English teacher "wais" and says sorry for attacking a primary school student - but now faces immigration enquiry.

[Thechook]

God when was the last time he had dental work.  

[Jeremy50]

         A lot of comments from people who have never set foot in a Thai school no doubt. Infact a no touching policy would only apply to the manhandling of female students. A foreign  teacher can certainly 'guide' a boy by the shoulder to his desk. Acts of violence by Thai teachers on boys and girls are common place, this

is usually caning the hands and the back of the legs for girls, and more rudimentary slaps and punches for the boys. Foreign teachers receive far less respect from students than Thai teachers, this is down to being conditioned by parents to always regard foreigners as outsiders and with some suspicion,  derogatory comments about  foreign teachers to students by Thai staff working in the same school are also common.

Classes can be unruly to say the least, 45 students all talking and shouting in Thai, running around, throwing things, can be a test for even the most good natured and professional teacher.

The Thai language is also used to hide behind , whenever the need to belittle foreign teachers and garner laughs from friends in the classroom, and colleagues in the staff room should arise. Trading  insulting and demeaning  banter regarding any  foreign teacher who happens to be in the room at the time, knowing full well, that the target of their vicious mirth is very unlikely to be able to understand.

Edited June 3, 2017 by Jeremy50
grammar

[robblok]

Seems the posts here are a lot more forgiving then when the Thai teachers do the same. Though a fair number do condemn it that is good.. but the reactions are milder. The guy is as wrong as those Thai teachers.. too bad for him the result might be a lot worse. 

[CaptHaddock]

9 minutes ago, Jeremy50 said:

         A lot of comments from people who have never set foot in a Thai school no doubt. Infact a no touching policy would only apply to the manhandling of female students. A foreign  teacher can certainly 'guide' a boy by the shoulder to his desk. Acts of violence by Thai teachers on boys and girls are common place, this

is usually caning the hands and the back of the legs for girls, and more rudimentary slaps and punches for the boys. Foreign teachers receive far less respect from students than Thai teachers, this is down to being conditioned by parents to always regard foreigners as outsiders and with some suspicion,  derogatory comments about  foreign teachers to students by Thai staff working in the same school are also common.

Classes can be unruly to say the least, 45 students all talking and shouting in Thai, running around, throwing things, can be a test for even the most good natured and professional teacher.

The Thai language is also used to hide behind , whenever the need to belittle foreign teachers and garner laughs from friends in the classroom, and colleagues in the staff room should arise. Trading  insulting and demeaning  banter regarding any  foreign teacher who happens to be in the room at the time, knowing full well, that the target of their vicious mirth is very unlikely to be able to understand.

Which begs the question, "Why would any educated foreigner want to work such a job?"

[smotherb]

4 hours ago, jaltsc said:

"The foreign teacher at the center of an online furor after he attacked a P5 student during an English class has wai-ed the child and his mother in apology."

 

They keep telling foreigners to learn the "Thai Way" to behave. Now that someone has followed that advice and is acting in the traditional Thai manner for treating students, they want to kick him out of the country. Go figure. 

He is not Thai; think of your home country parents' outrage if a foreign teacher grabbed and kicked their children; especially if that foreigner would have been of a different religion. And, I applaud the police for checking on his immigration status and teaching credentials.

[Fulwell53]

4 hours ago, jaltsc said:

"The foreign teacher at the center of an online furor after he attacked a P5 student during an English class has wai-ed the child and his mother in apology."

 

They keep telling foreigners to learn the "Thai Way" to behave. Now that someone has followed that advice and is acting in the traditional Thai manner for treating students, they want to kick him out of the country. Go figure. 

Adults assaulting children ....regular occurrence in the west.

Not surprised the thais are horrified.

They let these underqualified no hopers redeem themselves and this is what they get in return.

Thailand really needs to closely look at the westerners it lets in.

Very very shady a lot of them.

The vast majority I have encountered in different locales around thailand have me bewildered that they have a passport.

Awful awful people 

[NormanW]

As a teacher you have a moral obligation to every student NEVER to touch them. Duty of care!!!

 

Epic fail. Lock him up so that he can try his tactics with some inmates!!!

[smotherb]

5 minutes ago, robblok said:

Seems the posts here are a lot more forgiving then when the Thai teachers do the same. Though a fair number do condemn it that is good.. but the reactions are milder. The guy is as wrong as those Thai teachers.. too bad for him the result might be a lot worse. 

Thai teachers are sometimes disciplined for abusing children, especially if the parents have some pull. However, you have to remember Thailand has not yet reached the point where corporal punishment of children by teachers is considered outrageous.

[Fulwell53]

3 hours ago, Suttisan said:

I worked in a government school about 12 years ago, the Thai teachers were always smacking the kids. This guy lost his cool because he thinks being a teacher in a thai government school is something to be taken seriously. You pay peanuts you get monkeys, I'd also be surprised if any foreign teachers in these thai schools have degrees in English or education (no one did when I was doing it), why would anyone spend 4 years studying and work for 35,000 thb per month? I think we can all agree that sort of money just isn't worth it, not to mention the fact that the thai teachers don't like you because the reason you're there is because their English is worse than tarts. 

'Their English is worse than tarts'

????

The irony

[Bluespunk]

47 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

 

Yes, and a great mistake that was.

 

Many people need some physical encouragement to make them obey the rules, both here and in the west. Unfortunately they no longer get it whilst growing up, and that's why adults are so badly behaved now.

Children do not need to be struck to obey rules. 

 

 

[smotherb]

3 minutes ago, Fulwell53 said:

Adults assaulting children ....regular occurrence in the west.

Not surprised the thais are horrified.

They let these underqualified no hopers redeem themselves and this is what they get in return.

