Teaching in Thailand From 6,000 Thai Baht

I think I brought 6,000 back with me. They said to me, “Oh, the salary is 18,000 Thai Baht. “They weren’t lying, but they also weren’t telling the full truth. I just stood at the front of the class, just started shouting about tapeworms. They wouldn’t give us a full principal title. And I agree. I was 26. We get a message of saying, “Oh, the school’s not going to pay you. “ Some teachers in the staff room, they pushed limits that probably shouldn’t be pushed. They weren’t dishonest, but I feel like they deceived me. But in terms of conflicts, so many. A lot of it’s about control and you know what you can afford. I’ve got a house. I got my own car.

I’m 30 now and I feel like almost all the adult boxes have been ticked. So I first arrived in 2017, left university about 2 years before uh struggling to find jobs in the UK. My specialization is in ecology and environment and there’s not many jobs in the winter time in the UK. So I was online looking for jobs and I found a job out here in Thailand. Now the job was focused on environmental education. So I was like, “Okay, I can do that. And it was a one-year contract and I thought, “Oh, one year, that’s fine. ” Like that’s all I was. when I applied for the job, 21. It’s No. I came with a very large overdraft from my university. So, I was technically in debt when I arrived. I think I brought 6,000 Thai Baht with me. So, 6,000 Thai Baht to last I think 20 days before my first payday.

It didn’t last. So I I got on the phone. I I’m still young. It wasn’t nice so I could call mom and be like, “Hey, mom, can you save me some money? “And she was like, “Oh, there’s some money in your card. Use your card. It was all okay. So it wasn’t too bad. Um and actually I saved so much money because we were away on trips. So your food is provided 5 days a week. But we did get accommodation provided. We did get access to a gym, a swimming pool, um, good health insurance and 500 Thai Baht uh, every overnight that we did. So, the the company isn’t a school itself, but it’s affiliated to a international school in Chiang Mai. Um, but their base is here in Bangkok actually about actually you can see their office up the river and they just work with basically most of the international schools in Bangkok taking kids out all around Thailand, teaching them and then being a bit charitable and taking Thai schools out as well.

But it was good. It was good. I got to sort of see the whole of the country. We’d turn up at the school 7:00 a. m. jump in the vans and take them all over the place. Sometimes go up to Chiang Mai mostly cow, Aayutia, Kchinab, Chantterbury. Um, but yeah, it was great cuz I could actually use my experience and knowledge and it was my first proper endeavor into like a teaching kind of field. And then actually I should say one positive of the low salary is I was on the same as Thai staff. So equality in the workplace was high, no resentment. We went to eat together. We did everything together. So, uh, becoming part of like a Thai community was so easy to do because the only requirement for the ties were they needed a bachelor’s degree and they needed to speak decent English. And so, when you have those two things and we’re all on the same salary, our social life can overlap very easily.

Okay. So, normally around 7:00 a. m. would be wake up time. Normally, we’d have to be up earlier. We’ normally use a hotel, so they’ll provide the breakfast, but sometimes we may have to get the kids up to cook breakfast. And then depending where we are, there’s going to be different activities. So if you’re in Cy, you might be going on a six-hour hike. If you’re in Chantry, you might be going to look at a turtle sanctuary or go kaying or something like that. So a range of outdoor activities.

Teaching Trips Across Thailand

Some schools focus more on games, some focus more on outdoor experience. And we just tailored our session to them. And then yeah, probably give them a couple hours free time depending where we are, but that’s still monitored free time. We’re still watching over them and evening meal activity before bedtime and then send them off for about 8 and lights out at 10:00. And it’s when a lot of the international schools especially are free to book trips. So that was intense. But then from April to the end of September, there was basically no trips. So there’s a lot of office time. In fact, they’d actually send us up to Chiang Mai to help the camp system up there uh for the summer months because there was no trips during like July and August. Like I said, what they provided a decent sized room. Um shared the bathroom with a Scottish lad, which hey, that might be a bit dodgy, but it was okay. Um, but we had a pool, we had tennis courts, we had a gym. You’re just paying for weekends. The weekends you’re so tired you don’t really want to do much. So, you’re staying at home.

