems those kinds of issues do not get recognised under the Thai Government school system.

But whatever my classes are like, I always try to make the lesson fun for the students and to adapt my material to suit the dynamics of the class. For example, I might take a boisterous class outside or have them engage in an activity or team game that involves them using all that energy in a way that the students want to – if they enjoy being loud and shouting then I’ll give them a game that involves being loud and shouting (spelling out loud can be good for that, awarding a point to the team that correctly spells a word the loudest). I might give a more studious class an activity that involves more thinking, like a question and answer activity where they have to read the questions correctly and then challenge each other to answer the questions.

I sometimes think the students must have memory issues, because I can teach them something one week and by the end of the lesson they seem to have learnt it. They will answer questions about the topic with confidence. Then when I see them the next week and do a quick recap on the previous week’s lesson they seem to have forgotten everything. Maybe committing things in English to their long term memory is just too much work for them; maybe the appeal of computer games and TV once they get home from school is just too strong. I’d be interested to know if it’s the same with their work for subjects taught in Thai. But at least this means that when it’s exam time the good students really do stand out.

As others have said, the school admin can be frustrating. Getting photocopying done can sometimes be an issue because the man whose job it is to do the copying is often not around, or the school has run out of copy paper. It’s frustrating too when, without any prior notice, a Thai teacher will say he/she is unable to teach a class because of some other more important commitment and drops the lesson on you instead. There’s precious little advance notice of any school ‘activities’ meaning you will only find out a lesson has been cancelled or moved after you turn up for class to teach only to find no students come. The worst case of this was one day last year when my colleague and I arrived at school only to find the school was closed for the day, except the school had forgotten to tell us. (It’s a 65km drive for me to get to school so not being told the school was closed was a big deal). But I enjoy the teaching and the satisfaction I get from that far outweighs these kinds of ‘out of the classroom’ issues.

I’ve been teaching at my current school for 2 years, and teaching in Thailand for a total of 3 years. I’ve taught at 3 different schools. The issues are the same at all the schools – one school even told me its policy was to keep students happy so if students wanted to be unruly in class or to miss my class I should just accept the situation since that made the students happy.

It’s already been agreed that the school where I am now want me back next year as it’s launching a new intensive English program that it wants me to be involved with. The agency that employs me is committed to this project too. It will mean my workload will increase next year and that I spend more time with the students who actually want to learn. I’m looking forward to it.

[Scott]

Nice to hear from a motivated teacher. Thanks for sharing.

[thongsuknork]

White Tiger is doing a Brilliant job may be we should appriciate him very well ,i hope to meet one day because i am near to you Nonsomran

[saakura]

A post critical of grammar has been removed.

Should it not be relevant here as the OP claims he is an english teacher?

[saakura]

A post critical of grammar has been removed.

Should it not be relevant here as the OP claims he is an english teacher?

[tetleythedog]

Working in a government school is fine for a couple of years but certainly not for a career.

The novelty wears off and they drive you crazy(kids and admin.)

I was an English teacher here for 13 years and got sick of it. Would be harder when older, although I might go back sometime after a long break. It's been 5 years since I've done it and don't miss it a bit yet.

I'm a native speaker, and have been teaching here for 9 years. Yes, there are problems with some of the kids, it all depends which school you teach at. The main bugbear is the Thai teachers and their mismanagement. Their "we know better than you" attitude, when 98% of them have never been out of Thailand, and can't string an accurate sentence together. Don't forget, it doesn't matter how long you are here, you will always be a foreigner! The low, stagnant salaries which are explained by " we have no money, we are a poor school" is a load of <deleted>! How does a director of a poor school always have a luxury car? Self explanatory isn't it? We teach twice the hours that they do, and deserve decent renumeration. They get money from the government. Where does that go? They get fees, tea money, and we get the shit. Why am i still here? Because i do actually enjoy teaching the kids, it's not their fault, it's beaurocracy , greed, and the Thais know that we're better, but they can only get back at us by not renewing contracts, paying pittances, and eternally telling us that we don't understand Thai culture. I could write a book on this, but everyone who has been here a few years could do that!!!

