Linguistic Imperialism Alive and Kicking.
Topics reported on recently in Learning English give me grounds for concern about internationally driven efforts to strengthen the learning of English. They suggest strongly that TESOL/ELT is part of the problem rather than the solution. There is increasing evidence that what is on offer may in fact cause educational failure.
My worries were triggered by two shocking headlines (Learning English, 13 January). One reports on the massive failure in Namibia of English as the main medium of education: "Language policy 'poisoning' children". This was the conclusion of a recent NGO study. The second was "Language myth cripples Pakistan's schools". The myth is the belief that studying English is all you need for success in life. Policies influenced by this myth prevent most children from accessing relevant education.
I am also strongly concerned about a third story, "US launches global push to share ELT skills". The background is that in November 2011 the US state department and Tesol International Association (recently renamed) announced a partnership to meet the global demand for English and to "Work in co-ordination with US companies, universities, publishers, and other ELT stakeholders to enhance their international outreach and operations". This drive is modelled on the success of the British Council in expanding British influence worldwide. There are examples in the 17 February issue of Learning English: Tony Blair promoting British ELT in Thailand; the UK taking a "role in Ukraine primary push".
Is Anglo-American expertise really relevant in all such contexts? In fact educational "aid" worldwide does not have a strong record of success. There is scholarly evidence, for instance from Spain, that primary English is not an unmitigated success story: quite the opposite.
For Namibia a great deal of educational language planning was undertaken at the United Nations Institute for Namibia prior to independence. I summarised this in my book Linguistic Imperialism (OUP, 1992), quoting solid evidence that an over-reliance on English was inappropriate. Yet this is what British Council "advisers" in independent Namibia were instrumental in implementing.
British policies in Africa and Asia have aimed at strengthening English rather than promoting multilingualism, which is the social reality. Underlying British ELT have been key tenets – monolingualism, the native speaker as the ideal teacher, the earlier the better etc – which the same book diagnoses as fundamentally false. They underpin linguistic imperialism.
British goals both in the colonial period and today are primarily political and commercial. The British Council's Annual Report 2009-10 states that for the equivalent of every $1.60 of taxpayer's money it receives, it earns $4 through its English teaching and examining worldwide. ELT is of massive importance for the British economy. This underlies expansion efforts in India and China, where it has had very mixed success, except perhaps in commercial terms. David Graddol's 2010 report English Next India, commissioned by the British Council, uses similar arguments to those articulated 180 years earlier by Thomas Babington Macaulay, a senior British administrator, in making a case for British involvement in Indian education. Influence on the learning of English may be as ineffectual as in Namibia, in this very different context.
Unesco has stressed the significance of the mother tongue for over 50 years. Save the Children's 2009 report for the CfBT education trust, Language and Education: The Missing Link, hammers home this message. But why is it that an NGO and a private consortium "discover" facts that have been known in many scholarly circles for 40 years but that ELT has failed to effectively engage with?
The research evidence on mother tongue-based multilingual education is unambiguous. English-medium education in postcolonial contexts that neglects mother tongues and local cultural values is clearly inappropriate and ineffective.
There are ELT voices calling for a paradigm shift. A report for the British Council by Hywel Coleman on Pakistan points clearly in this direction. So does a 2011 book that he has edited, also for the British Council, Dreams and Realities: Developing Countries and the English Language. But if ELT professionals lead monolingual lives, or if they have no experience of becoming proficient in languages other than English, are they ever likely to understand the complexity of the learning tasks that they are committed to?
One of the intriguing aspects of globalising Anglo-American expertise is that ELT is not a high-prestige profession in either the US or the UK. In both countries there are unmet English language needs for children and adults. In addition, foreign language learning is much less widespread and effective than in many countries.
It is true that there is a massive demand for English worldwide, to which many factors, from trade and tourism to regional integration, contribute. Maintaining the value of western investments and influence in the decolonisation period led to the mushrooming of departments of Tesol and applied linguistics from the 1950s. The demand for English has been orchestrated by western governments and their allies worldwide, and key bodies such as the World Bank. The "supply" of expertise dovetails with demand.
Governments have tended to clutch at a quick fix, such as importing native speakers, or starting English ever earlier, either as a subject or as the medium of instruction, in the hope that this will make the learning of English more effective. Such demands should be challenged by ELT when both the demand and the response are unlikely to be educationally, culturally or linguistically well-informed.
Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/mar/13/linguistic-imperialism-english-language-teaching
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Thailand Takes First Steps on Long Road to Inclusive Mainstream Education
Thailand takes first steps on long road to inclusive mainstream education.
The strict hierarchy of Thai society means the drive for inclusive education needs strong commitment from both politicians and school leaders. In the past decade, there has been significant political progress in moves to implement a system that ensures children with disabilities have access to mainstream schools. However, with cultural barriers and resistance from some headteachers, the journey towards fully inclusive education has only just begun.
"Even when I offered to work for free, they still could not be convinced," explains Paul Lennon, a British ex-pat whose son was born with Down's syndrome. When he started looking for mainstream schools for his son in Chanthaburi province six years ago, headteachers in the local area refused him a place. Yet the National Educational Act, passed in 1999 – and accompanied by posters declaring: "Any disabled person who wishes to go to school can do so" – supposedly guaranteed all disabled children access to state education.
Some headteachers Lennon spoke to were amenable to the concept of inclusive education, but didn't feel they had the resources or training to implement it effectively. Others, with decades of experience of working in special schools, felt this institutional model was more suitable.
The education act did have some success. Between 2000 and 2004, the number of students with disabilities accessing education increased from 145,000 to 187,000. These students were taught at more than 18,000 inclusive schools, defined by the government as those that teach children with and without disabilities. There was further legislative progress with the Education Provision for People with Disabilities Act, passed in 2008, which made it illegal for schools to refuse entry to children with disabilities.
After much perseverance in securing a school place for his son, Lennon turned his attention to helping other children gain access to inclusive education by helping to set up the Good Child Foundation.
Nanthaporn (Nuey) Nanthamongkol, a six-year-old girl with Down's syndrome, was due to be sent to a distant boarding school before he intervened. "Without our work, Nuey would have been separated from her parents, sent to a school 80km away," says Lennon. "For kids with Down's syndrome, this is the worst possible thing you could do."
Nuey's story also highlights the cultural complexities of disability in Thailand. Sermsap Vorapanya, who is the author of A Model for Inclusive Schools in Thailand and has conducted a study on Thai inclusive education practices, explains: "It is critical to understand that most Buddhists [in Thailand] believe in reincarnation. Disability is widely viewed as a deserved failure to lead positive previous lives."
Theravada Buddhist teaching on rebirth led some families to report feeling shame about having a disabled child.
However, many headteachers in Vorapanya's study cited the Buddhist belief in the need for compassion as a reason they support inclusive education. Meanprasat private school in Bangkok, which combines western-style "child-centric" learning with a Buddhist ethos of moral ethics and regular meditation, is recognised as a national leader in integrated educational practices. In total, 130 of its 1,300 students are disabled. The school's philosophy is that children with disabilities "should have the chance to mix with society and be accepted by it". More than 5,000 teachers visit the school annually and attend workshops held to help spread good practice.
State schools, however, which have much less funding, have been described by Vorapanya as having "woefully insufficient resources" to implement inclusive education properly. Headteachers have complained that while schools can now access a minimum of 2,000 baht (approximately £41) funding for each disabled child, this is not enough to cover the required resources or training expenses. Another problem is that this funding can only be given if the child has been officially certified with a disability. Teachers have reported that some parents do not want this social stigma or are fearful that this certification will lead to discrimination.
Despite the significant challenges, Lennon is optimistic. "We are making great strides," he says. "If we keep doing good, the results will surely follow."
Chanthaburi province is moving away from the special schools model, placing students with moderate special needs in mainstream schools. Lennon helps place volunteers in local schools with children with Down's syndrome, and is working with local government to demonstrate how this practice can be replicated across the province.
Inclusive education remains in its early development stages in Thailand. But, as Vorapanya says, the country has "made a great beginning" to a monumental task.
Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/mar/27/thailand-first-steps-inclusive-education
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
The strict hierarchy of Thai society means the drive for inclusive education needs strong commitment from both politicians and school leaders. In the past decade, there has been significant political progress in moves to implement a system that ensures children with disabilities have access to mainstream schools. However, with cultural barriers and resistance from some headteachers, the journey towards fully inclusive education has only just begun.
