|
The Aguamoose posted:Thanks for the tip! Wasn't able to find anything that reminded me of the Khmu wedding I went to in Laos though. The music was a bit dancier, when the power generator was actually working and before and after they took apart the cd player. I did find some of the Cambodian tunes which were part of the soundtrack to one of the best nights of my trip, in Siem Reap on the first night of Khmer New Year. Turns out I was too drunk to identify my farmyard animals in songs and it's a rooster not a donkey in the first song. This is the stuff, if anyone's interested and has a hankering for Cambodian pop: If you haven't already you should check out some of the pre-KR era Cambodian music, some genuinely good stuff there and pretty sad when you hear about the eventual fate of the singers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXn-ddHa3K8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnhI1LGuqTE I seemed to have missed out on LINE chat a couple of pages back, but my id is tytan17 if anyone wants to add me.
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2014 19:30
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 07:05 |
|
|
Math Debater posted:The process of moving into my new residence in Hua Hin has been really stressful to me and I'm going through this intense moment of self-doubt. I've been browsing cheapoair looking for flights back to my hometown in the U.S. I'm so neurotic and so insecure and I feel like it's super obvious that I'm grossly unqualified to teach English to Thai children. And I feel that I've come here for selfish and stupid reasons. I've been such an rear end in a top hat to so many people during the past few years of my life, and I feel that it's really evil and repulsive that I've tried to get away from all of the people I've known in my life by moving to the other side of the world. My parents have showered me with love and affection throughout my entire life, and it's super terrible that I've allowed myself to feel anger and ill will toward them for absurd and nonsensical reasons, and I feel super guilty that I've responded to their care and their love and their generosity by trying to get as far away from them as possible. English teaching isn't a career hth
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2014 20:13
|
|
|
I haven't even got out of Finland yet and my backpack is already stolen once. Some drunk rear end in a top hat took it from the train when i was having a beer in the restaurant car. He was hassling others and me, and i guess i pissed him off by saying i dont care, go away. It was found becouse the said idiot told where he was going next and in what train. The packpack is currently sitting 150 kilometers away from me. Train guys said that i should be able to get it back tomorrow on my way to helsinki. It only has some clothes, chargers and some other stuff. All can be bought in bangkok if needed. The backpack itself is pretty awesome and it would suck not having it with me. This trip starts good.  edit: From my place to the airport is "only" 415 kilometers. Barfolemew fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Sep 1, 2014 |
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2014 20:16
|
|
|
Barfolemew posted:I haven't even got out of Finland yet and my backpack is already stolen once. Some drunk rear end in a top hat took it from the train when i was having a beer in the restaurant car. He was hassling others and me, and i guess i pissed him off by saying i dont care, go away. Think of it as a great story to get a free beer as soon as you hit Khao San! (It can probably be used for about a week)
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2014 21:10
|
|
|
Look on the bright side, at least you weren't stabbed.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2014 23:57
|
|
|
why on earth would you turn down invitations to go drinking on the beach? That's how every classic Thailand story starts.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 00:41
|
|
|
We really need to start a death pool.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 00:46
|
|
|
Hua Hin has a Burger King and a McDonald's across the road from each other so foreigners can feel at home right away Also fat pervy old white men ...so again, just like America 
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 09:22
|
|
|
lemonadesweetheart posted:We really need to start a death pool. I shall nominate myself, with one of three causes of death: 1) Scuba diving accident; 2) Death by misadventure, most likely alcohol related (not necessarily my own consumption); 3) My EVA Air flight from Vancouver to Bangkok via Taipei being shot down by Russia.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 10:25
|
|
|
We don't need to determine cause. Just a first past the post on who is most likely to die next. You know, for fun...
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 10:35
|
|
|
Well I'll be impressed if my stay in Bangkok doesn't at least leave me horribly injured in some way.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 10:38
|
|
|
lemonadesweetheart posted:We really need to start a death pool. I'm motorbiking from Hanoi to Saigon. Currently in Hoi An. Put me on the list.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 10:48
|
|
|
Tytan posted:Well I'll be impressed if my stay in Bangkok doesn't at least leave me horribly injured in some way. I just took a motorcycle taxi and came so very close to horrific injury. Got from Khao San to Phaya Thai in about 4 minutes 
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 11:47
|
|
|
Got my stuff back and now im waiting the boarding time. Liftoff in two hours. 11 hour Flight in economy. gently caress me. Better get drunk.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 13:13
|
|
|
lemonadesweetheart posted:We really need to start a death pool. I'm putting my money on Math Debater. Just a feeling.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 13:26
|
|
|
It's going to be me. Within the month I'll have trusted one foreigner too many and gotten my head split open by a PCP smoking medical consultant who just really wanted to help me have fun by driving a microphone through my ear.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 13:51
|
|
|
Finch! posted:I shall nominate myself, with one of three causes of death: If I make it to the beach (Pattaya or Hua Hin? Decisions, decisions) sometime this year then put me down as eligible for the first one. Although, I have promised that I won't die doing something stupid, simply so that my friends and family don't have to be embarrassed when they tell people about it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 13:57
|
|
|
Negligent posted:Also fat pervy old white men
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 15:20
|
|
|
I'm currently feeling pretty good about things at this present moment in time. The TESOL course seems like it won't be difficult and the woman who I paid to do my laundry did a fabulously fantastic job and I've successfully communicated my vegetarianism to Thai people and all the people I've been dealing with do seem very laid back and friendly. So yeah, I'm glad to be here and am looking forward to continuing to experience life in Thailand!
