In Response To: Thailand=Paradise - ESL discussion

If you are interested in making or saving money, you should travel to Korea to get your TESOL or CELTA training. Korea has such places.

I recently taught in Thailand, so I'll sum up why you should avoid Thailand from the get-go. I hope this helps you, along with others who are considering coming here:

1. If you take the TESOL/CELTA training in Thailand, you won't have a chance to get it for free. No schools that I know of here offer free training. Like I said above, some in Korea do offer free training.

2. If you take the teacher training in Thailand, you will have to get here somehow. Most people come by plane. If you come here to take the course, you'll have to cover the airfare expense yourself, and you won't get reimbursed for it later if you go to work here after you graduate. If you fly to Korea after you finish the course, you will get reimbursed only for the Thailand-Korea leg.

3. Thailand's pay is far too low for a country whose schools don't reimburse for airfare. You can make 3 or even 4 times Thailand's pay levels in Korea plus you'll get your plane ticket expense back.

4. Thailand's academic standards, at least outside of Bangkok, are too low. At a school where I taught near Lopburi, a '50' was a 'D'. Grade inflation is also prevalent at this school. Thai students not college-bound can goof off and still get a good GPA. And if they don't get a good GPA, it's YOUR fault.
What's 'goofing off'? Talking, doing homework, horseplaying, sleeping, or even getting up and leaving without permission. You don't need it.

5. Thailand's universities weigh a student's GPA too lightly when considering a candidate for admission. This means students don't have to try too hard in the classroom, and they don't, believe me. In my classes, cheating was prevalent, and students often slept, talked, and even engaged in horseplay in the classroom during lessons. And these were the college-bound seniors!

6. Most Thai students won't respect you--they'll think you are a loser being as you are HERE in Thailand and not back in a good job in the western world. Who can blame them for thinking this?

7. Thai schools don't really care about the quality of their teachers. Westerners come here all the time passing themselves off as teachers when they are really just sad sap drunks who need to come to a place that will hire them AND allow them to continue sucking on beer bottles. If a teacher here sleeps through his 8:40 a.m. class because he still hung over or drunk, nobody cares. If anyone DID care, this kind of crap wouldn't be going on to begin with. And it goes on, believe me.

8. Thai bathrooms are filthy. Most have no toilet paper, soap, sink, or towels. They usually don't even have running water save for the basin valve and squirter. Yes, this means that when a Thai is done in the bathroom, he doesn't bother to wash his hands. Sure, he might use the squirter to clean up, but is that REALLY dirt I see under the typical Thai's fingernails? When H5N1 arrives, and it is going to arrive, the bathroom habits of the Thai are what will cause most of the deaths. I don't wanna be in Thailand when it hits, and you don't either.

I hope I've covered all the bases. I hope I've gotten my point across. Take my advice and avoid Thailand if you're serious about teaching.

RK