It’s hardly difficult to see Thailand’s appeal, claims Emma Foers, what with its gorgeous beaches, buzzing cities and fantastic food – but just in case you need a little persuading as to how amazing TEFLing there would be, check out these seven reasons to teach in Thailand:

1) Enthusiastic kids

Don’t believe anyone who tells you that your students will be calm and attentive. However, they will be enthusiastic, raucous and desperate to learn! Once you’ve learnt how to calm the classroom chaos, you’ll find the teaching to be fun, challenging and very rewarding – and if it all gets too much, there’ll always be plenty of local teachers on hand to help you.

2) Weekend trips

Forget a quick shopping trip, teaching in Thailand means you can take your weekends to a whole new level! Take a sleeper train to Chiang Mai, in the heart of Thailand’s hill country; relax on one of the southern Thai islands; get lost in local night markets… the list goes on!

3) Rock-bottom living costs

Thailand is an amazingly cheap place to live, especially when it comes to going out and enjoying yourself! A slap-up meal in a Thai restaurant costs just 250 baht (around £5/$7), and with beers costing 60 baht (around £1/$1.80), there’s no need to save that big night out just for paydays!

4) Friendly people

It’s not difficult to see why some people refer to Thailand as the ‘Land of Smiles’ – everyone seems to walk around with one permanently glued to their face! People here will go out of their way to make sure you get settled in and looked after – great if you’re new in town!

5) Parties!

When you think of calm, serene Thailand, you usually don’t think of the parties that go on, but the country certainly has a hedonistic side. Take the infamous Full Moon Parties on Kho Pha Ngan that take place every month – imagine 20,000 revellers packing out a beach, buckets full of booze and dozens of soundsystems pumping out great music until the sun comes up.

6) Street food

Take a journey of discovery through the street food stalls of Bangkok (or any other large Thai city) and you’ll be able to sample everything from deep-fried flowers to pad thai. Street food in Thailand is fresh, cheap and fabulously cooked – lots of vendors specialise in particular dishes, so ask them what they’d recommend and enjoy!

7) Temples

If you’re a culture junkie, you’ll love Thailand, with a massive 40,717 temples scattered across this beautiful country. Immerse yourself in their tranquil atmosphere, clear your mind and prepare yourself for your students’ next onslaught!

So, are you ready to head to Thailand? Are you teaching in Thailand at the minute? What do you think the best reason to teach there is?

About the Author

Teaching English abroad, says Emma, is the perfect opportunity for any English speaker to explore the world: as long as you’re a fluent English speaker, a TEFL course is your ticket to the journey of your life.

By Alex Smith

If adrenaline is your thing then Thailand is a place where you can get your fix of adventure in graduated doses. Some would say that negotiating the Bangkok traffic on the way from the airport is adventure enough in itself, but if you want to put your experiences on a more organized footing there is no shortage of opportunity.

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Most developed resort areas on the coast offer bungee jumping, para-gliding, Jet skiing and water skiing. So flinging yourself from great heights or being blasted in to the air or across water at great speed can be easily achieved.

Thailand also remains a veritable paradise for those who enjoy the world underwater, whether that’s diving, snorkeling or even submarining in Phuket.

It is also a country rich in wilderness areas of mountains, forests and waterfalls which makes trekking big business in the north of the country. The best season for trekking is between November and February when the weather is cool and the air is clear. Many operators in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Mae Hong Son and Pai offer trekking tours.

Often these will be run from guest houses and it’s worth asking around to find one that suits you. A trek usually lasts between three and five days and you will need good boots and a proper pack since the walking can be quite hard especially in the heat.

The guide will usually take you through ethnic villages of Lisu, Karen, Meo, Akha and Paduang. All these tribes are different in dress, language and culture and most migrated to the mountainous areas of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam within the last century from China. Also included in a trek will be some rafting and maybe some elephant riding. If the gentle rafting on a trek is not adventurous enough for you, many operators offer the white water variety. Pai is the best place to go for this and the tours are run from mid June to January when the rainy season raises the height of the water levels.