[navara]

White Tiger: I am amused to read your story. It is amazing that the school allow those things happening in the classroom. It amazed me me even more to hear that you can make any progress with those kids. You also wrote about an English program......

Tetleythedog: I got your name ;-) What you wrote is certainly true. Without any notification from the admin, students are dragged out of there lessons, busy with other more importent things like dancing, cleaning the lawn, pay respect to somebody or other "fun" activity. Often I came to school for just one hour! I understand that learing English is the most unimportant subject of a school and pretty soon you feel like a disposible... Keep the students happy, indeed, it is the primary directive of every government school. Let them pass, no matter what. That Thailand is digging there own grave, seems not to be clear jet. What follows is the additude of the kids, 90% behave really horrible.

The money issue. Here we have a high school who has an English program.... na na na....good thing you would say? NO! Not when you understand that it is a money thing. Every student has to pay 90k baht for one year. They have 150 students in the English program. na na na...150 x 90.000 = 13,500,000 baht. All managed by 2 farang teachers and 2 from the school it self. The farang get 32k each/month which is 576k (they pay only 9 months). But those teachers were assigned by some agency who get paid around 60k/month for each teacher. They used to advertise on Thai Visa too. Now you know where that luxury vehicle comes from.

I choose different. My wife constant complains about the quality of the students. She actually said: " Some of them are so stupid, I have to teach them from the start, a,b,c... etc ". I had noting else to do, so I decided to see if I can do something about it. And so I became an English teacher.

And so I discovered all those troubles with the Thai educational system and the learning problems of the children.

[Scott]

A post critical of grammar has been removed.

Should it not be relevant here as the OP claims he is an english teacher?

No. A thread has a topic and unless the topic is grammar related, then comments about it are off-topic. Not everyone is using a decent device for posting. It is a discussion forum.

[lmaxv]

Navar, you said: I sometimes think the students must have memory issues, because I can teach them something one week and by the end of the lesson they seem to have learnt it. They will answer questions about the topic with confidence. Then when I see them the next week and do a quick recap on the previous week’s lesson they seem to have forgotten everything. Maybe committing things in English to their long term memory is just too much work for them; maybe the appeal of computer games and TV once they get home from school is just too strong. I’d be interested to know if it’s the same with their work for subjects taught in Thai. But at least this means that when it’s exam time the good students really do stand out.

Try this: instead of waiting a week to recap, do a daily "Distributive Practice" (explained at the end). Briefly it's a matter of a number of exposures to the new information over time. Each day I have 2-4 questions about yesterday's lesson, maybe a lesson a few days ago, AND about a information from a week/month ago. This takes planning so information that is presented is not left by the wayside until next week or next month. Daily EXPOSE students to what you've previously taught and teach students to do it for themselves. When you teach something, they have it in short-term memory; they haven't learned it, yet! If you consistently implement this, I think you find the success you're looking for.

Distributive Practice is a process of having students to periodically recall information that has previously been taught in order to promote long term learning of the information. This applies for any subject area in the classroom.

What It Looks Like:

Distributive Practice, or DP, is a daily event.

On the chalkboard, before class begins, write 2 to 4 questions and/or problems that review past lessons. Each question should review something different.

Students can begin when they arrive to class and work on it while the teacher takes attendance, etc. It can be part of the morning/afternoon routine.

When students have had approximately 5 minutes to work, the teacher elicits correct answers from the students and students self-check their work.

Students are encouraged to correct their errors and to review the topic during a nightly study-time. ("study-time" is another issue...and should not take more that one hour)

[NoshowJones]

I have had three years of teaching grades 5,6, 9 and 10, in government schools. I have no criticism of any of the School Directors or Heads of the English Dept. All were good people and treated me very well. I do not have a degree, only two TEFL certificates, and I am not teaching today because schools can get Philipino teachers who will work for less money than me.

I found out that girls were for more motivated to learn than boys, especially in grades 9 and 10. The average classes having about 40 students. In grades 5 and 6, there were about 50% girls and boys, in grades 9 and 10, there was about three girls to one boy. One thing to remember, in Thailand schools, being a good teacher is one thing, but you also need the personality to have fun and use about the last 15 mins of a class to play games with the students, educational games, sometimes using material that you have already taught them.

