Blogs

The next term is fast approaching and many schools have job openings. Have you decided to apply to another school and look for a new teaching job because you have some conflict with your coordinator? If you don't plan to leave then how do you handle the conflict?

Many of the students in my class with their fancy clothes, laptops, I-phones, and I-pads, rarely experience an atmosphere where true learning takes place. Outside of the odd serious teacher they may have encountered along the way, they also live and learn in a rubbish dump, an educational one.

On a TEFL course, you're going to laugh more than you've ever laughed and you're going to spend a minimum of nine hours a day with a group of ten or so other people who'll you come to, at the very least, respect for the way they get through the week and at most love.

Troublemakers. We have all seen them do their thing, causing mayhem and disorder in the classroom; perhaps you were even one yourself at some point during your time as a student. Troublemakers are the bane of every teacher's existence and they make our job go from difficult to pounding headache and hair-tearing proportions.

When writing about the ESL industry and Western English teachers in Thailand or other Asian countries, it should be kept in mind the industry is extremely fragmented, unregulated and there is a startling lack of reliable statistics or data about the industry and the teachers working in the industry.

If you're based in Bangkok and you enjoy a bit of window shopping, you could do a lot worse than spend a few hours browsing around the capital's newest and most talked about shopping mall - Terminal 21 - located on the corner of Sukhumwit 19, where If memory serves me correct, a Volvo dealership used to stand.

Chiang Mai is a city of temples, and these temples are at the historical and cultural heart of the city. In fact, one houses the City Pillar which gave the city its cosmological chart and hence the blueprint for its construction in 1296 by King Mengrai . There are hundreds, but for this blog, I will write a personal guide for some of the ones I enjoy visiting.

Tens of thousands of townhouses and detached houses - most no more than three storeys high - have been inundated by up to two metres of flood water. And it's even deeper in some areas!

With the Asian Tsunami of 2004, the lack of a decent education, the rampant corruption, the near civil war last year between the Red and Yellow Shirts, and now the floods, you have to feel for the average Thai who seems as a resilient and flexible as on old leather bag. No sooner has one disaster come and gone, but another floats along like an abandoned Styrofoam tray.

Recently, someone sent me an e-mail asking me if health insurance companies and hospitals in Thailand share information among themselves without permission from the patient.