When it comes to two wheeled travel Thailand offers some of the best touring and off road motorcycling in the world. The roads are excellent and pass through mountain scenery of breathtaking beauty. Infrastructure is good with plenty of guest houses and places to eat en route. You can either go on a tour or hire bikes on your own, Chiang Mai having by far the greatest variety on offer. It is important to be an experienced driver and this is doubly true for trail riding. Many operators run tours and to get the best from off-roading, or simply finding obscure routes, it is often better to go with a guide who knows the area.

For those who spurn engines then mountain biking is now really popular and there are many operators who run trips. Whether on the lakes and rivers of the north or the Andaman Sea in the south Kayaking is available in most tourist friendly places where there is water. Tours are even run down the Mekong River. In the south Krabi and Phang Nga provinces offer spectacular scenery with luminous seas dotted with soaring limestone outcrops.

For those who want to get airborne there are a number of ways you can do it. Ballooning is offered both in Chiang Mai and Pattaya between October and March. The views in the North are better than on the coast. Perhaps, whether it’s the sea, the mountains or the jungle, it is the wealth of natural beauty available in the national parks all over Thailand that make it so attractive to the outdoor enthusiast. From the heights of Doi Inthanon in the north to the maritime depths of Surin in the south there are 103 protected areas where you can enjoy an amazing variety of scenery and wildlife. Where ever you are in Thailand there is a wilderness of some sort near by.

About the Author

Alex Smith maintains and manages the Cheap Thailand Travel website at http://www.cheapthaitravel.com

By Luke Fisher

The life of the English teacher in Thailand is the subject of this latest article, this time from Luke Fisher:

There are a wide variety and number of TEFL courses in Thailand in locations to suit all tastes. Equally, teaching English in Thailand is well catered for due to the high number of TEFL jobs available. There is a high demand for English language knowledge and ability in this diverse and truly amazing country. Thailand is a central Asian country which enjoys a tropical climate with 3 seasons: hot and dry October through February, hot and humid with showers from March through May and wet and cool June to September. These seasons vary from the cooler north of Thailand to the hotter south. The average annual temperature is 28 C (83 F), ranging, in Bangkok, for example, from 30 C in April to 25 C in December.

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The relaxed life style, friendly people and sense of tropical paradise, all make Thailand a very popular destination for teaching English. After completing a TEFL course in Thailand, TEFL jobs may appear to offer somewhat low salaries ranging from Bht 30,000 ($1000 USD) to Bht 60,000 ($2000 USD) per month, but the cost of living is relatively low. As a result, teaching English in Thailand provides the opportunity to live comfortably, save and travel.

One thing to remember is that as a teacher teaching English in Thailand, you will be going native and not paying ‘Farang’ (foreigner) prices for everything. Most people find that salaries are more than enough to support a very comfortable lifestyle, and that TEFL jobs teaching English in Thailand are a very positive life experience.

Thailand is a very popular location for teaching English and TEFL courses and it is important to remember to respect local concerns. Teachers teaching English in Thailand are respected members of society, and are expected to dress accordingly. It is, therefore, advisable that dress, when teaching or looking for TEFL jobs, includes either long trousers or a skirt below the knee, accompanied by long-sleeved shirt or blouse. Cut-off shorts and vests will neither win friends nor influence people. It does get very hot, so light-weight clothing is advisable. Simply show a little respect and this will be appreciated and reciprocated. As with many Asian countries the saving of face is extremely important, being rude or in-polite is seriously frowned upon.

