Job Discussion Forums

[MDDude]

Hello,

I am a US citizen taking the CELTA in Bangkok this fall (October). I have some questions about teaching in Thailand. My main concerns are all the logistics involved (i.e. VISA and all that). My nightmare scenario is being turned away at the airport or something like that. So:

- VISA requirements say I need to provide my itinerary for exiting the country. Well, I don't really plan to leave (at least not immediately). Should I book a return flight and then just cancel it once I get my VISA?

- When I complete the CELTA, what happens if I can't find a job before my VISA runs out?

- Do I get a work permit when a job is offered to me, or before?

- Is it possible to live in Bangkok, take Thai language lessons, and a martial arts course, on a teacher's salary?

- When booking lodging for my CELTA course, I am considering telling the hotel I want to stay for 40 days. Is it wise to book this long a stay via the internet? Should I only book ~ 2 weeks, and then extend if I find the place suitable? (FYI, two places I am considering are Wendy House and Kritthai Mansion).

- What is the preferred way to get money from a US savings account into a Thai account (baht)?

- Do you recommend getting health insurance from a US provider? I have seen some services that offer health insurance for ex-pats. Is it worth it?

Thanks!

[keymistress]

Hello MDDude,

I'm guessing you're taking CELTA at ECC Thai with your choice of accomodations? I'm opting for Wendy House because they have breakfast, Wifi and 25% discount for ECC Thai's students. I am exploring the option to rent an apartment (waiting for a friend to introduce his Thai friend) and hopefully get an even lower price!

The 25% discount for Wendy House is only applicable if you stay there for 4 weeks, so I'm not sure extension works that way.

I am covered by my local insurance provider. As a financial advisor, I'd recommend you read through the clause of your health insurance from your US provider to see if it covers overseas (note that some may not cover if you're overseas for an extended period so you'll need to check on that too). By and large, it's always more straightforward to purchase a term insurance plan at the country of residence to ensure you'll be covered.

[Master Shake]

Hi MMDude

-Dont worry about the visa exit plans. Just tell them that you will leave via a land border or that you will book your flight later.

-You will find a job with a CELTA, no problem. Take a job where the other teachers have BA's and CELTAs. This way, you are less likely to be working with a bunch of shady characters (of which there is no shortage in Thailand!).

-You will apply for a work permit after you find a job. You may have to do a visa run in order to get a non-immigrant B visa.

- Is it possible to live in Bangkok, take Thai language lessons, and a martial arts course, on a teacher's salary? Yes

-Just bring cash with you but hide it well. Don't convert it into baht at the airport - terrible exchange rate. A place called Super Rich (near Siam Central BTS) has better rates. It can be tricky to set up a bank account without a job; usually your employer helps you do it.

-Any decent job will include health insurance.

Hope this helps.

Good luck!

-Shake

[sheikxhoni]

I might have a few ideas for you. BTW I came from Reston Virginia in late January. You might consider pricing out flights to either HCMC Vietnam or Phenom Pen Cambodia. Maybe you can save some money, see some other places while you are in SE Asia, and take the cheap busses overland to Bangkok. That's what I did.

BTW I am considering taking the CELTA in Bangkok in October too. I teach at a large Bangkok public school and school is out (without pay) for most of October. I started the CELTA in HCMC city and dropped out - but it was great. Anything called "TEFL" should be viewed with suspicion but CELTA is a solid brand name that is guaranteed to make you a skilled teacher in four weeks.

When I came by bus from Phenom Pen no one asked me any questions. After 90 days I took a visa run to Vientiane, Laos after as most of use have to do. There are many services for "visa runs" here.

As someone else said, your employer gets your work permit after you are hired - but they seem pretty damned lazy about it. I'm still waiting after two months and I ask them about it once a week.

Thai lessons are offered all over and probably by your employer. Some include that in your benefits. I have seen little opportunities for martial arts schoolls here although my dive master in Schanunikville Cambodia trained every afternoon aftter diving with a "master" there - so it can be done at a very serious level.

Lodging is an interesting question. Wendy's sounds great. I'm jealous. But I live near my school in an outlying area. Lots of people live in a "room" (meaning no kitchen) and mine is nice and costs $90 a month (3000 Baht). When you work that is what you might want. I stayed one month in a guest house for 22,000 Baht ($665) and it was great until I realized I was paying a hell of a lot more than I needed to.