I actually saves a lot of money doing that job. And if I did want to go out and have a bit of a social life, the only real place I could go and luckily quite close is just Kowan. It was a what 15-inute bus ride. So, free Thai Baht or whatever for the bus back then. I don’t know how much it is now. Prices have gone up. Prices have gone up. , it’s like when I was here, it’s like 30 40 Thai Baht for a simple meal. I think now you’re probably looking at 60 70 Thai Baht for that. So, it’s nearly double. And I think generally speaking, shops and everything has become more expensive. Getting around has become more expensive. I feel I mean, I said I was able to travel a lot. I probably wouldn’t be able to travel. I’d probably be stuck in one place.

Like the freedom of being able to fly to all these different countries. And that’s another thing. Flights have gone up a lot. When I was here, 2,000 3,000 back, you’re looking at going to another country. And now, if you look at that, that gets you around Thailand. Wow, that’s a lot for that level of energy. I think you’d have to be 21 on that one. There is my salary up to 20,000 though. But no 35,000 I was like right I’m so rich. Um, and if I was still living like the Thai lifestyle, so I was actually quite rich. I had a lot of spare cash for what I wanted to do. , which was good. But then, yeah, it was really good working there, really relaxed. They gave me this full-time contract. I remember going through it with a highlighter on all the things I didn’t like.

And I meant to speak to the head there and I left it on her desk, but I didn’t start speaking about it to her. I just went to teach the class. And when I came back, she’d gone through everything that I had highlighted and written by the sides like, “We can change this. This is flexible. we would do this for you, which I thought was really good. Like some people would take it and they’ll be like, “Oh, you’re causing problems. ” She was trying to help me, trying to make me feel comfortable, which I thought was really supportive. And it was such an easy job. Like I was still quite young. Um, and some people I say I’m still young, but I don’t look it. But like I was still young. I had a lot of energy. It was basically just running around teaching some basic English. It was young children, four, five, and they gave me a few that maybe 7 years old, which was far younger than I ever had before. just the amount of energy you need in a class.

It’s constant energy. You don’t have a break. The whole lesson you’ve got to be doing something that’s going to keep children engaged because as soon as you take focus away, one student’s lost focus, they go running around the class, they’re starting a fight, they’re doing something crazy, you have to maintain all that. Whereas, you know, older children, they finish the work, they don’t say anything, they just sit there quietly, and it’s like, okay, that’s not ideal. You got disengagement in your class. As a teacher, that’s not what you want. But it’s less of a headache, and it’s less difficult for you to get them back onto something. and you can see them and you can go okay here’s some extra material or you can do this instead. Another thing you’ll hear, and this is more true for primary and lower level, and it was definitely part of this language center I was in, you’re not actually teaching teaching. You’re standing up. ”

Moving from Language Centre to Bilingual School

And so when someone looks through the window, they see the foreign teachers all active and stuff like that. And a school I went to after this language center, that was definitely a message that was given out at times was if you’re a foreign teacher, do not be sat at the front. Don’t be teaching from the front. Stand up. Be energetic. I was only in the language center I think 2 months on 35. So I didn’t make too much of a difference because my original work provided accommodation. I had to find my own accommodation. Really lucky. I found a place for 7,000 Thai Baht that had gym, swimming pool. It’s further out. So that’s actually moving into Nbury. Just into Nbury. I think the prices dropped a fair bit. There was not many condos in the area. Connections then weren’t the best.

And you just decided you didn’t want to teach young kids is my guess. I wasn’t I wasn’t feeling like it was a long-term solution. And also I had to work the weekends. So, I had to have weekdays off and then I I I wanted my weekends. I wanted them because like if you got any friends or anything, they don’t want to socialize on a Monday and Tuesday, which I think were the days they gave me as my days off. So, I applied for the proper school. I sent my job application. I said, “I live around the corner from you. Just tell me and I’ll be there. “Same again, same story as the language school application. I thought, “Hey, I got a chance here. And this was to a bilingual school. So, bilingual school is essentially a Thai school, but private with an English program. So, what it basically means is the students are normally studying the same curriculum, Thai and English, same content, but just with two different teachers. So, the application actually was quite funny. So sent this application off, waited, waited, waited, nothing came back.