The whole approach to TEFL courses in Thailand and teaching English in Thailand is dictated by your anticipated length of stay, and this will be reflected in your approach to visas. TEFL courses in Thailand can be completed on a tourist visa or a student visa. Teaching English in Thailand and TEFL jobs in Thailand in general require a Non-B visa which is renewable every twelve months. As well as this, teachers of English will need a teacher’s license. Employers help provide both the visa and the license. In order to be eligible TEFL job applicants would have to of successfully completed a TEFL course in Thailand or prior to arrival in another location.

Major cities for TEFL jobs teaching English in Thailand include Bangkok, Chang Mai, Udon Thani, Phuket and Hat Yai. Bangkok offers great nightlife, but at the cost of pollution, congestion and higher living costs, although salaries tend to be higher here. Mountainous Chang Mai and Udon Thani in the North of Thailand are proving popular, especially for those seeking the real Thailand and the unique experience that comes with it. The island of Phuket is developing rapidly and is very popular for TEFL courses in Thailand and teaching English. With development comes a strong and varied TEFL job market in the public, private and tourism sectors. Phuket also retains a great sense of tropical paradise regardless of the development.

TEFL courses in Thailand are offered in Phuket, Ban Phe and Chiang Mai as well as several other locations. Searching on the net will provide a wide choice of TEFL course provider. Two things to consider are that the course provider is properly accredited and examined by the Thai Ministry of Education and that the provider has good TEFL job support services and that this element is included as part of the TEFL course.

For those seeking TEFL jobs teaching English in Thailand in advance of arrival, companies such as Anglo-Pacific Consultancy, Bell Associated Schools and EF English First, which has several centres in Thailand, are all worth checking out. It is perfectly possible to get jobs on the spot in most cities. It is simply a matter of checking out the local English language press, trying to make a few contacts, and making the rounds of the universities, schools and English language colleges. You will need a copy of your TEFL certificate, and increasingly in Thailand, a university degree is also a requisite.

As with any TEFL job teaching English in Thailand you should complete some research. You should enquire with your employer about class sizes, teaching materials, preparation time, time for staff meetings, and expected length of contract. In some cases you will be making up the whole curriculum for your students and in others working within a very rigid framework.

Most people find teaching English in Thailand a wonderful experience and teaching Thai people a great pleasure. A fortune is not there to be earned, but a great sense of worth and accomplishment is there to be realized. There are a wide variety of TEFL courses in Thailand to choose from leading to TEFL jobs and an opportunity live, work and travel in one of the world’s most amazing countries.

About the Author

TEFL in Thailand and TEFL International provides TEFL courses and TEFL certification leading to TEFL jobs and teaching English abroad. English teaching jobs are available in countries all over the world.

By Luke Fisher

Once TEFL certified, course graduates are qualified to teach English abroad. Opportunities for teaching English abroad are plentiful with TEFL jobs, Teaching English as a Foreign/Second Language, available in most countries. The vast majority of English teaching jobs tend to be in countries where English is not the first language an example of this is TEFL in Thailand or China. Asia is generally considered to be the largest market place for TEFL teachers. Although, in countries where English is the native language, there is an increasing demand for English teachers. This is due to growth of immigrants into countries where English is the native language such as Mexicans migrating to America and Poles migrating to England. The worldwide demand for knowledge of and ability to use the English language has created a wide variety of TEFL jobs throughout the world. For those that are TEFL certified, teaching job offers overseas or at home are plentiful.

A number of areas need to be covered with regard to TEFL jobs and teaching English abroad. Fortunately, most of these areas are covered during the job guidance and support sessions within the TEFL course and are a fundamental component of the course itself. Interview techniques are covered along with resume building. A variety of potential questions and answers are discussed in relation to interviews. Positives and negatives for TEFL in different countries are considered and discussed as well as salaries, working conditions and employment benefits. What to expect from your employer and what your employer will expect from you. Lastly and perhaps most importantly: where and how to locate TEFL jobs.

