Job Discussion Forums

[Peter McAlpine]

Here is the opinion about ELT schools in Bangkok of someone who has been in Thailand teaching English for quite a few years already.

"Unfortunately I wouldn't recomend working in a language school as the salary is poor and the hours expected to work are very high! I actually said to a friend of mine last week I'd never go back to working in a language school and should the situation arise I'd rather return to the U.K. For example, Berlitz school pays a starting salary of 170 baht per lesson!

The only school that has come to mind is Ilingua and I do know of someone working there. The salary is higher and lessons are conducted similar to Berlitz.

I would not recomend any of the schools I have worked at!"

More money can be made in ELT in companies and with private students, I think.

[gecko]

Unfortunately this does seem to be the case in Thailand altough there are some good schools out there. It comes down to the fact that school owners see the schools as being cash cows, they are just getting as much money as they can and they generally don't care about the standard of education. It is funnt to think that in Korea, student fees in language institutes are simmilar to those in Bankok and sometimes less, yet the schools pay lower wages. But as is the case with Thailand, there are too many foreigners there that are willing to take the low paying jobs so the same thing goes on and on.

[sigmoid]

In my opinion, if you want to teach English in Thailand, then you should teach at a university that will pay you a basic monthly salary for 12 - 15 hours per week of teaching. This leaves you free in the evenings and weekends to do outside work and private classes. Also, the university itself will often provide opportunities to make extra cash.