Thailand really needs to closely look at the westerners it lets in.

Very very shady a lot of them.

The vast majority I have encountered in different locales around thailand have me bewildered that they have a passport.

Awful awful people 

I do not know to what part of the West you refer. In the 50's and early 60's when I went to public schools in the States, corporal punishment was accepted; however, by the 70's it was discontinued.  

[Fulwell53]

2 hours ago, tracker1 said:

From previous accounts of teacher student runins seems to me to be Double Standards but again this is Thailand where farangs are easy targets !

Oh so because it is Thailand it is the fault of the country and its people, that an incompetent bullying oxygen thief from the west  has assaulted a child and so he shpuld be given some leeway.

Priceless logic.

[mark01]

Off to Cambodia you go.

[JAG]

I worked in a government school about 12 years ago, the Thai teachers were always smacking the kids. This guy lost his cool because he thinks being a teacher in a thai government school is something to be taken seriously. You pay peanuts you get monkeys, I'd also be surprised if any foreign teachers in these thai schools have degrees in English or education (no one did when I was doing it), why would anyone spend 4 years studying and work for 35,000 thb per month? I think we can all agree that sort of money just isn't worth it, not to mention the fact that the thai teachers don't like you because the reason you're there is because their English is worse than tarts. 

A degree in English, and in fact every qualification beyond GCSE (O level for the old and smelly like me) is focused on the study of literature rather than the mechanics of the language. Teaching English as a foreign language ( the much maligned TEFL) is an entirely different skill set, an essentially practical one.
.I don't think a degree is necessary (although Thai rules require it) to teach English as a foreign language.

Teaching maths, science and other subjects in English is a different matter.

Mind you, I'm not going to comment one tha abilities of some of the Thais or foreigners, with degrees, that I have observed doing so.

Smacking children around remains beyond the pale.

[Fulwell53]

2 hours ago, ezzra said:

Mistreatments of Thai kids is a reserved occupation for Thai teachers

only, and that farang can't wish it away with a wai....

Mistreatment of kids is neither approved or permitted by anyone in thailand and you well know it.

To suggest it is a known and accepted practice in thailand is bordering on racist.

[Bluespunk]

15 minutes ago, robblok said:

Seems the posts here are a lot more forgiving then when the Thai teachers do the same. Though a fair number do condemn it that is good.. but the reactions are milder. The guy is as wrong as those Thai teachers.. too bad for him the result might be a lot worse. 

I'd say the majority condemn the thug who struck the child. 

[sandrew33]

He deserves prosecution for wearing that shirt 

[Bluespunk]

11 minutes ago, smotherb said:

He is not Thai; think of your home country parents' outrage if a foreign teacher grabbed and kicked their children; especially if that foreigner would have been of a different religion. And, I applaud the police for checking on his immigration status and teaching credentials.

In my home country the nationality of any thug who struck a child would be less a consideration than the actual violence itself. 

[kmj]

54 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

 

Yes, and a great mistake that was.

 

Many people need some physical encouragement to make them obey the rules, both here and in the west. Unfortunately they no longer get it whilst growing up, and that's why adults are so badly behaved now.

 

Yes lets get back to sending the little sh1ts up chimneys and bring back the workhouses because that worked as welll 555

[DM07]

4 minutes ago, Fulwell53 said:

Mistreatment of kids is neither approved or permitted by anyone in thailand and you well know it.

To suggest it is a known and accepted practice in thailand is bordering on racist.

...and then you woke up an noticed, where you are....

[robblok]

8 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

I'd say the majority condemn the thug who struck the child. 

Agreed.. but the comments in the other topics are a bit more extreme and even more condemn the Thai teachers. Anyway your right. 

[coxo]

Back to the the building site for this knob.

[Bluespunk]

1 minute ago, coxo said:

Back to the the building site for this knob.

Gaol would be better. 

[Khun Robert]

30 minutes ago, Jeremy50 said:

Classes can be unruly to say the least, 45 students all talking and shouting in Thai, running around, throwing things, can be a test for even the most good natured and professional teacher.

I read all the comments but this one makes me laugh.

Children in Thailand at school are shouting in Thai.

 

It is their National Language, what do you expect?

It is no excuse that even the local teachers speak Thai, you came to this country as an English teacher but you did not know the National language.

Abusing students is wrong, teaching a foreign language in another than your home country is nice, but to understand your students and colleagues you have to speak their language.

[worgeordie]

School director Suchart meesombat said it was all "a misunderstanding".

thats always the same response,nobody wants to take responsibility for

anything here.

regards worgeordie

[davidst01]

Im sure that you're a member of this forum and will read all of these comments. My message to you is that you are a low class bogan. Go home. 

[cardinalblue]

I taught six years in gov schools..only 10% of the students want to be there to learn...

 

He crossed the line and should be fired or given a life time contract...

[theguyfromanotherforum]

4 hours ago, davethailand said:

He looks like the sort of Guy I'd love to have teaching my stepkids. NOT! How dare he even touch one of the kids.

Kick him out.

:)

 

 

Same quality as the Western people who come here and dump their gf/wife for a younger one just because they can in Thailand?

 

What's the difference?

[steven100]

Very unprofessional ....  another 7-11 english teacher.

kick him out of thailand .....     no need for his type here ..

[otherstuff1957]

35 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

Children do not need to be struck to obey rules. 

 

 

Striking children to make them obey just teaches them to obey only when they are in danger of being struck.  Up to about 10 years ago this was the most common way of enforcing discipline in Thai schools and resulted in the kids viewing freedom from corporal punishment being the same as freedom from all discipline. 

 

Until the students are taught self-responsibility and the class sizes are reduced from 40+ to 20 or so, the situation will not improve.