The internet has quickly become the main source for research into TEFL jobs and teaching English abroad. There are a plethora of forums, TEFL job databases and directories offering or advertising teaching positions in countries all over the world. Simply type ‘TEFL in Thailand‘ into a search engine and you will receive thousands of results. Another good source for TEFL jobs is the classified ads in newspapers both in print and online.

The variety of teaching jobs continues to increase with TEFL jobs available in areas such as schools, colleges, universities, language centers, businesses and companies, hospitals, hotels and tourism generally. TEFL in Thailand for example, businesses, hotels and hospitals employ English language teachers to train their staff to communicate with customers from overseas. This has become big business in Thailand due to the generally lower costs of living and especially in terms of lower medical expenses. For those wishing to teach English abroad there really is a great variety of locations and teaching positions to choose from.

Salaries, conditions and benefits vary greatly from country to country. TEFL in Thailand for example, salaries range from $800 to $2000 USD per month depending on qualifications and experience. Salaries are high in Thailand where a typical salary for a Thai person is about $200 USD per month. Living costs in Thailand are low and salaries afford the opportunity to live well, save and travel. Employers in Thailand provide all working papers which are renewed every 12 months. Health insurance is arranged automatically through monthly contributions. Teachers will have on average 20 to 25 contact hrs per week with their students. Students in Thailand are respectful and are keen to learn.

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Approximately 80% of TEFL graduates teach English abroad for between one and 3 years before returning home to pursue other forms of employment. This is not surprising as TEFL tends to be the spring board for travel and employment on a limited basis. Employers at home look favorably on applicants who have spent time overseas training, teaching English, gaining new skills and qualifications. Approximately 20% of TEFL graduates go on to gain advanced TEFL qualifications and continue with TEFL jobs. Advanced level qualifications include Diploma in TEFL and MA TEFL. With these advanced level qualifications the types of TEFL job options increases with positions such as Director of Studies, Teacher Trainer and Curriculum Developer become available.

Weather you choose teaching English abroad as career, a conduit for travel and experience or as a stepping stone to other things, you will have a wealth of choice in terms of location and type of TEFL job. Teaching English abroad will provide you with an unforgettable experience and also provide you with an opportunity to help in the lives of others through education.

About the author

TEFL in Thailand and TEFL International provides TEFL courses and TEFL certification leading to TEFL jobs and teaching English abroad. English teaching jobs are available in countries all over the world.

By Alex Smith

Situated, as it is, at the heart of the South East Asian region it is no surprise that Thailand is home to many expats. It is not only convenient geographically; it also has a modern infrastructure making it a convenient place from which to do business. The ease of living and the variety and beauty of places to live also mean that Thailand is also a popular place to retire. It is a country where a modest pension can go a long way.

For those wishing to make their home in Thailand the first and most important hurdle to jump is that of visas. Although visiting as a tourist is a simple process, negotiating the bureaucracy for a longer term stay is more complicated. If you are employed in Thailand you will need a work permit. This involves your employer providing proof that you are genuinely employed. You then apply for a non immigrant visa, preferably from your country of origin, which allows a stay of three months. During that time you need to complete the process of getting a work permit at which point you will be granted a one year renewable visa. For a retirement visa you need to be over fifty years old and prove sufficient funds.

Once established in Thailand you will need health insurance. Private health care is excellent and, compared to western countries, is also very cheap. However cheap it is if you should be unfortunate and need major medical the cost does mount up. There is not really any need to be covered for outpatient care since the insurance payouts are minimal and it is cheap in any case. BUPA BlueCross is an international company that can take care of all this. Opening a bank account in Thailand is very simple. You do not necessarily need to show residency but it helps. The Kasikorn Bank is the one that seems most foreigner friendly. You will be issued with an ATM card that also functions as a debit card.

