Ajarn Forum Highlights

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. ...

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." ...

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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