I just read a post here from 'John'. It seems John is presently 'at sea' somewhere in Europe, as his TEFL outfit didn't offer to help him find a job. It's good that sort of information ends up here for all to read. I, too, have had 'interesting' experiences with my TEFL and would like to share them with you.

I went to a TEFL mill in Thailand. At this said mill, there is a fabulous lady worker who helps the students with job leads. I had about 6 job offers by the end of the course thanks to her. It's a good thing she was there to help. I got not one iota of assistance from any of the 'big wigs' profitting off the insane tuition here. I say it's insane because it's insane for Thailand.....the top 'wig' probably hauls in 30K every five weeks. That's quite a stack of bills for this part of the world. And he gets to take it outta here back to places like Park City, Utah after paying very little, or even zero, tax. I know the laws. Thailand needs to bust some butt over this. But, I digress.

During the 6-hour teacher training portion of the course, my class had to meet in front of the school at 7:30 every morning to board our 'transport' to the school. You think it was a tour bus or even a nice mini bus? Think again. It was, of course, a ratty-ass songtaew. The 'wig' didn't bother to splurge on decent transport, so we, the tuition-paying smucks, had to suffer. Every day me and my fellow students were exposed, and even covered, in dirt and dust thanks to Mr. Tightwad.

And that's not all. I went back later to get a spare certificate made and sent back to my Bangkok address. This set me back 20 USD, with 10 covering postage. 10 bucks to send an envelope from Rayong to Bangkok! Yeap. And when I got the package, I saw Mr. Tightwad needed only 65 CENTS in postage to send the package. Thanks, guy! I owe you one! Actually, you owe me a cool $9.35.

As I think back one year later, I no longer BELIEVE I could have done better, I KNOW I could have done better. I SHOULD have played it smart. I SHOULD have come here to Thailand, gotten a fake certificate from Koh San Road like lots of other dudes, and gone out and gotten a job pulling down 30K. I would have saved about 1590 USD to boot.