Dream of Siam

Many people who want to move to Thailand and live there end up teaching English as a foreign language. On this page I give 10 reasons why this might not be a good idea. In this future I will be posting some more positive reasons why teaching English is a good thing, and there are also some plus points at the end of this article.

Introduction

So you've fallen in love with Thailand and decided to get on the next flight. Only one problem, what do you do for a living? Many choose teaching English as the line of least resistance. However, in my opinion the easiest option is seldom the best. While I have huge respect for dedicated teachers (and I was one for 7 years in UK), I don't believe that teaching English in Thailand is a good choice - for most people - for a number of reasons . In this article I look at ten good reasons why the majority should shy away from teaching English in Thailand. Mostly I am considering the situation for Thai schools – I don't believe anyone in their right mind would want to teach in a language school as there is very little upside over a school (a little more money) and lots of downsides (weekend working, longer hours, shorter holidays).

1) Poor pay

This is the number one reason for not teaching English in Thailand in my opinion. Currently monthly salaries are around 35,000 Baht - with many institutions offering far less. While you can survive in Thailand on this I don't recommend it. It doesn't really leave you enough to enjoy the fine things on offer in Thailand. After all, the a significant reason for going to Thailand is to have a better lifestyle than you could have in the West. You want to be able to have a nice place to live, travel within and outside of Thailand and enjoy the various leisure pursuits on offer in Thailand.

You also need to think of the future - your retirement fund, your family and other future commitments - perhaps you plan to buy some land and build a house. The English teacher's salary just doesn't cut it - especially when you think medium to long term. Yes you can supplement your income through various schemes but then you end up working all hours. If you are going to do those sort of hours you might as well be in the West - and get paid a heck of a lot more for it.

2) Limited career progression

Career progression is also limited in the English teaching profession in Thailand. Your boss is always going to be Thai. Although you are needed you will always be seen as "the farang" and you will never be perceived as "as good as a Thai” by the Thai staff members. This is just the Thai mentality. You might be able to go up a couple of notches in terms of position but don't expect a significant increase in pay. By and large there will be few opportunities to enhance your qualifications and skill set. By the way, if you ever return to the West your years spent as an English teacher in Thailand will count for very little if you want to enter mainstream teaching. Further, if you want to break into another career good luck - your time spent teaching is more likely to be viewed as a black-hole rather than a positive. Yes, you can try to put a positive spin on your time in Thailand, but you will need to convince people who will be highly sceptical of you and your experience. It may even be you will struggle to get any kind of decent job with "English teacher, Thailand" on your CV. Remember, Thailand doesn't have the best reputation in the world!

3) Limited facilities and resources at your disposal

In most Thai schools, apart from the better private schools and International schools you will find the facilities available to you quite modest by Western standards. The facilities available in UK currently are quite staggering. I have constantly been astounded by the facilities available to my kids at their school and the local college is nothing short of staggering. The library alone at the college has a state of the art network of over a 100 PCs. I didn't have equivalent facilities at my University! Many state schools in the UK have excellent language and computer labs, science facilities and sports facilities such as all-weather pitches, swimming pools and gyms. The local secondary school also has multiple fully-equipped music rooms, with keyboards, DJ equipment, art rooms and performing arts studios specially equipped for stage craft and dance. It is quite impressive to see the resources at the disposal of schools in UK these days - despite what you might read in the press! You won't find facilities like this outside of the International schools or the very
best private Thai schools in Thailand. If you are located in the provinces you will likely find the facilities even more basic.

4) The Thai educational system is broken

Virtually everyone who works in the Thai education system admits it's broken (apart from the Thais). While most Thais will publicly state that Thai schools and universities are the best in the world, if you gave your average Thai the choice between a Thai university and a Western university they would 99% jump at the chance of going to a Western university - whilst never acknowledging that there are problems in their own system. That is typical Thai behaviour. One of the biggest problems is the Thai necessity to preserve face at all costs. This leads to various issues. For example, any teacher pointing out to another teacher (perhaps a Thai boss) that things are not working well or could be done better will cause a huge loss of face to the people concerned. For this reason many problems are left unsolved - they fester and the problems worsen. Likewise, failing a kid in an exam would cause massive loss of face - it's much less hassle to just pass the kid rather than deal with the fallout.