"Even when I offered to work for free, they still could not be convinced," explains Paul Lennon, a British ex-pat whose son was born with Down's syndrome. When he started looking for mainstream schools for his son in Chanthaburi province six years ago, headteachers in the local area refused him a place. Yet the National Educational Act, passed in 1999 – and accompanied by posters declaring: "Any disabled person who wishes to go to school can do so" – supposedly guaranteed all disabled children access to state education.
Some headteachers Lennon spoke to were amenable to the concept of inclusive education, but didn't feel they had the resources or training to implement it effectively. Others, with decades of experience of working in special schools, felt this institutional model was more suitable.
The education act did have some success. Between 2000 and 2004, the number of students with disabilities accessing education increased from 145,000 to 187,000. These students were taught at more than 18,000 inclusive schools, defined by the government as those that teach children with and without disabilities. There was further legislative progress with the Education Provision for People with Disabilities Act, passed in 2008, which made it illegal for schools to refuse entry to children with disabilities.
After much perseverance in securing a school place for his son, Lennon turned his attention to helping other children gain access to inclusive education by helping to set up the Good Child Foundation.
Nanthaporn (Nuey) Nanthamongkol, a six-year-old girl with Down's syndrome, was due to be sent to a distant boarding school before he intervened. "Without our work, Nuey would have been separated from her parents, sent to a school 80km away," says Lennon. "For kids with Down's syndrome, this is the worst possible thing you could do."
Nuey's story also highlights the cultural complexities of disability in Thailand. Sermsap Vorapanya, who is the author of A Model for Inclusive Schools in Thailand and has conducted a study on Thai inclusive education practices, explains: "It is critical to understand that most Buddhists [in Thailand] believe in reincarnation. Disability is widely viewed as a deserved failure to lead positive previous lives."
Theravada Buddhist teaching on rebirth led some families to report feeling shame about having a disabled child.
However, many headteachers in Vorapanya's study cited the Buddhist belief in the need for compassion as a reason they support inclusive education. Meanprasat private school in Bangkok, which combines western-style "child-centric" learning with a Buddhist ethos of moral ethics and regular meditation, is recognised as a national leader in integrated educational practices. In total, 130 of its 1,300 students are disabled. The school's philosophy is that children with disabilities "should have the chance to mix with society and be accepted by it". More than 5,000 teachers visit the school annually and attend workshops held to help spread good practice.
State schools, however, which have much less funding, have been described by Vorapanya as having "woefully insufficient resources" to implement inclusive education properly. Headteachers have complained that while schools can now access a minimum of 2,000 baht (approximately £41) funding for each disabled child, this is not enough to cover the required resources or training expenses. Another problem is that this funding can only be given if the child has been officially certified with a disability. Teachers have reported that some parents do not want this social stigma or are fearful that this certification will lead to discrimination.
Despite the significant challenges, Lennon is optimistic. "We are making great strides," he says. "If we keep doing good, the results will surely follow."
Chanthaburi province is moving away from the special schools model, placing students with moderate special needs in mainstream schools. Lennon helps place volunteers in local schools with children with Down's syndrome, and is working with local government to demonstrate how this practice can be replicated across the province.
Inclusive education remains in its early development stages in Thailand. But, as Vorapanya says, the country has "made a great beginning" to a monumental task.
Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/mar/27/thailand-first-steps-inclusive-education
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Thai Schools Urged to Boost Speaking
Thai Schools Urged to Boost Speaking.
The Thai government has embarked on an ambitious nationwide programme to teach English at least once a week in all state schools as part of the new 2012 English Speaking Year project.
The initiative is intended to ease Thailand's entry into the Asean community in 2015, when southeast Asia becomes one economic zone and a universal language is required for communication and business.
The project will focus on speaking English rather than studying its grammar, with teachers provided training through media modules and partnerships with foreign institutions, including English-language schools, according to Thailand's education ministry.
The initiative, which started in late December and is still being ironed out, is a formidable task, aiming to reach some 14 million students in 34,000 state schools across Thailand from pre-primary to university age, said Ministry of Education permanent secretary Sasithara Pichaichanarong.
"Our goal is to reach students all across Thailand – from the remote, far-reaching villages to the capital – by teaching them English through educational tools on TV, the radio and internet, and conversations with native speakers," said Sasithara. "Obviously the students are not going to be fluent immediately, but the idea is to get them speaking English better today than they did yesterday."