And then I think I just got an email saying, “Oh, we’d like to take you up on the offer, but we need an interview with you. And this was on like Friday, like 3:00. So I reply like at 3:30. That’s great. Okay, no problem. What time do you want me? , and what class will I be teaching? Don’t get a reply until the Monday. It’s like, “Today, uh, 8:30 and you’ll be teaching like grade five English. I’m like, “Okay, I’ve got like 30 minutes to prepare. So, you’re doing a demo, teaching demo. Like forever. And then I walk out and then the the guy that the foreign guy that watched me was like, “Oh yeah, we’re going to offer you the job. I was like, “Nice, nice. ” And then we just had a really relaxed chat and he just told me, went through every detail about it. uh 50.

And one of the biggest changes I noticed is moving from that I probably should have been taxed actually before, but I think because it wasn’t a full income I was getting as the language center, uh, I was only still on part-time wage, but it was my first time being taxed in Thailand. So, they promised me 50. I was like, I’m going to get 50. And then luckily that’s not too high, but I get like 48,500. Like, where’s my money Sure. So, actually really relaxed environment. , the teacher that employed me was teaching the biology and he was a chemistry or physics teacher and he didn’t really like teaching the biology, so he was happy to have me. Um, and he just gave me a very chilled uh view of things. He was like, “Look, here’s the Thai curriculum. “and it was just like titles. It wasn’t any details. It was just titles. It would just say uh digestive system. and then just give a list of them. Um but it wouldn’t say any more than that. And I was basically told, you know, have this many lessons a week, teach about this subject, just follow this schedule in terms of the curriculum.

Make sure you cover everything in the curriculum. And so that’s what I did. I just was like, okay, uh I’ll go onto that curriculum and what can I teach about that? And I did it. And you know, looking back now, I don’t know how I manage without AI and stuff like that. I’m not really a pen and paper person, but I remember having a notebook. I’d be like, “Right, I can teach a lesson on this. I can teach a lesson on this. I can teach a lesson on this. ” And technology was hit and miss at that school. You’re going to guarantee you’re going to be able to present.

Building a Teaching Career in Bangkok

And most of my lessons were reliant on quite performative standing at the front of the board drawing on the whiteboard and going, “Okay, get this down your notebooks. And stuff like that if the kids have notebooks. Yeah, it was it was an interesting place to work. I think it was pretty good. As long as you didn’t complain, as long as you just did what you needed to do, didn’t raise your head too high, you’d be fine. In fact, if you’re a good teacher, you probably have the biggest problems because the good teachers will start seeing problems and start saying, “Hey, we can do this differently. And that’s not what they want to hear. Like I said already, you’re not there to change anything. You’re there to fill a vacancy that they can fill. So, I was there 4 years and then the guy that employed us left. Um, and he was at that point when he left, he was principal. He left and the school didn’t fill his vacancy.

There was no foreign principal. There was no foreigner in charge and he’s gone for about a week and then uh something happened. Um and they knock on the door to me and they say, “Oh, will um can you come to the office? “And we had a very I can’t go into the details of it, but we had a very serious conversation about the school and things happening in the school. And um then suddenly they’re like, “Oh yes, we’re going to make you secondary coordinator and this other guy is going to be primary coordinator. So we they wouldn’t give us a full principal title and I agree. I was what 26. I was too young. Um I also don’t have a master’s degree. So I’m probably not qualified. I think you need a master’s degree to get that title. Um but they said we’ll give you secondary coordinator.

Originally, they had already asked me when he left if I could be the spokesperson in the foreign teacher meetings, and I said yes. At that point, I’ve been there so long. I knew everyone. I was one of the most Here’s an interesting point. So, we’re talking about you’re there for four years. It was it was um about four or five lessons a day and they were very insistent on online learning because they had a online learning platform pre-existing. they teach schools schools that can’t afford a full-time English teacher. They do online teaching. They have uh set up with like cubicles where they put a teacher in front of the camera and a teacher logs in and speaks to someone in the deep south or speaks to a whole classroom in deep south to teach English. But in a way that was good. It gave you a purpose when there wasn’t much going on absolutely uh when I was put as the secondary coordinator? I I I had a very relaxed schedule before then.

