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    by Published on 25th January 2010  Number of Views: 267 
    Categories:
    1. Louis' Front Page Comment
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    This is Ajarn Forum the longest established forum dedicated to living and teaching in Thailand.
    As the official forum of Ajarn.com, we are the community arm of a site which has become synonymous as the definitive teaching in Thailand guide.

    Regulars will definitely have noticed some changes, and this is down to a very recent upgrade to new software and a definite need to refresh the look of the site. We now have an extremely good content mangement system in place which will allow us to archive and showcase the best of the forum (as picking through the flame wars can sometimes be an emotional prospect). This means if something profound is posted on page 13 it doesn't matter as we can now put it on the front page.
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    by Published on 6th February 2010  Number of Views: 115 
    Categories:
    1. Personal Stories
    2. Staffroom Politics
    3. Thailand
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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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    by Published on 27th January 2010
    Categories:
    1. Personal Stories

    Sorry about not posting on here for a while, but I gave up teaching a couple of months back. I felt a bit sheepish coming here and being among you fine pedagogues. I have just written an article about why I left teaching. I will provide an abridged version here ( for those people too miserable to link) but you can click on the link to read the full thing. I will be interested in any criticisms or comments.

    Three months ago I decided that I no longer wanted to be a teacher in Thailand. I had spent seven years trying to make it in this career, but for most it I just felt like a fraud. The truth is that to be a good teacher you need to have a passion for it; this was something that I just did not have. I knew that it would probably be easy for me to continue my job as a mediocre teacher and keep on collecting the pay checks; many other people do it. I just could not live this way though; life is too short.


    Why I'm Glad to No Longer Be a Crap Teacher in Thailand - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com

    by Published on 20th January 2010  Number of Views: 1174 
    Categories:
    1. Personal Stories
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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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    by Published on 27th January 2010  Number of Views: 359 
    Categories:
    1. Personal Stories
    2. Opinion
    3. Job Hunting
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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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    by Published on 25th January 2010  Number of Views: 267 
    Categories:
    1. Immigration and Legal
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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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    by Published on 25th January 2010
    Categories:
    1. Guides
    2. Job Hunting
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    Regardless of how good the job market seems, it never hurts to make yourself more hirable. There are several ways to do this: show up on time for the interview (ten minutes early is even better); wear dress slacks, a dress shirt, and a necktie; be neat in your appearance (well-groomed hair, SHAVE); and have a teaching portfolio.

    A teaching portfolio? What is that? Simple - it encapsulates your teaching career into one, easy-to-read book. There is nothing worse than interviewing a candidate and watching him/her pull out dog-eared documentation from some shabby-looking satchel for me, that is a black mark against you. If you cannot organize yourself for an interview, how can you organize a class? For those who have been teaching longer than one year, and plan to make teaching a career, a teaching portfolio is essential.
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