Language schools = taking the piss.

**CharleyFarley** · 05-10-2008, 04:50 AM

Teaching English is not my game, but there is so much of it going on, I have on the odd occasion stood in for friends and done their classes.

From 5 year olds in YMCA and Language schools to 18 - 20 year old college kids. I cannot get rid of the feeling they are being taken for a ride by the shameful administration of the institutions. I am on the outside looking in but it isn't hard to see they don't give two fucks for what the kids learn, or whether the teacher is up to the job, just get the class done, give them an unrealistic grade and move on.

Confronted with 30 fresh faced kids who wouldn't know a vowel from a consonant if they choked on their alphabet cereal at breakfast, it is an absolute disgrace taking money for these extra curricular English lessons.

To give an example : the college admin needed someone and I was mentioned, so at the meeting I pointed out I was no teacher , had very little experience and didn't feel up to the job and their response " So you are available ?". I was then entrusted to prepare the classes using any resource I could muster, with absolutely no vetting from the admin. I am sure I stank as a teacher, but Hey.... Who gives a Fuck.

The whole system reeks and I feel like shit for having played a part in the whole sham.

Do you blame the parents for pushing ( and paying presumably ) their kids into these 3rd rate learning places?

Do you blame the institutions for taking advantage, and feathering their own nest at the expense of everybody else.?

Do you you blame the native speaking expat teachers who prostitute themselves for a few hundred miserable Baht an hour?

I find it hard to look the parents in the eye

**dirtydog** · 05-10-2008, 05:01 AM

Originally Posted by CharleyFarley

Do you you blame the native speaking expat teachers who prostitute themselves for a few hundred miserable Baht an hour?

How many Thais earn that measly few hundred baht in a whole days work? Those Teflers are not prostituting themselves, if they were proper teachers they would be working at an international school earning thousands of baht per hour, remember, they are not proper teachers, if they were then English standards in Thailand would be a million times better than it actually is.

**Thormaturge** · 05-10-2008, 06:53 AM

Originally Posted by dirtydog

English standards in Thailand would be a million times better than it actually is.

....especially amongst the Farangs.

**Butterfly** · 05-10-2008, 07:30 AM

A school is a business, and like any other business maximizing revenue with the minimum cost is the ultimate goal,

**pai nai ma** · 05-10-2008, 08:38 AM

Originally Posted by CharleyFarley

The whole system reeks..

Agreed.

It is a flagrant scam.

**CharleyFarley** · 05-10-2008, 08:50 AM

Jeez you are a pathetic cocksucking numbskull french twat aren't you , read the first line of the OP.

Language schools =... 05-10-2008 07:28 AM Butterfly Teacher scum !!! I knew you were one, you cheating kunt

**pai nai ma** · 05-10-2008, 08:52 AM

I am neither french nor a lover of cock (with one exception).

**Sir Burr** · 05-10-2008, 08:56 AM

^
Chicken Vindaloo?

**pai nai ma** · 05-10-2008, 09:02 AM

korma.

**Thormaturge** · 05-10-2008, 10:01 AM

I have another email today which reveals the secret of adding three inches to your poultry if you are interested.

**pai nai ma** · 05-10-2008, 10:06 AM

Length or girth?

**Chairman Mao** · 05-10-2008, 02:45 PM

Originally Posted by CharleyFarley

Teaching English is not my game...

Then don't stand in for a job you know nothing about. It's like stepping in for a mechanic, when you've never even seen an engine...

Teaching is about ability... simply being a native speaker makes someone a teacher, as being able to type makes someone a computer programmer. I wouldn't step in for a computer programmer coz I know SFA about it, people should do they same when it comes to teaching.

Unfortunately in LoS, half the TEFLers don't appear to have much ability either, and don't seem to care too much about it. It's a shame.

**nidhogg** · 05-10-2008, 02:51 PM

Originally Posted by CharleyFarley

(big snip)

The whole system reeks and I feel like shit for having played a part in the whole sham.

Do you blame the parents for pushing ( and paying presumably ) their kids into these 3rd rate learning places?

Do you blame the institutions for taking advantage, and feathering their own nest at the expense of everybody else.?

Do you you blame the native speaking expat teachers who prostitute themselves for a few hundred miserable Baht an hour?

I find it hard to look the parents in the eye

The sad point of fact is that until Thailand itself places a genuine value on education the mess that you see at the moment will continue.

The argument about qualification or lack there of and ability amongst the foreigners is all pretty moot to be honest. The whole education system here is f*cked, and it will not change until Thailand as a society sees a value in providing a real education to its citizens.

