| Q |
Hi Greg and welcome to the
hot seat. How long have you been teaching in
Thailand?
Why not give us a brief resume? |
| A |
Well, I started teaching around October 2001,
working for an agency. After a short camp in Kanchanaburi, they put me to
work at Rajinibon, an all-girls’ school, where I stayed until June of 2003.
During that time, I also taught part-time at Satit-Chula as well as privates
and weekends. Since June of last year, I’ve been working as a consultant,
dealing with large corporations, working on teambuilding workshops and
management training seminars. I’m still involved with Rajinibon and several
other schools on my own time. |
| Q |
Tell us a little bit about your time at the
Rajinibon School? |
| A |
At first I started off teaching the Prathom 4,
5 and 6 girls, which I did for about five months. Then the guy who was
teaching the Mathayom 4, 5 and 6 girls got fired, and they asked me to take
over his post. That’s where I stayed until I left. I absolutely loved my
time there and, despite the cultural and organizational hiccups that go with
working in Thailand, managed to get on very well with everyone. I got to
know my students quite well and developed a very strong teacher/student
rapport with almost all of them. I’m still in contact with quite a few of
them, as well as many of my ex-coworkers. Great school, wonderful students
and staff. |
| Q |
In the ongoing Bangkok vs. rural areas
debate, where do you stand? |
| A |
Well, besides a school on the outskirts of
Bangkok that I’ve volunteered at, I haven’t really spent much time teaching
in the rural areas. I know people that have though, and the feeling that I
get is that if you want the ‘genuine’ small-town Thai experience, you just
ain’t gonna get it in the ‘Kok. I guess it all comes down to what you
prefer: teaching amid the sounds of birds chirping with not a 7-11 in sight,
or the sounds of birds coughing with more sev’s than you know what to do
with. |
| Q |
You’re doing corporate work
these days. Is it the Business Basics textbook stuff or more specialized? |
| A |
It’s very specialized. I’m not really involved
in the English training part of things. Most of our clients speak English
fairly well, and my job is to lead teambuilding programs and management
training seminars. That being said, I do have to deal with clients of all
creeds and English levels, so I often find myself doing a bit of teaching
whether I planned to or not. |
| Q |
What do you think is the hardest part about
teaching corporate groups? |
| A |
The mix of cultures and nationalities, but
it’s also the most exciting. In a team with 8 Thais and two farang, the shy
Thais usually take a backseat to the farang. People from India are very
aggressive, people from Japan are nearly polite to a fault. It’s interesting
to watch all these different people communicate to and interact with each
other. |
| Q |
Do you agree that there are just too many
schools trying to muscle in on the corporate training market and making a
very poor job of it? |
| A |
Actually, I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer
that, as I’m not really familiar with corporate English training. But I
imagine it’s like any business that fills a demand – after a while, people
start taking advantage of things and inevitably, you end up with some crap
situations and worthless companies. |
| Q |
We did an interview with Al Lock, who is one
of Bangkok’s best-known corporate consultants. He says that HR/training
managers are becoming far choosier when they look for a provider. Would you
go along with that? |
| A |
Again, I have very little experience dealing
with that area of things. I could only speculate. |
| Q |
Can you understand why teachers are beginning
to leave Thailand in droves (if in fact it’s to be believed?) |
| A |
I’d say the money issue has, and will continue
to be, the number one reason. The longer you stay here, the more people you
meet who are (or have friends that are) making/have made busloads of money
in other countries. One couple I met while I was teaching couldn’t come to
grips with the fact that they weren’t chauffeured to work everyday, like
they were in Korea! I’d guess that the teachers who give weight to this
theory are the ones who’ve been here a long time, made lots of friends and
have come to see the cracks in the veneer of the whole teaching thing. The
bottom line is, other countries pay more money and their system of visa’s,
work permits, organization, etc is just more organized, more sensible. That
being said, there seems to be a never-ending supply of people willing to
give Thailand a shot, but the majority of them only stay for 6 months or a
year. |
| Q |
Complete this sentence. “I’d rather die than
teach…” |
| A |
Yet another group of fat, dumb kids who are
sent to a top-class school by their fat, rich parents. Luckily I didn’t have
to do that too often. |
| Q |
You do voluntary work at a Muslim school. Do
you think more teachers should be giving up a few hours a week for a worthy
cause? |
| A |
Absolutely. The joy of volunteering can’t
fully be appreciated until you do it. I’m not saying I’m Victor Volunteer; I
don’t do it nearly as much as I should. But when you work with a kid or
group of kids who go to a school that doesn’t have the money to hire a
farang teacher, the results are amazing. Not only are you a rock star for a
day, but to make such a big difference in a kids’ daily grind just by doing
something so easy is a great feeling; really heartwarming. You rarely have
to have a lesson plan – more often than not, it’s just fun and games. The
very fact that these less-fortunate children get to speak one-on-one with a
farang about football or their home country is a lesson in itself. |
| Q |
How does teaching Muslim students differ from
Thai students. Firstly, the cultural aspect? |
| A |
I didn’t notice a difference, to tell you the
truth. Except for the wailing coming from the loudspeakers at the mosque,
the cultural difference was pretty minimal. |
| Q |
And what about the actual English-teaching
aspect? Are they better students? More serious? |
| A |
Again, the cultural side of things didn’t
really figure into it; it was more the societal aspect. It wasn’t really a
question of being better students, but I would say that most of them took
their education pretty seriously. These kids were quite poor and for the
most part, knew that the line between sleeping in a house or under a bridge
was often quite thin. But they were very excited and behaved very well,
stoked to participate and eager to learn and to talk to a farang. I spent
three days there and it was a great experience. Incidentally, if you want
more info about volunteering, head to www.smilingalbino.com/community |
| Q |
Going back to the Thai education system, do
you see things changing for the better? Are typical students getting more
exposure to English? |
| A |
I don’t think they can avoid it. MTV, English
music, magazines, radio, etc. Like it or not, English is everywhere and I
can’t see it fading away anytime soon. Whether or not the Thai education
system will change for the better is a big question. I think that right now,
the tenets that guide the system are frankly quite outdated and
old-fashioned and need to be changed. The base principles that the kids get
taught by their teachers and parents need to be brought up to speed with
other international countries. Thai students need to be taught to seek out
information for themselves; to be taught the joy of learning, not the
monotony of it; to be more aggressive and to speak their minds and think out
of the box, for themselves. And if I could teach Thai students going into
the business world just one thing, it would be this: When you shake
someone’s hand, look into their eyes, smile, say a confident “How are you?”
and grasp that hand firmly! |
| Q |
How long do you see yourself staying in the
profession? |
| A |
Until I
get bored, which doesn’t look like it will be anytime soon. |
| Q |
If you had to give up on
teaching here in
Thailand,
which country would you move on to? |
| A |
Japan.
Always wanted to go there,
but just never found the opportunity. |
| |
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