I am the colleague of Mr. Keith Evans, who wrote the letter (Ajarn Postbox 2nd July 2011) regarding 'Thai teachers from Hell'

Can I first say, what Keith has written is a very mild version of our experience. The town itself is very beautiful and the local people very warm and welcoming. Keith and I both settled down quickly and were looking forward to a good and long stay in our new school. Now that we have both left the school because of some of the reasons Keith has mentioned, I have since discovered through my farang manager at the school that the school has never managed to keep English teachers for more than one semester. You have to ask yourself if that is the case, Why? As you can imagine Keith and I found out within 5 weeks.

Regarding the comment following Keith's letter, all I can say is obviously your time in Thailand as a teacher has been a very nice one. And I am very happy for you and glad to hear that from someone has had a good 20 years experience here. But if you dig a little deeper, you will realize LOTS of teachers haven't been so fortunate.

I came here to work, help, and try and make a difference for Thai children. Thailand is not in the G8, it is still a very young country when it comes to education. It is ranked 81st in the world regarding IQ levels, only African states are below them. So when you get people coming here to help, surely as a nation you should meet them half way. We know Thai culture is different than ours, which means our culture is different from theirs. So while we are trying to learn Thia culture, Thais should try and learn ours.

Keith and I did not do anything wrong at this school, as someone has tried to imply. We are not farangs off bar stools in Pattaya, Keith has taught here for 7 years and in my opinion is one of the best English teachers I've meet. There's only one group of people going to suffer because of this outcome - the students themselves, who I might add are very upset at what as taken place. We both feel sick to our bones over this matter. I am even thinking of leaving Thailand and going back home. If you are an educated person you will realize these aren't the feelings of two grown men that don't care.

Mr. Russell Park

I hope that the ajarn.com team will publish this letter I've written, because any foreign teacher wanting to work at this particular school should be warned beforehand about two Thai teachers from the English Department. I started teaching at the school in the Chaiyaphum Province about two months ago. Everything seemed to be OK at first. The students were polite and the Thai teaching staff were friendly. Suddenly, out of the blue, a colleague and I were bombarded with abuse and I was even accused of assaulting a teacher in the staffroom, which was a complete lie.

My colleague was informed by the sister of one of his students that a Thai teacher told the class to write a letter to the director of the school, saying that they didn't want my colleague as their English teacher any longer. The students were very upset and at first they refused to write the letter, but they were forced to comply. I've been teaching in Thailand for seven years and I haven't experienced anything like this before. My colleague and I have since resigned from the school and I want all foreign teachers to know this " Don't touch ********** school, Chaiyaphum. Not with a very long bargepole.

"We are unable to name schools in this kind of letter for obvious legal reasons. And secondly, we only have one side of the story. When a Thai bombards you with abuse (and I've never been 'bombarded' with abuse from a Thai in 20 years) then I can't help feel that you've done something seriously wrong to upset them"

Keith Evans

So the "Dwang has finally hit the fan", and there is a shortage of qualified teachers in Thailand, so much so that some agencies have to hire people to look for unqualified teachers in Khao San Road. And I wonder why many government schools are not looking for full time foreign teachers anymore but prefer to pay them by the hour. Things are looking desperate hey! We turned away all our good teachers that were passionate about teaching, because 40,000 was too expensive. We turned away all the experienced teachers that were over 50 that were prepared to work for 30,000, because they were considered too old.
And what are we left with? Many under qualified teachers that are only here for the “beer money” that are turning “fun learning classes” into some of the best circuses in Asia.”Hooray”. What are our desperate parents to do? Send the kids to language centres, so they can at least get some decent education from qualified and passionate teachers who have had a gut full of agencies.

Apso

Hi, I am looking for places to purchase English teaching materials for all core subjects. I am also seeking other teaching materials such as bulletin board cut outs and other things. I have heard there are materials in Chinatown but I'm not sure where in Chinatown exactly. Your help will be greatly appreciated. Also do they have any websites where teachers or farangs can get to know one another as friends for talking or meeting just for leisure time enjoyment. Maybe someone knows places where teachers like to hangout after work or on weekends.

Tom Benjamin

There is a new insipid species of teacher recruiter in action. In the Khao San Road area, a new band of ESL teaching agency touts are working the "just arrived in Thailand crowd ". It works like this: a friendly farang meets you in a bar or restaurant, and casually mentions that he has a friend looking for English teachers paying around 27,000 baht (or less) - he offers to help you out and to hook you up with his friend - but what he neglects to mention is that he is a paid recruiter and pockets a quick 4000 - 6000 baht if he delivers the naive newcomer to the recruiting agency he is working for. If he was really a friendly guy in a bar, he would just give the individual the telephone number or the street address of the agency - which happens all the time - this is called networking. These touts are working for agencies that are already underpaying teachers, usually in the 30,000 baht a month range, and usually offering a 10-month contract, pocketing the teacher's holiday / vacation pay, which the school pays to them.

