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Smeg

Another TEFL course salesman exposed as a kickback-giving wanker. Chiang Mai University Language Institute this time.


Language Matters: Chiang Mai University

Corruption is endemic in Thailand, although for foreigners it is often difficult to sense the rot beneath the surface.

In late 2005 I transferred from the English Department to a job at Chiang Mai University's Language Institute, where I developed and taught a course in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). The person who hired me was Matthew John Kay, an Australian with a hankering to be called "Dr. Matt".

Matt belongs to an interesting demographic in Thailand's Western community. Driven by demons they can't share, his cohort (almost all of them men) seem to have come here to escape. They want to change identities. The may not want to change their names (an increasingly difficult task), but they do want to get away from the past.



I have noted elsewhere that his Ph.D. is almost certainly bogus.

The Naked Travelling Salesman: One of the reasons our TEFL course was so successful is that Matt is a brilliant salesman. As he put it, you need to “romance” people into taking the course. And romance them he did, despite the facts of the TEFL marketplace.

Many foreigners in Chiang Mai want to be English teachers, so the market is saturated. Furthermore, in Asian countries employers are generally reluctant to employ middle-aged men to teach English. English teaching is primarily a young person’s gig. Yet Matt filled our classes with middle-aged men. He put bums in seats - in a couple of cases, the bums of continental Europeans whose command of English was poor. Whether the heads above those bums had even completed high school was irrelevant to him - although fortunately for the TEFL teachers and the class itself, most of our students were great.

Quantity – not quality – is Matt's mantra. That is because, as he explains it, 50 per cent of the profits from the TEFL program are earmarked for him; the balance goes to the Language Institute. At least, that was the arrangement in the beginning.

After the TEFL program became a success, Matt says the university expanded his remit, greatly increasing his earning potential. Now he gets 50 per cent of profits from all programs provided for foreigners. This is highly significant. After all, Westerners are willing to pay very high course fees by local standards. Thus, Matt gets half the profit from the most profitable programs the university offers.

When I worked with Matt, he often talked frankly about arrangements he said he had made with the university administration. At the time I thought it was odd he did so, since these were not honest business practices. It was not until my “Aha!” realization about psychopathy that all became clear. Yes, bragging about corrupt business dealings – even when it puts yourself and your business partners at risk of discovery – fits the psychopathic pattern.

When he came to the Language Institute with the idea of developing a TEFL program, Matt took a reasonable proposal to the university administration. He would pay all the start-up costs for a Teaching English as a Foreign Language program, if he were given half of net profits. The university agreed, with conditions.

The program quickly became a great success. As a result, the decision-makers involved – the director of the Language Institute, a vice president and the university president – appear to have quickly realized there could be money in it for them as well. Because “Dr. Matt" was happy to share his gains, they agreed to put the most profitable courses (those involving course fees and other charges to Westerners) into his basket.

What is each person’s take? Incredibly, he also shared that information with me. Of Matt’s 50 per cent, he keeps 20 per cent; another 20 per cent goes to the head of the Language Institute, and the president and vice president share the remaining ten per cent. This is a sweet deal for those four, but it is part of a zero-sum game. They win while others lose.

DJ Pat

You sure got a lot of time on your hands.

Smeg

You are right, mate. Maybe I'll go off photographing a piece of cardboard placed in various places around town.

Spin

^ touche

Fast Eddie

Smeg, i have been reading your critical observations about the state of the English teaching industry in Thailand for some time. While i don't doubt that you have some valid points, although i have no first hand experience of the industry, your relentless crusade puzzles me somewhat.

Apart from seemingly being hell bent on taking down a few well known figures in the industry, who you seem to have a personal dislike for, what is the aim of all of this? Surely the state of this industry is of the Thais' own making, and it's up to them to improve the standards of the people who operate within it?

blackpanther

smeg is my hero. the epitome of nobility and frankness..keep up the good work man

cujo

Sour grapes?
Good on him I'd say.

DJ Pat

A darn sight funnier than your lectures.

obsidian

^ fookin hysterical

Mallow

signs around town and teachers in Thailand are both comical

Smeg

Bangkok Shill and kenkannif have a relentless scheme to lie, deceive, charm, and trick their way into a living off the backs of the people following behind them into the sad world of TEFL. They know that they fucked up so they might as well make some money out of the next people to do the same, as its all they've got left, and neither of them can stand teaching. So, as long as they are relentless, so will my strong distaste for them be.

DJ Pat

This is a new one, again.

Why don't you all just jump into a nice warm bubbling jacuzzi together and discuss it like real men?

ILoveDogs

I have to stick up for the OP and what I have read here seems to go along with what I have experienced. Although I have lived here for a number of years, one day, I saw an ad for the TEFEL deal at CMU. I always thought, maybe one day I will need to teach English, either for extra money, or just to keep busy. What I had read in the past about schools in CM, lead me to believe there was not a credible place to take a Tefel course here. But when I read the CMU was offering one, I was more interested.

Now, the biggest thing that has got me about this situation is that when I called the number, and spoke to Dr. Matt, he said the next class was starting in about a week, and because I was not ready to take a class that soon, I asked about the next one. HE TOLD ME THAT THE NEXT TWO CLASS PERIODS WERE ALREADY FULL AND THAT I NEEDED TO TAKE THIS ONE OR FORGET IT FOR 6 MONTHS.

So I did sign up. What is the problem with this? Well, I have some health problems and at this time, was not really ready to take on 12 hours a day of work, 7 days a week. He did not make it sound like the class was too much work either. So I paid the money, and dropped out after about the first week or two, because I felt that I could not keep up.

