Teaching English in Hua Hin

[johnnyk]

And remember, just because a place calls itself "international school" doesn't mean it really is one. The real ones are very tough to crack without advanced paper, experience and contacts. The others are simply SOS with a fancy name.

[Nereus]

And remember, just because a place calls itself "international school" doesn't mean it really is one. The real ones are very tough to crack without advanced paper, experience and contacts. The others are simply SOS with a fancy name.

Exactly, along with a highly inflated fee structure!

[charlesh]

VS he might have meant that he has no problems there - ie. the place (England) ha, ha. The vagaries of the ENGLISH language - how beautiful. You can see why native speakers are preferred as opposed to colonised Phillipinos or Indians! (You note that I used the British English spelling for colonised) ha, ha.

[johnnyk]

And remember, just because a place calls itself "international school" doesn't mean it really is one. The real ones are very tough to crack without advanced paper, experience and contacts. The others are simply SOS with a fancy name.

Exactly, along with a highly inflated fee structure!

Not much of which finds its way to teachers' pockets!

[Spitfire]

I'll chuck in though that there are still a fair few "teachers" here from native countries that are running around that haven't a clue about the language/punctuation/grammar/spelling/what's acceptable and what's not. Even your average representative, of let's say the UK or USA, here in LOS hasn't a freaking clue about stuff like the number of tenses there are or could give you an example of the future perfect continuous.

What I'm saying is that if the OP can get employed and aquire a work permit then so be it, good luck, there are many so called native "teachers" here in Thailand that can't string a coherent sentence together that is grammatically correct or punctuated even vaguely correctly.

Many people have work permits through these so-callled teaching agencies that trawl the likes of places like Kho San Rd advertising basic work. They sign people up and skip the vetting process mainly through stort time greed. The agency is "supposed" to check the applicants credentials and so is the school that employs them but often don't as it's very difficult to check this these days because of the data protection acts in most western countries. I have heard many people suggest that the days of the Kho San Rd teacher are over but must say that I disagree, they are everywhere especially in the agencies.

It's only when people start applying for a teachers license, if needed, they can get caught out and there are a few places that this is not required, depends who you are teaching. The MoE can and does sometimes check but not everyone as it is simply a mountain of teachers to check, they might be able to check about 1000 or so a year and that's probably mostly in BBK and the like. There was a Bangkok Post news paper story about it couple of years ago saying they checked a 1000 teachers in Bangkok and 67 of them turned out to have false degrees. They also mentioned the difficulty of even checking that many.

I am also convinced that the rules are bent or stretched (not in Hua Hin though) in places where it's hard to find any foreign teachers, like in the mid sized smaller rural cities where BBK officialdom and rules are not stringently followed, it's more of a case of whatever is conducive to them. There are few rules here that cannot be wiggled round in some way or another.

As far as spelling goes, nowadays the US or UK spelling is quite correct and it doesn't matter which is used as a good dictionary will give both as right. British English is considered classical here and many other places but there are not so many that speak it that way. As an aside, most of your average Asian has probably only heard street language from rap songs or suspectly constructed informal English from a tourist that can't boast a high level of correctness, of course there are exceptions though.

It is also worth remembering that there are more non native speakers of English than native now and that will have an influence on the direction it takes in the future, especially regarding common usage.

The only effective control the native contries have on it is the fact that there are the UK and US universities issuing the famous big dictionaries but are adding a 1000 words a year to the language. A lot of words now have such a low frequence count, as in Macmillan's, that it's hardly worth keeping them unless you're are writing poetry or pros etc.

There is of course much more that could be added but I won't ramble on too much, perhaps someone else can wade in with more stuff or comment.

[charlesh]

A good friend of mine's daughter opened an English language school in cahoots with a local in the very Nth of China and they were very particular re: credentials, references and paid above award to get and keep good people. Most of the applicants tend to be very transient and yes have the sorts of problems alluded to by Spitfire.

She told me that there were several places you did not bother with (ie. teach) - Korea and Thailand! Indeed there used to be a Gray's list highlighting the pitfalls for the unwary and innocent and their virtual indentureship to schools not worthy of the name.

Il caveat emptor!

[johnnyk]

In the ESL world Thailand has always had the reputation of low standards, low pay but high fun. Dodgy "schools" and falangs running out of money find each other.

Each can pretend the hungover, grotty, inarticulate, incoherent falang is a teacher. For many schools/businesses putting a vertical (barely) Caucasian in front of the class is good enough.
Never mind he barely finished high school and can't write a paragraph.
Never mind he doesn't know the diff between 'there' and 'their'.
Never mind the kids learn zip, as long as they all pass.
Its a circle of ripoffs: school rips off parents and "teacher", "teacher" rips off school and students. Parents pay. School owner buys a new car. Falang moves on to the next "in" spot.

Many falang operate under the notion that if they can speak the language they can teach the language. Nope, guess again white boy. In fact, if you go down KS Road its appalling how many of the 20-something falang cannot speak a coherent, grammatically-correct sentence and that's when they are sober.

Korea, Japan, VietNam, Taiwan and China have all raised standards and its now very hard to get a teaching job without a first degree and a TESOL certificate. Coincidentally they all pay better than Thailand in most instances and school is school, not playtime mayhem. And they all recognize that learning another language is a plus, an investment in the future. But Thailand continues to wallow in short-term thinking and a quick, easy profit mentality.

[bapak]

Agree with some of what you say. However, our car is 7 years old and does not look like being replaced in near future. And the teachers are paid top rate because they have good education credentials and have settled in the community

Bapak @ TLC.

[dtaai-maai]

For those in the know, isn't one of the requirements to become employed here teaching English that you are a native English speaker? Meaning born, raised, educated in a country where English is the officially recognized language? Pete

Usually, yes, but not always - one of my uni colleagues is Dutch, and there is a Swiss guy at another campus.

There is undoubtedly an interviewing panel of Thai staff to assess the fluency and accent of non-native English speakers...

[margaretcarnes]

I have to agree largely with JohnnyK - and it's good to hear that some countries are starting to recognise the need to raise standards in English teaching.
We constantly make fun of Thai peoples' use of English. It's a difficult enough language for them to learn - and to pronounce - without the added problem of less than competent teachers. But I suppose we also accept that perhaps the Thai education system, certainly in mainstream State schools - only pays lipservice to the teaching of English. It still isn't seen as important for the sake of jobs/trade/commerce etc. (Or maybe poor kids in rural schools aren't seen as future business people?)
But we all know the old adage - 'those who can - do. Those who can't - teach.'
Which seems to still hold true in Thailand. There are some excellent English teachers there of course, who are dedicated. Because by gawd they have to be. There are clearly also still the ones who teach just to survive there. We all know them, and to be honest without them right now some rural school kids wouldn't have any access to native English speakers at all.
Lets not forget though that even in England standards are falling educationally. Whatever people say - many higher education courses are delivered on a basis of 'failure is not an option.' It doesn't matter that spelling and grammar can be so bad as to be mis-understood.
I'm currently battling to understand quite how I'm supposed to do a fair work-based assessment on a trainee Social Worker, when I'm not even allowed to see her own self-assessments on her progress - or her own perceived development needs.