English teachers, unable to change their career or can they?

[luckytrev]

I wouldn't work for the OP even if you paid me

[choochoo]

something is amiss.  Since when are englishh teachers so highly thought of?

[simon43]

something is amiss.  Since when are englishh teachers so highly thought of?

 

Perhaps 'englishh' teachers are not highly thought of.  But many English teachers (or teachers of English) are very respected by both their students and their local community.

[lostmebike]

 

Sorry OP but after reading your post I think your cause is lost and you will continue to be the thing you wish to avoid ... a douchebag! 

i think op is saying like it is.     The majority of em just dont have any motivation other thn to stay in los.  Plus i hear english teacher are in it for the free girls they attract..........lol.

 

 

To suggest the 'majority of em just dont have any motivation other thn to stay in los' insinuates that you know a huge amount of people. I find that hard to believe.

I know many that are here just on choice, free and single, ready to pack up and leave whenever they please. Then there are those with families that seem to be just normal, working people.

As for your last comment ... did you hear this from 'friends', drinking buddies by any chance? Cos I guess you first came here just for the cheap booze eh?

[lostmebike]

no offense to teachrres of engrit but y are so many thais unable to speak engrit.   Seems i hear best engrit from bargrils.....................lol.

 

Well don't let us keep you ol' boy ... just crawl right back in there.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

Where did the OP go?
Another phantom click troll IMHO.

[mccw]

My friend started as English teacher after degree. Did a few years and went back to oxford to do a master of linguistics. He then went to china as a teacher but was asked to take on extra responsibilities as head of department. Now a few years later he is head of a region of these private schools; 250 people under him. 30 years old. Making good salary on a western level while living in the lower cost of living country. Ideal really.
A lot of work though apparently so he's looking to move back west in a year or two. Various job options by the sound of it.
So it appears teaching can be a career path; although it just kinda chanced out like this than a 10 year pre planned direction.
He might do another course and switch to a new field.
I don't think teaching should block anyone from developing or working other jobs.
What's your business and why are you so anti teachers OP?
I can understand people with no experience might need extra training; shouldn't a degree and a few years of 9-5 make them more a desire able option than a new grade strait out of late nights and day time TV?
Especially good if they are a more settled stage in life rather than some one who could come and gone a year. Like a teacher here with a Thai family; make them more serious/ focused than a younger side 20s happy go lucky type no?

[Mencken]

Simply that they want to quit teaching (ESL in Thailand) shows that they realize what a waste of time and effort it is. The deluded ones greeting parents at the gate at 6:30 in the morning with a dumb grin on their faces would never apply. Give them a chance.

Sounds like a personal problem. Don't give a F attitude must have brought you far in life. Inability to be punctual and honor a contract. Doubt anyone is grinning at 0630hrs. Thai teachers do it, why are you exempt? You'd be the one that would not be hired.

Which goes largely to another point. Few dozen teachers I've met its about doing the minimum and expecting and extracting the maximum.

[Mencken]

Anyone entering teaching (foreign esl) as a career is quite foolish, esp considering costs for BA. Hell, how long will it take you to make back the money for a CELTA?? Years.

In a few short years you will become a non entity in your home country, employers will not respect or care about your time abroad, time abroad largely unverifable so basically, they will choose applicant whose employment can be verified.

Now days its not about can this guy do the job, he's clever lets give him a chance. It is only about experience and a solid, quantifiable skillset. People are literally hired now for tasks.

I would not hire an English teacher simply because I know they have zero skills in anything else. Hire for what? They came out here with zero job options lol!

Of the two dozen teachers Ive met and could pass some judgement on, Id hire only 2-3. Many also seem to be carrying a truckload of issues and problems.

You seriously have to question anyone that has actively chosen to attempt to eork in this area more than five years a bit nutty. The best rise and get good salaries, invest wisely and are out in 15 years. The rest, well...

Specific to Thailand: teaching is second income in addition to yiur investments.

