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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.

If you have evaluated yourself honestly and you have come to a conclusion that you are in fact a crappy teacher, what can you do about it? Since most of these things actually have to do with personal motivation, probably not a lot.

It's about time there was an update on the much-criticized teacher licencing laws. Please try not to laugh too loud.

Facilitating English camps has always been challenging and fun for me but ten years ago I had absolutely no idea how a camp worked or what it was tring to achieve.

Although generally positive, 2010 has seen considerable volatility in world financial markets that caused investment jitters on occasion and the forecast for 2011includes more of the same.

The core aim of the Compass Education program is to help students examine and come to understand key questions and concepts centred around who we are; where we are in place and time; how we express ourselves; how the world works; how we organize ourselves; and finally how we can go about sharing the planet.

Without any savings or benefits from either a public or private pension scheme in your old age, you might be forced to opt for the ‘Go Native scheme’ (the fried rice & Sangsom approach), the ‘Bangkok Pension Plan’ (wait for moneyed relatives to expire) or go out with a bang aka ‘The Flying Club’.

There was one final story I wanted to relate here, because it was my greatest adventure in Thailand. Or was at least my most memorable experience, at any rate, because it was the closest I have ever come to kicking the bucket.

So, school is out. If you’re going on holiday either in or out of Thailand, lucky old you, I hope that you have a great time.

We are all familiar with the fact that every class has its own special chemistry. For obscure reasons some classes are friendly, others not; some bright and perky, others lackluster and heavy going.

Sukhumvit Soi 38 is easily accessible via Thong Lor BTS. Most stalls are open Tuesday-Sunday 6PM-2AM.

He single-handedly broke every stereotype of the Ministry of Education. He was outgoing, inquisitive, articulate, globally aware, and willing to debate ideas about education. I resolved to formally interview this man one day and tell his story.

Much has been written about the Thai culture, some of it well researched and gleaned from many years of experience. This article is unashamedly neither.

Unfortunately this monthly column of mine has to come to a rather premature end.

My submission omissions of late have been due to my recent career change. As I no longer work in the teaching industry, I feel I can better serve this space with short sketches of my life in Japan than with longer submissions on broader topics. So here goes

Day one of the course began with the typical smiles and greetings. The venue laid on a nice little breakfast pack for each of us and well wishers waited at the doors to greet us with: "Hello, thank you for coming!". (Like we had a f***ing choice!)

Here's a complete breakdown of my time spent on the Thai cultural course. Actually I've decided that it was nothing but a teacher's council money spinner. It had little to do with improving a teacher's performance in the classroom and just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, the foreign participants were given an impromtu dance class.

The first one is to relax more and try to really enjoy teaching in this land of sanook. I knew about sanook before I came here to work- it was partly the great sense of fun in Thai culture that attracted me to it- I just didn’t know that for a Thai person it quite properly should infuse just about everything worth doing.

The transition to life in a new country means adjusting to a foreign culture. But what is culture? What is it that we are confronted with? Culture is a set of shared, accepted behavior patterns, values, assumptions and common experiences. It defines the social structure, the expectations and the norms of communication for a society.

The Thai members of staff to whom I regularly voiced my concerns about the very visible slowing, sometimes even reverse pace, of the program’s progress, always said give it time. So I did. For a year, from the time our four deputies were very ceremoniously replaced, I waited and hoped something good would happen.

Although ajarn.com has never shirked from handing out some just criticism on Thai education and culture I felt it was only fair to balance worthy criticism with worthy praise.

Each learner and each learning experience is unique; yet educators can identify patterns in the learning process. Designing effective learning requirements requires a clear understanding of, and attention to, both commonalities and differences in the learners and the learning.

Over the last 25 years we have more than doubled our understanding of how the brain works. All the new research is good news for humans, but it severely dents many long held beliefs.

Bored with teaching? Sure there is a better way to make a baht in Thailand besides the TEFL game? Well, I just finished a six-month stint working in the marketing department of a large Thai furniture company.

At the risk of sounding xenophobic..., what the heck, I'll say it: Thai people don't hear noise in the same manner as foreigners. Could it be that Thais have some sort of innate (spiritual?) ability to 'tune it out'. More realistically, the reason is; Thai people 'bear it'. For them to show disdain for loud noise would be a sign of weakness.

Covering classes was not a stretch, it allowed me to walk over to the ‘teen’ division of the campus. Being the other farang female the ‘high school’ kids always were attentive when either of us had to fill in.

In Thailand, I have found that people quickly get labeled and categorized as either good or bad, helpful or unhelpful, good teachers or bad teachers, etc. Then once you are labeled it is a long and difficult process of changing your projected image.

Let’s face it, when a teacher realizes they made a mistake by taking the job, or have suddenly found another school that will pay them more money, they will try to get out of the contract. Many just up and leave with no word or thought for the mess they are leaving behind.

Featuring this month what makes a good teacher great, the greatest TEFL teacher story ever told and let's hear it for the dreaded visa run

Some people believe that every native English speaker is born with the ability to teach English. Unfortunately a high proportion of people with that belief appear to want to be teachers.