If you want to work in Thailand there are opportunities but it can be complicated. The single biggest need in all of Asia, given that English is the global language of commerce, is for people who can teach. These days you will need to be educated up to University standard and you will definitely fair better if you also have a TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) or TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) qualification that qualifies you as a properly trained teacher. Apart from that there is work in the tourist industry if you have skills in diving or the hospitality industry. Wages in Thailand are generally fairly low if employed locally but then so is the cost of living. This works both ways. Many people choose to work “remotely” for companies in their own countries and with advances in technology and the reasonable living costs this is an increasing trend.

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When living in Thailand the expat does have to get used to things that would generally not be an issue in Europe or the US. Although in many ways very advanced, Thailand is also very newly developed. One has to deal with a, sometimes, chaotic bureaucracy, a legal system that lacks definition and a police force that is underpaid and therefore unorthodox in methods of law enforcement. If you are asked for extra curricular payments and you are guilty the most important thing is to remain friendly and keep the costs down. In the main this will involve minor traffic infringements and the standard ‘fee’ to walk away is about 200 baht. When it comes to serious crimes, especially drugs, law enforcement in Thailand is punitive to put it mildly.

One thing that every expat in Thailand learns sooner or later is patience. Things don’t always happen as quickly as they should and sometimes they don’t happen at all. To show anger and impatience, however justified, will probably just make things worse. For the expat the first phrase of Thai to be learned is ‘Mai Pen Rai’ or ‘never mind’.

About the Author

Alex Smith maintains and manages the Cheap Thailand Travel website at http://www.cheapthaitravel.com

By John Routledge & Weena Kanadpon

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.

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.

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 CELTA 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 CELTA, I decided to try one of Chiang Mai’s universities. I went for an interview and to my surprise they weren’t at all interested in my CELTA or my three years’ experience at the private language school. They were most interested with my honors degree. It didn’t really bother me, but it made me think of the other teachers who were working there, stepping into a class of undergraduates without having ever taught before or any teaching qualifications.

I was offered a job, mainly on the back of my degree, 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.

Teaching English in Thailand

When I was a student, about to attend upper primary school, my father told me in advance not to ask him anything about English and Maths for he couldn’t give any explanation. I remembered that well and prepared myself every minute to face the situation. Unfortunately, as the first child of the family, I did not have any older siblings to ask or consult.

In the old days, most Thai people were first introduced to the English language when they were in grade 5. My parents’ knowledge was merely fourth-grade level so such warnings were completely true.

Later on, my first English class began as expected. The young-lady Thai teacher of English started the lesson by politely commanding her students in Thai to “read the sentences on page 1, please”. All pupils but me chanted loudly, “This is a book. This is a chair. This is a desk. This is a door.” I was totally amazed and wondered how they did that!

Time passed. Gradually and eventually, my instinct for survival, endless curiosity and intensive English exposure accumulated and taught me to adapt and adopt the input provided. I got through six years of student life in school and four years in a teacher’s college. I vigorously managed to learn and master the language with great confidence and self-esteem. However, I later realized that my theoretical competence in English was a different matter than my practical performance. In fact, what I had learned and mastered might have been more fruitful and meaningful to me if communicative language teaching had been introduced and applied at the time.

In the Thai educational system, English has been considered one of the core school subjects, along with Thai Language, Science, Maths and Social Studies. Students have to study very hard so that they can pass the university entrance exam that includes an English paper, created specially to use with contestants nationwide. Teachers work extremely hard to present and drill their students with as much of English as they can – mainly grammatical structures, vocabulary, reading comprehension and previous exam paper exercises. As a result, students are unavoidably over-loaded. Pressed with unreasonable demands, many suffer emotional depression. This all contributes to chronic learning styles for most smart students. They are unlikely to enjoy learning but to compete seriously and bitterly. Such constraints will be released later. A few minutes after the examination, every chunk of English will be gone (with the wind) for good, except for a few students who willingly further their tertiary studies in the relevant field.

The so-called competition has nothing to do with any language skills except reading and choosing the correct answers. Once the total scores are announced and are high enough as designated, the testees are allowed to attend their first choice faculty; otherwise the second or third choice for substitution. They will be spending a semester or two studying basic English at university as a compulsory course.

