Cat: Two years.

Fernanda: I’ve just finished my first year here.

Cat: I did Chemistry at University and after went to work as a materials scientist for a kettle part manufacturers called Stix, who incidentally at that time made 70% of the worldwide kettle parts. I liked it there, but I felt I wasn’t progressing in the way I wanted. They were going to send me to do a Masters, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that and went travelling instead. While I was travelling I met a girl in Australia who suggested I do a TEFL qualification and when I returned to England I did the CELTA and well, the rest is history.

Fernanda: Well I grew up overseas. My parents now live in Portugal and my sister lives in America and I have a flat in Spain so I suppose I can call Spain home, but it’s not where I was born. Although I have a British passport I’ve grown up in the expat life, always moving around.

Cat: After my Tefl I set out with a plan to teach somewhere, earn enough money for a flight then move on to a new place. I first worked in Ecuador and was planning to be there for 3 months, but as flights were very expensive I ended up staying for 11. I then went to Cambodia where my friend had a good job in an International school. I worked in another language school whilst I was waiting for a job to come up in the International school. Anyway my plans changed and I ended up back home for a while. I went to Barcelona and did the CELTYL course then went to work for IH in Poland for a year and did a couple of summer schools in London and Edinburgh before coming to Bangkok.

Fernanda: I don’t think my story is as interesting. I kind of fell into teaching in Spain. I went there in 1992, as there was a lot going on in Spain that year. When I went there the only work I could find was English teaching. I ended up working as a teacher in Spain for 13 years and in 1996 I started working for the British Council. I then worked for the British Council in Malaysia for two years before coming to Bangkok.

Cat: Tricky question! I liked them all for different reasons. I liked Poland because the courses were funded by the EU and the students were really motivated. I loved Ecuador because I was not stuck in the school all the time. I had to go to different locations in the city so I got to see a lot of places that way. I loved summer schools, teaching moody Italians, but who could also be also really enthusiastic and although I was born not far from Edinburgh I’d never been there since so that was good. I also made some really good friends doing the summer schools. In fact everywhere I’ve been.

Fernanda: I suppose other than Thailand it’s only two places. Spain was special as I speak Spanish fluently so I could cut corners with language and obviously I understood what my students were saying. Also because the courses generally ran for a year I got to really bond with some of the students and as people came back year after year I got to see some of them grow up and even got to know their families. In Malaysia I enjoyed it because the students were very polite and enthusiastic. Also, the level of the learners was very good as it is their second language. I also really enjoyed the cultural mix in Malaysia.

Fernanda: Haha well I’m not sure I want to talk about that too much. I did work as a manager for the British Council in Spain, but I decided to take a break and open a business making promotional material for companies and photo frames, something I knew nothing about. I invested lots of time and money, but lost everything. Well not my home, but lots of money. On the other hand, at least I can say I gave it a try. Anyway after that didn’t work out I had to decide what to do next and that was coming to travel in Asia, which I did, and after my travels I ended up working for the British Council in Penang.

Cat: Well we’re contracted for 21 hours a week and that’s generally what I work. Sometimes it might be a little more and sometimes a little less. I teach adults in the week, teens on Friday and kids on the weekend, which is the area I would say I’m most interested in.

Fernanda: I have one adult class, but other than that all my classes are young learners.

Cat: Well if you want to do overtime to make some extra money you can.

Fernanda: Yep but it’s the teachers choice it’s not forced on you.

Cat: Well we get Christmas and some time in October and July about a week in each I think, and then we get a long break at Songkran.

Fernanda: I think wherever you work as a teacher the holidays tend to be quite rigid, you can’t choose when to take them and you kind of have to just get used to it. I preferred my holidays in Malaysia as here we get this big chunk of a four and five week holiday at Songkran, as opposed to having them broken down more. Having said that we do get a couple of weeks at Christmas so we can head off somewhere then.

Cat: I’d been to Thailand a couple of times before on holiday for a month or so and also when I was travelling. I’d been to the islands in the South and also spent a grand total of six weeks living in Khao San road. I had already decided I was definitely going to stay two years ,even if I didn’t like it, as I wanted to do my diploma here so I didn’t look into it too much.

Fernanda: I’m pretty much the same. I’d been here a couple of times and having already lived in the region I pretty much felt I knew what to expect.

