Thai Culture Course and Baloney at a Thai University!

[romain22]

A story from a teacher trying to get his "THAI CULTURE COURSE TRAINING"

“I am a qualified educator from the State of California but since I have been working in Thailand as a teacher I have been asked to apply for a teaching waiver due to the simple reason that my California teaching permit was not “beautiful” enough and thus will not be accepted by the Teachers’ Council of Thailand – คุรุสภา (AND indeed, my California teaching permit needs to be printed directly from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing website -CTC, which is a .gov website. My teaching permit is thus printed on a regular paper… Nothing fancy, no pretty drawings, no high quality paper, no gold, nothing.)

This said, I waited for over a year and a half to get the opportunity to apply for a Thai Culture Course/Teacher Training in order to be eligible for a Thai Teaching License. In September 2015, I was notified that the government had at last decided to offer this course again. I searched through the internet, contacted the right persons and got all the necessary information and documents.

I applied in October 2015 in order to attend the first course available at this Thai University. I then paid the 4,000 baht fee. By the time they figured out when the first class will be held, my work permit was about to expire (from the time I applied to the time a date was set up, 5 months had gone!) With only one month left on my legal immigration documents, I was then no longer qualified to attend the Thai culture course. And without any prior notification that it will not be refunded in case such event would to happen, my 4,000 baht had just disappeared…”

Original article: https://www.sataban.com/thai-culture-course-baloney-at-a-thai-university/

[thesetat2013]

Mai pan rai! Nothing can be done about it as I have learned. Cone back and work on a temp permit again. Try again and chance losing money again. They don't care

[romain22]

Yep... that's the word "they don't care"

Not sure what happened to the Buddhist spirit of understanding, compassion and common sense?

[tonray]

Why not just get an official document from California ?

[lostinisaan]

Yep... that's the word "they don't care"

Not sure what happened to the Buddhist spirit of understanding, compassion and common sense?

I'm pretty sure that you'll get your license once you show up at Khurusapha in person. Best of luck and sorry for your wasted time and money,.

[romain22]

The website of the CTC is the official way to get an unofficial Teacher Permit copy... On each permit it will be written: "This is not an official document. The official record of credential, permits, and certificates is the Commission's website at www.ctc.ca.gov"

See the pdf: https://www.google.co.th/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0ahUKEwi37sLOueLLAhWKW44KHWZmBOMQFggmMAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ctc.ca.gov%2Fcredentials%2Fonline-services%2Fpdf%2Fctc-online-print-document.pdf&usg=AFQjCNGwx6ur5h964_S0edSy6NONk2RY3Q&sig2=Rg0_WfF8ZIsUFo4MM2fjvg&cad=rja

[Bullie]

Old Thai proverb:

" Sugercane in the mouth from elephant never get back" . For sugarcane read money.

I just came back from Tesco's with my 6 year old. Paid 40 baht for a token for the playpen for him. Handed the token to the lady in charge. My son went in, and almost immediately came back out: there were no other children to play with.

Lady in charge smiled, apologeticaly, ruffled his hair and turned away. No refunds.

This is Thailand.

[Jools]

Bottom line......"they'll care" when it hits them in the pocket book. All we need to do is wait for the whining to begin. Farang mai dee...........UNTIL they need us.

[tonray]

Bottom line......"they'll care" when it hits them in the pocket book. All we need to do is wait for the whining to begin. Farang mai dee...........UNTIL they need us.

Don't hold your breath...every year they are hiring more Filipinos and Cameroonians to teach in the schools. Cheaper and a bigger spread between actual salary and what the officials take out of allocations. Not in our lifetime will they realize it.

[romain22]

Interesting here is the batch I was supposed to be in and which they messed up: are they really trying to get Farangs out of the pictures? This is the batch for the 28-29-30th March 2016 Thai Culture Course at Burapha University... No Farangs whatsoever... odd.

Chinese Chinese Filipino Filipino Filipino Filipino Filipino Filipino Cameroonian Indian Ugandan Ugandan Nigerian Ugandan Ugandan Ugandan Chinese Chinese Cameroonian Filipino Filipino

Source: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XrdSnTdQmhqbuliQvfUqUz-lOf2wg4ICQeGxIHZBRdQ/edit#gid=757368408

Edited March 28, 2016 by romain22

[romain22]

I would be interesting to see what is % of Farangs admitted for the Thai Culture Course nationwide... for this batch it is 0% --although there were fully qualified applicants. Anyone else has a copy/pasted list?

Edited March 28, 2016 by romain22

[romain22]

Bottom line......"they'll care" when it hits them in the pocket book. All we need to do is wait for the whining to begin. Farang mai dee...........UNTIL they need us.

Don't hold your breath...every year they are hiring more Filipinos and Cameroonians to teach in the schools. Cheaper and a bigger spread between actual salary and what the officials take out of allocations. Not in our lifetime will they realize it.

I guess you are right, here is an article breaking down the number of participants per nationality: https://www.sataban.com/thai-culture-course-figures/

[mikebell]

Go to Vietnam.

[tonray]

Go to Vietnam.

