Tazza's Thailand Tales's blog on Ajarn.com
The Thai culture course
How to scam, exploit and demoralise foreign teachers
Day one of the course began with the typical smiles and greetings. The venue laid on a nice little breakfast pack for each of us and well wishers waited at the doors to greet us with: "Hello, thank you for coming!". (Like we had a f***ing choice!)
Copland
Joining the Thai tourist police
So with a 5am alarm call, I set off to Sukhumvit soi 5, wondering what I would learn from the boys in brown. The hotel venue itself was very decent, if nothing special. I was ushered into a large conference hall and presented with an information pack.
Notes on a semester
What can you do when teaching starts to get you down?
How can I or any teacher that feels he's underachieving turn things around? I doubt there is any magic formula, but I've come up with a few ideas. Many of them are blindingly obvious but it's often the easy points we miss during difficult classes.
May I help you sir?
A sad tale of Thai customer service
About two months ago, I decided to treat myself to a new Xbox360 games system. After checking a few stores, I decided to purchase my system from a shop inside The Mall Bang Khae. The name is PS BOX , you might want to make a note of that name and avoid the shop (read on!).
A very bad day indeed
Today was one of the most unpleasant in my four years plus of teaching
My problem was discipline. You see, I've been teaching for over four years and until today I had only received two complaints.
The battle is finally over
And there were no winners
Restrictions on freedom of speech are simply a form a thought control and involve a huge amount of power. Thailand must accept that if it wants to be a fore - player in the modern world, it must at least accept that other nations allow freedom of speech.
Meds! meds! meds!
The medical situation in Thailand
Thailand has a wide range of excellent private and international hospitals. The buildings and equipment are far better than your average English state hospital affair. The cost is usually great value and well covered by most insurance policies. Doctors are often educated abroad and speak good English.
Why don't you just go home?
Problems with living in Thailand
Don't get me wrong. I'm prone to the odd gripe myself. I do get exasperated when apparently easy tasks at work are made difficult by the traditional Thai "assume somebody else will tell them the meeting is cancelled" attitude.
Fun with language
Next time you want to make a Thai smile, just mutter a few words
What is true is that most Thais consider their language very difficult to learn. Thais from all walks of life will often give a genuine compliment or note of approval to any foreigner who can muster up any sentence beyond "sawdee khrap" , "arowy" or "tho rai?".
