Partying will keep you poor

Sent in by Jonathan

29th November 2011

Life is what you make it here. If you need to party and live a lavish life style then you need a big wage. I think you can live very well on 30,000 a month and you don't need to splash out on western food. It really is not that expensive if you shop sensibly

The market is flooded

How have the floods affected Bangkok's property market?

6th November 2011

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!

How did salaries drop so much?

Sent in by Ronald

28th March 2011

What in the blazes has happened to the salaries in the Thailand teaching profession?

A dream lifestyle in Thailand

Does Chiang Mai offer the perfect place to live and work? Well, live anyway

1st September 2010

I'll put my hands up and admit I've been somewhat unkind to Chiang Mai in past blogs. On past visits, I've usually had the job of playing tour guide to my ageing parents and a couple of their friends. It's never easy to move a group of elderly folk around a sizeable Asian city without having every tout and unofficial tour operator descending on you from miles around

How expensive has Bangkok got?

Have you noticed how much more we have to pay for things?

25th March 2010

I’m not coming at these price differentials from the angle of an expert economist. I’m just an average Joe consumer who looks at the prices on menus and clothes tags and wonders what’s wrong with this picture.

Four times the salary of a local Thai?

What a load of bullshit!

30th October 2009

Nothing irks me more than reading that statement and you see it all over the web wherever the topic of teaching in Thailand is discussed or promoted. It’s a statement that’s both grossly misleading and wildly inaccurate.

Thailand on 30K a month

Is it feast or famine?

1st June 2009

With many teaching positions on the ajarn jobs page paying 30,000 baht a month (some even less) forum member Hollow has decided to put things to the test and record his daily spend. Many employers tell us that 30,000 baht a month is enough to live a very comfortable lifestyle - even in Bangkok. I've heard Thai people describe that kind of dough as 'luxury' Then again perhaps that's a load of old tosh. So does 30K a month enable you to lord it up right until the last day of the month or are you going to be stumbling through the final week on a diet of pot noodles and tap water? OK Hollow. Pencil? Notebook? Let's begin.

Low teacher salaries

Is ajarn.com partly to blame?

30th October 2008

No, ajarn.com isn't responsible for low teacher salaries - at least not according to Louis Minson. Louis says that not presenting a realistic picture of the overall job situation would be sweeping things under the carpet.

Not all about the money

Sent in by Ralph

5th November 2007

As the old saying goes - money isn't everything

Why complain about salaries?

Sent in by Don

24th July 2007

A breakdown of where my monthly salary goes.

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Fear of change?

In Thailand the government has set 2012 as English Speaking Year with a goal of encouraging students to converse in English every Monday. Such policies are useful but the major leap of enacting legislation to make English an official language for Thailand is also needed

Software for student tests

The integration of internet and computers with education and English learning is something students find normal, and classrooms without some access to educational software may seem quaint. Some students may even feel they can get more ‘professional' teaching from the numerous online ELT sites if a school is behind in IT.

Whatever happened to the shopping mall teacher?

They are the shopping mall English teachers - gliding like pale, undernourished phantoms amid the hordes of weekend Thai shoppers. The main reason I empathize with the shopping mall teacher is because I was once one myself. I know how desperate and soul-destroying it can be.

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About Ajarn.com

Ajarn.com was started as a small hobby website in 1999 by Ian McNamara. It was a simple way for one Bangkok teacher to share his Thailand experiences and pass on advice. The website developed a loyal and enthusiastic following. In 2004, Ian handed over the reins to Phil Williams and 'Bangkok Phil' has run the ajarn website ever since.

Ajarn.com has grown enormously and is now the most popular TEFL site in Thailand - possibly even South East Asia. Although best-known for its vibrant jobs page, Ajarn has a wealth of articles, blogs, features and help and advice. But one principle has always remained at Ajarn's core - to tell things like they are and to do it with a sense of humor. Thailand can be Heaven or Hell for an English teacher. It's always been Ajarn.com's duty to present both sides of the equation. Thanks for stopping by.