I would like to add to the discrimination argument concerning ads asking for ‘white teachers only’ by asking why there are quite a number of schools asking for female teachers only? I am looking for a decent gig up in Chiang Mai and was put off recently by a few ads asking for females only. If these are genuine female-only schools with strictly female staff (or convents) then I can accept this but I read somewhere else on this website that recruiters are wary of single farang males looking to settle in Thailand. The given reason for being suspicious is that there is a universally held view that male teachers are in the Land of Smiles for the boozing and whoring. I know many guys are here for exactly these reasons – but not everyone. Is it lawful for recruiters to discriminate in this way and does this breach the same act that prevents recruiters asking for whites only? The ads I’m referring to don’t go into any reasonable detail as to why the fairer sex is sought but I feel like calling a few and asking why!

Ajarn.com - Paul, I think you'll find many kindergarten schools or those involved in the teaching of young children would rather employ a female teacher than a male teacher nowadays. I don't think we need to go into detail - we all know why. It has nothing to do with 'boozing and whoring'. There are some fine male childrens teachers around but females just present far less of a risk. End of story.

Paul Watson

In response to the "Blatant Racism" letter (Ajarn Postbox 31st July 2012), I feel this is more a selection process than racism. Every employer has an idea of how their ideal candidate should be, and if this includes race, gender, age etc, why not include it in the ad? In so-called developed countries, the pampering of every little minority group has gone too far, forcing employers to accept applications and interview people who are not their ideal candidates. This wastes a lot of time and resources on both sides. Personally, I prefer job ads to be as specific as possible. I don't want to waste my time applying for jobs when I have no chance of getting the job because I'm the wrong sex, too old, too young or of the wrong nationality.

It's the employer who pays the salary at the end of the month, so shouldn't they be allowed to specify who they want? Even agencies have to supply employees according to the schools' needs. Why do people feel so aggrieved so easily? Women are upset if a man is specified and vice-versa. Elder people are annoyed if an age limit is set. Just accept it is in your own best interests and save your time and energy by not applying for jobs if you are not what the employer wants!

Del

Dear Phil
It appears that racial discrimination in advertising is alive and well in Thailand.I was appalled to see an advertisement on Ajarn.com which unashamedly advertised for Canadian, U.S.A, Nz, Australian, British, Irish and WHITE south African teachers. the requirement for all advertised positions was native speaker + Caucasian (spelt 'corcasion' in the Ad.) I am quite certain that such advertising is in breach of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights of which Thailand is a signatory. I am considering making a formal complaint in this regard.

Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Requiring Native Speakers is one thing however stipulating "whites only" is another thing altogether. It is reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa.

This is not mant as a criticism of Ajarn.com, however I do believe that the site has an obligation not to accept advertising that is racially biased. As an aside, apart from the racist overtones, the grammar and spelling in the ad is absolutely appalling. Sadly, while teacher recruitment agencies are allowed to continue in this vein, Thai education will continue to fall apart at the seams.

Yours faithfully

Robert J Holmes
BA Dip Ed LLb LLM

Phil from ajarn.com replies
Hi Robert. Many thanks for bringing the job ad to my attention. Yes, it is racist. Yes, I am every bit as appalled as you are. And yes, job ads like this have no place on the ajarn website. The simple fact is that I missed it. I quickly check the content of every job ad before I post them but obviously I skimmed through this particular job ad a little too quickly this time around.

Thankfully, there are only a handful - literally a handful of job advertisers who I have to pull up for posting job ads stating that they are looking to recruit 'white teachers only'. But of course it's still a handful too many. My normal modus operandi is to then actually call the advertiser on the phone and try to shame them in some way. What's unbelievable in most cases is that although the advertiser is genuinely ashamed and promises it won't happen again, there are still those who think to put 'white teachers only' in a job ad is still perfectably acceptable in this day and age. What's even more unbelievable is that these people are involved in education. One of the most common 'excuses' I hear from teacher placement agencies is "but the school has insisted that I supply them with a white teacher" I then have to explain to the advertiser that we are living in 2012, etc.

