Peter and Nadine
When teaching careers end before they've even started.
Although teaching in Thailand can sound like one big adventure, I'm convinced that some people are not really built to leave home. Teaching in Thailand is just not for them. It's too much of a leap into the unknown.
Speaking Thai in the classroom
It is not what foreign teachers are paid to do.
It wasn’t until moving to a language school, with proper management, that I saw the negative side of a foreign teacher speaking Thai in class. It was also at that job where I saw that some TEFL teachers are actually stuck in the routine of speaking Thai with students.
The gutties dinnae fit well
OK class. Get your English books out!
Recently while having a few wee drams in a well-known British pub on the Sukhumvit, a Scotsman by the name of Evan Elliot reflected on the events of his day to Richard Constable who was working there as a barman on this particular evening.
Two types of language teacher
Postbox letter from Mark N.
Thai employers simply don't care about your bits of paper - except for the one that says you have a bona fide degree.
Horses for courses
Postbox letter from Martin Foot
I'm not really sure how much a highly professional teacher can help in your average Thai school. Even as a hypothetical it doesn't seem to be in any way plausible.
‘Sanook’, games and the Thai EFL classroom
Should teachers be entertainers?
One would think that the Thais' love of ‘sanook' would make the EFL classroom an inviting place for new EFL teachers, but the situation can be frustrating.
Mistakes that long term teachers make in Thailand
What do the old hands often do wrong?
If you have been here a year or two, you have probably made or seen all the newbie mistakes. But more pitfalls await. Here is a run-through of things you should avoid
Will I find work in Thailand?
Is there a definitive answer to this incredibly common question?
I wish I could look at the main scenarios, the reasons teachers ask if they will find work in Thailand, and give everyone a straight "yes, you will" or "no, you won't" answer. But unfortunately it's nowhere near that straightforward.
Teacher mistakes
Avoid falling into any of these teacher traps
Ajarn has put together a list of the most common mistakes that teachers make in Thailand - both new arrivals and those who have been here a while.
Clock, peanut and frog
The problematic pronunciation of many Thais
I try to have as much empathy for my students as I possibly can and I am becoming rather good at understanding the unintelligible. However, there are limits to everything and I am not a mind-reader. If a person says for example /sa-pye/, I know he or she means “Spy” (the wine-cooler or James Bond, doesn’t matter). But if someone says “kye”, I don’t automatically think of cry.