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 15:35
|
|
|
Math Debater posted:I'm currently feeling pretty good about things at this present moment in time. The TESOL course seems like it won't be difficult and the woman who I paid to do my laundry did a fabulously fantastic job and I've successfully communicated my vegetarianism to Thai people and all the people I've been dealing with do seem very laid back and friendly. So yeah, I'm glad to be here and am looking forward to continuing to experience life in Thailand! Sounds like a worthless piece of paper then. Not that TESOL is particularly hard at the best of times, but it should at least be exhausting and maybe a little daunting if you are actually going to get anything out of it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 15:52
|
|
|
On the plus side, at least the laundry went well.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 16:17
|
|
|
I love how unprepared most people who take a TESOL are for actual teaching. That's how I know I'll always have a (low-wage) job.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 16:18
|
|
|
poo poo, son, who bothers to get a TESOL? I just rolled up and demanded a (low paying) job. And I sucked at it for a year. I'm pretty good now, though.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 16:35
|
|
|
Chair Huxtable posted:poo poo, son, who bothers to get a TESOL? I just rolled up and demanded a (low paying) job. Speaking as someone who started without training or a TESOL and then learned as he went, I can say I went from "bad" to "successful despite being bad". But the trick there is that I had no idea how bad I was until this month. For the last five years I've had people telling me how awesome I was. I shudder thinking about some of the habits I've had to break and how they affected the kids that grew up with me. It probably sounds like I drank the Kool-Aid, but I'm actually thoroughly impressed with just how comprehensive this course has been, but the caveat to that is the people enrolled in it still have to actually give a drat to get anything out of it. It probably helps that the guys who run the show are published in the field of second language acquisition though and run experiments here not because they're working on a degree or looking for recognition, but because they actually just want to know how learning languages actually works.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 16:51
|
|
|
I do not entirely agree with that, but I'll just stop the conversation here, lest we start a slap fight in the thread. We can always do that in Line, if you want to continue.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 17:14
|
|
|
We've done so well for so long to not become just another Asia thread full of ESL teachers (i.e. every other Asia thread aside from Singapore, who are loving SPLITTERS). Please, Lord, grant this thread the serenity...
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 18:23
|
|
|
ReindeerF posted:We've done so well for so long to not become just another Asia thread full of ESL teachers (i.e. every other Asia thread aside from Singapore, who are loving SPLITTERS). Please, Lord, grant this thread the serenity... We were doing pretty well with being a SE Asia community on the internet without the conversation bring centered around whores and how we're all such extreme party animals too. Ah the good ol days 
raton fucked around with this message at 19:13 on Sep 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 19:10
|
|
|
Is siam station BTS suicide an option, oh wait the trains are too slow never mind  cent0r posted:I'm putting my money on Math Debater. Just a feeling. Maybe you will die from AIDS because of all the hot lunches you have been eating :iaam:
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 19:19
|
|
|
Just jump from the top of the station
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 19:45
|
|
|
caberham posted:Is siam station BTS suicide an option, oh wait the trains are too slow never mind It's a good bet but unfortunately I don't qualify for this pool as I'm no longer in SE Asia. I'm in Egypt and slowly turning into jerky in this drat desert.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 20:11
|
|
|
You don't put yourself into a death pool you dumb goons. How are you supposed to make any money winning that?
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 20:59
|
|
|
Sheep-Goats posted:You don't put yourself into a death pool you dumb goons. How are you supposed to make any money winning that? I don't believe they understand the concept. I learnt about it from watching Dirty Harry - The Dead Pool with a minor but awesome, early appearance with Jim Carrey. Now I'm watching Indy Jones to get psyched for my Giza trip tomorrow. Yeah yeah it was filmed in Tunisia I don't give a gently caress.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 21:54
|
|
|
Instead of a death pool, I want a death match. Let's say, ReindeerF vs caberham.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 22:22
|
|
|
Math Debater vs. five jumbo Thai cockroachescent0r posted:I don't believe they understand the concept. I learnt about it from watching Dirty Harry - The Dead Pool with a minor but awesome, early appearance with Jim Carrey. Now I'm watching Indy Jones to get psyched for my Giza trip tomorrow. Yeah yeah it was filmed in Tunisia I don't give a gently caress. I've hear Cairo is a right horrible fuckover when it comes to tourism let us know raton fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Sep 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2014 22:49
|
|
|
To bring the thread down a notch, how actually sustainable is esl teaching in SEA? I've always had a terrible bias against people who do it because I wanted to do it myself out of college and never did. I put people who are doing it in the same category as sexpats and backpackers. Is it just a jolly for a year or two and then you go back and get a real job or do people actually try to make a career out of it?
|
|
#
?