I used to sit in the staff room. I knew what I was going to do because I’ve been there four years. I just walk into a class, be like, “Right, we’re looking at this. “Do D do everything’s good. And then I’ll go back to staff room and like play some games on my computer, watch something on my computer, but then they made me the deputy coordinator or secondary coordinator, not deputy, sorry, secondary coordinator. And that changed everything cuz suddenly there were so many power plays. This teacher can’t work with this teacher. This teacher’s had an argument. And I spent I didn’t have any time for games or anything fun anymore. I was just like, “Okay, now I got to go speak to this teacher because another teacher’s upset them. “ both um when I had to leave that job, I had to employ my replacement and it’s very hard to find a replacement for me at that time, a science teacher. English teachers left, right, and center, but science, especially biology teaching very hard.

And I remember it was going to have to be a Filipino teacher, which they are some of the most qualified teachers in Thailand. Um, so I had no problem with, but I was very good friends with the Filipino staff in the staff room. I said this to them and they was like, “Please don’t employ another Filipino. I was like, “Okay, why not? “Um, and then basically they said there can be drama. They also don’t want the school to be seen as a Filipino only school because that can be an issue for some parents. So, uh I was like, “Okay. But this is my only option. Um so I had to in the end I actually took the one of the staff members that I got on well with I I took them outside and I said to them, “Hey, I’m not trying to do it to hurt you. “

International School Work and Life in Thailand

I’ve listened to you and I’ve really really tried to look at other options, but this is the only option. And we’re able to resolve that. Well, we still talk regularly now, so no issue. But yeah, between nationalities, not so much. In nationalities, yeah, between people of different nationalities, it wasn’t conflict based on culture or anything like that. It was conflict based on the personality. Our old school um not so much. We had people from all over the world um coming in. We like I used to go out with them regularly and and we look like you know standard like multicultural group that you see in like promotion of what a country should be like we have people from Africa uh Latin America, US, uh Europe, Asia, everywhere all going out and all socializing all treated the same really equal but I think from a tie side there is pressure and then people think that it’s racism and maybe there is an element of that but a big element and they say oh it’s because the parents weren’t white but that’s true to an extent.

But what I’ve noticed also is cultural. They they they’re paying a foreign teacher for the culture of that country to be taught, not just the language. Like I said, I can’t teach English. If you want someone to teach English, you can employ someone from any country in the world and they will do better than me. But they’re not going to teach a western culture, a British culture, especially if they’re paying for that at the school. They don’t know it. , another good one was universities. they don’t know what it’s like to apply to a university or be in a university in Britain. I could give that feedback to students and actually that’s what I found my role being at the end was quite often I’ll have these grade 11, grade 12 saying I’m thinking about applying to a foreign university. What can you tell me about it? Well, you’re not going to get the same information from a a teacher from say Nigeria or the Philippines or uh another country that’s not in the western kind of educational sphere. Right. So, um, being a teacher, it is possible to make a career from it. Um, like I’ve moved into an international school. That’s probably where we got to go next because the Thai schools can be very tricky on this one. Sure.

So, uh, in terms of high school, you’re not going to get any PD. You’re not going to be encouraged to do any additional training. They don’t want you going anywhere. They just want you to stay and do the job. They’re not interest. And they don’t want to be paying you more money. That’s the big gap. So often what you get is stagnation in the same positions for many years. There’s an impossibility when it comes to career progression. And then the teaching industry can be very agist. Yeah. Once you hit a certain age, they may just get rid of you and replace you with a backpacker from Yeah, absolutely. And to be honest, I was probably going to fall into that trap even with the the progression and there’s promises like, oh, if you do this, maybe one day you can be principal, but everything’s maybe one day, maybe this, maybe that.