Cat: Well I come from a small fishing village in the Isle of Man. Although I’d never really lived in a big city, I quite like the hustle and bustle of big city life.

Fernanda: For me, I’m a city person having grown up in Lima, Sao Paulo, Boston and London so for me I having been in Penang for two years I was completely bored with looking out of my window and seeing beautiful sunsets and ocean, but nothing much else. I couldn’t wait to get back to city life where there are markets and cinemas and people and also safety. It’s funny but smaller towns make me feel less safe. A perfect example would be last night when I walked home from the cinema at midnight on my own and I felt so comfortable doing that in this ‘big bad’ city. People were smiling at me, some road workers said swat dii khrap as I passed by. I generally feel very safe here

Cat: Haha oh yes. Probably the only thing I worried about was getting tampons. They can be difficult to come by and this can cause problems. On a recent trip to Kanchaburi I had spend half an hour cycling into town, as nowhere nearby sold any.

Fernanda: Have you blushed yet? I suppose the only things I find difficult to get here are things like bras and underwear. As I’m quite a large woman and they don’t do very large sizes, I often have to have stuff sent over. But if that’s the worst of it it’s ok.

Cat: That’s me. I joined a gym near my house and I live between Vipavadee and Ratchada. There are lots of little sois around me, so it’s a nice little journey to the gym by bike and I found a pool I can cycle to on my weekend.

Fernanda: I think it’s good. I’ve made a lot of friends here. I think it’s more dinner parties for me and going out to restaurants. I tend not to do the whole bar scene, but I’ve joined a Spanish speaking group and a writing group which meet on different evenings each week. I often look at my calendar and see I’m out 5 of the 7 nights in one week.

Cat: Well if you asked me and I didn’t think about it properly I would say I didn’t have a social life, but that’s a lie. When I was doing my diploma I didn’t go out much, but I go out eating and often have a few beers with friends. I don’t stay out late that often as I’m an early riser and feel like I’m wasting the day if I don’t get up early.

Fernanda: There’s load of things to do here for example there are two concerts coming up in Bangkok and the cinema is so cheap and there are different exhibits going on.

Cat: Yeah if you look for it there is so much to do.

Cat: Yeah I feel like they’ve looked after me. They’ve put me through my diploma and are encouraging me to advance with my teaching skills and supporting my goal to go into teacher training. There are lots of training sessions you can give or take part in where you can share what you know with other teachers too.

Fernanda: I would agree. Since I started here I feel I have been treated well. For me the biggest thing is that since I arrived I’ve been treated with a lot of respect and my ideas and suggestions are really valued. My ideas are really taken on board which makes a huge difference. Of course you could always say you’d like more holidays and money, this and that, but that’s normal. If you said you were 100% happy, there would be nothing to complain about.

Cat: And well we’re British, so of course we like to complain.

Cat: Yes and no. I think teenagers are teenagers all over the world. You get to puberty and you become stubborn. Your mother wants you to go to English classes, you don’t necessarily want to go. You start getting embarrassed about speaking up in class and you start fancying other students in the class. That’s probably the same anywhere. I don’t want to put people into boxes, but there is a perception that maybe Asian students don’t speak as much in class. Kids are going to be enthusiastic wherever you go. If you’re nice and they like the teacher they’re going to try hard in class.

Fernanda: I’ve been really surprised at how interested in me my adult students are. They really want to know about my life and ask me so many questions. I am a really open person so I’m happy to answer. I do find there are problems here with the amount of L1 Thais speak in class compared to the other places I have taught. I think it would be fair to say they don’t make as much of an effort to speak English all the time in class.

Cat: I’d love to teach everywhere hahaha. I’ve just signed on for another year here, but I think after that I will leave Asia. I would love to go into teacher training and maybe even do VSO in Africa. I’d love to teach in Columbia and improve my Spanish. I’d love to work in Spain too, but the pay is quite low I think.

Fernanda: I plan to stay in teaching, but I don’t want to go back into management for a while. I think South America is on the books for me. I’m quite disappointed there isn’t a British Council in Buenos Aires as I would love to go there. I’m not sure Venezuela or Colombia, where the British Council has centers, would be right for me. I’d have to do more research on those places. I do miss being able to understand the people around me on the underground and buses as I don’t speak Thai. It’s little things like that I really miss.