Make more money...+

Constantly hassled -

Constantly scammed -

More noise (if you can believe that !) -

Pretty Girls =

Girls with more common sense +

Housing costs -

Food Costs =

Health Care options -

A good option but a very different culture

[Baerboxer]

Bottom line......"they'll care" when it hits them in the pocket book. All we need to do is wait for the whining to begin. Farang mai dee...........UNTIL they need us.

Don't hold your breath...every year they are hiring more Filipinos and Cameroonians to teach in the schools. Cheaper and a bigger spread between actual salary and what the officials take out of allocations. Not in our lifetime will they realize it.

Just changed my daughters school. She was at a really good school till a change in power within the owning family. The new broom sold a major shareholding to a Pakistani group, who try to masquerade as English by having a UK HQ, and who have made some interesting changes.

My daughter was always on the bi-lingual English program. This guaranteed lessons in both languages, with native English speakers. Had some really good teachers over the years, from UK, US, RSA etc. Since the new regime took over these are all being replaced mainly with Filipinos and the occasional Indian. Whilst one or two are excellent, the majority speak poor English and send letters to parents full of mistakes. They are cranking up the numbers of children on all three levels they offer for each year (bi-lingual, English inclusive, and Thai with some very basic English). Only interested in profit - absolutely no concern for educational standards.

One of the best two teachers left at the end of the last term. The other will stay one more year then uproot his family and move. Poor pay, more teaching time required, more administrative work required, and a realization that the direction is down not up.

[ev1lchris]

Typical idiocy here in Thailand.

[Squeegee]

Go to Vietnam.

Make more money...+

Constantly hassled -

Constantly scammed -

More noise (if you can believe that !) -

Pretty Girls =

Girls with more common sense +

Housing costs -

Food Costs =

Health Care options -

A good option but a very different culture

Not constantly scammed or hassled in Vietnam unless you are in all the wrong places. No different to anywhere else. The Viets have a much better attitude towards foreigners currently than the Thais too.

You are right about housing, health and noise though. Easier visas and better pay make up for it.

[laolover88]

Bottom line......"they'll care" when it hits them in the pocket book. All we need to do is wait for the whining to begin. Farang mai dee...........UNTIL they need us.

Don't hold your breath...every year they are hiring more Filipinos and Cameroonians to teach in the schools. Cheaper and a bigger spread between actual salary and what the officials take out of allocations. Not in our lifetime will they realize it.

Just changed my daughters school. She was at a really good school till a change in power within the owning family. The new broom sold a major shareholding to a Pakistani group, who try to masquerade as English by having a UK HQ, and who have made some interesting changes.

My daughter was always on the bi-lingual English program. This guaranteed lessons in both languages, with native English speakers. Had some really good teachers over the years, from UK, US, RSA etc. Since the new regime took over these are all being replaced mainly with Filipinos and the occasional Indian. Whilst one or two are excellent, the majority speak poor English and send letters to parents full of mistakes. They are cranking up the numbers of children on all three levels they offer for each year (bi-lingual, English inclusive, and Thai with some very basic English). Only interested in profit - absolutely no concern for educational standards.

One of the best two teachers left at the end of the last term. The other will stay one more year then uproot his family and move. Poor pay, more teaching time required, more administrative work required, and a realization that the direction is down not up.

Quite same experience. Excellent English Programme. Native speaking UK/US/Oz teachers and a few 100% fluent europeans. School deliberately failed to secure work permits. All gone, replaced by an influx of unintelligible Cameroonians and Philippinos. Result;Children pulled out of school.

[marcusd]

Yep... that's the word "they don't care"

Not sure what happened to the Buddhist spirit of understanding, compassion and common sense?

Its at the WHAT oh I mean WAT

[Denim]

A long time ago there were no native English speaking teachers. The Thais could not speak much English unless they could afford private tuition.

They then decided to have native speaking teachers in every government school. Parents expected it

30 years down the road and guess what...the Thais still can't speak English well. Has throwing native teachers at the problem improved things at all?

Hardly one iota.

Until they develop a decent national curriculum and reduce class sizes nothing is going to change.

[casualbiker]

A long time ago there were no native English speaking teachers. The Thais could not speak much English unless they could afford private tuition.

They then decided to have native speaking teachers in every government school. Parents expected it

30 years down the road and guess what...the Thais still can't speak English well. Has throwing native teachers at the problem improved things at all?

Hardly one iota.

Until they develop a decent national curriculum and reduce class sizes nothing is going to change.

If you have actually been in Thailand for those 30 years and haven't noticed that in general there are more Thais that understand and speak Thai now than even 10 years ago.. I suggest you get off your arse and get out and about! Are they fluent, yes some are! But you are correct about the system.

[Jeremy50]

Go to Vietnam.

Make more money...+

Constantly hassled -

Constantly scammed -

More noise (if you can believe that !) -

Pretty Girls =

Girls with more common sense +

Housing costs -

Food Costs =

Health Care options -

A good option but a very different culture

Not constantly scammed or hassled in Vietnam unless you are in all the wrong places. No different to anywhere else. The Viets have a much better attitude towards foreigners currently than the Thais too.

You are right about housing, health and noise though. Easier visas and better pay make up for it.

Nothing can ever compensate for loss of peace and quiet.