In my experience of contacting employers and sending resumes, etc, things look like this:

1) Agencies mainly collect resumes to find naive native speakers who will accept their embarrassing job offers. This can be seen especially on Facebook groups and sometimes on Ajarn. The goal of the agency is to find naive, inexperienced native speakers ready to accept the worst conditions. "You live in a paradise, mate, so accept 30K salary and a 10 month-contract".

2) If a Thai teacher is in charge of recruiting, most often we will not get any response and if we do, it is 1-2 sentences long. Thai English teachers are generally afraid to write in English.

3) If a Filipino is in charge of recruitment (because a Thai teacher had the ad placed on the internet), we will get answers to all possible questions, in a very short time.

Jason

1. Beware of agencies that offer a visa and work permit after a 3-month probationary period. A 3-month "probation" is nothing more than illegal work and forcing teachers into visa runs. Serious and credible agencies do not force their employees into visa runs.

2. Beware of agencies and anonymous accounts that advertise week after week on Facebook without any specific job offers. They only collect resumes and other documents. If you see the same ad week after week - it's a sign that someone is fishing for resumes.

3. Remember that schools offer 12-month contracts. An 11-month or 10-month contract means someone is taking your money. Of course, employees of the worst agencies will claim otherwise. Another bad sign is the need to teach, for example, 6 different grades (for example P1-P6, M1-M6).

4. Remember that every month you should save at least 15,000 baht. You need to keep your future in mind and save money for retirement.

5. Before signing the contract, check the reviews of the school in question. On a certain well-known website it is very easy to find reviews of various schools in Thailand.

6. Don't waste your temporary waivers on lousy schools and lousy contracts. Today you can work in Thailand but by choosing bad contracts you will waste your chances very quickly. TCT will not understand your explanation that you accidentally wasted your temporary waivers.

7. If you are from a certain well-known island country, don't write "How to apply?" or "Interested" under every possible job offer on the internet. Don't ridicule yourself and your country. The same goes for accepting job offers of 15,000 - 18,000 baht. Respect yourself.

8. Remember that you can't fail your students. If you fail someone, you will still have to pass everyone during the "magic weekend". What's the headache for?

9. The best way to survive in a Thai school is to do your job and keep other teachers at a distance. Don't open up, especially to Thai teachers (who, despite good salaries* and great social security, are usually jealous and love to gossip).

10. Do your job, try to be a good teacher and enjoy life. Don't worry about school affairs, because here all institutions are empty. The form is empty. Whatever you do it won't change anything anyway. Focus on your happiness. Good luck!

* there are many 40-year-old teachers who earn 40,000 baht and more; there are many 50-year-old teachers who earn 50,000 baht and more.

Gregor

The one big thing that I've learnt being in Thailand is that farang teachers won't make a difference to Thai society. So many guys I know, myself included, came to Thailand with the best of intentions and the rosiest of glasses, hoping to "make a difference" or "save those poor kids from their oppressive culture", only to end up frustrated and bitterly disappointed. Thailand doesn't want to nor should it change or modernise simply because a few western, white knights want it to. Word of advice- go for the adventure, go to travel, enjoy and work hard but don't expect to make a difference to Thai society.

Jey

After teaching here in Bangkok for five years, I'm finally going to have to call it a day. The air pollution is starting to affect my health and I've had to make my third visit to a doctor in as many months. I'm constantly suffering with a runny nose, cough and overall chestiness. Why don't the authorities do something about this when it must be literally killing so many people on a daily basis, or at the very least speeding up their departure? And at my school, the situation has become so grim that the students can no longer go outside at break time. It's becoming ridiculous.

Chris

Who will pay for your airline tickets? Who will pay for your children's education? Who will save money for your retirement?

Don't let yourselves be exploited and milled by the system. Do not accept job offers below 70,000 baht per month. Do not accept contracts shorter than 12 months. Don't allow yourselves to be exploited just because you live in a country with nice views. Don't sell your best years of life for a pittance. Always think about your future.

James

I did a TEFL course because I actually wanted some idea of what I was supposed to be doing before I entered a classroom. I had no experience of teaching; therefore, I didn't think anyone would employ me. I've had three jobs in Thailand and not once did anyone ask to see the certificate. They only cared about my degree for work permit purposes. Even after I did my course, I was still completely useless. I look back at some of the things that I did and I'm embarrassed. But hey, you gotta start somewhere.

I see many jobs on ajarn now require a degree in education. That's fair enough, but often they say that no experience is required or at least a year. Sorry, but even with a degree in education, you're still going to be fairly useless with zero or one year's experience. I've worked with newbies with education degrees and even they'll admit they need guidance and to gain experience.