Often the recruiting touts are borderline English teachers themselves, as was the case when I declined an offered a 26,000 baht a month teaching job. It wasn't until later that I found out "my friend" was a recruiter and had given up teaching because he was so successful at duping new arrivals into accepting "lower than low "paying teaching jobs .

Barry Brooks

I work in a government school in Issan which employs several teachers that do not possess degrees or fake degree certificates. They have work permits, one has been teaching at the school legally for several years and one has recently received their work permit and teaching license. I do not have a degree but the school still offered me employment and a non-imm B visa and are currently in the process of applying for my teachers license. Like many things in Thailand, it is often not a case of what you know but who you know, if the school have connections at the MOE and you are happy to live in the North East where the level of English is extremely low and there is a huge shortage of teachers it is possible to teach legally without a degree. I also know several other schools in this area that are legally employing teachers without degree certificates.

The salary I receive is low in comparison to what many private language institutes or international schools offer, but it is still three times what many Thai teachers are earning in the same school, and I can afford to have a good quality of life here (the cost of living in Issan is also very low). I also have friends legally teaching in Chiang Mai without degrees or fake degrees but I believe it was harder for them to find employment

Raphaella

I've just been reading through the ajarn letters page for the first time, and it seems that the current topic is the 'insulting' wages offered on the site. This is my take on it... As many people have pointed out, we are all free to choose what jobs we apply for, and those of us lucky / well-organised enough to have a teaching degree or plenty of experience can choose to apply only for the better-paid jobs, confident that we'll get offered at least one of them. But those of us who don't yet have experience need to start somewhere, and work up the experience-and-salary ladder. Think about the following:

1) Some of these schools can't afford to pay a lot. Some writers on this site seem to imply that they therefore are insulting foreign teachers. I would argue that we are insulting their school by dismissing their wage offers so callously.

2) There are plenty of foreign teachers who consider 15-20K a reasonable wage. Yes, most of them are not native speakers - so? They need jobs too, and if they are happy with these wages, then so be it. It seems to me to be an insult to them to call their wages 'insulting'.

3) The wages foreigners are paid to teach are higher than most or all of the Thai teachers in the same institution, and yet these Thai teachers are more qualified than almost all of the foreigners, and spend more time at work than the foreigners, too!

4) To those who say they expect a good salary for the years of experience they have, I say well, only go for the higher-paid jobs then. Leave the lower salaries for those trying to get on the ladder. And don't insult those with 'only' a TEFL certificate - for a start, they're not responsible for the child's entire education, just their English classes - if they're not a super-teacher, it's not really earth-shattering.

Secondly, there are a lot of fantastic teachers out there (and over here...) who have no teaching qualifications at all. In short, if you are lucky enough to have choices, make them, and don't look down on those less fortunate.

Lucie

The majority of Thai educators are resistant to change. The Government is pouring bhat after bhat into improving the Thais ability to speak English, but it is not happening much because Thais are resistant to change and there are some farangs who are not serious about teaching in Thailand. Of the sincere farangs, they must deal with unneccessary amounts of dysfunctional behavior from Thai educators. Sure there are some Thai educators who are serious, but they are overpowered bny directors who will not let change happen. Farangs don't know everything about education, but nor do Thais.

Twice I have tried an honest and polite approach to teaching English, but to no good avail. I have asked for information about the school but told that little would come until the start of school. Asked politely for information to help me prepare for a good year but this was denied me and other teachers. We were occasionally asked for our opinion about matters of English, only to be told that "Sabai Sabai" is the way of the school. This means that nothing will change. I have even been told by a Thai teacher that I don't know English, even though it is my first language and I have a BA from a university in the USA. If many Thai educators are fine with Thai English, why is so much money being spent having Native English Speakers teach? It is just a matter of people, farangs and Thais making money from poor Thai tax payers? It's pretty sad.

Paul

I've read so many doom and gloom letters and posts about the perils of being over 50 and a teacher in Thailand. I teach in a provincial private school an hour out of Bangkok. I also run some courses at the local university as well as teaching IELTS preparation courses at a leading academic language school. Total hours 35 per week, total pay 96,000 per month excluding bonuses ( before you say that's too many hours, I used to work 60 hours a week in a high pressure job before I came to Thailand 7 years ago).

I'm 60 and have never been in so much demand. Am I that special? Not at all. I'm just proactive and do a good job. By the way, at the language school there are four out of the six teachers who are over 60. It certainly helps though that I have a lot of experience coupled with a Masters degree. My advice to the older guys, if you are qualified there is a lot of work. You just have to get out there and sell yourself. if you are armed with just a TEFL, of course you will struggle as you are competing with a veritable army of young good looking and likewise unqualified teachers. One final piece of advice, have your feet firmly placed in at least a couple of camps, that way if one source of your income suddenly dries up you will still be OK.

Rob

I've just completed the Thai Language and Culture Course. Despite all the negative stories I had read before attending the course, I have to say I found it very interesting. I had adopted a very negative attitude towards the Thai education system and Thailand in general. The course has helped me understand the Thai people and their sometimes indifferent ways. Hand-on-heart. I feel that the course has made me a better person and hopefully a better teacher.

Keith Evans