Ajarn Forum Highlights

After over 6 years if living in Thailand, I must have eaten at hundreds of Thai restaurants. An elite few have made it on to this list. The reason that most are here is down to the sense of wonder they instilled in me. I don't even know some of their names, in those cases all I can do is describe them...others you an find a bit easier.
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Thank you. I am here behind enemy lines to bring you the latest on the TCT test.

Section 1: Very easy. A primary level exam of english grammar. Then technology.
Make sure you study the icons for word, excel, power point and access. This is for Office 2003.
Word art icon, insert text box icon, etc.
Make sure you know "searching for all word documents" is *.doc, for example.

Section 2: Management.
I don't know what this test says. I didnt read the first 80 questions.
From about 80-150 is about classroom management.
Just don't choose the ones that say "blame the student". The other ones I turned the answer paper landcape and tried to spell my name with x's.
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I went on a job interview at a reputable language school a few weeks ago. They allegedly had a number of positions open for English teaching at a government school which had received a special bilingual program grant from the MOE. Not more than 5 minutes into the interview, the subject matter changed from my qualifications and the position for which I was interviewing, into a sales pitch for a culture course being offered at the end of February. Of course, the interviewer exerted the usual pressure of insisting that you couldn't get a WP without having completed the culture course. He kept touting how great his school was in being able to offer the culture course and showed me all the materials that they forward onto the MOE upon their student's completion of the course.
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I timed myself using the cash machine earlier this morning. From the moment I whipped my card from the wallet and approached the machine until I took my cash and walked away. 106 seconds. One minute 46 seconds, and I even took an extra bit of time to check my balance first.

Not bad eh? Which brings me to my point. It's an important point and not an anger management thing, like road rage or trolley rage.
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I just read this article about how Thailand is going to offer free insurance to tourists in order to regain their confidence and get the tourist market back to where it used to be. It sounds good on paper, but am wondering how well the Govt. is going to follow it ( I bet there are going to be a lot of loopholes with this).

"Thailand is continuing to offer insurance coverage worth $10,000 to anyone harmed in riots and demonstrations as it seeks to attract tourists scared off by political turmoil, officials say.

Other carrots range from a waiver on all visa fees to discounts on airline landing fees.

"The measures are to support the tourism industry. The situation has been recovering but the businesses still need help," said Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn earlier this week."
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I am currently in my third year of teaching young learners at international schools in Bangkok. I don't have a teaching qualification from my home country, so my options to break into top-tier schools are somewhat limited. A few months ago, I decided to register with one of the international school search firms. There are several (easily found with Google). The application process was relatively painless, cost me about 7000 baht to get in their search database system. Once you're in, you can search for openings worldwide.

There are two job fairs in January in Bangkok, and one more coming up in March. As a newbie, here are a few impressions of what one of these job fairs is like. We were told that there were about 450 candidates teachers, and it looked like about 100 schools. Not sure how many real openings were on offer. We were told that typically about 50% of candidates receive a job offer at the fair. Obviously, some offers might materialize in subsequent days as school needs and openings change.
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Yesterday a student of mine came to me with a speech she was supposed to present at the opening ceremony of our town's Tomato Festival. Written by her Private teacher it was the usual concoction of over formal English with inapproriate long words. The student, new to my school, has been studying with this private tutor for 2 years which probably explains why she is 23rd out of 24th in my M3. anyway I sat with her and simplified the whole thing so at least she could read it and wouldn't lose her face.
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So I have this Sundays gig at the Andrew Biggs Academy which I think is a fine little school down on Rama the Fourth. The materials are fun and the students are motivated and bright. The atmosphere is casual and as laid back as a new language school scrambling to get everything together prolly can be.

So I set up in my class and met my students and got started. They've got one area with a huge room that can be divided into three with sliding folding room divider thingies. They do funny aerobics stuff with the kids when they open it up.

So I'm teaching in one of these half-rooms. Not five minutes into my lesson it becomes clear that I'm being overshadowed, somehow.
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My son's Thai passport needs renewing, however, I'm a single parent(foreign). His mother disappeared 4years ago which I reported to the tourist police.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, you need both signatures or one with a letter ov consent from the parent who cannot appear. I don't know where his mother is....and well, after all this time I really don't care.
The MFA were reluctant to help at first and the info they gave me..., they could've done when I wrote to them 1 1/2 yrs ago. By the end of the day, they had helped me a lot and I got the passport.

If you are in the same position.....this is what happened to me!
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(Bangkok) Phil has commented about Thai reluctance to respond to emails...here's a possible solution:

NOT too long ago, a magazine in Manhattan invited me, by e-mail, to interview for a job. After meeting with me, the managing editor and the director of human resources asked me to take home the standard editing test and return it ASAP. I dutifully obliged.

And then I waited. One day. Two days. A week. A month. Two months. Three … well, you get the picture.

Not only was there no word on whether I would be offered the job — nobody at the magazine even bothered to e-mail me to say that my completed test had been received!

Back in the good old days, people used to duck your phone calls. Or just not return them. But in this, the electronic era, a whole new brand of disdain has come into vogue. The age of the e-snub is upon us.

I have grown weary of this kind of “dissing.” People who seem to go blind, mute and limp when all you are seeking are a few keystrokes in reply. Prospective employers whose computers appear to crash when asked to give something resembling a definitive answer, one way or the other.

Annoying e-mail messages plague all of us, but those of a more legitimate nature are surely deserving of a simple reply. Unfortunately, basic e-courtesy is in short supply. So, having been burned in the past by e-boors, I decided that enough was enough. The magazine had left me in limbo. I was going to have my revenge.

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