Help on moving to thailand please

[oddball]

Originally Posted by kingwilly

Sorry I gotta intrude a little here.

If your wife is a trained teacher then she can work in international schools - most wages are between 100,000 baht -200,000 baht. not the 30,000 baht as mentioned for TEFL teachers.

Talking to a friend who spent a lot of years working as a teacher in Thailand , he said the wage 'Norm' is in the 30,000-60,000B range , the only international school he is aware of in Bangkok that pays the wage you suggest , is one very exclusive school for very weathy Thais . Degrees need to be shown and they do investigate them , i think it would help these people considerably if you could name a few of these high paying establishments so that they can continue thier investigative work into the viability of work that will enable them to live on a higher strata should they finally decide to settle in Thailand . Colin

[synthia]

One way to find high-paying international schools would be to find the names of some prominent Thais and check their biographies. Taksin went to an international school in Chiang Mai, for instance. I did meet a woman who was teaching English at an international school on Phuket for about 85,000 baht. She was an English teacher from Sweden.

Most schools are set up on an American system, expecting the children to learn American spelling, grammar, and usage.

There are internationl school job fairs in the UK, too, and they might have some literature that gives you some guidance.

Thailand, the land of fake documents, has learned to verify educational qualifications the way employers and graduate schools in the US do it. The graduate signs a document allowing release of graduation status to the Thai government, they send it to the institution involved, and the verification goes straight to the government.

[kingwilly]

Originally Posted by oddball

. Degrees need to be shown and they do investigate them ,

I'm sorry I didnt know we were talking about unqualified and illegal TEFL's working with fake degrees.

The OP said qualified teacher, which in that case, my comment stands.

And your friend obviously does not know what 'real' teachers do or make. I can think of at least 6 schools that offer wages in that bracket. (plus of course housing allowance, car loan, bonus, flights, shipping, medical etc)

For any teachers who wish to get into the international schools (and we are talking schools for 50% expat kids and 50% wealthy thai locals) then you need to register with recruitment agencies such as

Search Associates Teach Abroad: Search Associates
Council for International Schools Council of International Schools (CIS)
International School Services International Schools Services (ISS)

plenty more information on those pages above.

[synthia]

Yes, there is a big difference in pay between the ESL teacher at a language school and a professional teacher at an international school, especially for an experienced teacher. Universities, however, don't seem to pay as well.

[oddball]

Originally Posted by synthia

Yes, there is a big difference in pay between the ESL teacher at a language school and a professional teacher at an international school, especially for an experienced teacher. Universities, however, don't seem to pay as well.

I just learned something today , do not listen to just any old teacher , post on the expats forum for better advise and knowledge , sift through the response posts and go from there , fellicitations to the informed posters . Colin