Sep 3, 2014 00:58
|
|
|
lemonadesweetheart posted:To bring the thread down a notch, how actually sustainable is esl teaching in SEA? I've always had a terrible bias against people who do it because I wanted to do it myself out of college and never did. I put people who are doing it in the same category as sexpats and backpackers. Is it just a jolly for a year or two and then you go back and get a real job or do people actually try to make a career out of it? People are legitimately successful making a career out of it, but these are people who genuinely enjoy the classroom setting. SEA also runs on a slightly different model than Korea or Taiwan. In Korea, people usually only do it for a few years, but then you get a handful of lifers who marry and don't really have any other options to stay in Korea than teaching English forever under the worst conditions imaginable. In Taiwan, the people who stick with it usually find themselves in some kind of a director position and then eventually open up their own school or schools. If you look at the numbers, they're not making as good a salary as someone in the States would with the kind of effort they put in, but the cost of living is so low that they usually end up with a lot of disposable income. In Thailand, the model appears to be that people get a standard job in the day that gives them a visa and a reliable paycheck and then use their free time building up a personal brand. They might work at a language school in the evening or teach private lessons. They might become teacher trainers at TESOL courses or sell 40 hour courses to banks and corporations. The trick is, they never stop moving and they're always thinking about professional development and making new contacts. It's not all that different than being in sales I'd imagine. Knowing people to get your foot in the door is half the battle. Officially, salaries start at 28,000/month to teach, but with any qualifications or experience, you can get up to 40,000/month pretty fast. Most people who put in effort can double or triple it. With a graduate degree, you can get over 100,000 a month base and the numbers only go up from there. One of the instructors at my course sheepishly admitted to owning 6 motorbikes and at least one of the variety that "the police won't bother pulling over", so he's doing pretty well for himself. I'm sure there are also foreigners who own or co-own their own schools here as well, but it seems like that's less common out here than it was in Taiwan. The impression I get is that they base themselves in Thailand, but own or run schools in Vietnam and Cambodia for passive income.
|
|
#
?
Sep 3, 2014 01:15
|
|
|
Atlas Hugged posted:
I met a bunch of people with TESL or on that career track near the beginning of their careers, and mostly their options seemed like a sea of mediocre jobs with crap resources. A few came through the voluntourism teaching thing in Laos I did, treating it as a point on their resume before moving (easily) into jobs elsewhere. Trouble is, it seems like a short ladder. Get to the top and you can sidestep to any number of places, but wages/power/career cred all caps out pretty fast. There's always gonna be a dichotomy between people like me who might do it for a couple years to sustain living in a country and people who are devoted to TESL/expat-life/community, but I'm not sure anyone cares or can tell the difference between the two. Few weeks ago I picked up a friend at YYJ who'd just flown in from Korea. He'd been over there for twelve years, teaching English at the University level. quote:However much I might love certain aspects of Korea, it will never really feel like home. Also, I realized that I had basically topped out in my career track in Korea, and that there was nowhere to go but sideways, or down as the working conditions at many universities were spiralling steadily downward, and the salaries were going nowhere. First time I've driven someone into Kamloops who is legitimately happy to see it. Welp. Certain cities in North America tend to be ESL nexus-points where you can't take a step without tripping over a government or private ESL school, but the wages aren't hot, and aiming your career at running one of those seems like more of a business management/education ladder than a classroom TESL ladder.
|
|
#
?
Sep 3, 2014 01:32
|
|
|
Dropping in from the China thread: I've been doing TEFL for 8 years on-and-off. It was a great way to fund going somewhere for several months every summer. Two of those years were full-time year-round gigs. At the end, I was offered an Academic Manager post, which I didn't take. The thing about it being a short ladder is right. Recently I've jumped ship to Higher Education and now teach an undergraduate humanities course at a university. Plenty of room to keep moving up from there. On the other hand I have friends who like the fact that they can teach with basically zero prep, marking is a breeze, they've become familiar with typical language issues for where they live, and they like the short hours and free time. Three of them are in their 50s and are very happy. Still again, one very capable teacher I know got offered a job in management at a company (client, not school) he was teaching in because they realised he knew his onions during business English lessons. He now makes a nice wedge but his hours are long and to me his job sounds like it is the same every day and unendingly dull. But he's happy. So yes, worldwide, it can be a career, and for many it is. Every teacher I know in Hong Kong does the thing where you tutor on the side and money is better than your day job per hour. Whatever country you teach in, and whoever you teach, there will always be people who when you say "teaching English" think "alcoholic, lazy, unqualified, bum" - but gently caress those guys.
|
|
#
?
Sep 3, 2014 03:32
|
|
|
There's also the jump from TEFL to being an international school teacher. Get a Master's in Education/some sort of teaching license in a western country, head to the Bangkok international school career fair/Search/professional fair, then get a job. Oh the pay is good and on par with a western salary + housing, but the hours are long.
|
|
#
?
Sep 3, 2014 03:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 07:05 |
|
|
simplefish posted:Whatever country you teach in, and whoever you teach, there will always be people who when you say "teaching English" think "alcoholic, lazy, unqualified, bum" - but gently caress those guys.
|
|
#
?
Sep 3, 2014 03:54
|
|