Well, here I am about to finish up another year-long in Thailand. I'm not sure who learned more--my students or yours truly. Of late, some of my students have made spectacular breakthroughs, especially in grammar. However, this has come at a price. My higher-ups have been giving me lots of grief over this. I teach at a college run by incompetents, you see. Or at least that is what I've believed until now. As the twilight of my "career" here approaches darkness, I can say I'm no longer "in the dark" about ESOL in Thailand. I see everything as it is now. Allow me to let you in on what I've learned here:

1. English is treated here as a "demarcator" or the determiner of who has what. It serves as a divider between the haves and the have-nots.

2. English is a powerful force the educators here want to keep in a bottle. They don't want the common people to have access to this force. This is the reason why I see so much 'incompetence' here. This is because what I see is not really incompetence at all, but a determined effort to deny true education to students. If students actually began to learn English, they'd have access to the "power" and may be able to raise themselves into the domains of the "haves".

3. English is a "product" that is doled out in small amounts because students supposedly "want" to learn English. Sure, there is an education "system" in Thailand, but what students are getting for their tuition money is simply something that fools them into thinking they are learning something. The powers in Thailand attempt to pass off inferior paradigms as genuine teaching. They attempt to control what students learn and the packaging of what they learn in order to limit those students' abilities and fluency. Educators here want students to learn only a "watered-down" version of English that won't get them too far. They are afraid if students learn proper English, they will be able to demand better, rise up from their subservient positions, and supplant those who control this thing called "English" here. The higher ups want Thai students to learn English, but not "too much", or so much they start demanding changes.

4. Our presence here is only to satisfy the above requirements. If we refuse to play by the rules, rules that center on the belief that "it's okay if they don't learn anything", we will find ourselves pressured to leave or even forced out.

Now that I understand the truth, I can say I'm glad I'm getting out. I like teaching, but I will never teach under a regime like this again, meaning I may never teach again, as most of Asia probably mirrors Thailand. And thanks to the ice-cold reality that US citizens can't teach in places like Italy (they need EU passports), I'm more than likely genuinely done with this thing called TESOL.

Now. On to the airport!