Unless you need a lot of money for some reason just use an ATM to withdrawn form your account. The fee is high here but the convenience can't be beat. Ignore that guy who said to bring a lot of cash and just be careful. There is no way to be careful if you do that. In the long term if you want to buy a car or something then you do a SWIFT transfer of funds from bank to bank. No problem. Your bank will explain.

Your employer will probably pay you just as we do it in American by transferring your pay directly to your bank account and you will get their AT card. So, don't be in a big hurry about a bank account because they will probably tell you which bank they want you to use and maybe walk in with you to help you open the account. That's what happened in my case. But there is no requirement to work before opening an account except to have a small amount of money as the inital deposit - only about $15 or $20 in Baht, as I recall.

I have great international health insurance because I am retired form the Dept of State. I bought extra insurance in Dominican Republic and recommend it because that saves money and doesn't cost much - but so far have not bought any local insurance. My employer said it was part of their benefits but, again, they have not mentioned it since. I think that is common.

Let me say this too: I spent $1,350 at a Cleveland hospital and got a crappy 15 minute examine and tests from a single blood test. Here I took my girlfriend to the Bangkok Hospital (fabulous) and for about $850 I had a big mole removed after an examine by a dermatologist and two nurses. My girlfriend and I were both tested for STDs. She had a physical that included a eye examine, dental examine, hearing examine, pap test, mamogram, stressed heart test, sonograms, and a dozen other tests. The only examine I got in Cleveland but she didn't here was the prostate examine. Honest! We got four medicines and met three specialist in addition to the general practitioner. We both got a coupon for a free lunch in their huge cafeteria and I got a ride in a van to the dermatologist in another building one block away. All that for $500 LESS than a crappy physical examine cost me in the USA. Don't even think about purchaing health insurance in America. That is the problem with medicine in America and it will probably cost more to buy it than just paying cash for most things you might need here. If you have friends with health problems and you would enjoy having them visit you, just offer to compare prices for any service they might consider getting in the USA. They will hop on the next plane to visit you.

[arzupancic]

MMDude & keymistress. A friend and I are were originally going to take our CELTA in Europe, but decided we couldn't afford the transportation there and then to the east- so it looks like the Oct. 5 ECC CELTA. Looks like a pretty good gig. I have read that ECC is a tough employer, so you will have to bite your lip and drown some frustrations in a beer- but in the end its a CELTA for 800$ and a guaranteed job for a year to get you some resume experience. I have been looking around for accommodations and most of these places look like sardine cans. When I lived in Florence & Madrid as a student, I found a bunch of room mates (6 in Florence and 5 in Madrid) which opened up the door to some bigger, and affordable places. Lots of 4 and 5 bedroom houses available on the ex-pat forums for Bangkok. I don't know what rental agreements are like in Thailand, but they seem pretty flexible. Maybe just take a place for a week and then talk to some classmates about taking a house for a month. Little more space. Regardless, I'll let you know if we decide for sure, we were planning on figuring it out by next weekend. Maybe we will have to grab a drink and some cheap food in a couple months. Good look with everything.

--Tony Z

[sheikxhoni]

Tell me more about this statement I read on your post: but in the end its a CELTA for 800$ and a guaranteed job for a year

I only saw a price of $1,600. Maybe there is more than one CELTA offered in BK on Oct 5th or maybe I need to see all the offers. Tell me more. What school are you talking about?

Thanks for this help and I can help you in other ways since I am here now.

[MDDude]

I only see the $1600, also. However, if you sign up early, you can get an early-bird discount and get $160 off, so you can potentially pay just $1440. NOTE: The online credit-card payment system on ECC's site doesn't seen to work. It fails for me on step 3. I did notify the payment company and ECC to let them know the problem. ECC has been quite prompt in answering my questions and gave me an alternate way to pay them.

Thanks for the comments everyone. Two points/questions:

1) Regarding ATMs, will ATMs in Thailand work with a US bank account? I thought they would not. My main concern is how do I get sizable emergency amount of money into the country safely and conveniently (sizable = I don't want to carry it around in cash).

2) I did consider staying somewhere for a week and then looking around to see where else to stay. My worry about that is that once the CELTA starts, I really won't be in the mood to house hunt. I might just bite the bullet and go with Wendy House for 4 weeks.