Experienced teachers who actually try are worth their weight in gold. You can only learn so much from a book and then you really need to just get your hands dirty. Also, a degree in education is very general and usually more accustomed to the West. Certainly not countries like Thailand (unless you're working in an international school).

For your bog standard teaching jobs, I'd choose experience over qualifications every time. For international schools, of course an education degree. As for some kind of TEFL, I'd say do it for the experience. But when starting out, know that you'll get the same pay as someone starting with no TEFL. Like most people I worked with.

Mike

I'm a Filipino and have been an English teacher here in Thailand for many years. As a Filipino we can talk to or teach our students with different kind of accents but the question is 'does the accent really matter in education? Some people want to learn what they feel is the correct accent but they don't know how to read, write or construct sentences, especially how to spell simple words. And how many native speakers here in Thailand are really educators? They can teach because English is their mother tongue but "do they really know how to teach and handle the kids? Are their kids learning from them?"

Bella

I speak Thai constantly every day because I work at a bilingual kindergarten that leans much more towards Thai than English and I'm the only native English speaker. There are some other English teachers, but English is their second language so they lack confidence and don't really know how to manage or just casually speak with the kids in English outside of lesson time.

When I'm teaching regular lessons I use pictures, songs and TPR to keep it immersive, so once the students have learned their basic classroom commands I speak almost entirely English. But outside of lesson time, when I'm carrying kids throwing tantrums into school in the morning, calming kids down so they can sleep at naptime, talking to their parents about what they did that day when sending them home or explaining things throughout the day to coworkers, I do it mostly in Thai or kind of flip/flop between languages.

Admin wants me teaching the other teachers English, but if I speak only English to them they do that Thai thing where they just smile and nod and I can't tell if they understand what I'm saying or not. So usually I'll speak English and then repeat myself in Thai if they don't say anything.

I do the reverse when I'm casually speaking to the kids outside of class. I have a pretty good understanding of what English the kids do and don't know so I can mostly stick to English, but if I'm communicating something they haven't learned I'll say it in Thai once and then repeat it multiple times in English. I'll also translate things I hear the kids saying in Thai into English, which usually gets them excited and shouting new English phrases at their friends.

I've also had students who used to go to international schools, but were switched to my school because their parents don't know much English and were worried their kids wouldn't be able to speak Thai at all. The kids are so excited when they start coming to a school where they actually understand what people are saying to them, and they love talking to me because I'm the only farang they've ever met who understands them when they're speaking Thai.

I had this one student who would keep testing me to see if I would respond to things he was saying or not in Thai and then yell my name and hug me. After about a week of this he started speaking to me only in English and excitedly repeating all the new English words I would teach him. He liked speaking English, but liked the security of knowing he could speak Thai as well if he needed to.

A large part of kindergarten is relationship building. The kids need to love and feel safe with you in order to respect and listen to you. It's hard to do that when you're a tall, pale alien ignoring everything they say and making strange noises they don't understand.

Kindy TEFL Teacher

1. Earning a bachelor's degree is very expensive.
2. The cost of living in Thailand is getting higher.
3. Getting a license from Krusapa is much more difficult than in the past.
It is high time for native speakers to start respecting themselves and stop accepting ridiculous job offers. Stop allowing yourselves to be exploited by schools and greedy middlemen. Native speakers should not accept offers below 60,000 Thai baht and insist on 12-month contracts.

Jason

The C-19 pandemic and changes in the global labor market have resulted in fewer NES teachers coming to Thailand to seek work. Where once potential recruiters appear to have held all the cards, resulting in low wages and poor working conditions. It seems like the tables are turning, certainly for those of us that are NES teachers. Across the board, wages have certainly risen over the past two years, and one can find a relatively well-paid position if they exercise some patience.

I am teaching in a tier 2 international school with a package that includes a 70k baht monthly salary, yearly return flights to the UK, excellent health insurance and a provident fund. This is in Chiang Mai where the wages are lower than Bangkok. I have no doubt I could find a position in Bangkok that pays 80k baht or more. I have friends that have acquired similar positions over the last couple of years. That’s despite none of us holding QTS, though we all have some sort of teaching qualification, be it a PGCEi or a Masters. For too long we have under-valued ourselves, and under-valued the demand for NES teachers here in Thailand.

We have been fed the myth that a ‘low cost of living’ and Thailand being a ‘developing nation’ are reasons for paltry wages and poor working conditions. For those of you that are NES teachers, the time is now for you to make the change and improve your lot. There are plenty of positions out there, and you are much more sought after than you think. So, don’t be afraid to ask for an extra 5-10k baht a month, demand the best health insurance, and stop being taken advantage of!

Brendan