Well I like the nice new colours on your revamped website, but in my opinion you missed the opportunity to make your site more teacher-friendly by increasing the number of days that resumes stay current from five days to seven i.e. weekly. Previous feedback from ajarn.com on this issue has been vehemently against such a simplified once-a-week procedure on the grounds that it makes it TOO easy (for teachers, presumably) - to which I would respond that life is hard enough already, so why make it any harder than it needs to be?  I would be interested to hear ajarn.coms reason for keeping the counter-intuitive five-day requirement and whether I get a prize if you do change it.

Randy White

I am a teacher in Thailand. I have been teaching here legally for 5.5 yrs now. I hold a BA in TESL (teaching English as a second language). I am being told that I have to study this foreign teacher education course if i want to continue studying (which I have taken already… but for some reason, what the Thai government required and accepted before is no longer acceptable). So I decided to go the whole say and try and enroll in the Chulalongkorn University Masters of Education program. I would have thought that would be better… I mean, if a B.ED. is acceptable, why wouldn’t a M. ED. be acceptable (even one from Thailand’s top university). But as I am being told now, that is also unnacceptable. I must only take this certificate thing, only good here in Thailand, which may or may not change again in the future, and it is only offered in one place across from Ramkamhaeng University. Does anyone have any thoughts or information on this? i tried to call the MOE and no one answers the phone. I dont know who else to call. I have been teaching legally with my degree in 5 Asian countries for fifteen years now. Why is it all of a sudden so difficult to be a teacher? Please let me know anything that may be useful in any way. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Phil says - while it would be great for someone to get in touch and give Billy some feedback, I won’t be putting answers in this postbox section of the ajarn website. To be honest Billy, you might have been better off putting questions such as this on the ajarn discussion forum and having some of the members help you out. Please think about this everyone before you submit an entry to the Postbox. Does my enquiry or my questions, etc belong in the Postbox or on the ajarn discussion forum?

billy

I just read Mr. Spectre’s post and how he’s being treated. For me, eveything is just based on race and not your skills. I have nothing against white people and I dont blame them for what is going on anyway. It is the thai mentality that only whites can teach english, and for them being taught by a white is just great.
I have been teaching here for three years and i have been through a lot. I was the first black man to work in my first school.

My agency sent me to substitute someone from the US. I taught for a week and surprisingly the school liked me. I worked from Monday to Friday and was supposed to remain there since the old teacher was not coming back. My agency then called me on Sunday and lied to me that the teacher was back. I didnt go to school the next day and my agency sent another teacher from England. The school said no to him and they were all shocked. They called and they were all like, Sano what did you do?? the school said no to a native speaker, they want you. I went back there and started teaching again. The parents were informed and they all had a meeting. I was lucky that they all loved me there.

If you are white, or have a white skin you are fine. They talk about native speakers and there you have Russian, Algerians, Arabs teaching or working for them. I just tell them not to write “we are looking for whites” There are many agencies out there doing that but i dont blame them much. It is the Thai mentality and I dont think we can do much. The parents want their children to be taught by white skinned people no matter what qualification they have. The agencies or schools are looking for money, so they have to do what the parents want. It is a simple analogy. It is just good we all know about this and maybe something can be done. Lots of people go through this. I see Filipinos working for just 15000. they are being judged by their race and ethnicity and that is not fair. Some of them are great.

I worked at ECC before as a part time French teacher. I am fluent in both French and English. My students were told I was French but I always told them I was African - born and raised in France. If you dont like my teaching methodologies, they can bring in another teacher but i am not gonna lie about anything.
I dont think people here care so much about education anyway. I wish everyone out there best of luck. I believe we are here for a period of time and just try to make it. It might be easier for some and hard for most of us but we will all survive.

Terri

In response to “Where are all you good people?” (5 Jan 2010): I have been living and teaching in Bangkok for three years and I would love to know the answer to that question.  When I first arrived here, I actually met a woman friend through the ajarn.com blog.  We lost touch, but through her I met another woman who has become a very good friend.  She’s since left Thailand, but we email often and I know we’ll see each other again. 

So if you’re keeping track, that means I have zero friends in Bangkok right now.  Pitiful, huh?  And sadly, that’s the way it is here.  Oh sure, I have lots of teacher room friends, but they’re mostly male and mostly have Thai girlfriends.  So, Vicky, I don’t know the answer to your question.  I wish I did.

Lauren

How does a woman make friends in Thailand? Two weeks off the plane, did the fun part the first (er…end second, as it was the holidays). Found a lovely apartment at a good price by walking around Huay Kwang area as recommended by some locals on couchsurfing.com. It’s Tuesday, the second day of my job search. Sent out five emails with resumes etc. yesterday. Is it true what they say that emailed job applications never get answered? Well, it’s been less than 24 hours so I give them a chance.

So yes, things seem to go OK. I got a real degree and a real CELTA certificate as well as two very real years in Seoul teaching Koreans the finer points of articles and prepositions. I’m not too worried about getting a job, rather that I’ll be lonely. People I met so far were couples and guys with Thai girlfriends. Couples seem to prefer hanging out with couples and guys, well, they seem to prefer hanging out with Thai girls. Thus my question. Where does a woman find good people who like to think, talk and laugh in Bangkok?

Vicky