[arzupancic]

I was talking about ECC. They have a class and teach program that can be applied for, at the end of which you work for one of their schools for a year, and they refund half of your tuition.

[sheikxhoni]

I was quite surprised to figure out that Thailand has two choices for the CELTA course and both are offered in the same cities. ECC as well as the International House have CELTA in Bangkok, Chaing Mai and Phuket. In this case - unlike that awful TEFL program in Ban Phe - the product (CELTA) is guaranteed to be good, but I wonder what the differences are between the schools and their facilities? I opened up another thread about that but if any one has an opinion, put it here too.

I plan to visit the location of both schools and maybe ask questions before I decide. I have the advantage of living here but I am teaching here now too so I don't want the discount from ECC to teach for them after the CELTA . So, that makes the two schools equal as far as I can tell now.

COMMENTS - -

[Master Shake]

[sheikxhoni]

Here is how to use the ATM machine with best cost effectiveness: Take out as much as you can - within reason, of course - in order to save money. The ATM fee will be 150 B (about $4.50) whether you take out 1000 B ($30 US) or 20,000 B (about $600 us).

This applies to everyone. It is better to take more and be careful with it as opposed to running up to a machine everything you need a few dollars. This is true anywhere.

Here is why: If you take out 1000 B then your fee is 15%, but if you take out the maximum at one time your fee is only three quarters of one percent - .075%.

And you should have your own bank account "back home" instead of trusting friends or relatives. We are big people now and don't ask mommy to let us have our money. As long as you know your own account number you have the information you need for your bank in Thailand to trabsfer money from that account to an account here. They handle that for you. No problem.

[Pauleddy]

Some banks still don't take the 150b ATM fee.

The Government Savings Bank ATMs (Pink colour) should not take the fee.

The UOB bank (some kinda Jap or Korean bank) does not take the fee.

All of the main Thai banks (SCB, MIlitary, Kasikorn, Farmers) DO take the fee. This is a relatively new idea to fleece us. Dont forget that yr USA or UK bank also takes an excahnge fee and a transaction fee. U could pay 3 fees!

The LP is correct. If you must take money, take big bucks out. The fee is still 150b (3 pounds, 5 dollars)

P Ed

[Master Shake]

Sound complicated. Especially when you need money and there are no pink ATM's around. And when you finally do find a pink ATM at the end of a dark alley, you'll take out, what, 20,000 baht to avoid paying a high percentage fee? Also, you'll have to look into what fee your bank back in the US will charge you for the foreign ATM transaction. Could end up being a very expensive 'convenience.'

As for the bank transfer: You think your bank back in the States will send money if some Thai bank calls them and says "I have customer Mr. John Smith sitting in front of me. Give me $10,000 from account XXXXXXX kaa." I would think you'd have to arrange the transfer from the USA end. But perhaps this could work, sheikxhoni, if you really do have no friends or relatives.

[Pauleddy]

That's why I said in my post that yr UK or US bank takes 1 or 2 fees (exchange, transaction, etc.)

It's not complicated: there are no pink machines in dark alleys that I know of. In fact, most of them are in the 7-11 stores.

It depends on you. I have lived here quite a few years, and resent the fact that main Thai banks just started taking 150b on any volume of cash.
Those of us who are not keen on being ripped off have started to find GSB or UOB machines on principle. I am not alone, and there are several threads on different sites about this, with people successfully reporting back about "good" ATMs.

I know that there are many newbies/not-yet-arriveds who read on here. I am only attempting to inform...not to make or prove any point. I couldn't care if people want to waste money. It's their money.

[sheikxhoni]

I have only been here since January and just learned something very important to me. I plan to find those pink ATMs and the UOB ATMs now and use them religiously. Thanks Pauleddy. Valuable to know.

The fee here in Thailand is too high. People involved with the tourism industry have complained (in newspapers) about how it nicks the tourists who they want to be nice too. But the other fees at your home end are a different story. Find out about that before you leave but most likely the other features of your bank - location, history, etc - are more imporrtant which is why banks can nick you at the home end. But that has nothing to do with Thailand.

The safety and convenience of ATM is so great it is worth paying some fees but it is also smart to do what you can to keep fees down. If you give an old fashioned travelers check to a restaurant these days they don't know what to do any more.

But this thread is not just about ATMs.