Rheno747
- 2005-09-21
Well, it IS getting harder to log on here. That's because my English-teaching colleagues and I are all fighting over the limited number of computers here.
Are we using the computers to prepare for lessons or better ourselves our teachers?
Perish the thought, my in-the-dark brother!
We're all looking for jobs.
In other words, were trying like hell to get outta Thailand, just like the thousands and thousands before us.
I, and about five others right here, are telling you in one chorus:
YOU CAN HAVE THIS PLACE.
Yessir!
So my 'rants' will probably become somewhat rare, yes. At least until I find a job outside this shithole and get back to more 'normal' computer situation.
where are you from
- 2005-09-20
What are you doing teaching abroad? Shouldn't you be scolding poor American kids instead. do you have CELTA/TESOL or a TEFL?
Relax, Thailand is wonderful place and so are the Thai people. Have some curry and some fresh fruit and take a break. quit filling the forum with your rants.
Rheno747
- 2005-09-18
It's that time again at my college. No, not THAT time,replacing yet another white face who's flown the Thailand coop. It's EXAM time. Fun time, in other words. Let me tell you about the idiocy called 'exam preparation' here.
For starters, I have no textbooks. What sources do I use? Library books? Books that I've bought with my own money? Who knows. No one ever told me. This doesn't matter, though--my students wouldn't bring texts to class anyway and they certainly won't read them outside of class. Perish that thought.
Then there's the syllabi I have to use for five classes. These were written by a white face who STARTED this class, but bolted by the mid-term. Yeah, I inherited his mess. He leaves it to me, and now I'm supposed to teach according to these syllabi he wrote, but without textbooks and not knowing what HE taught before me (students will lie here about what they were taught before). I just have to 'wing it' and teach them what I think they need to cover in these classes based on vague syllabi. What a crock.
And now here where are. Exam prep time. I'm expected to create exams from this wreckage. But it gets better. Thailand has strict rules about exam questions. For one, if you teach two different sections of the same class, your exams have to be totally different. You can't use the same questions on those classes' exams. WTF?
On top of this, questions one asks here on his or her exams can not have been used the last FIVE years. I can understand the 'education ministry' doesn't want students engaging in their favorite school pasttime (cheating) before exams. What the can't accept is that my own exams would require lots of work if one is to cheat successfully--so much work, in fact, it would defeat the purpose of cheating. If anything I WANT my students to cheat on the exams I make.
But I, along with my white-faced pals here, can't seem to be able to produce exams that are unique AND cover what was covered in our classes according to the syllabi.
When I head back to the US, I won't have any hair. I see that, sure. It's because I will have pulled it out, not because it fell out naturally.
God, I wish I would have never come to this place.
I have a new job in Thailand teaching college kids writing. I should say I ATTEMPT to teach college kids English writing. In my classes, students must be able to put two or more sentences together and make paragraphs. Yeah, I can hear some of you chuckle as you read this. Those who are teaching in Thailand or who have taught here in the past know full well what I'm talking about.
Noble effort. Atrocious results.
These kids can't coherently string more than three words together, let alone two paragraphs.
Let me disintegrate the argument, before it even starts flying, that this problem is caused by some deficiency in the ability of the white-faces who stand at the front of the classrooms here.
Here's that argument, an argument I've read and heard countless times:
a. Thai kids have very little English proficiency.
b. English is being taught by Farang.
Conclusion: The Farang are indequate,incompetent, don't care, whatever.
I've heard this argument so many times I'm sick of hearing it. In response, I'll let folks in on some facts and then present a new argument they can stick in their pipes and smoke.
1. Not EVERY teacher who stands in front of an ESL classroom is inadequate/incompetent/doesn't care/whatever...
Some farang teachers here are excellent. Most are what I'd call 'good'. Surely Thai kids can learn a modicum of English from these teachers.
But they don't.
2. The teachers who teach most English in Thailand, especially at the "P" and "M" levels, are Thai. Unfortunately, these teachers are very weak in writing proficiency, even at the master's level. Most can speak fairly well, and they're good at understanding a native-speaker if he or she talks slllooowwwwlllyy. As far as writing/reading/comprehension goes, their abilities are grossly inadequate for the task, which is teaching writing/reading/comprehension to Thai kids some of whom are now in my classrooms.
3. Thai teachers are regarded by Thai kids as the 'authority figures' on all subjects, which includes English. They won't accept the idea that someone (maybe YOU) who has spent anywhere from two to even four or five decades in the USA, Britain, Australia, or New Zealand might, just MIGHT, know more about English than ther Thai English 'teachers'.
With these facts in mind, I'll build a new explanation for what I'm seeing here:
a. Most Thai kids have been taught English writing in the past by Thai teachers.
b. Most Thai English teachers' English writing ability is grossly inadequate.
c. Thai kids regard Thai English teachers as the true athorities when it comes to English. Farang don't know squat.
Conclusion: Most Thai kids' English writing ability is grossly inadequate thanks to unadequate teaching in the past and their own stubborn misperceptions today.
Hello to those who live in a dream world. Welcome to reality.
When I 'correct' a student in my writing classes, I find just about every one becomes highly offended at my comments and suggestions for improvement. They think I'm a slave-driver or even stoop to think I'm someone who doesn't know what he's talking about. No one can know, after all, MORE about English than their Thai English teachers from the past.
I understand why they'd think this. My kids have been 'taught' English writing by seemingly 'all-knowing' Thai teachers who in reality are not qualified to teach this subject. These same teachers have no doubt rewarded my students with great marks, maybe even 'A' grades, in the past, for inadquate results. Now these same students resist my efforts to give them 'low' grades and helpful suggestions to improve what really is atrocious writing ability.
I'm fighting history here. I'm fighting authority figures, albeit unqualified authority figures, from the past in my classrooms. I'm also fighting my Thai students' refusal to accept that somebody in the world (lots of folks actually) knows more about this subject than English 'teachers' of the Thai persuasion.
No, the white-faced teachers are not the problem in Thailand. A broken education system, unqualified Thai English teachers, and closed-minded, lazy students are caught in a whirlpool they can't get out of. And they have nary a clue that they're in it.
That's my argument.