Let's start off by saying that I know what I am talking about. I have been here for nearly 15 years and while only around 5 of them were spent teaching ESL (English as a Second Language.) I know how the system works now and how it used to work. I ended up being a teacher here completely by accident and for a while it was nice.

I started teaching English because one day (and i don't remember the circumstances) I was introduced to a Thai teacher who later asked me to come be a judge at an English-speaking competition. The event itself was interesting enough and the judges' panel made me feel like Simon Cowell at the American Idol competition because I was in the center of the judges table, with 3 Thai teachers on either side of me. Also, my vote / scores counted 2x and all of theirs counted only once - which is something i found odd seeing as how I had virtually no background in teaching and exactly zero experience in judging language competitions (the other judges did not know this.)

I suppose the other judges thought that I was somehow really high up on the ESL ladder because i was the "head judge" and by the end of the day I was offered several jobs in the local community. As a side note, the girl who should have won the competition did not win despite the fact that she was completely fluent and had a better understanding of the language than all of the judges on the panel other than me. She is half English and therefore was discriminated against. She is in her 20's now and is a very well-paid manager for the Four Seasons.

So after that I began teaching at an elementary school and I suppose things were ok despite the fact that I had no idea what I was doing. Which brings us to reason number one for why you should do ESL in Thailand.

you don't need to know what you are doing

It simply isn't necessary because outside of the extremely rare and difficult to acquire international school jobs that pay extremely well nobody else knows what they are doing either.

generally speaking, you are not allowed to wear t-shirts as a teacher

If you can manage to remain somewhat professional and dress nice (which is required,) get regular haircuts, and present yourself in a respectful manor, the parents of the students are going to love and respect you because teachers are highly regarded in this country (or at least they were.) Therefore, you will find that you are a respected member of the community simply by having a job. Therefore reason number 2 for "why" you should do it.

you can become an important part of the community simply by doing your job

This is very important especially if you live in a tourist area. Foreigners are generally ignored by non-tourist sectors unless you become known. They likely think you are lost and wonder why you are there otherwise.

After I developed a rapport with the students and established a discipline system that the kids not only respected but thought was fun things became easy. They respected my authority and I can not stress enough how absolutely essential this is.

This made classroom management so much easier because I believe until kids are 13 or so, their primary objective in life is to go completely mental at every given opportunity. Once I had control, so to speak, it was far easier for me to get the lessons done and the children were actually learning useful stuff.. Which brings us to number 3...

there are few things more rewarding in life than to be able to better someone else's life with knowledge

One of the major benefits of being a teacher in Thailand is that you get all weekends off and 2 months of the year as well but you still get paid. This is a fantastic advantage over other employment in Thailand as it is customary in this country to work 6 days a week without any set vacation time. This is a big one, and is reason number 4.

"you get a lot of time off work"

This next reason to teach in Thailand is the major one that most people don't think about until they have been here. You get to stay here effortlessly. When the government sponsors your work permit you are able to bypass the ever-increasing regulations that are passed on restricting one's ability to stay in this country. You are just going to have to take my word on this. It is a massive pain in the butt. I have had almost every visa you can imagine and there is something extremely nice about not having to worry about your legal capacity to stay in the country because it stresses the rest of us out and costs a lot of money. Therefore, this is a big reason number 5...

visas are extremely easy when sponsored by an established school

I think this next point is the most obvious one and i would say it is the number one reason why most people start teaching here in the first place. That is; you get to live in Thailand. This is especially important if you come from a place that has brutal winters as there are never any winters here. In my opinion it is too damn hot here but here's the ticket: Hot can be uncomfortable but cold hurts. It's as simple as that really. So, reason number 6 is...

"you get to live in Thailand"

So in summary here are the reasons to teach English in Thailand

• you don't need to know what you are doing
• you can become an important part of the community by simply doing your job
• there are few things more rewarding that teaching a kid something important
• you get a lot of time off work
• visas are a breeze
• you get to live in Thailand

Well i hope someone out there finds this useful. I know I would have before I moved here. However, as with many things, there is a catch and that is why my next blog post will be about "why you should NOT teach English in Thailand"

As always i welcome your comments and suggestions... thanks for reading.