Khao San Road Degrees

[Khutan]

There are two teachers at Chiang Mai University who have taught there for well over 10 years.

They are a married British couple, and neither has a degree. They are also here as Missionaries for the Jehovah's Witnesses, but don't get a salary from the JWs and never proselytize at school, under any circumstances.

Praise be to Jevovar or whoever, my doors are in Bangkok and Surin...... So when the Baan is "a-Rockin - they won't come knocking...."

[roberteales]

Thank you, one and all, to the people who had some intelligent and informative advice to give. You know who you all are, and the rest of you know who you are NOT.

I'll be teaching here for a while to come. If any new teachers need any advice I'll be happy to try and help you.

Cheers,

Rob

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Shoot 'em on sight SVB. H O P E L E SS bastards.

[Eastender]

I am an English teacher without a degree. At first I lied to my employers, but now they know, and they are quite happy to employ me as they get good feedback from the students.

Am I a second rate teacher because I don't have a degree? To answer that, my school employs two teachers, myself and another man who has a masters degree. However my employers only use him as a stand by teacher as they've found his class attendance drops and students don't pay for further lessons. By itself that doesn't mean I'm a good teacher, but I do believe the best quality for a teacher here is to make the students enjoy learing, ie to make classes fun.

I have a Thai friend with a degree in English, she is well aware I have no degree yet has been happily paying me for lessons for a year now.

Now correct me if I'm wrong here, but to apply for a degree and a teaching permit there is absolutely no requirement that you must be able to speak any English at all. Yet a degree in religion or sport will help get you the paperwork.

Why is it I can legally teach in Europe without a degree but not here? Obviously it's due to Thailand's big divide between those with degrees and those without. They can't imagine someone without a degree as being able to teach.

To answer the oroginal question. After the government arrested a number of people in KSR for producing false degree certificates, I guess that many offices may now be able to recognise these certificates and so I wouldn't risk using one.

[dont call me late for dinner]

It was great to see how we all responded to such an attention-grabbing question like this one. I would hope that a lot of us are more helpful, patient and tolerant to our students than displayed here. I agree with most comments positive and negative but at the end of the day we are responsible for our own actions based on the pros and cons of information that this member was given.

I have taught in China over the last 3 years and the biggest problem we have had is with qualified degree holders giving us 1 weeks notice that they are leaving not even completing a 1 year contract.

Many are newly qualified and wanting to travel before settling down to the real world. They are young, very immature and with hardly any life skills.

Mind you they are not silly; they tell us of their intentions after we have paid them the $1400US airfare that we offer to teachers to get them to come to China. We try to do good for the teachers but these teachers will spoil it for others to come, just like Thailand it sounds.

I would like to further say that out of the 45 teachers we have employed over the last 3 years we have had very little trouble if any from unqualified teachers, and we are very pleased with the married couples that we are getting at the moment from Australia and New Zealand.

[BronzeRider]

I've been teaching for 13 years now in Thailand. Cut my teeth at ELS and ECC. Two hours a week we were trained by tefl and rsa teachers. 200 hours or more and didn't have to pay a cent. (Certificate not included.)! For the cert you had to go to the British Council and spend 32,00 baht plus one month of not working. Expensive.

I don't have a degree, but sure as ###### accumulated a lot of chalk dust. As for the original poster (poser?) I would never use something fake. Maybe hair-dye but that would be a far as I would go:) The last thing I want is jail time and the big PNG in my passport.

Regards,

Bronze

[dr_Pat_Pong]

When I went to Uni we had a lecturer who was Dr with two degrees from Poland, a brilliant man but absolutely hopeless as  teacher.

doctor pp has two degrees from poland and one from patpong. he is a remarkable teacher, just dangerous in the bear pit.

Sexology Professor in the Patpong University.