Teacher Required at Mahathai Boys' School.

[mrpunch]

Mahathai Boys' school is urgently seeking a native or fluent English teacher to teach 21 periods a week.

Our school is a large private school in the centre of Khon Kaen and is seeking a native English teacher who has an aptitude for working with younger students. Starting salary will be around ฿30,000 but there is a strong possibility for a contract that will continue for a number of years. Class sizes will be around 15-18 students per group.

We welcome applications from anyone with a desire to encourage and motivate children to better their English.

Please contact krujamie(at)hotmail.com for more details.

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[fceligoj]

Here is the interesting point in all of this and is not explained to better inform all.  Mahathai is a tuition-based school, which charges about 15,000 baht per term per student and they have to pass an entrance test.  If they don't pass, then if the parents want to have the boy go to the school, BIG tea money.  Now once accepted, these students have to pay an extra tuition to go to foreign language classes such as English.  Four years ago it was 1,000 baht per term or 2,000 baht per school year.  So if there are 15-18 students per class and they go to the English class about 4 times per week, the school makes extra income of 150,000 to 180,000 baht.  So for this puny salary of 30,000 baht per month and most likely only for the months that the student is in school, it costs the school about 300,000 baht and the parents have to foot 2/3 of the bill in extra charges.  Makes teaching English a cheap proposition, and from direct knowledge, the students come out ill prepared but it doesn't show up until they go to an upper echelon university like KKU.  The student I know is having problems with English so their grade average at KKU is around a C- where in the primary and high school attended, they were an A/B+ graded student in language!


So unless the parents are wealthy and can afford the best private schools, it is still a better solution than going to any of the government run (public) schools in KKC, where the low class (poor) people send their children.

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[Rc27]

Just back from a visa run in nong khai where I befriended a single dad and his son on the train back to KK for me and BKK for them. The lad was 8 and spoke perfect english with an english accent. It shocked me and even more shocking was the fact he only attended a normal non fee paying school. The secret the father said " from 3 he read to him before bed every night"

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[fceligoj]

Boy, Rc27, you hit the nail on the head!  You are absolutely correct.  Unless there is support for the children at home where they can easily speak and listen along with their parents English or any other language that is not their basic language, the children will have a difficult time trying to build confidence in a 2nd language.


I am trying to assist a young girl who has almost 14 years of a 2nd language, English, prepare for the entrance test to a medical school.  This year everyone who wants to go to a medical school has to travel to Bangkok to take the test.


But like I told my wife, the girl is alone at home.  Yes, her mother speaks very little English even though she is a teacher (not of English) and her father none.  So all conversations at home are in Thai.  Now her mother is concerned that her daughter is NOT prepared to pass the test.


Too little, too late.


The schools can only provide the basic English foundation for the students.  It requires significant support in the home just like any other subject.


From my perspective, I consider the test hard.  We are working with test examples.  A majority of the test is listening and responding with the correct response from four possible answers. But even the subject matter is very difficult.  What do normal children in Thailand know what the English saying "Sexual Abuse" means?  ZERO!  Even the mother doesn't know what it means.  Or, in the paragraph read by the moderator on the disk, it says "I am tired".  Then in the possible answers, the correct one is "I am worn out."  So you ask the student, do you know what "worn out" means?  Response:  "no".  On and On.  The test is prepared and spoken by persons who are not Thai, but very fluent in English; i.e., Singaporean, American, etc.


Unless the children go to an International school and have at least 75% of all subjects presented in English, plus at least some English is spoken at home, they are at a very distinct disadvantage.

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[screamer]

And they are expected to learn a lot more about grammar, eg subjunctive clauses, pluperfects, past imperfects etc than I ever had to in school in the UK.


If it wasn't for French and Latin I wouldn't have a clue.

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[fceligoj]

Screamer, you were lucky then.  Back in '60-'62, in America it was required to get all that crap then you had to conjugate the sentences too.  When I look back, I am not sure that it was of any real help, that is, unless your were to become an English teacher or a writer. I sure didn't want to become one.

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[screamer]

Here in the UK I saw a 9 year old's homework and couldn't understand a word of it.


Not knowing these things never harmed my English performance.


Last year I did a 7 week Thai language course in BKK and none of these things were ever mentioned.

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[fceligoj]

Screamer, here is the sample test that I have used in support of the student getting prepared for the English exam.  Your English comprehension and listening ability seems to have to be at the university level before you even go to the university.  I doubt if many Thai students have even seen many of the words used let alone how to use them to complete the thought process.





 

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[Rc27]

The test sounds awful.
Is it multiple choice, if so what were the other choices to the worn out question?

How long does the girl have before the test and how much free time had she got before the test?

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[screamer]

Then there is the problem of American v English.


My Thai language teacher last year could speak reasonable English and could easily understand me but she said she had a lot of difficulty understanding Americans.


There was a murder case in Italy a few years ago and they had to get an American to English translator.

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[fceligoj]

That is really wild!  Never had heard of that.


I know my wife and many of the Thais who know at least a bit of English, say Americans speak too fast.

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[screamer]

I remember having an argument in an airline office in BKK during the ash cloud period with an American.


He was trying to tell me that to order a beer Chang you have to pronounce Chang like a Thai, "not like we say in English, Cheehhaaanng" (sorry, can't even come close to writing phonetically how he pronounced it).


I told him that in English we pronounce Chang exactly the same as a Thai and that he was speaking with a very strong American accent.
He just wouldn't have it, trying to tell me, a neutral-accented Englishman, how to pronounce it having no idea himself that he spoke with a VERY strong American accent.


Speed etc is something that gets me angry.


When talking among our own we tend to speak quickly and several foreigners have commented that they couldn't understand a word we were saying.


However, when talking to a foreigner why can't people realise that you should speak slowly and clearly to give them a fighting chance of understanding what you are saying? Pure ignorance?


Even some TV reporters interview a foreigner by talking very quickly using all sorts of colloquialisms. Unbelievable.

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[Windy]

I remember having an argument in an airline office in BKK during the ash cloud period with an American.


He was trying to tell me that to order a beer Chang you have to pronounce Chang like a Thai, "not like we say in English, Cheehhaaanng" (sorry, can't even come close to writing phonetically how he pronounced it).


I told him that in English we pronounce Chang exactly the same as a Thai and that he was speaking with a very strong American accent.
He just wouldn't have it, trying to tell me, a neutral-accented Englishman, how to pronounce it having no idea himself that he spoke with a VERY strong American accent.


Speed etc is something that gets me angry.


When talking among our own we tend to speak quickly and several foreigners have commented that they couldn't understand a word we were saying.


However, when talking to a foreigner why can't people realise that you should speak slowly and clearly to give them a fighting chance of understanding what you are saying? Pure ignorance?


Even some TV reporters interview a foreigner by talking very quickly using all sorts of colloquialisms. Unbelievable.

Where I live you have to pronounce it as charng, with an 'r' between the 'a' and the 'n'. If you say chang they do not understand you.  Off topic, sorry.

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[screamer]

Never heard that one.

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