Anyway, the main point I wanted to make is that I do check job ads for this kind of blatant racism. But I missed this one unfortunately. Bad spelling and grammar in job ads? That's something completely different. Even though I think it reflects badly on the advertiser and their institute, few non-native English speaking advertisers really seem to care. I've suggested to many non-native English speaking advertisers that they should get a native English speaker to compile and proofread their ads but nothing changes in most cases. You can lead a horse to water.............

Robert

Dear Prospective Bangkok Employer:

I'm a 53-year old American expat with a BA in journalism, a 120-hour TESOL certificate, a 40-hour TEFL certificate, and a 30-hour IELTS training certificate, a weekend short course of IELTS speaking examiner training with the British Council, and 10 years of teaching experience in four countries – South Korea, China, Vietnam, and Thailand. In short, I’m a garden-variety, good-for-nothing, dime-a-dozen underachieving drifter seeking a cushy college gig teaching 16 45-minute classes a week with no office hours and a rent-free 90 sq.m apartment for around $900US a month after taxes.

In my last two positions, I wasted my time and my life of quiet TEFL desperation at an all-girl’s government school off the Hua Lamphong BTS station sweating direly in dreary and dilapidated non-air-conditioned classrooms beneath depressing rows of old, broken-down fans babysitting on average forty bored, clueless, and mediocre mathayom students who neither understood nor cared about the value of learning English as a foreign language.

My starting and ending salary, which amounted to and equaled one month of employment before I quit post haste, was 36,000 baht. For this salary I was required to pay a 20 baht round-trip to ride a motorcycle five minutes to an MRT station and a 74 baht round-trip to ride the train 40 minutes, then walk 20 minutes to school and teach 19 classes a week plus one English Club a month.

The textbooks and curriculum, designed by a big Bangkok teacher-placement agency, were absurd at worst and mediocre at best, and getting students to follow the lessons and write in their workbooks, much less to understand the inconsistently graded and poorly conceived material, was like trying to get a romper room of cheeky monkeys to focus on drying whiteboard ink.

My three foreign colleagues were equally dispensable flunkies with varying levels of experience in the TEFL trenches, but all were seemingly stuck in the rut of going through the motions of pretending to be teachers for the sake of a paycheck. Despite their outward ability to show up and punch in they were, like so many other government school babysitters in the Land of Smiles, secretly trudging and frowning upon their lowly positions with dislike and disappointment while riding it out for the semester break.

My other job was at a training institute in Bangkok, where I was paid 500 baht an hour to teach teens and kids an extra 8 hours per week. The students were fine, and the school was adequately run and the work fairly enjoyable, but the commute, which included more MRT and BTS fares and considerable traveling and walking time between schools and stations, was too burdensome and unproductive in my book.

So, I’m heading back to China and that job I was seeking. I may be a slacker but it sure beats banging my head against the wall in Bangkok, any day of the week.

Mel

Regarding two recent posts in the Ajarn Postbox, 'Thailand So Far Behind' (by Mr. Russell, 29th June 2012) and 'Keeping Foreign Teachers' (by Paul, 3rd July 2012), I concur that Thais are very rude to us for saying 'farang' and 'Hey you!'. After 10 years teaching here, it gets under my skin, too, and makes me question why the rich Thai culture hasn't really learned to treat non-Thais with respect and politeness. The two aforementioned articles talk about some situations that occur due to the MoE's inability to implement a practical English program and to treat foreigner teachers properly.

It's my opinion that the MoE must move away from the policy of 'English for everyone.' Of course, this idea conflicts with Thai culture in which everyone must do, wear, and say exactly the same things. With all the seminars that Thai administrators and teachers attend, it's beyond me why they still don't understand language acquisition. Receiving one or two periods of English per week doesn't amount to much with regards to mastering vocabulary and language structures. Very little information will be transferred from short-term to long-term memory. The best classes (every school has them) with the hardest working and most appreciative students should receive multiple periods per week to have successful language acquisition.