Being a professional musician before I came to Thailand, I sometimes brought my guitar or keyboards for singsongs with the Students. Yes, I still wish I was teaching, but I will not work for less than the Philipinos even though they are better qualified than me. One other thing to remember is, the highest qualified teachers are not always the best.

[White Tiger]

Navar, you said: I sometimes think the students must have memory issues, because I can teach them something one week and by the end of the lesson they seem to have learnt it. They will answer questions about the topic with confidence. Then when I see them the next week and do a quick recap on the previous week’s lesson they seem to have forgotten everything. Maybe committing things in English to their long term memory is just too much work for them; maybe the appeal of computer games and TV once they get home from school is just too strong. I’d be interested to know if it’s the same with their work for subjects taught in Thai. But at least this means that when it’s exam time the good students really do stand out.

Try this: instead of waiting a week to recap, do a daily "Distributive Practice" (explained at the end). Briefly it's a matter of a number of exposures to the new information over time. Each day I have 2-4 questions about yesterday's lesson, maybe a lesson a few days ago, AND about a information from a week/month ago. This takes planning so information that is presented is not left by the wayside until next week or next month. Daily EXPOSE students to what you've previously taught and teach students to do it for themselves. When you teach something, they have it in short-term memory; they haven't learned it, yet! If you consistently implement this, I think you find the success you're looking for.

Distributive Practice is a process of having students to periodically recall information that has previously been taught in order to promote long term learning of the information. This applies for any subject area in the classroom.

What It Looks Like:

Distributive Practice, or DP, is a daily event.

On the chalkboard, before class begins, write 2 to 4 questions and/or problems that review past lessons. Each question should review something different.

Students can begin when they arrive to class and work on it while the teacher takes attendance, etc. It can be part of the morning/afternoon routine.

When students have had approximately 5 minutes to work, the teacher elicits correct answers from the students and students self-check their work.

Students are encouraged to correct their errors and to review the topic during a nightly study-time. ("study-time" is another issue...and should not take more that one hour)

Actually it was I that said I sometimes think students have memory issues.

Thanks for your suggestion for dealing with that, which sounds really good. Unfortunately I only teach the students once a week. If I taught the same students every day I'm sure I would also follow the kinds of daily practices you describe. My timetable dictates that I am forced to follow a review regime on a weekly basis and it falls flat on its face for my students - but on a daily basis I'm sure the outcome would be better.

Do these practices work well for your students? What other teaching tricks do you employ? How about posting something more about your experiences teaching in Thai schools - it sounds like you have the knowledge and experience to make a positive contribution to this thread. Thanks.

[navara]

Navar, you said: I sometimes think the students must have memory issues, because I can teach them something one week and by the end of the lesson they seem to have learnt it. They will answer questions about the topic with confidence. Then when I see them the next week and do a quick recap on the previous week’s lesson they seem to have forgotten everything. Maybe committing things in English to their long term memory is just too much work for them; maybe the appeal of computer games and TV once they get home from school is just too strong. I’d be interested to know if it’s the same with their work for subjects taught in Thai. But at least this means that when it’s exam time the good students really do stand out.

Try this: instead of waiting a week to recap, do a daily "Distributive Practice" (explained at the end). Briefly it's a matter of a number of exposures to the new information over time. Each day I have 2-4 questions about yesterday's lesson, maybe a lesson a few days ago, AND about a information from a week/month ago. This takes planning so information that is presented is not left by the wayside until next week or next month. Daily EXPOSE students to what you've previously taught and teach students to do it for themselves. When you teach something, they have it in short-term memory; they haven't learned it, yet! If you consistently implement this, I think you find the success you're looking for.

Distributive Practice is a process of having students to periodically recall information that has previously been taught in order to promote long term learning of the information. This applies for any subject area in the classroom.

What It Looks Like:

Distributive Practice, or DP, is a daily event.

On the chalkboard, before class begins, write 2 to 4 questions and/or problems that review past lessons. Each question should review something different.

Students can begin when they arrive to class and work on it while the teacher takes attendance, etc. It can be part of the morning/afternoon routine.

When students have had approximately 5 minutes to work, the teacher elicits correct answers from the students and students self-check their work.

