As an Asian American who has been back to visit Thailand several times, I’ve noticed many changes over the years. Like any big city there is always construction and building work going on. What I definitely like is the Bangkok Mass Transit System (or BTS). I think that part made it so much easier to travel around particularly in the Siam area. However, there are also some negative things: the growing traffic and the recent political unrest to name a few. With the recent recession and bad economic news from around the world, let’s think about a positive change for Bangkok. I think it would be nice to do a B2K. What’s that? I’m suggesting that Bangkok changes its name to Krungthep. This will have many benefits. Thais already call their capital Krungthep. Bangkok is an old name. It’s like calling Thailand, Siam. People understand it, but it sounds more updated saying Krupthep rather than Bangkok. Krungthep sounds much better than Bangkok. In Thai, Krungthep means the city of angels, where as Bangkok translates roughly to fruit grove.

Bangkok also has negative connotations associated with it. In English, unfortunately it can be easily connected to sex, especially if the second syllable is stressed. The name change should help the city move away from the emphasis on what many male tourists come for, and make the city sound more family-oriented. The cost will be many million baths to make the change, but I believe it will be worth it. Also, it has been done before. China changed its capital name from Peking to Beijing. India changed its capital name from Bombay to Mumbai. I’m curious to hear the thoughts of my fellow teachers on this subject. I think it’s a good thing if we make this change. But, feel free to disagree!

Mike Thompson

I also investigated the possibility of getting severance pay as a previous employer did not renew my contract after three years of service. Unfortunately, as the contract expires every year, I was not entitled to severance pay as my employment wasn't terminated. I, like most teachers, do not have a rolling contract. I went to the department of labour in Lamphun who told me that because the school didn't actually terminate my employment during contract I did not qualify. This is why schools don't give two year or rolling contracts. In addition, the schools can also increase the hours that you work each year without increasing your salary. Why does the expression "white slave trade" come to mind?

So, if you sign a new contract for a second year with an increase in hours and then you do the absolute minimum of work possible to compensate, they school won't sack you because they would rather keep you as a loafer than pay you for not being there. The moral of the story is: if you are in a job/school that you don't like and find it impossible to leave/get another job at the end of the contract, then sign for another year and do as little as you like. Either way, you'll get paid for doing nothing.

Mr John

Fill a room with adults and ask them how many read or write poetry. My guess is that on a good day about half would raise their hands (most likely out of an affectation or because they flat-out misheard the question). The other half, the ones who didn’t raise their hands, would be English teachers.

I know teachers are busy in ways that other professionals and trades people are not. If you care about teaching, and most teachers do, the first thing you think about when you wake up is teaching for the coming day. Simply put, we are too busy to do anything else but teach. Yet, there’s something bogus about teaching language or literature 20 periods a week and never connecting with your subject matter out of the classroom.

There are, of course, reasons for this. If we teach ESL, we force the language down to its simplest building blocks. When we do this, however, density of thought is also stripped away, and we encourage students not to think but to do. And after years of teaching this transactional English inside the classroom, we become what we teach outside of the classroom.

As a result when teachers do write they consciously marshal facts and data to argue an issue. There is a foe or object in front of them they want to destroy or move to their side. There may be some craft in these efforts, but rarely is there any art or ambiguity. The writing is transactional and purposeful, but it is little more than moving pieces around on a game board. No shred of the writer and his cast of mind can be found. The best measure of this (often) claptrap prose is how odd we find poetry and poets. Poets either produce dreck or live on the edge of some deviancy. Teachers are more likely to experiment with body piercing than to experiment with poetry.

Teachers learn early on to be circumspect in their everyday lives. Politicians, police, truck divers and housewives can do or say things outside of the classroom that would get us fired if we did the same and it got back to the administration or a parent. And as it is usually a coworker that passes this information on under the pretext of protecting the school, we become timid in the classroom, too. We are trained to avoid risk. Trust no one is our mantra. Over time we no longer even trust ourselves, and without confidence in ourselves, we have nothing to say as writers. The curriculum we teach runs on tracks year to year, and we lose all zest for our subject matter. If someone asks what subject we teach, we say, “Children, I teach children.”

Since Sputnik, the urgency for scientific methodology has squeezed out the abstract and installed the concrete. We believe that selecting multiple choice correct answers among distractors that are only a whisker away in meaning is evidence of intelligence. We teach the myopic and eschew the universal.