Outside of MEP and EP programs, why are government schools fixated on NES teachers doing so much conversation? From what I understand, the English section of the university exams covers reading, comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar. No speaking, no writing, no listening, all multiple choice. The first rule of testing is 'test what you teach.' I'm not saying that conversation isn't important or that conversation should be eliminated. I'm saying the focus should be on making Thai students better readers if you're going to test them in M6 on reading, comprehension, and vocabulary. But also include conversation and grammar. Good teachers know how to integrate these skill areas.

In a nutshell, the ineffectiveness of the Thai education system is rooted in an archaic (but proud) system of (a) image over substance, (b) top-down management, (c) 'mai pen rai', (d) xenophobia, and (e) 'losing face', and (f) the lack of any accountability, reliability, and dependability. The MoE keeps putting plasters/bandages, like naming 500 World Class Schools (Was there any improvement? Again, image over substance.), on a huge open wound that needs immediate surgery or the possible amputation of a limb.

Ajarn Jim

How will Thailand prevent their slide towards last place in the ASEAN economic community when they can't keep foreign teachers? The Government in Bangkok make the request, but many educators can't seem to accept the help that they are given. My recent experience in government schools demonstrates that old-fashion ideas are more important to the older generation than in teaching the children.

I was an English teacher at an elementary school in isaan until the school decided that my supervisor's image was more important than the education of the children at the school. Instead of teaching the children full-time as informed, I was taken around as the token white teacher to seminars to teach English to Thai teachers, but really as an object to improve my supervisor's image. I was told that I would get a certain amount of money for these events, though I received less.

I was always told about these seminars at the last minute and never told what would be discussed. I was offen abused verbally by my supervisor, her calling me "YOU! Do this!", even though she knows my name. While reading something to the group of teachers, my supervisor would suddenly pull away the material if I was not speaking English to her liking. It must have been silly of me to think that my being born, raised and educated in the USA to the point of earning a Bachelor's degree was enough to say that I know something of English. The end came when the director of the school said that it was better I go rather than a polite resolution between my supervisor and I be attempted. So much for an interest in the wellfare of the students.

If this Thai educator (and many others exist) knows so much about English, why is the government in Bangkok spending millions of Baht for foreign teachers? I guess that supporting older people's egos is more important than children learning English and improving their lives. We can't have that happen in Thailand!

Paul

Several months ago, I wrote a comment on one of the article sections of the ajarn website, Just to refresh your memory, these were the comments. If you have problems with some students, it’s best you don’t bring them to the attention of the head of the section the students come under. Because, in almost all cases, you will be seen: a) as a nuisance and a nitpicker, b) you will be seen as inefficient, c) you have problems with Thai students, Thai attitudes and Thai ways, d) you will never be told that the real reason is that the head simply wants to enjoy the nice bits of his/her status and never wants to stick her fingers in the mud. The best way, if you want to survive and not be ‘a trouble-maker’ is somehow deal with the problems yourself. This way you can hope to prolong your tenure.

Ok now for an update. I did commit the mistake of bringing some first year students' problems to the attention of the head of the section last year. By September, after four and half year at this university, despite 'an excellent record of work' as per the Dean; my contract was renewed for just six months - even though the Dean assured me that the contract would be renewed after March 2012, I started looking for other jobs from October 2011. This is how it went;

Employer 1 : Called in person. Completed application form. Was asked to complete a self- profile with education and employment history and achievements to date. Profile with originals of academic, professional certificates and courses attended etc submitted within two weeks. Following many telephone requests, was invited for an interview in March this year. Only one panelist was present as the other three were 'away on urgent matters'. The panelist wanted me to attend the second interview the following week. I turned up at the second interview and I noticed another candidate. He had just arrived from a faraway town, wearing shorts and a tee shirt and carrying a back-pack. He said he was an American school teacher. He got the job.

Employer 2 : This was a local Catholic school. I was selected at the interview but contrary to what I was told before, they were prepared to offer only 15,000 baht per month as I did not have a 'European' appearance' My citizenship in the UK, where I have lived for 38 years gaining all my qualifications/experience. were irrelevant in the eyes of this employer. Teachers of European nationality and appearance were paid 30,000 baht a month.

