Originally Posted by killerbees

It's also really important to bring back khanom or gifts for people in your office when you go away somewhere. If you don't do that, people will dislike you. Once the chatter about you turns negative, you're focked.

As far as the kids liking you goes, it's quite important. They are forced to study English, whether or not they have any natural interest or inclination to do so. They don't get a choice between French, English, and German. They must take English. This breeds a lot of ill will. They're also mostly taught by a bunch of old biddies who can't speak English to save their lives. It's rote learning. The kids don't understand. The syllabus progresses from year to year whether or not the students do. Most M6 students speak at an M1 level but they still use M6 textbooks. Then you take a bloody foreigner and toss him or her into the mix. Someone who most likely doesn't understand the culture or educational culture. Someone who may or may not have any experience teaching. Someone who might be drunk in the morning or a right c*nt. Does that sound like a recipe for success? These are the teachers these kids have had in the past. This is the legacy with which you have to contend.

The odds are stacked against you from the moment you walk into a classroom like that. If, by some miracle, you can get those kids on your side and actually show them that learning and taking responsibility for their education and their lives can be a worthwhile, rewarding and possibly enjoyable thing to do, I don't care what piece of paper you have.

Obviously, some schools are quite nice and the students are eager to learn (or so I hear). The above paragraph is based on a place where I worked previously, where a polite request for a student to sit down often resulted in a student saying something cute like, "Fokk your mother."