I have to agree with the earlier post. 30K is less than 1,000 dollars a month. It is not possible to live on it anywhere in Thailand and this includes Isaan now; unless like most workers I meet: you already have retirement money from another country, do one heck of a lot of tutoring and extra work on the side, or you are very lucky.

By 'lucky' I mean you have a Thai wife that finds an apartment before they see you and contracts it in, you exchange English lessons for rent, you live close to work or a room is provided, the school you teach at actually has owners with a heart and soul (don't count on them being devout Buddhist, I promise they are all about materialism, ego/image and profits),

Thais think 30K to 35K a month is good for a foreigner but it isn't. We don't have extended families, connections, or influence.

We work under archaic conditions including xenophobia, Thai spies for the administrators, backstabbing, unsubstantiated rumours and all sorts of jealous hatreds.

We get charged foreigner prices and if you're terminated, you have 24 hours to leave the country so you lose everything and if you don't have the money to make it to the border on time you get hit with overstay.

Forget the night life. Especially if you have a family and house to take care of.

I see the schools have dropped wages, make huge demands on requirements that just cost too much to make it worth applying. And there is not a place to post warnings about bad schools and their reputation for people to see.

If a school anywhere in Thailand is serious about hiring teachers that are licensed in home country, and have a Thai license and have been teaching for many years with several in Thailand, then they need to pay at least 50k a month.

Bob

After reading a few tweets on Ajarn.com about being able to survive as a teacher in Bangkok on 30k a month, I spent a little while breaking a few things down in my head.

I came to realise that with the current pay and contract formats being offered, you would in effect be earning less than a full-time corporate Thai employee of a similar educational background, but without any perks.

I'll try and summarise this, although I understand that some would no doubt disagree about some of my comments with regards to what you would call essentials. So, here goes:

A 10-month (the new thing I suppose, and oh-so very popular) 30k a month contract would net you 25k a month over a full year, less if a little tax is taken.

Now a return flight to UK/US will be in the order of 40k if your timing is good. This works out to you having to save 3,500 baht a month, plus 1,500 to have some spending money when you do get home. Not much, but absolutely necessary. So, 5,000 baht a month to save for a trip home. Not too much to ask is it?

So, now you feasibly have 20,000 baht a month. The same amount my Thai girlfriend makes as an accounts person with a BA and 6+ years experience. But she gets a bonus of one month salary or more, so she's already ahead of the game here.

Ok, a small clean and liveable room near to a convenient transport hub will easily cost 5,000 baht a month in Bangers. Please, this is bare minimum. Add to this 2,500 a month for internet, electricity, water and washing machine fees. You now have 12,500 baht.

If you think having a little health insurance is a luxury, then I will forget it, but say 1,500 for this every month and you have 11,000 a month.

Travel to and from work could run from 500 to 2,000 a month (motos, BTS/MRT, the odd taxi here and there) and you could easily be down to 9,000 a month and I haven't eaten anything yet!

Meals (3 please!) at 200 a day for 30 days. This is a basic child-size portion (nowadays) at a food court (50 x 3) plus a drink here and there. So, basic food at 6,000 a month, and you're down to 3,000 a month. Essential groceries to have in a fridge, milk,eggs,butter and bread, some meat occasionally, say 1,500 a month. and now you have 1,500 baht left. Call it emergency fund, doctor/dentist visit.

You have not bought anything. You have been nowhere else in Thailand apart from your classroom and apartment and local shop/ food stall. You have survived on chicken/pork and rice or noodles. You have not had one western meal or other restaurant meal. You haven't bought any shoes, clothes, toiletries or supplies for your hard-up school. You have not had any alcohol and you have not had one night out. You haven't even phoned anyone!

Does this analysis sound unreasonable? I think not. Could you do it every month? But more importantly and appropriately, why would you want to?

I have not given any other negatives to being a foreign teacher in Thailand, as the money side is so damning on its own merits, that it makes me feel woefully depressed just reading it.

Bigtown

I don't understand all this fuss about older teachers not being able to find work here. I'm not a teacher and never want to teach. However I have two Thai female friends who teach "English" in village schools in Isaan.

I have visited both of those schools for a couple of days and both times I was asked to teach English for a day. This was with my friends, the real teachers, observing. Neither of those schools has ever had a native English teacher work there.

The kids were happy and paid attention as I moved around finding things in each of the primary colors, holding them up and saying the words, and writing the words on a chalkboard. The kids tried to repeat what I was saying and did pretty well. I improvised other such "games."

In both schools I was offered a full time job and I'm 68 years old with no degree. However I am in shape, clean-cut, and showed respect.

Are people looking in areas in small town Isaan?

James

These complaints about the Ministry of Education's changes to teacher requirements remind me of my early teaching years in Korea, when Korea started cleaning things in their ESL education environment, weeding out those who just didn't make the cut that Korea had established for itself. Lots of moaning and high horse I-know-betterism from the underqualified who Korea just didn't want teaching in their country any longer.

Korea held firm and now they've reached the higher level they set for themselves.

