August, 2023 to July, 2024.
Working in Thailand: English Teacher
Teacher Lei, in Thailand.
I know. This post is insane. This time of my life is mad. And even madder is the fact that I will try to compact these 12 months which I worked as a paid teacher in Thailand, in one single post. Yep! But that’s probably because I am so done with it, that I want to be over with it as shortest as possible. Here we go…
Everything is crazy for me here. Life back in society; renting a place for myself for the very first time in my life; even the smallest things, like buying cleaning products, kitchen utensils… a stove?
I wanted for a shorter period, something like three months, or six months tops. But it just doesn’t work that way. It is more than just the school contract. I could leave earlier, let it unfinished, but what keeps me here for all this time is costs. It costs me a lot to start this “life”. As I mentioned before, I had to borrow a lot of money from my sister in Brazil, and I will pay her back. The first costs are for renting the apartment and the deposit; food for about 30 days; appropriate clothes to wear at school; small things for the house; and all the documents which need to be processed and sent here from Brazil. My first payment will be due only after one month work, when I can finally start to take care of myself.
But I will still have many more expenses. The new laptop is one month salary; I must pay for work permit and Visa-runs (a nightmare in Thailand), and that’s a lot of money; quite a few cooking stuff (I tried to keep to a minimum, but still…); and of course, I must keep feeding myself and paying my bills. With my salary, and being extremely cautious with my expenses (I am always on saving mode), life is just manageable, so I can keep saving for my future travels.
Another thing is eating healthy in Thailand. Even though you can find some good and tasty vegetarian options, for me, it is always way easier to cook for myself, so I can control my protein portions better, and be able to have a big variety of everything. I must say I never expected that fresh food would be a relatively expensive item in Thailand. And if this is, you can imagine for the rest, the more “western” items. It is not easy to keep in shape here.
My apartment is new built e quite modern. I think it is safe to say that it doesn’t really follow Thai building’s structure. But in somehow, neither follow really western standards. So, it is somewhere in between. I confess that at first, I was a bit disappointed, as I wanted to live as a local, in a traditional Thai house; but with time the apartment grew on me. It is easier to clean (being very small and all tiles, from floor to ceiling); it keeps unexpected and undesirable living beings away (at least more than in a house); and when the rain season came, and I see how many houses suffered with the floods, I was quite happy for living on the fifth floor.
At school things are… complicated. The Educational System in Thailand sucks! As someone who studied to be a teacher, and care not only about the students and adults they are to be, but for them as children, I cannot bare teaching in a country with such terrible Educational System. Therefore, I wouldn’t recommend to anyone to become a teacher in Thailand. There, I said it.
Just to give you a small example, regarding the whole system: the children arrive to school at 7 a.m. and depart around 5 p.m. Throughout the whole day, they might have about one hour, and I repeat, one hour of free time. Only one hour. That’s between lunch time and two other short breaks. That’s it. The rest of the time they are either having proper lessons, or even before the lessons start, and that’s early morning, they have “something else” to do regarding the school.
That is terrible. Just terrible. To deny these children to have a healthy childhood is a horrible thing to do. It should be considered a crime! How can you steal this so much precious, important moment of a child’s life? They will be adults for the rest of their lives, but their childhood, this moment right now will never come back.
Going a bit deeper, more specifically to the school where I am employed, I must say that the lack or organization it shocks me. I know I can be a bit strict when it comes to schedules and all, but a minimum of order and a proper routine doesn’t harm anyone. It seems that the school personnel are uncapable of doing anything in advance or let you know of anything in advance. They say it is a “Thai thing”, it is cultural. I cannot stand it.
The last point about the school personnel I would like to mention is how little they like the foreigner teachers. Through my travels all around Thailand, I go to the conclusion that Thai people in general are extremely kind and generous, to a level that edge naivety, and it seems even childish. They always try to help you with everything they can, with all their breath and effort. It is truly overwhelming. Almost every Thai person is like that. With the exception of the school personnel. It seems that, almost everyone working within the schools, or even related to it, has something against foreigner teachers. The reasons can be many, and it was even discussed before the possibility of “bad past experiences”. But as Tony Stark would say “resentment is corrosive” – and we must move on.
Add to that the ridiculous amount of paper work you must apply to become a teacher and you will have a full tray of reasons to not become a teacher here. Most of this paper work does not making any sense. Actually, the lack of common sense in Thailand is scary. There, I think this is enough for you to not consider to become an English teacher here. If you still decide for it, that’s on you!
I make friends with some of the other foreign teachers. Elvira, or simply Ellie, is my bestie and she is from Russia. I couldn’t believe I found her here, in Phanat Nikhom, among all this chaos and insanity. We have lots in common, mostly our way of thinking and feeling about so many things. Ben, from Iran, lives nearby my apartment, and he kindly offer for me to come with him every morning to school, and every afternoon back home, which is great! For a while, I was simply hitchhiking in both times, which is OK here in Thailand (I still do it every weekend to go to the markets, and it works beautifully), but it is nice not having to do one extra thing every day. Plus, together with Ellie, Ben is my closest friend. There are also some other wonderful souls here, like Hera, also from Iran; Polina (nickname Barbie) and her husband Alek (nickname not Ken), Paul, Marina and Ivan, all from Russia; Lydia, from China; Mel, from Philippines; Jackie and Rian, from South Africa; among many other teachers I meet here and there; teachers who come and go.
The best thing in this whole crazy situation I put myself in are my students. I truly believe that, if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t make it. They are such a huge surprise for me! I was so not expecting to love them so much; even to need them so much, in order to keep going. And I say that because I know that if I hadn’t had them for my students at first, I would’ve probably had gone crazy. (Yes, yes, more than I already am). They are so fabulous, kind, sweet, generous and incredible! They are little genius, with hearts of gold! I am so overwhelmed by their love, every day, that I can’t stop talking about them to all the other teachers. I am constantly repeating to everybody that I’ve got the best students in the school. They are seven years old, what makes me a second-grade teacher, or P2, as we call it here. Every day I am covered in stickers and love. The stickers I stick in my bathroom wall (to the delight of my students, when I take photos and show them); and the love I keep in my heart. They also, constantly, give me love letters, drawings, totems, and the most creative things done by children you can ever imagine! I keep them all. Some I stick to the walls of my apartment. It looks gorgeous! My students are so talented that sometimes not even my eyes can believe it!
But that was only for my first 7 months here (apart from the 2 months spread holidays). Now, I have got new students, first graders, meaning they are six years old. Unfortunately, my connection with them is not as great as my previous students, which makes me not so motivated to come to school and teach every day. Plus, these students are very naughty, and it is a struggle to all the teachers to deal with them.
I am trying to keep my worries and concerns to a minimum, as I am leaving in a few months.
10 Years Around the World 