Teaching opportunities

Take off the tinfoil hat, barry.

As usual, you're wrong again.

Thank you Texpat...funny stuff!!

To timthebrit, I say you are correct sir...Firfox would be best served listening to the advice and guidance of experience. I am not an experienced English Teacher. Nor am I a fool.

Experienced or not, "spontaneity" does not give us license to be free of the constraints of English Grammar. Furthermore, I would expect flawless English from a "spontaneous" experienced English Teacher...or any educated man for that matter.

And again...it appears to me that "spontaneity" had little to do with Firfox's original question. He strikes me as serious and to suggest that we simply swagger around drunk in a sea of "spontaneity" and bickering....well, I would rather move on. I am just as anxious as Firfox to engage sober men on this site or any other, where accurate, well thought out, and well written answers, comments, and dialog can be found.

Finally Barry, lest you noodle yourself away, though I have been to Nong Kai, I assure you I am gimp-free.

Note: This post did NOT take me all day....only most of the day!

Heartfelt and unspontaeous, I recant and apologise. Mods; feel free to delete my post on this thread as it was both crass and puerile.
Good luck to all those seeking employment in the teaching profession.

cjm900 wrote: comments, and dialog can be found.

Note: This post did NOT take me all day....only most of the day!

I think you'll find that's 'dialogue' if you wish to teach English and not a basterdised form of our language.

What does "basterdised" mean?

jackspratt wrote:What does "basterdised" mean?

I was waiting for CJM to take the bait Jack. It's 'bastardized' actually (to debase) but I bastardized it!!

Sorry tim - doesn't wash.

If you chose to point out what you consider the errors of others, at least get it right yourself.

Sort of a credibility thing.

Oh contraire Jack, oh contraire . cjm 900 is obviously a troll. The OP asked a perfectly legitimate question and got some helpful responses, not least from KP. Do look back at them. Mr 900 then took him (KP) to task on his English. I'm sure that KP didn't appreciate the level of scrutiny that his reply would receive. Mr 900 (in his latest response), then capitalizes common nouns (twice) in the middle of sentences and misspells 'dialogue' or at least uses the American spelling of it.

I am a little surprised that you didn't pick him up on this as you were quick enough to (mistakenly) attempt to do with my response. Unless of course, you and Mr 900 are one and the same?? I wouldn't normally dream of criticising another poster's grammar etc, but he (or you?) started it! Perhaps I'll give myself a clap too.

Kuhn Paul wrote:3, You must be either a native speaker from the UK or Australia

This is where I stopped taking that post seriously.

timthebrit wrote:Oh contraire Jack, oh contraire . cjm 900 is obviously a troll. The OP asked a perfectly legitimate question and got some helpful responses, not least from KP. Do look back at them. Mr 900 then took him (KP) to task on his English. I'm sure that KP didn't appreciate the level of scrutiny that his reply would receive. Mr 900 (in his latest response), then capitalizes common nouns (twice) in the middle of sentences and misspells 'dialogue' or at least uses the American spelling of it.

I am a little surprised that you didn't pick him up on this as you were quick enough to (mistakenly) attempt to do with my response. Unless of course, you and Mr 900 are one and the same?? I wouldn't normally dream of criticising another poster's grammar etc, but he (or you?) started it! Perhaps I'll give myself a clap too.

I know it's about English, but I think you'll find it's au contraire mate!

I ain't got no idea what a troll is...maybe I am one. I do know that I am not one of your "group" and I apologize for attacking one of your own.

I have seen many posts on other sites written by "teachers" where a simple spell checker would remedy the situation. This was my point and is THE reason that I was driven to reply on this site. Do I make mistakes? Absolutely...many.

Maybe I am simply old fashioned by taking the time to do the best that I can when I make a public post...it is a matter of respect...even when we disagree. But I will say this about "level of scrutiny"....those posts would not pass muster in a 5th grade class. This is not scrutiny, it is an exercise in teeth grinding. Maybe you should consider a little dreaming, Tim...All that is necessary for the triumph of illiteracy is that literate men do nothing.

Well gentlemen, I have a glass of wine and my future waiting for me.

May each one of you find the future you imagine.

Chris

ps. I'm outta hea.

Well dear texpat, that is or course your right if you wish to do so, but let me reiterate again the current edict which emanated from the Ministry of Education, which I questioned myself on many occsions but I have had it verified as correct not least by senior members of the Thai Education System. ( who are more senior than Directors of Schools
1, natives speakers for English must either be from Australia or the UK
2, 55 years old or younger
3 possess at least a TEFL [ internationally recognised and /or degree ( best if in English but others will do )]
4Those who are currently in employment who DO NOT fulfil the criteria in relation to age or ethnicity, can remain where they are,but once they have, left that particular school the NEW criteria will come into effect.