Employer 3: Got called for an interview at a local girls' school. The female Head of English was pleased with me at the conclusion of the interview and said that she would let me know the outcome in three days. She also said that there were three vacancies and that there were no other applicants as yet. Nothing was heard after the three days. Upon inquiry, I was told that all the vacancies were filled. The school was closed during the previous three days.

Employer 4: Went for the interview at a large private school in the area. Interview lasted for 30 minutes. Many questions, many answers. No news of the outcome for a week. When I telephoned, I was told that they were only interested in teachers no older than 40 years of age.

My contract at the university where I worked was not renewed in March. I have given up all hopes of securing a teaching job in Thailand now and will be returning to the UK soon.

Sir Heath

I was thinking of finding myself a teaching job in Thailand. However, after a lot of searching, interviews and demo lessons, I gave up because:
Schools don't hire teachers anymore - only the agencies do that.
Some schools have the nerve to ask for some kind of guarantee in case the teacher destroys materials.
Schools either don't seem to provide accommodation or have no idea where teachers can get it.
Not even the Thai English teachers can speak English or at least understand it - so in a Thai school, you are on your own.
All the schools expect the teacher to be some kind of buffoon, a clown, and to entertain the students, not to teach them.
Agencies will very often lie about the salary, accommodation, working hours and school location. Sometimes everything seems to be cloaked in mystery.
Agencies will sometimes tell the teachers to lie about their qualifications, nationality, etc in order to get them employed. It just isn't in my nature to do this.
The nationality matters more than the teaching experience.
The teaching experience matters more than the teaching skills.
The teaching experience matters more than the English language knowledge.

George

You missed out a fourth option Jack ("We all have choices" Postbox 25th May) and that is to leave Thailand, work elsewhere and come back for holidays. Welcome to China where education is taken seriously, teaching is an average of 15 to 20 (45 minute periods) per week and when all the free stuff such as accommodation, electric, food . . . is thrown in, it's easily worth the equivalent of 60k+ baht a month. No ‘extra activities’, ‘forced’ attendance in summer camps or ‘compulsory’ sports days. The atmosphere is usually serious but friendly and older teachers are rather more welcome than 21-year old blond/e haired ‘backpackers’.

I do still look on Thailand as my ‘home’ and have a wife and house there, so my post is not sour grapes against the country itself but rather at the reality of what’s going on. The ‘happy, happy’ teaching methodology, the exam cheating, the corruption, the influx of unemployed people replacing the tourists . . . . . a developing country that relied on tourism is now wondering where all the money has gone! In less than eight months, despite normal everyday expenses, I have saved 170k baht to bring back to Thailand in the summer holidays, something that was impossible when I worked there.

That’s why the salaries are dropping and teachers are leaving at an alarming rate; money and in many cases the horrendous working conditions. China welcomes teachers and experience with open arms, as does Vietnam and South Korea. Teachers are now leaving Thailand and if tourism doesn’t come back soon, (unlikely given the deep recession the west is in), Thailand will once again sink back into oblivion and its third world status.

James

Yes, ESL job wages are pretty crappy and the salaries are lower here (considering inflation) than they were 10 to 15 years ago. So what? I see you have today, same as in the past, three options.

1. Bitch about it and be miserable (and maybe unemployed)
2. Accept it and enjoy English teaching for what it offers despite the low pay
3. Change careers

It didn’t take me long when first coming to LOS and finding an English teaching job to realize there wasn’t any future from a financial perspective in teaching English. I am glad I chose option three without much delay. I can understand the frustration, but you make your own choice and blaming ‘Thailand’ or some unspecific ‘they’ for your situation is unlikely to help you to any extent.

By the way, bitching about salaries is universal and has little to do with teaching English in Thailand in 2012. The market decides teachers’ salaries, not bitching and moaning. You can’t change your past choices, but you do control your future. Which of the three options will you now choose? Choose wisely!

Jack