Thailand has a fourbyear plan anyway so if this disc is about Thailand specifically, it is moot. There is no career or future here. Edited August 2, 2014 by Mencken

[squarethecircle]

OK I'll bite.

"Anyone entering teaching (foreign esl) as a career is quite foolish, esp considering costs for BA. Hell, how long will it take you to make back the money for a CELTA?? Years."

CELTA costs under $2700. Friend doing IELTS examining and teaching saves this amount in one month.

"I would not hire an English teacher simply because I know they have zero skills in anything else. Hire for what? They came out here with zero job options lol! "

Obviously they have good presentation skills and if successful then they have business skills as well. At the end of the day if they don't keep the customer they're out of the job.

"Thailand has a fourbyear plan anyway so if this disc is about Thailand specifically, it is moot. There is no career or future here."

Well there's the Ajarn Adam fellow who managed to make an empire out of it (but he speaks impressive Thai as well). Also my friend who does the IELTS gig also seems to have made a good career (perhaps not life-long but are there many life-long careers left in the rapidly changing 21st century?). Talking with friends back home on $80,000+ salaries a few years out of school...the "successful" people I've met here seem to have a far more interesting lifestyle. One thought that lurks in the back of my head whenever I hear someone make your points is the friend who worked his entire life up to 65, retired to a beach condo near Miami, and 2 years later ended up dead of a stroke, fell down the stairs and was pronounced dead on arrival by emergency respondents. Then again putting in 20 years back home to get the pension may be worth it.

[Mencken]

I guess you think spending one and one half million baht on a BA and CELTA is valid and you'd highly recvonend as a career path? Jobs paying less than us one thousand per month, four years max in Thailand.

Then there are the agencies, thieves, school deductions - all over the world, teachers are expolited. Guaranteed you need to figure about 10% income gone to being scammed or ripped off. Maybe you beed to leave the nut house quickly, maybe the business goes under.

What about contracts in Thailand now 11 even 10 months? There is two months wages.

What about long term savings or going home for a visit?

What about costs of arriving and departing ever year? The visa and the vusa run akways paid by teachers in Thailand. Deposits on flats lost, cists for job search, kiving in expensive accomodation while sorting jobs, costs for visiting a city or school to see if it will work for you.

Healthcare? Lol.

...you cherry pick a few anomalies and think it proves a point?

Teaching in Thailand is very, very stressful (to your point about working like a dig and dropping dead) and low paid work. Simple fact. Even if you are lucky enough to teach at an intl school, they will require long hours from you so what is gained by higher salary?

Best you can come up with is presentation skills? Well, I guess they could work non-technical trade shows intermittently if they were presentable enough (doubtful). Perhaps KFC supervisor might be more consistent income, less travel.

This job market is all about skill and experience. If you are young (<35), best you get yourself working in your home country asap. Korea and Vietnam doors closing. That leaves Arab states. EU is no longer a hype even for UK teachers as economy so sucks. Same for US in Central and So. America.

After they finish their two waivers, they won't even have Thailand. Then what? The smarter idiots are already building lives in Cambodia..

Game over Edited August 3, 2014 by Mencken

[bifftastic]

 I'm trying to compile a standard speech for these people to get them motivated to start looking for themselves, without being a douchebag. 

 

 

 

The last part is going to be the most difficult.

[squarethecircle]

Well this is a dead end but I'll keep playing.

"Do, I guess you think spending one and one half million baht on a BA and CELTA is valid and you'd highly recvonend as a career path?"

Well put in those terms, no. 30,000 baht/month is not a career path.

"Then there are the agencies, thieves, school deductions - all over the world, teachers are expolited. Guaranteed you need to figure about 10% income gone to being scammed or ripped off. Maybe you beed to leave the nut house quickly, maybe the business goes under."