I lived and taught in Korea when it was under military rule (Chun Doo Hwan, Noh Tae Woo (nominally "the first democratically elected president"). Saw the nation develop to a regular, predictable democratically elected government. No matter who was in charge though, Korea just kept on rolling.

And for sincere expat teachers, nothing but regulation here and a rule there changed. The sincere ones accepted that it was what Korea wanted and adapted accordingly. The losers got weeded out.

After three decades teaching at universities in Korea, I now teach in Thailand at elementary school level in a kind of retirement. I've been here four years and find the country a wonderful place to live and teach. Yes, there are a lot of paper work hoops to go through, but it is what Thailand wants and I adapt accordingly.

The raising of standards doesn't impact me as I'm fully qualified. I support Thailand's goals to improve the quality of the foreign teacher pool. And I would even if I weren't "fully qualified" and had to get additional education to be so.

There will be bumps in the road, but Thailand has set itself on that road and doesn't intend to stay put in the status quo. At each bump, it'll shake off those teachers whose tenuous qualifications didn't give them a firm grip on a career in teaching in Thailand anyway.

Thailand's effort in this regard did not start with the present government. It has been in the making for years, across three governments at least and it reflects an overall trend in ESL education in Asia.

Ben

Dear All, I was reading with interest about the university verification letter and, how once obtained, the ease (in general) with which a license can be issued. I have experienced an unusual problem although I suspect not entirely unheard of but nonetheless irritating.

I have an education degree which was predominately done online, and whilst largely issued using previous credits I did sit a number of exams relating to certain modules covered in that type of degree.
That however is quite irrelevant. It serves some purpose but not all.

My main degree was taken back in the early 80's and due to several home moves both the degree certificate and transcript was lost, stolen, thrown away - who really knows. It's fair to say I didn't consider it an issue mainly based on the fact I didn't know they were missing as I had never really needed them throughout my career in the UK.

I did apply for a job back in the late 1990's which required them and it was then I found they were missing however as that project didn't proceed I failed to do anything about it.

Now in the present I was thinking about a change and consequently the jobs I look at require both as the basic online/ modular based degree won't satisfy the market.

Herein I find the problem, I have now discovered that the university/college which provided the degree decided in 2001 to outsource their record keeping. My records along with a few hundred have been lost.

Whilst I have three certificates relating to exams I took during the degree because they were also used as part of a diploma and another course other than degree courses, the university won't issue any confirmation of my degree status. They can't issue the certificate and transcript because they have no record to issue from.

I did get a bit annoyed with them and now they won't even talk to me as any communication they send hinting they are at fault obviously could result in legal action which they don't want to give me any opportunity.

I have a letter from a retired tutor confirming I attended and passed but even this won't convince the university to issue any form of letter, primarily now mainly due to me getting annoyed they sort of won't do that anyway as it would be an admission of fault.

So I suspect the letter from the tutor won't carry any weight here. My question would be are they still doing these tests that you can take to obtain your license? I understand it is the TCT and/or The Ministry of Education that run these . I understand they were due to run at the beginning of last year but it never happened.

Quite a complicated situation but any constructive comments would be welcome.

Jonathon

The best way to overcome your anxiety in the classroom is to know your stuff. But even knowing your stuff won't fix everything if you are nervous in front of a crowd.

There is a mindset you need to learn in a Thai classroom and you can pick it up from watching Thai teachers... or some farang teachers who have been teaching for a long time.

Have a wealth of material to draw from and don't rely on what you have been given from your employer. And this applies as much to corporate work as it does to teaching young children.

Generally speaking - all the text books in the world and even those stale hand outs that you have copied from the internet are never enough to inspire/wake up your academic progeny.

These days, Thai ESL students have seen it all before and have had legions of odd looking foreigners traipsing through their lives with their strange ways of speaking and odd choices in foot wear.

My advice to new arrivals who have never been a teacher and having trained for it, is this...

1 - Know your stuff. (Pick up a book on the English language and study it.) You can't teach anything that you don't already know!

2 - Fly to Thailand and go straight to a language center like Inlingua. (There are loads of others to choose from.)

3 - Look at other teachers teaching. (Make notes of what you like about them... and what you don't like.)

4 - After a few months start looking for a permanent job and CHOOSE YOUR EMPLOYER CAREFULLY.

Mark

I have been online teaching for some months now. Online teaching is life changing as there are so many advantages to doing it.

1) At home with your family (not away in another area teaching and something goes wrong at home and you can't do anything about until you get home on the week end)
2) NOT having to put up with morning and afternoon traffic dodging chickens, old people on bikes and people driving up the wrong side of the road motorcycles/vehicles.
3) Not having to put up with the outside weather conditions especially the rainy season. That season is the worst to drive around in. Winter for me is the second worst season to drive in especially if your on a motorcycle.
4) Forget about lesson plans, mid and final term tests, huge amounts of down time lost (student activity days) and putting up with the daily b.s. that happens with-in the education system.
5) Actually enjoy teaching; on line teaching is extremely fun to do and I actually really enjoy teaching now. ( I became quite frustrated with the current /long standing education system)

Living in the north I have been able to achieve my initial goal of obtaining a standard monthly Thai income. As you are probably aware the north's wages are fairly low 20000, 25000, 27/28000 to 30-35 0000 (only some schools). 25000 a month seems to be the standard wage. This goal has been achieved via one on line teaching web site so if you live in the north and on the average wage. it is very feasible.