There’s no framework or pathway for you to follow. There’s no development off the staff that’s intentional. It’s only to fill a gap. It’s only because it’s easier than getting someone else or it’s cheaper than getting someone else. It was cheaper to just put me in a position than it was to bring someone else in with a fancy new title. When I got into this new role, I was in the position to employ people. And I you see CVs and they’ve been jumping between schools for years and years and years and you’re like, why are you jumping between all these different tie schools for so long? That’s definitely stagnation cuz you know they’re not getting very good salaries and you know they’re just moving around all the time and no progression. And what you’d really want to see is the school improve each time, which luckily for my case, it has improved. Of the system, starting off with an agency doing experiential learning, then moving over to a brief language school into the Thai private school. So now talk a little bit about you’ve moved into an international school. Sure.

So um actually I was lucky. that’s what it came down to, luck. Um, well, we’ll get into luck cuz I’m not that big of a believer in luck alone. I think you got to put yourself in a position to get lucky. Well, hey, you’re right. And it’s because of how I had uh conducted myself at the tire school that I was able to get the job. Basically, I I remember getting an email or no, not even an email, just a Facebook message, I think it was from the old principal at the school. ” He was like, “Oh, there’s a job at this international school. They’re looking for someone. I know the head of science over there. , can I put your name forwards or would you be interested in applying? You need to do a formal application. You need to go through the whole process. Okay. In general, you’re going to have a curriculum. You’re going to have stuff that you need to do. You’re going to have to be writing lesson plans and submitting them. Some high schools do mandate that. My one didn’t. there was no real planning or anything like that. Um, but yeah, you’re gonna have to basically take on a lot more administrative tasks. Classroom tends to be easier because English is the predominant language. Many schools actually have a no tie policy, at least within the English classrooms. The salaries are a big jump at the absolute lowest, probably 75, more likely 80. I’ve heard over 200 at some schools, but those schools are employing incredibly qualified individuals uh who are not just qualified as teachers, but we’re talking qualified from prestigious universities, overwhelmingly British.

So being British is beneficial for them. Um but me being British wouldn’t mean I could just walk in. They generally need a PGCE from the UK, which needs you to go back to the UK or have one before you come to Thailand. It takes about a year, I believe. , a number of my friends are actually returning to the UK to pursue PGCE. Bangkok can be an incredibly expensive city. It’s a myth that it’s a cheap city. It can be, but you’re going to be making sacrifices. If you’re expecting the same kind of livelihood, you’re going to be making sacrifices. A lot of it’s about control and you know what you can afford and being a responsible adult is a big part of it. If you’re irresponsible, you’re going to burn through cash. So, I think I think a good comparison actually would be with my sister. My sister’s actually probably on a comparable salary to mine um in London. Um she’s in rented accommodation. she’s uh she can afford, she can travel, she can live a decent life, but you know, it’s a very temporary kind of lifestyle. It’s not a permanent kind of setup. Whereas I uh I’ve got a house. we have access to a swimming pool, gym. Just for the house, it’s probably around 20,000 and then electricity probably pushes it up and all the utilities probably pushes up to about 22 23 a month. Got my own car. When I was paying off the car, that took away about 15,000 a month, but still affordable. I’m 30 now and I feel like almost all the adult boxes have been ticked. Has your lifestyle progressively increased? We talk about lifestyle cost inflation in Thailand a lot where as your salary climbs, it’s very easy to start spending all of it. There’s one really close to my house.

Shout out for Mata Kitchen right next to my house. It’s a bit out there, but it’s it’s good. It’s good. And then, but the big thing is with more salary, you can have a hobby. You can have things you can take part in it, which I couldn’t do before. Sure. What advice would you give to somebody that’s considering moving to Thailand? Maybe they’re back home in the UK or the US and they’re thinking about how do I navigate this path, especially given that you came here quite young. I love Thailand. Thailand‘s great. Um I love my home. There’s so many amazing countries. I’ve seen so many amazing countries if I was forced to. I think the only countries I could live in is probably the UK and Thailand. Um they’re the ones I feel most comfortable at. Um going home maybe one day. My family has a farm so I’d go back into I wouldn’t go into teaching in the UK. That’s not because uh I don’t want to teach in the UK. It’s more the fact that due to Thai laws, certain things that I would be interested in doing, I can’t do. They’re authorized for only Thai citizens to do.