When I finish uni next year I'm planning on doing Tefl and moving to Thailand to teach English. I have been looking at Tefl courses and I'm thinking a good option might be to do the course in Thailand at the 'House of Bangkok' because from my research it appears it is highly respected and helps with finding a job. It's $1600 though, which seems pricier than most though I guess that cost is offset by the fact that my living costs will be considerably cheaper than doing a 4 week course in London. I would do the online course but that gives me no real in-classroom training.

I've been to Bangkok before so I know I'd enjoy living there. Has anyone else done this? My friend also taught in Thailand but did so in North whereas I'd only be prepared to teach in BK which hopefully wouldn't limit my choices too much.

Also, would I be advised in making any preparations now, like improving my English grammar? I'm going to start looking into learning Thai although apparently that's not necessary but rather a preference.

Save money before you go as you will struggle to have a good time on the salary which I've been told is typically around the 30k Baht mark per month. Others may be able to correct me on this but I believe its accurate.

You know, some time back I actually did a 4wk TEFL course for a decent sum (that never got put to use). First, for a 4wk course, 6 hours is standard, and actually will push you pretty hard given that it's a proper CELTA. My recommendation is to just land in-country and start job hunting, take whatever the bare creds are (online course at best, I assume), and don't waste your time unless you want to do this as a career (and then just consider a Bachelor's/Master's). The courses help, yeah, but nothing you can't get with 1 or 2 months on the job and some good personal effort and bought books/materials. You can spend a month and $1600 on lessons to get you a job that pays 10% more, but if you're only in it for 2 years, and the jobs don't pay that much to begin with, losing a month of pay and paying all that money isn't really going to end up gaining you much. Most likely, you'll lose on it, but I don't know for sure how much you can expect to make in Thailand doing TEFL so I can't be sure. Total guesstimate, $900/mo?

CELTAs are well respected, but then I'm not sure that many TEFL places in Thailand are looking for well-respected and becredentialed teachers, rather (as can be the case in schools in places like Korea, Japan, or Taiwan) they might just be looking for a white guy that can perform for 22-26 hours a week, and who isn't going to complain about their employment practices or jump ship.

You might also consider buying some basic and intermediate learning materials and setting up solely as a tutor. I hear in Vietnam you can make $5-10/hour (3 hours/day would cover living expenses if you can manage $10), and with a bit of networking, you could probably get a few hours a day for work. I assume you can make more than that in Thailand, but I don't know. I think generally private/group tutoring pays significantly more per hour than contracted teaching, and it's less of a pain although it requires skirting laws that can land you on the next plane home if caught (and you don't bribe your way out for whatever reason).

Edit: def save money for the plane ticket home at least since you might just end up with no savings after a year. Yeah, I was wildly off on the pay $900/mo seems right.

And this link is probably the best you'll find:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewfo...72ddf7b18d1357

One of the semi-regular posters here, "Gettinweedmoney" (spelling?) is an English teacher in the south of Thailand, hopefully he'll chime in soon or you could PM him.

Good info but bad advice.

I dont understand why you would travel to thailand to a get job.
yeah poker is a job i know, but just put some effort in beating and grinding down a game, you will make more $/Hour and your mobile on top off being your own boss, see TEFL as a backup plan for when the fat lady starts singing

Yeah but fk playing poker in Thailand. If it were me I'd much rather get a job where I'm interacting with the locals on a day to day basis and immerse myself into the culture a bit. The last thing I would want to do is sit inside grinding all day.............

I feel as though teaching english isn't exactly the job that will immerse you in the culture.

Either way, it's not hard to do both. And grinding all day is a bit excessive.

You could always volunteer somewhere and help the community.
You have to balance the grind ( as i can only speak for the grind part )

The more i think about it, the more i think teaching english certainly wont get you immersed in the culture. It seems from a lot of GWM's posts that its through his own doing rather than anything connected to his english teaching thats getting him involved.

He kinda confirmed it that a lot of the english teachers just end up hanging out in cliques for the most part, I guess similarly to a lot of us do. But ya, doing volunteer based or anything else would probably be more ideal.....

Not sure I'd want to work in Thailand, I doubt its possible to get a high-paying job, unless you get transfered over from a western-based company. It might be possible to be a medrep though and make up to 50K baht(or more). They have to speak English when they're making they're sales pitch to the doctors.

wheres good place to buy a computer chair in bangkok

my owner just got my desk and "office chair" today and they delivered it to my room.


definately got me some busto chair

k , definately going to quit beating 3/6 5/10 to make 30k baht a month.

i like to immerse into the culture...just not culturally

Look at you. Resident expert on Thailand culture. Could you give us some more advice about immersing ourselves in Thailand culture?

nah tho its like this busto/entry level teachers make 30k maybe even less. if you can speak thai and have experience, some teachers/a friend of mine who is fluent and teaches at a private school makes like 75k a month....

bump. this got ran over by skin colour debate

You can live in our new baller maid's quarters for 15k/mo.

Actually if the place is really good and near a BTS I don't mind paying a bit more than that

looooooooool. reminds me of that day we went on the mudboarding trip and as we were crossing the chao phraya, joel is like, "there's a river in bangkok?"

I think Joel got immersed into the Scratch Dog culture pretty well

now I'll stop posting irrelevant off-topic content on this thread, The Chatter Thread is for that..

more references to immersing into thai culture plz....also reima new improved baller bangkok poker maids quarters has your name all over it

imo 2 people embody what it means to be the resident expert on thai culture:

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[IMG] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]

Bad advice = working in Thailand, or did you have some other issue with it?

I agree that I would not want to do teaching in Thailand compared to poker, assuming you can make US min wage at it.

meh any poker player who teaches english here instead of playing is just a busto poker player lol

This sounds like a sensible option..............