While the ministry aims to incentivise teachers to create an "English corner" in classrooms containing English-language newspapers, books and CDs, the programme is in no way mandatory and will rely instead on a system of rewards. Those who embrace the project may receive a scholarship to travel abroad or be given extra credit at the end of term, Sasithara said.
The programme saw a recent publicity boost when former UK prime minister Tony Blair, who visited the education ministry as part of a three-day trip to Bangkok, taught some 100 Thai students basic English and called the Speaking English Year project a "brave … and sensible decision for Thailand". Now the ministry is discussing a partnership with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation for assistance with the project in upcoming months, Sasithara said.
To date, government-run language programmes have focussed on rote learning that makes for poor improvisation when it comes to having conversations in the real world, critics argue. Recent university admission exams show that Thai students scored an average 28.43 out of 100 in English, according to the National Institute of Educational Testing Service.
Native speakers will have a role to play in the project, said Sasithara, who expects to start recruiting teachers from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK and US, as well as from countries where a high level of English is spoken, such as Singapore, the Philippines and India.
School director Panya Sukawanich said his Bangkok school would go ahead with Speaking English Year modules but that they may not reap the benefits the government was expecting.
"Many of our students have poor English – some Mathayom 1 [first-year secondary school] students still can't write A-Z," he recently told the Bangkok Post. "We have to teach them the fundamentals again and again."
Final-year student Rossukhon Seangma, who has been learning English for the past 10 years, explained, in Thai, why that was the case. "Thai students don't speak English in their daily life, so we are not familiar with using it," she told reporters. "When the class finishes, we switch to Thai."
If English fails, perhaps Mandarin will succeed – as the Ministry of Education has also been in discussions with China about creating a similar "Speaking Chinese Year Project", Sasithara said.
"Chinese officials were very interested in the English programme and offered to create a Chinese version – where they would send over 1,000 Chinese teachers to Thailand and provide scholarships to 1,000 Thai students to study in China," said Sasithara. "I told them, 'Yes, why not?' If we can learn both, it would be a great success."
Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/feb/14/thailand-speak-english-campaign
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
The Thai government has embarked on an ambitious nationwide programme to teach English at least once a week in all state schools as part of the new 2012 English Speaking Year project.
The initiative is intended to ease Thailand's entry into the Asean community in 2015, when southeast Asia becomes one economic zone and a universal language is required for communication and business.
The project will focus on speaking English rather than studying its grammar, with teachers provided training through media modules and partnerships with foreign institutions, including English-language schools, according to Thailand's education ministry.
The initiative, which started in late December and is still being ironed out, is a formidable task, aiming to reach some 14 million students in 34,000 state schools across Thailand from pre-primary to university age, said Ministry of Education permanent secretary Sasithara Pichaichanarong.
"Our goal is to reach students all across Thailand – from the remote, far-reaching villages to the capital – by teaching them English through educational tools on TV, the radio and internet, and conversations with native speakers," said Sasithara. "Obviously the students are not going to be fluent immediately, but the idea is to get them speaking English better today than they did yesterday."
While the ministry aims to incentivise teachers to create an "English corner" in classrooms containing English-language newspapers, books and CDs, the programme is in no way mandatory and will rely instead on a system of rewards. Those who embrace the project may receive a scholarship to travel abroad or be given extra credit at the end of term, Sasithara said.
The programme saw a recent publicity boost when former UK prime minister Tony Blair, who visited the education ministry as part of a three-day trip to Bangkok, taught some 100 Thai students basic English and called the Speaking English Year project a "brave … and sensible decision for Thailand". Now the ministry is discussing a partnership with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation for assistance with the project in upcoming months, Sasithara said.
To date, government-run language programmes have focussed on rote learning that makes for poor improvisation when it comes to having conversations in the real world, critics argue. Recent university admission exams show that Thai students scored an average 28.43 out of 100 in English, according to the National Institute of Educational Testing Service.
Native speakers will have a role to play in the project, said Sasithara, who expects to start recruiting teachers from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK and US, as well as from countries where a high level of English is spoken, such as Singapore, the Philippines and India.
School director Panya Sukawanich said his Bangkok school would go ahead with Speaking English Year modules but that they may not reap the benefits the government was expecting.
"Many of our students have poor English – some Mathayom 1 [first-year secondary school] students still can't write A-Z," he recently told the Bangkok Post. "We have to teach them the fundamentals again and again."
