RhenoThai
- 2005-05-15
Except there is only one problem, Jim. Parents DON'T CARE. I've got seniors in my classes who've been taking English classes every year for the last ten years. And you know what? These students can't even use pronouns! What about the 'wad' the parents have dropped on all the English classes these students have taken over the years.....and for nothing. If they really cared about getting an acceptable product for their 'wads' they'd demand better results from the Thai schools. They'd CARE.
Thailand's burden is Thailand's alone to bear. Vigillantes like you who are bent on saving Thailand from itself are just pissing up a rope.
RhenoThai
- 2005-05-04
I say again....bring a REAL degree to Thailand. Get the fake on Koh Sarn Road and go to work. No one cares here. Students and their parents MIGHT in Bangkok, but they sure as hell don't out in the sticks at schools like mine. If you actually LIKE teaching after a year and want to continue, go get the real deal certificate.....only go to Korea or Taiwan where you can get the thing for FREE. Don't drop a wad at a mill. Sure, I got my TESOL. I dropped a wad, yeap. However, with a year under my belt, I know now there is a better, smarter way to do this TEFL thing. Be sure to catch my next post--"The art of the Fake". It's a great way to come here, get a fake cert, and get a job even if one does use a recruiter.
RhenoThai
RhenoThai
- 2005-05-04
When I came here, I was like you. I thought I could touch down in Thailand and actually help its students learn English. One year later I know I was deluded. The sad fact is Thai students don't care one way or the other if their English teachers are any good. Most aren't going to college, and those that are don't need to worry about their GPA. This comes from the fact that university rectors here don't weigh students' GPAs that heavily when considering candidates for admission. Right now GPA counts for less than 10% when a candidate is considered. Yeah, you read right--TEN PERCENT! So, is it any surprise Thai students like to sleep or yak so much in class?
Thankfully, university rectors are trying to change this sad fact. They're phasing in a policy that gives the GPA 40% weight. They WERE going to do that this year in one fell swoop, but parents and students bitched about it so much the rectors backed off and implemented a slower phase-in.
My point is--if Thai students don't have to give a rat's ass about English while in high school, and the parents/schools/administrators go along if it makes the students 'happy', there is no use making sure you are a 'top notch' teacher if you are going to teach in Thailand. You will only waste your effort and your money, and get angry with yourself for believing in the beginning that studens here DO care. Also, if you get a TESOL here you won't get reimbursed for the flight to come take the course, so it makes no sense to do so when there are places like Korea or Taiwan out there.
Nobody cares except for you, ArjanJim....If any readers out there want to teach in Thailand, don't play the fool. Bring a REAL bachelor's degree (any ol' degree will do), get a fake certificate on Koh Sarn Road, and go get a job. It's as easy as that. I wish someone would have told ME this about 13 months ago. I would have saved 1600 USD and been just fine.
RhenoThai
AjarnJim
- 2005-05-03
Ajarn, my apologies. I know there are serious teachers out there in Thailand. I can tell you are one of them, not part of the "freak show" that parade around government offices. I know there are serious teachers out there. I know because I hire them. If they say they have a TEFL from Phuket or Kao Samui, or a CELTA from Siam Square, guess who is on the horn calling to find out if they did indeed go? I am. I hire candidates who have real diplomas from their home countries. I guess that was my real beef: people who purchase a degree/diploma from XYZ University on Kaosarn Road. Working here now for over a year, I've seen some moderate to excellent teachers who have neither a degree nor a diploma. They usually tell me this upfront, though, because I refuse to to start the work permit process for someone without a legitimate degree. They teach without a permit at their own risk.
Wouldn't it be better to get teaching experience in one's home country before coming here and wasting Thai parent's money with shoddy/inexperienced teaching? I saw several new teachers grow while in TEFL or CELTA courses. These were people who'd never stood in front of students, hadn't studied their own language since grade school! This was the perfect course for them. An amazing transformation took place once they'd been given a methodology to follow. I had come into the course with 7 years teaching experience, 4 of those years in a foreign country and I was grateful for how much I learned. Surely, if veteran teacher can respect a 4 week course, why wouldn't a new one? What self-respecting person in any profession would purchase their degree or diploma anyway? Thailand, hopefully, will move in the direction of Korea or Japan in cracking down on false degrees/diplomas. In my small corner of Thailand, I plan on giving students what their parents are paying for: a qualified teacher.
AjarnJim
- 2005-05-03
I like to refer to a CELTA, TEFL or TESOL certificate as "professional development" not dropping a wad of dough. Dropping a wad of dough is what a school or parents do when they think students/children are getting a qualified teacher. Of course, these "mills" do not make a teacher; time and experience in the classroom round out a teacher, but the CELTA (from my own personal experience) can certainly help.