OK I have asked two friends exactly about this. One has lost 0% over the 5 years he's been in the gig, but he's very business-savvy (the IELTS guy I mentioned who was previously working a steady career but wanted a change). The other was scammed for ~$1500 out of a total $35,000+ earnings over 18 months total work. So that's 5%.

"Teachingbin Thailand is very, very stressful and low paid work."

Low paid if you stay in the 30k positions, but "very very stressful"??? As in planning for 5 days of work a week, only to come in on the first day and find it was five kings ago's wife's birthday so no school, Tuesday is sports day, Wednesday is an actual class day but the kids don't show up, Thursday they finally come and half the class period is spent getting them to settle down, then Friday is dress rehearsal for next week's talent show.

"Game over"

Nope it's a global century and the market for this is only going up. Best advice I have for you is to find some "successful" ESL teachers, ones who have some sort of trajectory they're working on. Like the Genki English chap (now teaches Thai, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese under the same program as well), or the Ajarn Adam chap (very impressive Thai skills I might add). OK screw this I am doing something productive.

[Mencken]

In US dollars and without interest, a BA and CELTA costing US50k could be amortized thusly in the best of situations in Thailand. Bear in mind intl schools require MA and possibly teaching credential.

37.5k per month /12mo contract (possible, highly improbable for vast majority)
Let us also assume teacher can stay indefinitely but is also single (also reducing costs)
Akso assume thus person never has need or incurs cists to change jobs
Just 37.5k at 12mos

Lets say that this teacher can put forward 5k a month toward this school burden. That is sixty thousand per year - no interest.

At the end of 25 years, the debt will be paid or he will be even.

This person might have been clever enough to work himself into a condo which is a net asset.

I see zero hope of any savings. No travel, including visits to home country. Healthcare, pay as you go and hope for best.


Now the huge question so many intinerent teachers ask....but there are no jobs at home and my life is at least sort of fun here. I really don't have to give a F teaching, can show late, leave early...I'm better off here! I'm even getting laid!

Yes...for a maximum of four years.


Would you go to college for a job in fast food? Well, on hourly basis teachers make about 120b an hour.


Thailand pays these wages because they can. They only require warm bodies and for that seemingly any lecherous 50yo creeper or any lazy 30yo fool will do.

[Mencken]

Squarecircle, you kepp going on about these TWO admittedly sucessful persons, one you don't even know. Why don't you pop over to Ajarn and have a look at the crew.

Those people arguably would be sucessful in any persuit. They have drive and ambition. Most teachers here go thru an agency and do not even have the ambition to knock on doors themselves.They wait for a crap agency to hand them a crap job.

But honestly, tou really need to go search every job board and get an understand of the reality because you are dreaming if you think that the type if person tbat washes up hereis the same as the folks you referenced.

Global no. Economies are depressed and will be for
...forever. Only hope is oil and E Asia. Technology, will only kill it further. It will bring cheap conversation to the masses for a one hundred baht an hour.

Cannot think of worse option for recent grad then to teach a few years in Thailand. Korea and Vietnam now out for them, they require exp and tefl ($).

I personally once met a guy grad from NYU in applied linguistics whatever the fuck that is. Teaching public school to hell raisers in Issan. "Career building move". 28k, four years back.

[duanebigsby]

Mencken...what are you suggesting the teachers of English should have for qualifications?


You're just slandering anyone who says they are, or know, an English teacher.

" any lecherous 50yo creeper or any lazy 30yo fool will do"

How insulting. I'm a 53 year old teaching English here. If you met me, lecherous is the last thing you would call me.
Don't use such a wide brush when painting a picture of ALL English teachers.

I think you're just arguing to be arguing now.

[squarethecircle]

"Economies are depressed and will be for 

...forever."

I'd say you are the one who is depressed, the vast majority of my friends who wanted a "normal" career path back home are now the better part of a decade into it, as far as the younger chaps here only objection I can see (knowing how exponentiation in mathematics works) is that they aren't contributing to the pension.