The Thai ESL agent hustle
Thai ESL agents are largely unhindered in their business practices by morality.
When personal and working relationships between school staff and agents come under pressure and scrutiny because of good old-fashioned kickback schemes.
Life itself is irony
A teacher's journey - different countries, different jobs.
Believe me I am thankful to be a teacher in Thailand today. Ironically I had to leave Thailand to get the best job I have ever had here.
It takes all sorts
There's nowhere like an ESL staffroom when it comes to a crazy and diverse range of characters
People become ESL teachers for all kinds of reasons. Nowhere else will you find such a mélange of backgrounds, attitudes and beliefs, which is what makes the ESL staffroom like no other you’ll ever work in.
In loving memory of Kuya Ben: A teacher and a friend
I met Kuya Ben (Kuya means older brother) through a co-teacher a month after I arrived in Thailand.
We had our last dinner in one of those makeshift restaurants that come alive only at night along Thailand sidewalks. The buzzing sound of cars and passers-by made me listen hard as to what he had said. Lost in his thoughts and blank gaze, he told me that life is short. The past should not hold me back from life and its kindness.
Lamentable times in the land of the smiles
When drinking nights turn sour
Not far from a massive educational campus which I'd been working at and living on for sometime, stood the local watering hole, and where there occured a memorable event that I'd much sooner forget.
A rare combination of education and fun
The story of how I got my full-time teaching break
After three months as a part-timer, my chance arrived when two of my fellow full-time teaching colleagues, Big Barry, a former scaffolder, and Londoner Jeremy, an ex-soldier and former plumber, both failed to turn-up.
The good, the bad and the downright unlucky
The different kinds of foreign teachers who end up teaching in Thailand
Wherever you end up teaching, the chances are that you are going to be alongside people you'd never normally work with, which can make the whole experience more memorable, one way or another.
An amazing TEFL journey
From Saudi to Thailand to China (and a bit of America in-between)
China is definitely on the upswing as far as English teaching goes. Thailand is a place I love but professionally dead to me. Saudi was challenging, interesting and of course lucrative.