Art on the other hand searches for the universal in a grain of sand. It is the dark matter that holds education from flying apart, but because it is not a group-paced activity it has no place in the curriculum. A writer once said, “the essence of all art is the frame,” and our educational system has lost its frame.

I know that teachers can write. Why they don’t is more an indictment of the educational system than professional ineptitude.

Years ago, I taught the argumentative essay to freshman college students. This was a pass/fail course which required writing a five-paragraph essay at the end of the course within an hour-and-a-half time frame. I decided to try and take the test myself, something I doubt few other teachers ever did. Of course I was using a computer, and there really wasn’t any pressure on me. When I looked up, I was fifteen minutes past the finish time. I wrote a great essay, but I would have failed the subject I was teaching.

I realize that there is an appropriate time for a resignation letter. However, in a situation where you have not been offered a new yearly contract and you did not violate your contract in terms of paper work or duties and nobody is telling you anything then the Thai Administration's seemingly harmless sign this resignation letter document is not in your best interest because they will not have to pay you anything regarding severance pay.

Rights and duties of employers and employees under the new Labour Protection Act B.E.2541 http://www.thailabour.org/law/thai/code.html

Severance Pay

An employer shall pay severance pay to an employee whose employment is terminated, as follows:
An employee who has worked for at least 120 consecutive days, but for less than one year shall be paid basic pay for 30 days at the most recent rate of basic pay received by him.
An employee who has worked continuously for at least one year but less than three years shall be paid basic pay for 90 days at the most recent rate of basic pay received by him.
An employee who has worked consecutively for three years but less than six years shall be paid basic pay for 180 days at the most recent rate of his basic pay.
An employee who has worked consecutively for at least six years but less than 10 years shall be paid basic pay for not less than 240 days at the most recent rate of his basic pay.
An employee who has worked for more than 10 years consecutively shall be paid basic pay for not less than 300 days at the most recent rate of his basic pay.

An employer is not required to pay severance pay to an employee whose employment has been terminated for any of the following reasons:

Resignation
Dishonest performance of his duties or the intentional commission of a criminal act against the employer;
Intentionally causing loss to the employer;
Performance of gross negligence which result in severe loss to the employer;
Violation of the employer's work rules or regulations or order which are both lawful and equitable when the employer has already issued the employee with a prior written warning, except in a serious instance when the employer is not required to give a warning.
The written warning shall be effective for a period of one year as from the date of the commission of the violation by the employee;
Neglect of his duties for a period of three consecutive work days without reasonable cause, whether or not a holiday intervenes;
Imprisonment by reason of a final judgment.

An employment contract shall be terminated when the specified period in the employment contract expires, the works related are as follows:
8.1 Employment on a special project, which is not in the normal way of business or trade of the employer, where there is a fixed schedule for commencement and completion of work.
8.2 Work of a temporary nature with a fixed schedule for its commencement or completion.
8.3 Seasonal work in respect of which employees are only engaged during that season; provided that the work most be completed within a period of two years and the employer and employee have entered into a written agreement at or prior to the commencement of employment.

Hello to all. I am from the U.S. and have been living and teaching in Asia for the past five years, four of those in Thailand. I absolutely love teaching Asian students, and my goal is to try and set an example with them, helping them to learn to think for themselves and enjoy the learning process as they grow.

While living in the U.S., I had a series of high stress jobs spanning over several years. My last job in the U.S. was a state job. I worked for the local corrections department at a medium security facility in our state and believe me; I definitely looked forward to my vacation time. All my vacations were spent in Asia. I traveled to the Philippines, China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Japan mostly. For me anyway, Asia just seemed to get under my skin and I looked forward to each vacation period in which to return. It wasn’t until my last trip to Beijing in 2002 that I learned about ESL teaching when a young Chinese woman approached me while I was sitting on a park bench near my hotel reading the China Daily newspaper, and asked me if I spoke English.

“Yes, I do,” I replied.
“May I sit with you and practice my English?” she asked.
“Of course!”

It turned out she was worried about losing her ability to speak English since she had just returned from Ankara, Turkey where her husband was working for a large corporation. She told me that in the circles she frequented while living in Turkey, everyone spoke English and now that she had returned to Beijing, she was finding it troublesome to find anyone with which to practice her English so she had joined a night course, but said she found it too basic. Her English was exceptional, and our conversation was delightful, going on for almost two hours. Before she had to leave, she asked me, “Do you like Beijing?”