There are many who poo poo these rules as they do not apply to them because they have been teaching for a long time in Thailand or they think this does not apply to them.
Now this applies to Public Schools, NOT privately run ones who receive NO public money, Universities can if they so wish also ignore the criteria.
Local run schools like Tessaban schools or even village schools do have to comply, but many do not as their actual locations make it hard to recruit foreign teachers, so the local friendly foreigner often does the job, but this is to be discouraged as it is illegal and more often then not there is no work permit or even teachers licence in existence unless of course it can be shown that he does NOT get paid, then he is a helper on an ad hoc basis. But daily visits an ad hoc helper is not allowed.

Many will decry these rules and many have, it is not a figment of my imagination but reality, the Education Ministry his clamping down and results will be forthcoming, over the next few months changes will be seen in schools across Thailand, not least the change of Governmental policy towards teacher employment. ( Thai ) .
That being said, unless one is in the know , many will not even be aware.

It is a sad fact that a fault which Thailand has, is lack of communication, as they do not like washing their troubles in Public and so often they expect their peers to do the thinking for them, when in fact on this occasion it is the middle management who are fighting the restrictions that are coming about as they see a lessening of their personal authority and possible income streams. This will benefit the student in the end and those teachers who are good ( there are many ) will get their just rewards and those who have been promoted to a level of incompetence will feel the knife as it were.

The slavish adulation that teachers get is misplaced in many cases , and spawns a belief that they can do no wrong, so no-one questions their actions or even their teaching abilities , let alone question the actions of the Directors. This is part of the change that Thailand is seeking to address, to make the teaching profession not only more competent, but also changing the psyche of teachers in order that the student comes first not the teacher. Many of whom , consider their sole aim is to get to school , sign on and then do absolutely nothing until it is time to go home.

Judge me if you want members of this forum, but change is coming,, for some not good for others great, but the person who will gain the most will be the student, it is a change that is long overdue, we all see and bemoan the lack of intelligence or even simple thought processes that we expect from reasonably intelligent people but so often here in this wonderful country , it does not happen, why because the education system does not allow neither does it allow individual thought, basically everyone regardless of ability or intelligence is taught for the first 8 years of their life the same outdated and in some cases useless classes to prepare them for life in an ever increasing competitive world in which lack of education or even little education only serves to ensure that for that person the future will be exactly the same as it was for previous generations.

Thailands youth fight to get qualifications that are acceptable to the outside world, unfortunately, the rest of the world is only too well aware of Thailands low standards and does not readily accept their qualifications, this has detrimental effect on those students ability to seek employment outside Thailand.

There are many documented cases off Students seeking to gain better qualifications outside Thailand, some succeed, but many find the course content or even the subject matter too difficult or even to complex to understand and return back to Thailand.It is a sad fact that in many cases Thailands students are ill-prepared to deal with the workload imposed on them by 'Western Universities ' unless they have an edge, like relatives who live overseas and those students have spent considerable time in those countries.
I recently heard of a case where an Engineering student who has worked for a number of years in a Thai factopry, wished to raise his qualifications to MA, that goal is a reasonable expectation of any normal person, however after attending a University outside Thailand, he is being advised to attend a what is essentially a cramming course to improve his engineering knowledge to western standards in order to compete on the same level as other students. That is a indictment of Thai Standards , and will be a travesty for that student. as if he does not come up the standard he will be returned to Thailand, he will never again gain a place at a foreign University.

Just completed a TEFL.

Out of 19 students, 1 dropped out after week1, 1 failed the language exam and 17 got their certificate. Of those 17, 7 obtained paid employment while on the course, thanks to the University Job Placement service while another 4 are already doing volunteer work. Another 3 have a series of interviews lined up. Degrees help get the best jobs but are not essential for lower levels.

If you have teaching experience then an on-line TEFL is possibly ok. However, the actual experience of teaching Thai students in a variety of schools and "classrooms" is very valuable.

The TEFL I did was extremely hard work. All TEFL students on the course felt like dropping out at one point or another. If the course is a "proper" one, expect to be up until 3 in the morning doing your first 3 or 4 lesson plans and expect to work hard at revising your English Grammar if you are an old fogey like me!

Ignore the comments about US citizens from earlier posts. Granted Americans don't speak English but it's close enough.

The off the record unofficial view of University staff is that the Teachers' licence will not be maintained.

I used to teach TEFL and will probably does so again in Hua Hin and maybe in Vientiane and I agree that it is not an easy course. Yes, we failed students who didn't do the work, failed the exams or in one case turned up drunk for a class with his TGF in tow. Interestingly Harry, I found that the older students had a far better grasp of grammar than the younger ones.

hairyharry wrote:Ignore the comments about US citizens from earlier posts. Granted Americans don't speak English but it's close enough.

What? Are you saying Kuhn Paul is just blowing hot air? There were actually Americans (and maybe Canadians, too) in your class?

Perhaps they didn't get Paul's memo.