SiamSap
- 2005-05-03
That guy didn't say anything about a fake DEGREE. He's just talking about that document guys like you seem to have fallen in love with--the TESOL certificate. A certificate doesn't mean anything except someone dropped a wad of dough on a piece of paper. The TESOL programs don't weed out students. They don't have time to weed out students, given their programs are only about a month. They really ARE just 'mills'. Get with it, dude.
RhenoThai
- 2005-05-03
AjarnJim, you sure like to jump to conclusions. It may come as a shock to you, but some of us teachers here in Thailand never suck on beer bottles and never dream of molesting with our students. Yeah, I know that is hard to believe. After all, I've been to the immigration office, or I should say 'the freak show', many times to get my three-month stamp.
It didn't take but one visit to that place for me to understand why you'd make your sweeping generalizations.
If I could do things over, I would have brought my Bachelor's IN ENGLISH from the US (yeah, it's real) and a great attitude to Bangkok to find a teaching job. I would have taken a detour to Koh Sarn Road and gotten a fake certificate made up, then gone out and gotten a job and would have done just fine. Just because one has a TESOL means nothing, brother. Do you really think a TESOL transforms someone magically into a teacher? Dream on. My TESOL program didn't cover testing (this alone would take at least a week), and it sure didn't cover Thai culture. In short, it didn't give me anything I didn't already have, so I think it was a waste. Many of us out here in the real world think this. Whom do you work for again?
To anyone WITH A DEGREE thinking of coming to a place like Thailand to teach: get the fake cert first and see if you like teaching. If you don't have a degree, stay home. I took a great TESOL course, and I love teaching. But I didn't NEED the TESOL to make myself a good teacher. I made myself a good teacher. Yes, I could have done without it.
RhenoThai
AjarnJim
- 2005-05-03
Dear Newbie,
It troubles me to see idiots out there who think they are real teachers when in fact, they are nothing more than troubled sex-tourists seeking their next fix while posing as a teacher. My advice: Get a degree and a certificate from either CELTA or TEFL. Does it really matter if the students like you? No. What matters is that your students are learning, and that the hard earned money their parents are spending for their children's education is not going to waste by some fly-by-night, backpacker-drunkard who thinks that just because he can stand erect in front of a classroom and speak English, he can also teach. The truth is, he can't. I've met many a loser teacher in Bangkok and since I now recruit for a private school here,I check degrees...thoroughly. It is educational fraud for presenting a fake degree to your employer in Thailand. We've already fired one employee for trying to deceive the school. I have no regrets spending the money for the 4 week intensive course I took because I still use a lot of the lessons I created and the methodology today at my new school. Get a degree. Get a certificate. Get a decent job.
I shoulda got a fake cert first
- 2005-05-02
You should fly to Bangkok, take a bus to Koh Sarn Road (bus 53 from the airport), and visit one of the shops that offer a counterfeit-document copying service. Do NOT take the TESOL course at one of the expensive mills! Save your money. No one from your employing school calls TESOL mills anyway. You'll be fine in Thailand, and probably China as well, with a fake. Besides, you don't know if you will like teaching. Why drop all that mulla at TEFL International in Ban Phe only to find teaching isn't your cup of tea? Get the fake, teach a year, and see if you like it. If you do, check for schools in places like Taiwan and SK that offer free TESOL training. After you get your bachelor's, go there and get your cert. You'll even get reimbursed for your airfare. If you can't get free training, get the cheapest training you can find in either South Korea or Taiwan. Schools in these countries regularly reimburse for airfare AND pay a lot more than Thailand or China. If you take the TESOL in Thailand, you won't get reimbursed for your flight to Thailand no matter where you go to teach. You'll get reimbursed only for the ride that takes you to
your reimbursing country.
Don't be like some of us sad saps who bought all the scare-tactic propaganda claiming you will get in trouble if you use a fake certificate. No one at my school EVER checked my credentials to see if I actually was who I said I was........ I use MAYBE 10% of what I learned at TEFL INT'L and my kids LOVE me....well, MOST do, anyway. Damn I wish I had a time machine!
Not just another poser
Jeff
- 2005-04-15
You have no chance in Korea legally. (ps) Lower your caps too, make you sound unprofessional.
Hi
I'm just curious to know, what are the chances of an undgergrad student to get a teaching job in China, Taiwan or Japan? I understand it's illegal to teach in Korea without a degree, is that the same with Japan?
I've met others that HAVE taught in places while still in their 2nd or 3rd year undergrad..so are they just the few rare breeds or are there ACTUALLY jobs that only require you being a native speaker?
ANY ADVICE at all would be greatly appreciated