“I love it!” a very truthful statement at the time.

“Then you should come here to live and teach,” she commented. I laughed and told her I was the farthest thing from a schoolteacher, but she persisted, telling me of numerous openings at local universities, primary and secondary schools and private schools.

Then suddenly she looked at her watch, turned to me and asked, “Do you have time for me to show you something?”
“Sure,” I said, and then she got up and motioned for me to follow her.

Her nickname was Jo, and as we were walking Jo told me that almost every university in Beijing had an English department and were always hiring foreign professionals to teach different subjects in English.
“But, I’m not a teacher!” I emphatically told her. “I am a parole officer, a person who looks after criminals! I teach, but surely not what your people are interested in learning!”

Jo shook her head and waved me off, leading me to whatever she had in store for me, which turned out to be a nearby university. We entered the university and I was quite impressed with the cleanliness of the place and the beautiful architecture. Once inside she led me to a huge billboard full of announcements and other articles, quite naturally most in Mandarin, but with a small section in the right upper corner devoted to want ads for foreign teachers in English.

The requirements were fairly simple and straightforward. You had to be from a country such as the U.S., Canada, England, Australia, etc., and you had to have at least a bachelor’s degree in any field. TELF, CELTA, TESOL certificates were not necessary, but surely were a plus, and you did not have to have any prior teaching experience. The university provided you (free) with an apartment, free water and gas, air conditioning, a portable heater for the winter months, a T.V., CD/DVD player, cable T.V., a microwave, refrigerator, water boiler, washing machine, rice cooker, bed and bed clothing, wardrobe, iron and ironing board, living room furniture, desk, bureau, telephone (except for long-distance calls), and a LAN connection to the university computer network. But, you had to pay your own electricity bill…Awwwww!

Afterwards, Jo led me up several stairs and down two different corridors to meet somebody she knew. Luckily for us, he was in his office. We knocked and an American emerged, much to my surprise. Mr.
Dan, as he was introduced, was a very pleasant gentleman from the state of Virginia. We exchanged pleasantries and after a brief conversation, he got down to business and told me he left his “dead-end” job as a realtor in Portsmouth, to come teach in China. He told me he had “absolutely no experience” as a teacher of any kind, but had taken a TEFL course near his home, and sold everything to come and live and work in China.

Mr. Dan had lived and worked in China for ten years. At the time I met him, he was the head of the English department at the university, had a Chinese wife, a 2-year old son, and another child on the way. Before we left, Mr. Dan offered me this surprising, yet tiny little tidbit of advise should I decide to come to Asia to teach:

“Stay as far away from other foreigners as you can. They are like a plague. They’ll gossip about you, steal (ideas, teaching materials, money, plane tickets, train tickets, clothing, lesson plans, etc.) from you if they can, stab you in the back, blackmail you, lie on their mother’s grave, and generally make your life miserable, whereas Asian’s will usually treat you right.”

I left our little meeting with Mr. Dan feeling very odd that he would say something so blatant and terrible about other westerners.
Six years later, all I have to say is this: “MR. DAN WAS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!!!!”

After five full years of employment in Asia, I have ONE good friend who is a foreigner. He is from England, which doesn’t really mean anything, since I’ve met twenty-fold Brits who were flaming arseholes, but I can honestly say I choose my friends very carefully, and the majority I meet, I could diagnose with some form of DSM-V diagnosis or severe personality disorder.

Enough said

Mr Jeem

Coming from the United States, a country where antidepressants and antipsychotics are some of the fastest growing prescriptions, living with mental illness in Thailand can be quite a change. I myself take medication to treat the chronic depression I have lived with for as long as I can remember, and I wondered how the subject would be treated in Thailand. The first thing I discovered was that Thais don't seem to have a concept of depression. Try explaining constant overwhelming despair to someone who barely speaks any English, and you'll soon find how difficult it is. I would imagine that living with bipolar disorder would be even more difficult in Thailand. Many psychotropic medications are used in Thailand for people "with difficulty sleeping". Whether or not this is a euphemism used to save face is up for debate.