Final-year student Rossukhon Seangma, who has been learning English for the past 10 years, explained, in Thai, why that was the case. "Thai students don't speak English in their daily life, so we are not familiar with using it," she told reporters. "When the class finishes, we switch to Thai."
If English fails, perhaps Mandarin will succeed – as the Ministry of Education has also been in discussions with China about creating a similar "Speaking Chinese Year Project", Sasithara said.
"Chinese officials were very interested in the English programme and offered to create a Chinese version – where they would send over 1,000 Chinese teachers to Thailand and provide scholarships to 1,000 Thai students to study in China," said Sasithara. "I told them, 'Yes, why not?' If we can learn both, it would be a great success."
Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/feb/14/thailand-speak-english-campaign
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Jobs in Cambodia
Jobs in Cambodia.
Cambodia is becoming a popular destination with Western travellers because it has a stunning and diverse natural landscape, it has friendly people, it has enjoyed a rich and varied history and offers up a whole host of exciting and fantastic experiences to enjoy.
Many of those who visit Cambodia for an extended period of time fall in love with the country and its people and are determined to work to help the nation and either settle down or later return to work in Cambodia.
For people with a dream of helping the country and its citizens to progress there are various vacancies available annually for aid and charity workers as well as extensive job openings for teachers. An alternative to these industries for employment for expats is the tourism industry which is growing rapidly and bolstering the economy - this fact means that tourism is now helping to stabilise Cambodia and therefore jobs in Cambodia for Westerners can be found mainly in tourism, education or charity fields.
Anyone thinking about moving to live for a while in this fascinating and stunning country and who would like to know more specifics about the types of jobs available in Cambodia that expatriates usually take should find useful tips and insider advice in this article.
As stated tourism, charity work and education are the main employment sectors for expatriates but in recent months a significant amount of exploration has revealed extensive oil and natural gas reserves in the territorial waters of Cambodia meaning that this is an alternative field of employment that will likely open up to external Western contractors in the future.
In the meantime anyone determined to find employment in Cambodia will find it difficult to source anything remotely unless the individual in questions approaches a recruitment company specialist in either the field in which they wish to work or in the country of Cambodia itself - an alternative is to directly make contact with the aid agencies who work in Cambodia for example or international agencies which employ teaching staff for the country's schools.
In terms of teaching jobs there's one big complaint that you will hear from all those working in the education industry and that is that the level of pay is very low and consequently the standard of living that teachers can aspire to in Cambodia is correspondingly low...however you have to stop and ask yourself why you would want to teach in Cambodia in the first place - surely those who commit to teaching in schools in Phnom Penh or even in smaller towns such as Battambang aren't in it for the money!
The whole thing about working in a country like Cambodia is gaining invaluable life experience at the same time as enjoying the travel and adventure that goes hand in hand with working abroad temporarily in a country where Western expats all band together!
Teachers often find employment in one of the international schools located in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh or in one of the language schools dotted across the country, other's work alongside Khmer teachers in provincial schools mainly teaching English or teaching other key subjects through the medium of English.
For jobs in all other employment sectors there is a Khmer Website Directory which lists jobs in many diverse fields. When it comes to the better paying end of the scale of jobs available in Cambodia the charities and aid agency employees are relatively well remunerated which means that the standard of living they can enjoy is also correspondingly good. Having said that no job in Cambodia is going to make an employee particularly wealthy, in fact the main criteria that anyone who is committed to working in Cambodia should have is a desire to assist rather than to take and to facilitate development and improvement.
Read more at http://ezinearticles.com/?Jobs-in-Cambodia&id=234731
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Cambodia is becoming a popular destination with Western travellers because it has a stunning and diverse natural landscape, it has friendly people, it has enjoyed a rich and varied history and offers up a whole host of exciting and fantastic experiences to enjoy.
Many of those who visit Cambodia for an extended period of time fall in love with the country and its people and are determined to work to help the nation and either settle down or later return to work in Cambodia.
For people with a dream of helping the country and its citizens to progress there are various vacancies available annually for aid and charity workers as well as extensive job openings for teachers. An alternative to these industries for employment for expats is the tourism industry which is growing rapidly and bolstering the economy - this fact means that tourism is now helping to stabilise Cambodia and therefore jobs in Cambodia for Westerners can be found mainly in tourism, education or charity fields.