Not surprisingly, most graduates involved in various professions usually complain about their practical English competence, especially in everyday face-to-face communication skills – listening and speaking. They admit to insufficient concentration, confusing learning styles and lack of full attention while being exposed to the subject at an early stage. Had they been in a learner-centred environment as the curriculum indicated, they would have been more successful and fruitful in their chosen careers than ever.

The National Curriculum was reformed in 1999 and every school subject was planned to involve learners through classroom activity. That helps promote a learner-centred atmosphere throughout the country. English has been formally indicated as a foreign language (EFL) in the new Foreign Language Subject Group. For two years, some state secondary schools both in the capital city and upcountry have tried out “English Program” in the first grade for the first time. Almost every subject is instructed in English. Teachers are native speakers and some are Thai who are fluent in English. These programs are being extended year by year towards the highest level and spread to more institutes. Hopefully, teaching English in Thailand can be viewed as a more dynamic process, producing more effective learners in the near future.

By Alex Smith

English is the official language of ASEAN – The Association of South East Asian Nations. It is the language of international business and now it is the main language of the internet. This means that in Thailand there is a big demand for native English speakers to teach all age groups how to speak, read and write the English language. Coupled with that is the ever growing tourism industry and the need for language skills amongst those who service it.

Although in the past the regulation of the teaching industry has been relaxed, the only real qualification being that you are a native speaker. This has now changed not only in Thailand but elsewhere. Employers will insist on a bachelor’s degree. Oddly this is more important than either a specialized TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) or a TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) certificate. The subject of the BA is not important but it must be genuine. Anyone caught using forged qualifications are now subject to law and employers will run checks with issuing colleges and universities from which the qualifications were awarded. If you are qualified then teaching can be a great way to get really involved with Thai society. ‘Sanuk’ or the importance having fun is a defining factor in social interaction. It may not always be easy, but teaching can be a rewarding and interesting experience.

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When looking for work you have to decide whether you prefer to teach adults or children and what sector of the industry you want to cater to. International schools follow the curriculum of the country to which they are affiliated whether that is the UK, US or France. Teachers there would be qualified in the same way as they would in their country of origin so these jobs are in high demand since the pay is very good and employers can be very choosy.

All over Thailand there are private schools some being part of a chain whilst others are totally independent commercial enterprises. They range vastly in quality, the better ones having the pick of those they want to employ. This is another reason why being properly qualified is important. You will be paid more. There is also a great need for teachers at high schools. The pay can be quite low but generally it is a less stressful job since class times are shorter.

Often considered the most prestigious places to teach are universities. The pay is not always as high as the prestige might suggest since rates are set by the government but there is plenty of opportunity for specialization if you already have an academic background.

Private one to one teaching is a market in itself. Some teachers hate it finding it very demanding, others prefer the freedom in hours and the more intense nature of the work. It can also be a bit more lucrative than teaching a class. People will want value for their money though from the one to one experience, so professionalism and preparation are vital.

Some teachers prefer dealing with adult students and some prefer children. It’s just a question of preference. With adults many experienced teachers specialize in one area whether that is business English, medical English, tourist industry English and so on. Thailand is a country where appearance, respect and face matter. The profession of teacher or ‘kru’ or ‘ajarn’ is highly respected and certain levels of presentation are required. From men a shirt and tie at least and for women fairly formal clothing.

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Teaching jobs are advertised in the Bangkok Post and increasingly on the internet.

Whatever your training and however long you plan to make a life in teaching Thailand can be an enjoyable place to do it. Teaching those keen to learn who also want to have fun is a rewarding experience.

About the Author

Alex Smith manages the Cheap Thailand Travel website http://www.cheapthaitravel.com and occasionally contributes to http://www.golf-in-thailand.com and has lived in Thailand for the last 3 years.