Finding your meds is another struggle. Unless you live in Bangkok or Chiang Mai, expect to have to order your drugs from Bangkok. When I first moved to Nakhon Si Thammarat, I went to every pharmacy I could find only to be told that they didn't have the drugs I needed and that they had never even heard of them. I eventually found a pharmacist who ordered my drugs for me. If you take medication for mental illness, make sure you come to Thailand with a nice big supply, because finding a source in Thailand can be a lengthy process. Don't wait until the last minute, lest you discover that the pharmacy needs to order the drug and it will take 1-2 weeks. Running out of a prescription you need in a foreign country is an unpleasant experience, to say the very least. In short, if you're planning on moving somewhere off the beaten path, finding a pharmacist that can help you should be one of the first things you do.

Ada Hodgman

The purpose of this message is to let readers know about a few changes both on the Thai side of the border as well as the Laos side.

1. When going to Laos, the fee for a visa on arrival is still the same - 1,500 Baht. Visitors must receive the application form at window number one.

2. Once the application is filled out, then go back to window 1, submit it and pay your fee of 1,500.00 Baht.

3. Wait by window 3 to receive your passport with a 30-day Laos visa inside. Note! The system is both new and better because when you receive your passport, you are now stamped into Laos and your 30 days is clicking away slowly. Before the introduction of this new system, you had to go to the check-in counter and have your passport and visa stamped.

4. Now your are ready to look for your ride into town to probably go to the Thai Embassy. Get into your private minivan or whatever for about 500.00 Baht and quickly get to the Thai embassy before 12:00 noon to submit your application, 2 photos, passport copies and fee of 1,000.00 Baht for 60-day tourist visa. Please remember at this point that time is everything. Forget the beers, women and looking for the cheapest room and go directly to the Thai embassy QUICKLY to submit everything.

5. I submitted my application that I downloaded from the Internet and filled out while still in Bangkok. I paid my 1,000.00 Baht fee and received my receipt and I was told to come back the following day (Tuesday 13:00-15:00 06/01/2009) to receive my passport and visa. A little change here because in the past you would be able to get your passport and visa the following working day 14:00-16:00 but now 13:00-15:00.

Overall it appears that the Thai embassy is trying to become a bit more farang-friendly They actually have a separate bathroom for men and women and they've even put a new Canon photo copier right near the windows where you submit your application. I think this is a long overdue but a welcome change.

Name withheld

When I was trying to look for an interesting topic to be discussed in my class the next day , I came across in the website of ajarn.com, surprisingly I saw there the section for Filipino teachers in Thailand. I got interested of their opinions and finally I have decided also to share my own thoughts and sentiments since I am also a teacher like them. I've been teaching for almost 12 years now. To tell you frankly, I am happy with my job because I am fulfilled of what I am doing. I am not after of the money that I can get for me, the most important thing is what I can impart and share to my students.

I'm often asked, "Che, what's your job?" I always reply," I am a teacher." The response I get generally comes in a wide range from an "Oh" to a "You've got to be kidding me." But one thing in common is the disgusted or horrified look on their faces.

If I had said I wanted to be a lawyer or a doctor, the response would have been more along the lines of "That is a great profession" accompanied by a handshake and good luck. I dread being asked the question because the response I get leaves me feeling ashamed of my chosen profession. Then, I think about it and realize I shouldn't be ashamed; teaching is a noble profession. As teachers, we are educating future generations, shaping young minds and lives. We are responsible for the welfare and education of the 100 or so kids who will walk into our classroom every day. We've got a chance to impact each and everyone of them. A teacher's motivation and encouragement is extremely valuable to a child; it can change the child's life. Just imagine the science teacher who could have convinced a student to go into the field of medicine where he or she may discover the cure for cancer. That's just one of many examples.

We should be commended for picking a career inspired by passion or love instead of monetary gain. You'll be hard-pressed to find a teacher who isn't in it for the money. I can't imagine most people, or any teacher for that matter, willing to wake up at 6 a.m. each day, get to school by 8 a.m., teach from 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. with barely a half-hour to eat lunch, stay another two hours after school to go to meetings or run after school programs, go to school or care for a family, spend three or more hours grading, and then an hour reviewing for the next day; doing all this,yet receiving minimal salary.

If you really think about it, a teacher's job is not much different from a doctor's or a lawyer's. All three require expertise in the area you're practicing extensively. All three have their students', patients' or clients' lives in their hands. All three are almost always working; when they're not physically on the job they're mentally on the job. Thus, it's only natural all three should be awarded the same respect.

