The bureaucratic runaround

And all for the love of a good woman

With just over a month left in Thailand, having sold my motorbike and soon to be leaving my apartment, I met the new love of my life, which suddenly threw a spanner into the works. On our last day, we went to all our favourite places before sharing a tearful goodbye at the airport.

Where will the money go?

Postbox letter from Cliff

I retired from my job in the States last year and decided to spend my retirement here in Thailand, teaching Thai people to speak better English among other things. I knew beforehand it would be an uphill battle. I have spent 4 years of my life here, plus another 11 working at a Thai church near my home in the San Diego area, so I was well aware of the difficulties Thai people have with our language. In fact, most of the few Thai people I know who speak it fluently have a very heavy Thai accent.

Any truth in the rumors?

It's about time we analyzed what the bar-stool experts are saying

There seem to be a lot of rumors floating around these days about how the teacher licensing requirements set forth by The Teachers Council of Thailand have changed.

A time of change

How does teaching in Thailand now compare to twenty years ago?

For those of you pissing and moaning about visa runs, the immigration department, the work permit process, the unpredictability of the consulates in neighboring countries - let me tell you this - it was no better in the early 90s. In fact I'd say marginally worse.

2008 - A Year To Forget

Another year has gone by and unfortunately it hasn't been one to remember

Looking at the 2008 headlines, most Thai news was bad and gloomy. The political battle fought in Parliament as well as in the streets and the courts divided Thai society more than ever. Political foes, together with intolerant battering-ram organisations like the PAD (yellow shirts) and UDD (red shirts), made absolutely sure the country became even more polarised thanks to their respective hatred and reverence of ousted PM Thaksin.

Doing it yourself

What it takes to start your very own language school

For the first two years we actually lived in our school. This was tiring and annoying, but saved us a lot of money, obviously. Our monthly mortgage was only 6,600 baht, for which we got a house AND a school! The drawbacks to this sort of arrangement are that we had to pull out our bedrolls after the school was closed down

Good news for teachers

At last a glimmer of hope

The important news this month is that foreigners who wish to continue teaching in Thailand can now do so, even if they are not yet qualified. Read on.

News from the TCT

The latest in the ever changing world of teacher requirements

Thanks for stopping by this month, and reading my article. The last month has been a busy one for myself and many other teachers I have met. There have been many conferences hosted by The Ministry.

Regulations update

Some amendments to last month's article

All Teacher’s License applicants must have 1 year of teaching experience, prior to application. Several readers had emailed me that they heard that it was two years. I got the one year answer from The Teacher’s Council, just yesterday.

The new teacher licensing regulations

How the new rules will affect teachers

The first memo about these new regulations from The Ministry of Education and The Teachers Council of Thailand came out about 2 years ago. Until a few months ago, no mention of this has ever been made to me at either Immigration or The Labor Department. When I tried getting new visas and work permits for my teachers, (a few months ago) the Immigration officials told me that the teacher had to have their teachers license under the new regs before they could be issued a Non-Immigrant Visa.