Am I just an idiot? No, first of all English is my first language, second of all I have a BA already, and went to 2 years of one of the most difficult graduate programs in my country, and did pretty well, even though in the end I had to drop out due to the same health problems I still have.

If I had been able to take the time, to prepare better, like for 6-8 weeks when the next class was starting, I would have probably done fine. I have to take some medications that make me sleepy and stupid, and have to manage that well, when I want to be productive. When I have the time to prepare my body, I am okay, and have been pretty successful in life, since I dropped out of my grad school program, with this illness.

However, having only one week or less to prepare, I was not able to handle it well. I have thought many times, since I quit, that it must have been a lie that the next classes were full, and this was a sales technique to get me and my money now. For one, because they don't seem to have a limit on how many people can take the class. For another, when I met the people taking the class, they were not a bunch of people who just arrived here, but were mostly people who had lived already for a long time in Thailand, and +/- 2months to take the class would have no problems for them. I mean, if you have lived here for 10 years already, for 3 years already, and decide to take this class, it probably isn't an emergency that you take it now, and everyone I met in the class seemed to have good ways of supporting themselves in Thailand, and teaching was only going to be for "fun money" or to keep busy.

Several people did not even live in Northern Thailand, but were taking the class because they finally (thought they had found) a class with some credibility.

Then, once the class started, they divided it into two groups, and although they didn't say how they came up with this, it was soon obvious. All the people who had a university degree, got paired with the teacher who was younger than all of us, and had no teaching experience. The ones who only had a highschool diploma got paired with the teacher who was really good. Why? Because I suppose they thought that people without previous experience needed a better teacher, and those of us who had made it through school already, could figure it out on our own.

The teacher that I had, made a comment one day, about how "old time schools" actually deduct points for writing papers that have spellling and grammar errors, and how stupid this teacher thought that was, how old-fashioned, etc., and how those people in Ivory Towers should just go screw off and die somewhere, because they are not current with university life.

And this person really had a degree in teaching language, but doesn't think spelling or grammar should have an effect on your grade? Well, what should? Your good looks, you sex abilities, what???????????? I don't think I have ever taken any level of class that didn't take these things into account, to a large extent.

And why was it when this teacher taught, I seemed to not be able to latch on to any regular path, could not take notes, didn't find something worthy of writing down, and the lectures did not remind me of the 4 hours of reading I did the night before? But one day, when we switched teachers, the other teacher, the old guy, lectured exactly per the notes and my memory of what I had read, and that he presented it just like I was used to after 7 years of univeristy studies?

But that guy wasn't teaching my class. (But he is the guy who writes about his experience at CMU on the link the OP or someone mentioned above.)

I was immediately ready to blame myself, my medications, my health problems for making me too stupid. After the fact, I realized that Dr. Matt surely lied to me about the class being unavailable later, and probably I had legit complaints about the teacher I was given. I had already decided that if I took the class again, I would request the "old guy" teacher, not the young person just out of some (maybe not legit) school.

I am happy to read this today, which verifies for me that I am not totally crazy, or totally a loser, and that some people at CMU may have the real problems, and at best are probably scam artists. What is new really? Thailand specializes in these kind of people. Probably the main reason I haven't thought up any good business ideas while I have spent many years here, is because I am a very honest person, and can't/won't think up the bullshit that many will and that I won't act like an idiot just to get some money. ( I may act like an idiot for no good reason, but it will not be to steal money from people or to mislead them.)

Anyway, I would like to thank the OP for writing this story and sharing what he/she knows.

Lily

^Good Lord!

Matthew

I'm trying to understand how you didn't notice the CELTA or the SIT TESOL (two REAL courses designed and evaluated outside of Thailand) being offered in Chiang Mai.

IMHO all this nonsense is easily solved, and there's no 'bad guy' to bitch and whine about: simply avoid Thai TEFL courses and do one that's internationally based.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but it's buyer beware with Thai products. Why would this not include TEFL courses owned and run by Thais?

Did you think the farang guys who they hire for this cut-throat TEFL course business oppurtunity are the ethical cream of the crop?

Now you know.

Marmite the Dog

I have to agree somewhat with the dog-lover, that the most important factor is the tutor, not the school. Take your time and sit in on a few classes, then insist on taking a class with the tutor who impresses you most.

When I took my TEFL, I was lucky to get a nice chap from Boston called Bill. Running concurrently with our class was one taken by a dickhead alky from Yorkshire called David. Chalk & cheese, yet the students were supposed to be paying for the same course.

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I will meet the blackness and the blackness will be eternal

benbaaa

The CELTA isn't available in Chiang Mai, according to Cambridge ESOL. There are seven centres in Thailand where you can do it - five in Bangkok and two in Phuket.

Cambridge ESOL - Teaching Awards Centres

AntRobertson

[Pedant Mode]Point of order, wouldn't that actually be "sociopathic pattern". "Psychopathy" is a different, mental, kettle of fish altogether[/Pedant Mode]

Smeg

Almost certainly a lie. These types of people have absolutely no reason to be truthful. BTW, I didn't write the OP. It is taken from the linked blog.

This from a blind old bat who backs up her mate kenkannif, another lying little TEFL course selling shit, to the hilt, even using her mod status to support the guy in a biased way.

That site is so sad in the way people back each other up because they have met in real life etc rather than based on post content, ethics, honesty etc.

ChiangMai noon

Not sure that's true benners.

EEC are running one.
possibly another gaff too.