Looking back on my career, teaching in Thailand probably is the hardest work I’ve ever done. I will expound on this further later.

In this article, I deal with the word teacher lightly. Most of the Westerners who teach English at schools are not qualified teachers. As mentioned in my previous article, it is desirable to obtain the basic TEFL certificate to be successful in the classroom. In the future preference will definitely be given to people with education degrees, as the current government is investigating all departments in their attempt to destroy corruption and solve serious problems.

Many youngsters come to Thailand and work in schools to pay for their holidays here. The problem is that most of them do not realise the implications of their attitude towards the work they do (or not do). If so-called teachers come and go or do not care about the children they are trying to teach English, the students suffer. The only contact most of the Thai students have with English is through the temporary foreign teachers at their schools. Some of these ‘teachers’ are only nineteen or twenty; they have not yet seen life and are at the schools just for the money. In many cases youth and looks were the only ‘requirements’ for their appointment. The children often know from experience that their teachers are not going to stay and they are not willing to obey the teacher who is in their classroom at the moment.

This is the way it works in most English classrooms in Thailand. I can say much more about the education department and the Thai culture’s attitude toward Western influence in Thailand and in the classrooms, but you will understand that I cannot elaborate because of the current political situation.

Also read: How to become an English teacher in Thailand

Any foreigner teaching English in schools in Thailand at this stage will be able to tell how hard it is. In most public schools there is no motivation to learn English and it is a constant battle to get students to listen in classrooms. In public colleges the students do not even have to turn up at your classroom although their parents pay a lot of money for these extra classes.

In international English programmes like the one in which I work at a private school, the situation is a little different but the stress levels remain very high. A private school here is not the same as in South Africa. It is out and out a business. The director of such a school does not have to be an educationalist; he/she is expected to keep the shareholders happy.

The biggest problem we face is that Thai teachers earn very little, about 15 000 Baht (R5 000) per month. Western foreigners who teach English earn from 28 000 Baht (about R9 500) to 35 000 baht (R11 700) per month. Qualified teachers earn more and some international schools pay much more than the public schools. Thai teachers therefore consider foreigners in a negative light.

Another problem we experience is the constant backstabbing of other Westerners who work with us. This is the reason why many foreigners (sometimes good teachers) lose their work unfairly and they can do nothing about it.

This leads us to the next problem – in Thailand contracts are not worth the paper they are written on. Contracts are set very unilaterally with no protection for the employee. The issue can also be exacerbated if you are employed by an agency at a school. Many agents are unscrupulous and not interested in you as a person, only in the money they can collect each month. Contracts are incidental.

The problems we face here in Thailand are very complex and cannot be discussed meaningfully in a short article.

People often ask why we are still doing the job. The answer is simple: We have to work and we have the children’s best interests at heart. Therefore it is so difficult for us when the ‘backpackers’ come here for selfish reasons, not caring about the students and their circumstances at all.

If the director (principal) of a school and its staff cooperate, you will enjoy the work; otherwise it is very difficult. It usually is a situation of keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble; it is better to keep quiet.

Teaching the lessons is not difficult, but I feel one should at least have a little experience of life. We are more than just teachers. The children in Thailand grow up under very difficult circumstances and a teacher without empathy could have a further negative impact on problem students.

An example of such a child attended my class last year. He was five years old at the time. One teacher described him as dumb, stupid and untrainable. I was the child’s class teacher and soon realised that a smart young man was hiding under a layer of naughtiness. Through my Philippine assistant I found out that he was an only child and used to having his own way. He is also Chinese, which added a good shot of stubbornness. We let him sit aside and gave him the opportunity to complete his tasks on his own, but we did not pay special attention to him. Like his classmates, he also had to perform specific tasks in class, like cleaning the whiteboard. He was not allowed to become apoplectic. Eventually he began to adjust in the classroom and learned to share and how to deal with the other children. The end result? He became one of the top pupils in the Kindergarten 3 group and was accepted by a very good international school in Bangkok at the end of last year.

Well, now I have given you a better understanding of what it is like to teach here. At a next occasion I will give you a glimpse of what happens in our classrooms every day.