Next time someone asks me what my job is and they make a face at my answer, I'll just turn to them and ask, "What's wrong to be a teacher? Remember teachers, we unmake or make our students. Keep on moving and God bless us all.

CMP

As a potential farang in Thailand, I have found your website most informative. I would now like to add my twopence worth.
Firstly, the debate about whether native English speakers make better teachers than non-native English speakers:-
I am, what the advertisements presumably hope is, a native English speaking South African. In South Africa we have 11 official languages: English, Afrikaans and 9, so-called, indigenous languages (the languages spoken by the 9 Black tribes in the country.) This does not take into consideration all those thousands of South Africans who are of Hindu, Tamil, Urdu, Dutch, Portuguese, Greek, Lebanese, Italian, German and French descent, and who probably regard themselves as native English speakers, although they still speak these languages in their homes. It is quite obvious therefore that the vast majority of South Africans are not English first-language speakers and that many will not have the language skills necessary to teach English here in South Africa, let alone anywhere else. So, how does one define a South African native English speaker, and how does one determine if he/she is fit to teach this most diffiucult language to others?

Secondly, the issue of having a qualification that says one can (supposedly) teach English to foreigners:-
Following on from the above, it is quite obvious that most South African English teachers will have taught English to second-language students at some stage in their careers, and that most South African teachers will have taught other subjects (in English) to second-language students. So why do we need TEFL or TESOL qualifications? We get enough experience right here in our own country!

Thirdly, the issue of the Thai Government's licensing requirements for foreign teachers:-
In South Africa (currently), the B.Education is a post-graduate qualification originally introduced (many years ago) to encourage people with Bachelor Degrees to teach (most teachers studied for the B.Ed.part-time while teaching.) Otherwise (currently), all high school teachers are required to have a Bachelor's Degree plus a Teacher's Diploma (4 years of study) and primary school teachers simply have a 3 year diploma. BUT, when I qualified, all we needed to be able to teach was a Bachelor's Degree with a teaching subject as a major, and on the strength of this, I taught for 4 years, before entering the field of librarianship. So where do I fit into the Thai scheme of things? I do not have a B.Ed. but I do have a degree in English, a post-graduate librarian's diploma and 4 years' teaching experience. I do not mind the concept of the Foreign Teachers Thai Culture Training Programme (if it is worthwhile), but I am not interested in spending another year and thousands of Baht on getting some qualification which will probably duplicate what I have already learned in my own country. According to the official I spoke to at the Royal Thai Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, the employers should be paying for these courses anyway, not the teachers.

Fourthly, the issue of "visa-runs":-
Again, the Royal Thai Ministry official told me that this is nonsense. As a South African, I purchase a Non-Imm.B.Visa here in SA, which I then renew (for a fee) after 3 months in Thailand, and Thai Immigration then gives me a 9-month extension. At no time do I have to leave the country on any cross-border visa runs. If I renew my contract for another year, I simply request another extension. So why are you ex-pats chasing visa renewals across the border?
He did warn me however, that private schools in Thailand must have a certain income to be able to employ foreign teachers otherwise these teachers are illegal. So it appears that teachers should ask to see balance sheets before accepting teaching posts.
Finally, are there any South Africans in Thailand who can share their experiences?

Marguerite Huson

I’m sympathetic to the problems AN’s school has recruiting teachers (North Eastern Woes, 7th August) but you have to be realistic. Hardly anyone wants to live in these remote parts of Thailand, and those that have a romantic notion about it soon discover that it’s not as wonderful as they first thought (they probably didn’t think it through in the first place).

AN suggests retaining 10% of the salary until the end of the contract. The first problem with that potty idea is that salaries aren’t high enough to live on if you deduct 10% every month. If the salary is over 40K then sure, but where do you get that much outside Bangkok? You’re having problems recruiting now and you want to make it even harder by telling candidates that they won’t get their money until next year. This brings me to my next point. I’ve hear of many horror stories about teachers who are expecting to get either a bonus, withheld salary or simply their final month’s salary only to be told to get lost as their contract won’t be renewed next semester and we’re not going to pay you your money. By the way we cancelled your work permit a week ago.

Sorry AN but this is just yet another way to screw the teacher. If I hear anything like what you suggest at an interview I’ll get up and walk out. I’d like to suggest to ajarn.com that schools advertising teaching positions state any subversive contract clauses to avoid wasting people’s time.

Mr John