We’ve now been teaching for over 2 months and are settling into our daily routine as teachers in Bangkok, and it seems like a good time to let you know exactly what it is we do out here.
There is a whole range of teachers working in Bangkok in a vast variety of positions. It is possible to earn enough money to survive here just by working odd days teaching at language institutes. Here a teacher will teach a handful of different small classes but will only see each set of students once a week for a few hours. This option is great for those who aren’t in need of a large amount of money and the security of work permit. It means there is more freedom to do as you choose and there’s less time required on lesson planning. While these classes can be fun as they are mainly conversation based, you don’t really get to know you’re students that well.
There are also quite a lot of people who do only corporate work. They go from place to place offering seminars to different companies. I have had next to no experience of this type of teaching so don’t really know the details. From talking to friends though, I’ve learnt that it generally involves a great deal of planning and travelling around, and you can often end up just being a foreign face there more for show because the government requires it, than actually expected to teach people.
The large majority of teachers in the city are based within schools. Again, the variety of the work available is great. When I started teaching in 2001, I was based in an all girls’ government school. I had 27 classes a week with up to sixty students per class. Often there were not enough desks in the classroom, the girls knew very little English, and I was faced with stony expressions and very little desire to learn. On top of the 27 hours of teaching I had to mark (and usually complete) the worksheets each girl was expected to do in every class. That’s roughly 1600 worksheets. Basically this adds up to very long hours, very poor pay, absolutely no job satisfaction and just generally a horrific experience. I lasted a sum total of 3 weeks and 2 days in this position...just long enough to get my wages and run.
There are also quite a lot of people who do only corporate work. They go from place to place offering seminars to different companies. I have had next to no experience of this type of teaching so don’t really know the details. From talking to friends though, I’ve learnt that it generally involves a great deal of planning and travelling around, and you can often end up just being a foreign face there more for show because the government requires it, than actually expected to teach people.
The large majority of teachers in the city are based within schools. Again, the variety of the work available is great. When I started teaching in 2001, I was based in an all girls’ government school. I had 27 classes a week with up to sixty students per class. Often there were not enough desks in the classroom, the girls knew very little English, and I was faced with stony expressions and very little desire to learn. On top of the 27 hours of teaching I had to mark (and usually complete) the worksheets each girl was expected to do in every class. That’s roughly 1600 worksheets. Basically this adds up to very long hours, very poor pay, absolutely no job satisfaction and just generally a horrific experience. I lasted a sum total of 3 weeks and 2 days in this position...just long enough to get my wages and run.
These days life is a little bit easier. We begin our day at 6.30 am, with a reasonably relaxed breakfast and shower (well relaxed by my usual 10 minute bed to door dash standards), before taking an 8 minute stroll to work. We get to work at about 7.20 and have to be ready to stand outside the classroom with the students for morning assembly, this includes singing the national anthem and the school song, mercifully teachers are not expected to join in. Classes then start at 8.00, break at 9.00-9.15, lunch at 11.05-12.00, break at 13.50-14.00, with regular classes then finishing at 3.00. Two days a week teachers also teach the extra ‘homework’ classes for those students paying for them. School then closes at 16.00.As a grade one ‘homeroom’ teacher, I am expected to teach English, Science, Maths, Phonics and Conversation to 6-7 year olds. I teach my own class for sixteen 55 minute periods a week and am sometimes required to teach small conversation groups from other classes (though this has yet to happen this year). For an example of the standard of grade one at Bangkok Christian College; we are currently covering animals in Science and the students are now expected not only to be able to name animals, they must also talk about where they live, what they eat and classify them as mammals, reptiles, fish, amphibians or birds and talk about their life-cycles, all in a foriegn language. This is very different from anything I was learning as a six year old!!
If you’re lucky, you can be approached to teach privately after school. This is a pretty good money earner and means you can make nearly half your salary again for just an extra hours work a day. I teach for between one and two extra hours a day, which makes for a pretty long day but is worth it, especially as it’s really rewarding working one on one with students who are having difficulties.
Teaching is just about the only job that I can see myself doing long term. As long as it is interspersed with regular diving breaks that is!! You get great job satisfaction, constant variety, long paid hols, decent pay for living in a tropical place (if you’re lucky). I’m not going to mention all the lesson planning, marking, poster and worksheet making!!
The pictures are of my students pretending to be good and actually do some work.
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