Anyone thinking about moving to live for a while in this fascinating and stunning country and who would like to know more specifics about the types of jobs available in Cambodia that expatriates usually take should find useful tips and insider advice in this article.
As stated tourism, charity work and education are the main employment sectors for expatriates but in recent months a significant amount of exploration has revealed extensive oil and natural gas reserves in the territorial waters of Cambodia meaning that this is an alternative field of employment that will likely open up to external Western contractors in the future.
In the meantime anyone determined to find employment in Cambodia will find it difficult to source anything remotely unless the individual in questions approaches a recruitment company specialist in either the field in which they wish to work or in the country of Cambodia itself - an alternative is to directly make contact with the aid agencies who work in Cambodia for example or international agencies which employ teaching staff for the country's schools.
In terms of teaching jobs there's one big complaint that you will hear from all those working in the education industry and that is that the level of pay is very low and consequently the standard of living that teachers can aspire to in Cambodia is correspondingly low...however you have to stop and ask yourself why you would want to teach in Cambodia in the first place - surely those who commit to teaching in schools in Phnom Penh or even in smaller towns such as Battambang aren't in it for the money!
The whole thing about working in a country like Cambodia is gaining invaluable life experience at the same time as enjoying the travel and adventure that goes hand in hand with working abroad temporarily in a country where Western expats all band together!
Teachers often find employment in one of the international schools located in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh or in one of the language schools dotted across the country, other's work alongside Khmer teachers in provincial schools mainly teaching English or teaching other key subjects through the medium of English.
For jobs in all other employment sectors there is a Khmer Website Directory which lists jobs in many diverse fields. When it comes to the better paying end of the scale of jobs available in Cambodia the charities and aid agency employees are relatively well remunerated which means that the standard of living they can enjoy is also correspondingly good. Having said that no job in Cambodia is going to make an employee particularly wealthy, in fact the main criteria that anyone who is committed to working in Cambodia should have is a desire to assist rather than to take and to facilitate development and improvement.
Read more at http://ezinearticles.com/?Jobs-in-Cambodia&id=234731
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Thai Language Alphabet Vowels Numbers
Thai Language Alphabet Vowels Numbers.
The language of Thailand is one of most ancient of languages in the East and the South Eastern part of Asia. It is monosyllabic and uses the five basic tones of high, mid, low, rising, and falling tone to change the meaning of a single syllable. It is this particular aspect that makes it a difficult language for most Westerners to master but learning it is helpful never the less.
The Thai language is both the national and the official language of Thailand and it is also the mother tongue of the local people.
The Thai language is one of the members of the Tai Group that belongs to the Tai- Kadai family. The Tai- Kadai group of languages has originated from Southern China though linguists have linked it to the Austronesian, the Austroasiatic, or Sino-Tibetan family of languages.
The Central Thai or the Siamese or the Standard Thai is the main language spoken by approximately 25 million people. This is the main language. But there are derivatives like the Khorat Thai that is spoken by about 400,000 people in Nakhon Ratchasima. Along with the Standard Thai there are many important dialects that are spoken and some of them are-
Isan is known as the North Eastern Thai and it is the language of the Isan region. It bears a close resemblance to the Lao language though it is written in the Thai alphabet.
Galung language spoken in the Nakhon Phanom province
Nyaw language is spoken in Sakhon Nakhon province, Nakhon Phanom province and Udon Thani province of Northeast Thailand.
These are the main dialects but besides these there are the Lü (Tai Lue, Dai), Phuan, Shan, Southern Thai (Pak Dtai) and Thai Dam to name a few others. The dialects are spoken by people in the different regions of Thailand.
Besides the variations in dialects Standard Thai is composed also of different very interesting social contexts. These are spoken outside Thailand as well.
Street Thai
Rhetorical Thai
Elegant Thai
Religious Thai
Royal Thai
Most find the Thailand language difficult especially those who do not speak a related language.
Read more at http://google-learnthailanguage.blogspot.com/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
The language of Thailand is one of most ancient of languages in the East and the South Eastern part of Asia. It is monosyllabic and uses the five basic tones of high, mid, low, rising, and falling tone to change the meaning of a single syllable. It is this particular aspect that makes it a difficult language for most Westerners to master but learning it is helpful never the less.The Thai language is both the national and the official language of Thailand and it is also the mother tongue of the local people.