Students are encouraged to correct their errors and to review the topic during a nightly study-time. ("study-time" is another issue...and should not take more that one hour)

Dear ImaxV,

On my schools, those kids are taught by Thai teachers, teachers who are graduated for primary schools only, to teach every subject. The only English course they had is what they got during this education. 3 months, that's it. Can you image what a student of grade 5 or 6 knows? They can not speak, they can not understand what you are saying and a question in English is impossible!

Almost every child who has parents with a better income, have left to better schools. So... what's left? Nearly 5% on this government school has a reasonable iq. Everything else is under average, slow learning, learning disability, adhd, autistic and behaviour problems. Very poor families and the school of my wife exactly the same. ( I often teach for free, because they can't have a budget injection for farang teachers )

Most of the farang teachers, teach on a "model" school, but the true need is with the poor schools, which are the greatest part.

[bundoi]

Being a part of the community is one of the big drawcards for me, and what makes me enjoy my job even more. Because being a teacher at a rural school isn't just a job that you do and then go home, because the students are always around you in the community, and so by being a teacher you become a part of the community. I enjoy getting involved in some of the community events, but am not as involved as I'd like to be, since I feel that my Thai is holding me back (Although even when I can speak Thai, I'll then need to sharpen up my Isaan as well lol).

I agree those are some of the truly great things about teaching in a rural environment in Thailand; I think that that sense of community has almost completely disappeared in my home country.

However I would really not recommend it for a young teacher as a long-term career (unless they're planning on winning the lottery, or are expecting a large inheritance).

[Briggsy]

I did 15 years teaching here. I found another source of income. I stopped teaching. I doubt I will go back to it. The effort to compensation equation did not do it for me towards the end.

I put a lot of effort in. Thais generally have very poor study methods and are focused on other, often more superficial, issues (shows of deference, not upsetting the teacher, relationships with other students, etc.). So I feel a lot of the effort I put in was a waste of time. I had foreign colleagues who did as little as possible and in the end they were probably smarter than I was. Sometimes I feel the whole concept of learning English in a classroom does not work in Thailand and they might be better doing it a different way such as learning science using English as the medium. Or forcing them to apprentice with bricklayers from Huddersfield. Some schools do things like that. Might lead to more useful outcomes.

[inutil]

I stayed for two whole months in Thailand teaching (6 months in total). Im trying to decide what was the tipping point?

Teaching definitely played a part in it, but heres the rundown of things that made me leave:

1. The pay. Sorry. I know. But i can teach anywhere else in Asia. Ive got plenty of experience and more importantly, no real ambition or desire for a high salary. Im also rather employable once you see me in person. I dont need great pay, i just need enough to live on and send money home for the next time i get itchy feet and need to whole sale up sticks and move. The pay is awful.

2. The climate was horrendous (im a pale blue scotsman - its not for me ). Its not the heat, its the wetness. I was there from april to early october. So obviously i got the brunt of rainy season. But when it wasnt raining, it was humid, I lived in an apartment with a fan... and a bed. I would have furnished it out but i didnt even move into it until mid june, by then i was gagging for a pay cheque and then by the end of june id already made my decision to leave anyway.

3. The speaking test: I did a speaking/reading test with a p4 text book on P4-M3 students. I did initially try to use the grade below them to keep it easy, but i kept having to go lower down the grades until i found a happy and comfortable blind text they could handle. I found it at the start of the P4 textbook. This is my sister, her name is... she is... she likes etc. The reading test had my jaw on the floor, but the speaking component (very VERY simple questions) just had me wondering what theyd done for the last 6 or so years of their english classes. Some people might rise to the challenge and look at it as a fabulous opportunity to go back to basics. Im afraid i thought "Run!"