5) You become a cog in the Thai education system

Essentially, you will become a cog in the system - and a broken system at that. Your job will be to assist the school in gaining face as having a foreign teacher is something to show off about - even though English teachers are by and large regarded in a poor light in Thailand (that is an example of Thai logic). It is ironic that most farang teachers are seen as brothel hoppers and uncouth (and many are!), yet at the same time it's a point of pride for Thai schools to have farang teachers!

As a general point I believe you are better served by being aloof from the Thai system rather than becoming enmeshed in it. That is definitely true at a business level, but less true on a personal level, as interacting with Thais can be a great deal of fun.

6) Contracts / work permits / visas

If you become an English teacher you will find your work permit is linked to your employment. It is usually the school you work for that processes your paperwork for your work permit. If the school gets it wrong that can leave you in dire straits with the authorities. Further if you decided to leave employment you need to consider the impact on your work permit. There can also be issues with visas. As a teacher you need to obtain a suitable non-immigrant cat B visa. This is somewhat more laborious to obtain than the various types of visa that are designed for people who don't want to take
up a job in Thailand.

For example a one year non-immigrant cat C is very easy to obtain, whereas a cat-B is somewhat harder as more evidence needs to be provided. You can only apply for a cat B in your home country too. You can also use a wide variety of tourist visas to fill in any gaps that might occur in your stay. Having to get a visa / work permit is a pain as it involves dealing with Thai bureaucracy – not always the best use of your time. This is not a huge problem but it can get awkward being beholden to a Thai school for your work permit – especially if the don't actually do the paperwork correctly (or at all). Don't forget to consider if the school turns out to be a disaster and you want to leave – it's entirely possible the school will get awkward with your paperwork as a way of “encouraging” you to stay until the end of your contract.

7) Lack of flexibility

As an English teacher you are pretty much confined to the school calendar as far as holidays and time off are concerned. If you do work in a school the fact that you actually get a holiday can be considered by those teaching English in a language school as a big bonus. They can only look on with envy. Generally though there is not much flexibility in terms of when you take time off. It will mainly be weekends and school holidays.

8) Lack of freedom

There is very little freedom in teaching English in Thailand. Very often you will be given set books (and often not very good ones at that) to work from. Generally Thais don't like deviation from their carefully crafted world and farangs coming in telling them their books are rubbish and suggesting new and better ways to do things will get short shrift. Your Thai bosses will have their own comfort zone and will not take too kindly to you trying to yank them out of it by introducing new-fangled methods and materials. You are more likely to meet an attitude of "we've done it like this in the past, so we will do it like this in the future". Over time you might get to know the system well enough to get a little leeway into what you teach, but by and large there is not a great deal of freedom to teach what you want.

9) Poor time / reward ratio

This is related to low pay but is subtly different. Other jobs might be low pay in terms of monthly salary - but would require a lot less of your time and energy to achieve the same sort of money.

Anyone who has even taught will know that teaching is no easy option (if you are doing it properly). When you take into account marking, preparation, and extra-curricular activities the work / reward ratio is even poorer than other options.

10) Poor reputation of English teachers in general (and especially with the ladies)

I would actually put this as the number 2 reason why you shouldn't teach English in Thailand (just behind poor pay). The reputation of English teachers in Thailand is pretty much rock bottom. Many teachers won't even admit they are teachers in public! There is good reason for this. Many "undesirable" farangs have made a life for themselves in Thailand and pretty much their only option has been to break into English teaching as a way to extend their stay. English teaching has become the sanctuary of the "lowest common denominator" in Thailand. Not a recommended place to be.

And the good news is...

On the positive side teaching English does allow you to gain a foothold in Thailand, from where you can move onwards and upwards. You can live in-country, find out about Thai ways in a relatively secure environment, learn some Thai (very important) and generally get to start figuring the place out.

If you decide to move in to teaching consider it to be a short term option and in that respect a language school may be a better option as you are more likely to be able to land a shorter contract. Teaching English can also make a useful supplement to other forms of making a living in Thailand, so don't discount it completely.


Conclusion

I believe far too many people jump at the chance of teaching English simply as a way to get into Thailand. If you are serious about making a go of living in Thailand for the longer term I would strongly recommend you consider all your options before committing to teaching English long term.