My second goal is to achieve around 30-40000 a month but utilizing two on line teaching websites. This I feel is achievable as I am currently on line teaching part time and do have a number of extra hours that I can utilize during the week.

The way I see it is I am gaining overseas income (Japanese yen for now) and perhaps US dollars at a later date. I am NOT making any Thai baht at all. Therefore I am not officially being paid by a Thai school/language school/company. If I do make more money than the Thai tax free threshold this is usually cancelled out being married to a Thai. I am utilizing my time wisely at home and with my family. I am just on the internet enjoying my pass time/interest.

Recently Paypal has put a 21 day holding policy on any funds received as a payment. This can be a huge blow to a lot of people. I got my monthly income recently with a hold of 21 days initially. I called Paypal and really explained what the account was mainly used for Premier (tutoring/on line purchases). i told them that I am NOT in business and I am NOT a seller. They released my funds quickly. I was also told by Paypal to inform them by e mail when a payment is received before a click on accept payment then the funds will be released quickly.

I am now looking forward to achieving my second goal as mentioned earlier.

Online teaching does change your life.

Ken

I've been teaching online as a hobby and a part time job for the last three years. I've been using an online learning portal that helps teachers find students and vice versa.

The website takes a cut from my fees but that's fine with me as there are hundreds of students on the site. At one stage I had to temporarily shut down my profile as I had too many students! Now I only have one student as I am teaching full time in a school in Bangkok.

It's a useful hobby or part time gig to get some pocket money. Its difficult to do it full time as the students come and go. They also often don't show up which is frustrating as maybe you've cancelled something to remain at home.

Overall it's been a great experience for me. I've taught students from Brazil, Russia, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, Spain, Hungary, France, Czech Republic, Saudi Arabia, Libya and there's probably a lot more. I taught them all from the comfort of my own room..I taught conversation English, Business English and Examinations English.(IELTS.KET,PET...)..

It's been great but it lacks security as a full-time job - especially if you have a family to support.

Jim

Today I learned how to write "I miss you" in Thai: ผม คิดถึง คุณ

ผม (pohm) = I
คิดถึง (kit-teung) = miss
คุณ (khoon) = you

The grammar and syntax are identical, but there's something really interesting happening with the Thai verb, คิดถึง (kit-teung), that sets it apart from the English verb, "to miss."

Unlike verbs in English, many verbs in Thai are what you might call compound verbs. คิดถึง (kit-teung) is no exception. It is a combination of two distinct verbs: คิด (kit) is the Thai equivalent of the English verb "to think" while ถึง (teung) is that of the verb "to reach."

The English verb "to miss" comes from the Old English verb "missan" meaning "fail to hit", which comes from the Old Norse verb "missa" meaning "to lack", which in turn comes from the Proto-Germanic verb "missjan" meaning "to go wrong."

In other words, the common English expression "I miss you" basically boils down to "I am trying to connect with you, but I cannot because you are not here." Just like throwing things at a target and missing every time because the target is nowhere to be found.

The Thai expression ผมคิดถึงคุณ (pohm kit-teung khoon), however, literally means "I reach you by thinking about you."

In English, the connection is lost because thinking cannot bridge the distance between you and the person you "miss."

In Thai, the connection is not lost because thinking bridges that very same distance.

So when your Thai significant other asks you, "Do you miss me?" (in English) less than five minutes after saying goodbye to you in person and you think, "That's impossible! I just saw you," what they really mean is, "Are you thinking about me?"

Ray

The recent letter concerning the university letter for a teacher's license is not new. It is being reinforced. When I came to Thailand in 2005 I was working in another country and was told by my headmaster to get a letter for my own records in case I lost my transcripts etc...for verification

I went to see my family in the US and luckily I got my transcripts and letter of graduation verification to go with my degree certificate. When I got to Thailand I had one bag stolen. It was a laptop case that I used to carry my papers in (no laptop). In it was my letter and transcripts but not my degrees which I kept with my passport.

Long story short. At my first job to get a permit to teach and not a license I was asked for a letter from the university. I emailed them and told them where I was and the address of the school. In two weeks I received my letter and went to the permit office and it took 30 minutes. I had a permit.

In 2010, I got my teacher's license and all it took was my school sending in the letter and my BS Ed degree. It took 2 months total. I have now renewed my license again and all is well.

So for you that worry, don't! Just email your university to send your letter to the school you are at or wherever and it should take about two weeks. I didn't have to pay a fee for it even though they sent the transcripts and the post fee. If you are a registered teacher your information is online at the country or state licensed teachers section in the Dept. of Education section website. Easy stuff so don't worry. It is just how things work.

Licensed Teacher