**jandajoy** · 05-10-2008, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by nidhogg

Thailand as a society sees a value in providing a real education to its citizens.

And then who's going to pick the rice?

**nidhogg** · 05-10-2008, 02:56 PM

Originally Posted by jandajoy

Originally Posted by nidhogg

Thailand as a society sees a value in providing a real education to its citizens.

And then who's going to pick the rice?

Exactly.

However, the problem is (for Thailand) is that society is changing. Mechanization, technology, biotechnology, High technology. Thailand really can no longer afford to pump out an illiterate and uneducated work force - but the mentality still remains.

**Chairman Mao** · 05-10-2008, 03:02 PM

Well at least there'll always be cheap uneducated farmer's daughters to keep up the supply of the useless, sex-tourist-cum-TEFLer wasters then.

See who the lack of social welfare is really F'ing up - the young middle classes. Sexy Noi has to sell herself to keep her family in lao khao coz the government gives 'em fok all. Ajarn Dietmar can't leave the country as he suffers from involuntary celibacy everywhere else, so fucks up the education of the young Chinese Thais down the local ECC for 300B an hour to keep himself in Noi's inner sanctum 2 or 3 times a week.

**Camel Toe** · 05-10-2008, 03:57 PM

What I see as unique to the parts of Asia I know is how unbelievably cheap they are. Not thrifty like a Scot, but full-on stingy. Almost half the schools in my town would fire a perfectly good, likable, qualified White guy and install a Cameroon to save 2K a month in salary.

Off topic: My neighbor, a laundry woman who owns a house, a car and two motorbikes, begs me for my aluminum can trash. They are usually full of ciggie butts, full to the tip. She'll take them anyway, saw off the top, and empty them out. Scrap aluminum is worth 12B a kilo!

And for them there is nothing to be ashamed about.

**Chairman Mao** · 05-10-2008, 04:08 PM

Originally Posted by Camel Toe

Almost half the schools in my town would fire a perfectly good, likable, qualified White guy and install a Cameroon to save 2K a month in salary.

True.

Without realising they could put up a big poster of whitey above the school gates and charge double the next term as white teacher = 'must be good' to the local lower middle classes. The ones who really want to tell their neighbours that their offspring has a blonde white American tutoring them... as the neighbours can only afford a Philippino with a masters in both English and Education.

**dirtydog** · 05-10-2008, 05:28 PM

Originally Posted by Camel Toe

Almost half the schools in my town would fire a perfectly good, likable, qualified White guy and install a Cameroon to save 2K a month in salary.

I am glad to hear that racism in Thailand is slowly dieing a death, not sure I believe you though

**deathstardan** · 05-10-2008, 06:01 PM

Originally Posted by Chairman Mao

The ones who really want to tell their neighbours that their offspring has a blonde white American tutoring them... as the neighbours can only afford a Philippino with a masters in both English and Education.

I have worked with some of these Phillipino teachers you speak of, masters an' all...I for one was not impressed.

I don't want to start the whole argument of native versus non-native speakers but in my experience working with them left a lot to be desired regarding the teaching of English...

Let's just say on numerous occasions I had to re-write exams they had *prepared* and in the end had to check the weekly teacher-parent communication logs for spelling and grammatical errors...

All of them without exception had some sort of degree in education.

**CharleyFarley** · 05-10-2008, 06:53 PM

The head of the college ( in terms of Photographs on the wall, pyramid style ) is a young 35 old woman who has a PHD and is head of Linguistics.

When I asked her how she taught English 'listening' she just replied TAPES & CD's

**Camel Toe** · 05-10-2008, 07:31 PM

Originally Posted by dirtydog

Originally Posted by Camel Toe

Almost half the schools in my town would fire a perfectly good, likable, qualified White guy and install a Cameroon to save 2K a month in salary.

I am glad to hear that racism in Thailand is slowly dieing a death, not sure I believe you though

Don't know if racism is dying or not. What I do know is that there are four Cameroon teachers and many more Philippine than ever. White folks are more difficult to administer. If they don't like it they can go home and earn 6X the money. If a Cameroon goes home he'll earn 1/6 the money. They have a lot more to lose by not sucking up. They're agreeable, Thais like that. And they're cheap too. Some places pay the second language teachers on par, some don't. Our school pays them 25% less. Even at that rate you can still hear some strange noises coming from the staffroom .. shhh .. listen ... you hear it? It's a semi-subtle licky-sucky-mushy sound.

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