Thailand - John
Teaching in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand
I
came to Chiang Mai just after the millennium celebrations. Before I left, I was
working in south London as a software developer and had had enough of the whole
9 to 5 job culture (it was more like 8 to 6 every day). Chiang Mai is
Thailand's second city, in the north of the country, about a ten-hour bus ride
from Bangkok. I had only planned to stay for a few months at the most and
hadn't considered teaching English. My sister was a teacher in England and from
what she told me, it really didn't seem like my kind of thing - lots of lesson
planning, low pay and not much respect from the students. Four years and five
months later, I'm still here and fully immersed in TEFL teaching.
The first class I
observed was at the language school I'm still teaching at now. I'd gone in just
to take a look around as I had decided to extend my stay and was unable to find
any computer work. They really needed teachers then, which was good for me as I
didn't have a TEFL qualification or any teaching experience. The class itself
was a typical one of the school, about 20 students, aged between 15 to 19 and
mostly female. I was amazed at how attentive and engaged in all the activities
the students were. This was due to a couple of key factors. Firstly, Thai
students love to play games and have fun in class, which is a stark contrast to
how they are taught in school – by listening and drilling whilst sat in the
same seat all class. Any teacher who can bring some entertainment into the
class will be well-liked. The second reason is that teachers have to grade the
students at the end of each six-week term and a student can fail, which means
they have to pay again to repeat the level. As most of the students are sent by
their parents to study, they don't want to let them or themselves down. This
also means that teachers hardly ever experience any discipline problems in
class and if they do, then a short talking to resolves the issue.
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One
of the hardest things was remembering the students' nicknames. They are usually
one syllable long and initially very amusing for new teachers. For example, a
class might have a Ping, a Pong, a Porn, a Ball, a Wow, a Wee, a Pee, a Pooh, a
Boy (who's a girl), an Apple, a Peach, a Nut, a Milk, a Beer, a Gay, a Thing, a
Cat, a Bird, a Tom, a Tik and maybe an Organ. It takes a bit of getting used to
and, as you can imagine, seating order can produce some interesting
combinations.
During
my first year in Thailand, I had to get my visa extended every month. This
involved a four hour bus ride up to the Burmese border and although something
of a drag, I used to make a weekend out of it by going with a couple of
colleagues and stopping off for a night in Chiang Rai on the way up. This
routine wasn't a problem until immigration started clamping down on people who
had a large collection of stamps in their passport. The language school offered
a working visa to anyone who signed a twelve-month contract, so that's what I
did. All I needed was a copy of my degree certificate and the school took care
of everything else – including the mountain of paperwork. Almost every school I
know of offers the same to any teacher willing to sign up for a year.
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One of the biggest attractions of the language
school I teach at are the working hours. I teach from 5 to 8.30 in the
evenings, Tuesday to Friday and 9 to 4 on Saturdays, which is more than enough
money to have a very comfortable life style. Teachers can expect to earn around
25,000 Baht a month (about 360 GBP) teaching part-time. On top of that, there
are numerous opportunities to teach private classes or find some extra hours at
another school. With so much free time during the day, I eventually decided to
do just that myself. I found a morning job teaching at a business college for
students aged between 13 and 18. I got the job without even stepping foot in
the building - the fact that I taught at the private language school was a good
enough reference for them. It felt like just a money making establishment
rather than a place of education. The fees were very low, but the class sizes
were very big – over 50 students per class – and their level of interest in
learning English was almost zero. Most students spent the class either on the
phone, reading comic books, putting on make-up or doing work for other
subjects. They weren't loud or disruptive; they just had no motivation to
study. I worked there for a year and taught about eight different classes of
students, all of which had pretty much the same enthusiasm about learning
English.
After leaving the business college, I took a
term off from the language school and went to do a TEFL in Bangkok. It wasn't a
necessity, more of an investment for the future should I want to work anywhere
else. I really enjoyed the four weeks on the course and it filled in a lot of
gaps in my teaching and gave me a better understanding of what I should be
trying to achieve and how to achieve it in each class.
Armed with my TEFL, I decided to try one of
Chiang Mai's universities. I was offered a job, and started teaching four
mornings a week (along with the work I was doing at the language school). I'm
still teaching there now and really enjoying it. The Thai staff in the English
Department are great to work with. They are very keen to develop the various
courses taught and are well aware of the need to move away from
teacher-centered to student-oriented learning. The students themselves are
great fun to teach and they really appreciate any fun activities that give them
a break from their heavy workload.
My students often ask me why I live in
Thailand, as do most of my friends back home whenever I talk to them. There are
numerous reasons; most of which were things I wasn't happy with when working
and living in England. Here in Chiang Mai, I have a job that I really enjoy and
find very rewarding. Unlike working in London, I never wake up dreading going
to work (unless I've been up until 3am watching an English Premiership football
match which, unlike in England, are shown live on TV here). What's more, I have
enough free time to be able to enjoy the money I earn and all the recreational
pursuits that I followed back in England.
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