4. Because in conjunction with the INCREDIBLY low level the classes were an hour long. With just me. Im used to at least a disinterested co-teacher doing marking and occasionally piping up to tell them to shut up and stop running around. But by week 3 i was having 'quiet (INEFFECTIVE) chats with several students/lesson outside the classroom. And upon occasion actually blowing up at them. I know, youd have done it better, but in my defence, my teaching experience was japan (where im not the main teacher - and even when i am, theres always a very active coteacher with you, and korea where the coteacher is there (against their will usually and by the dictates of the vice principal), but still keeps the kids in line. Coming into Thailand was like being dropped into the deep end of the shark pool for classroom management. The kids have very little understanding of English. They treat your class as a fun game. Theyre super sweet, but my god, the attention span! And its an HOUR LONG!!! Jesus, im bored 10 minutes into a pimsleur lesson. And thats predominantly in my home language.

5. My crappy Mifi internet. An 8gb cap at max. I go through that in less than a few days. And if it rains, say goodbye!

6. And rural thailand is BOOOOOOORRRRIIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGG as hell! People are nice, but its boring as hell.

7. The work permit. Im (potentially) legal. I have all my documents. So why on earth is this process so unfeasible long? Why am i constantly chasing people up to get this done. And why, when it is almost done, am i the one responsible for completing the bureaucratic stage? Arent i being employed by someone? Why is the employee doing all the legwork here for legality? Isnt this something the person sponsoring your visa should be doing? Eugh! Again, asian expectations. Japan and Korea both created the expectation that someone else would be taking care of my paperwork. My bad. But even then its still taking FOREVER!!! I took the job at the start of april. I assumed we'd start the process immediately. As the first visa run arrived around the second week of may, i asked how we were getting on. We hadnt started. They needed to wait for schools to come back. As the second visa run came, because I hadnt started the job yet (point 8 now i think about it) no one had come to the school yet to get the signature. At the third run? Ah yes, we'll send someone next week. At the fourth... oh, that was just the first step, we'll get the docs together and send them all out to you and then you need to do another visa run because you need to have x-days left on your tourist visa to begin the process and then...

8. Why did my job start in June? The term started in mid may, the kids were at school in mid may. You requested i move to Trat in the second week of may. So why am i just meeting people then spending the next 3 weeks stuck at home without a pay cheque?

9. By "at home" i of course mean at a hotel. Since the subsidized apartment the school had set up (see above - fan/bed), had the former ANGRY teacher in it who refused to leave because "he had a contract with the school for the apartment". I moved in a month later.

10. Ants. I never used to hate ants until i moved to Trat.

11. Visa runs. I should have just done the tourist visa run. But i was broke and didnt fancy it. Plus as point 7, i honestly didnt know it would take so long. I figured those 15 days would be enough THIS TIME to get it done. But Hat lek/Cham Yaem is a hole. The cambodian mafia there are just so nasty to deal with. And i had to do it no less than 6 times. Including throwing caution to the wind by giving them my passport for 4 days while they did the Phnom Penh tourist visa run so i could do my TEFL on Koh Samui without another visa run.

Special bonus mention:

12. The Golden Orbweaver spider that slowly descended from a tree onto my back whilst i was taking pictures of one of its brothers (luckily seen out of the corner of my eye)! YUUUUUUUUUUUKKKK!!! right out of the darkest hell of my fears.

I dunno. A litany of things that bothered me. Not all education. In fact only really a few of them were education. The kids are adorable for sure. The schedule was alright (18 classes per week). But in korea the job was really satisfying, whilst the lifestyle was okay. And in Japan, the lifestyle was awesome (whilst the job was alright), when you have both the lifestyle and the job not working it can be hard to justify sticking around. If the classes were 45 minutes or there was a coteacher, i might have stuck around. Hell, if id have done my tefl before i might have had another try at it.

I dunno if ive written it off entirely. I think its just the wrong time in all honesty. I made the decision to go there at a time when id just lost my job in japan (company lost contract to lower bid by interac is what i tell myself), and the notice time frame (20 days), was too short to not appear absolutely desperate/terrified to find something else in time. So came here to buy time and see if i liked it. I didnt to be honest. But i think with a bit of savings in the bank to pay for the move/set up and enough for a rainy day, i could have done it with a bit less worry about the future and having the means to escape should i require it. So if i come back, itll be because i miss it and want to be here instead of doing it because i hit a dodgy patch of luck and needed to ride it out. And theres enough reasons that you could enjoy thailand to make the complaints seem as trivial as they genuinely are. Plus im solo teaching in china right now, so hooray for classroom management skills!