The Thai language is one of the members of the Tai Group that belongs to the Tai- Kadai family. The Tai- Kadai group of languages has originated from Southern China though linguists have linked it to the Austronesian, the Austroasiatic, or Sino-Tibetan family of languages.
The Central Thai or the Siamese or the Standard Thai is the main language spoken by approximately 25 million people. This is the main language. But there are derivatives like the Khorat Thai that is spoken by about 400,000 people in Nakhon Ratchasima. Along with the Standard Thai there are many important dialects that are spoken and some of them are-
Isan is known as the North Eastern Thai and it is the language of the Isan region. It bears a close resemblance to the Lao language though it is written in the Thai alphabet.
Galung language spoken in the Nakhon Phanom province
Nyaw language is spoken in Sakhon Nakhon province, Nakhon Phanom province and Udon Thani province of Northeast Thailand.
These are the main dialects but besides these there are the Lü (Tai Lue, Dai), Phuan, Shan, Southern Thai (Pak Dtai) and Thai Dam to name a few others. The dialects are spoken by people in the different regions of Thailand.
Besides the variations in dialects Standard Thai is composed also of different very interesting social contexts. These are spoken outside Thailand as well.
Street Thai
Rhetorical Thai
Elegant Thai
Religious Thai
Royal Thai
Thai Alphabet
 |
| Thai Language Alphabet |
Thai Vowels
 |
| Thai Language Vowels |
Thai Numbers
 |
| Thai Language Numbers |
Read more at http://google-learnthailanguage.blogspot.com/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Friday, June 29, 2012
Thai Schools Urged to Boost Speaking
Thai Schools Urged to Boost Speaking.
The Thai government has embarked on an ambitious nationwide programme to teach English at least once a week in all state schools as part of the new 2012 English Speaking Year project.
The initiative is intended to ease Thailand's entry into the Asean community in 2015, when southeast Asia becomes one economic zone and a universal language is required for communication and business.
The project will focus on speaking English rather than studying its grammar, with teachers provided training through media modules and partnerships with foreign institutions, including English-language schools, according to Thailand's education ministry.
The initiative, which started in late December and is still being ironed out, is a formidable task, aiming to reach some 14 million students in 34,000 state schools across Thailand from pre-primary to university age, said Ministry of Education permanent secretary Sasithara Pichaichanarong.
"Our goal is to reach students all across Thailand – from the remote, far-reaching villages to the capital – by teaching them English through educational tools on TV, the radio and internet, and conversations with native speakers," said Sasithara. "Obviously the students are not going to be fluent immediately, but the idea is to get them speaking English better today than they did yesterday."
While the ministry aims to incentivise teachers to create an "English corner" in classrooms containing English-language newspapers, books and CDs, the programme is in no way mandatory and will rely instead on a system of rewards. Those who embrace the project may receive a scholarship to travel abroad or be given extra credit at the end of term, Sasithara said.
The programme saw a recent publicity boost when former UK prime minister Tony Blair, who visited the education ministry as part of a three-day trip to Bangkok, taught some 100 Thai students basic English and called the Speaking English Year project a "brave … and sensible decision for Thailand". Now the ministry is discussing a partnership with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation for assistance with the project in upcoming months, Sasithara said.
To date, government-run language programmes have focussed on rote learning that makes for poor improvisation when it comes to having conversations in the real world, critics argue. Recent university admission exams show that Thai students scored an average 28.43 out of 100 in English, according to the National Institute of Educational Testing Service.
Native speakers will have a role to play in the project, said Sasithara, who expects to start recruiting teachers from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK and US, as well as from countries where a high level of English is spoken, such as Singapore, the Philippines and India.
School director Panya Sukawanich said his Bangkok school would go ahead with Speaking English Year modules but that they may not reap the benefits the government was expecting.
"Many of our students have poor English – some Mathayom 1 [first-year secondary school] students still can't write A-Z," he recently told the Bangkok Post. "We have to teach them the fundamentals again and again."
Final-year student Rossukhon Seangma, who has been learning English for the past 10 years, explained, in Thai, why that was the case. "Thai students don't speak English in their daily life, so we are not familiar with using it," she told reporters. "When the class finishes, we switch to Thai."
If English fails, perhaps Mandarin will succeed – as the Ministry of Education has also been in discussions with China about creating a similar "Speaking Chinese Year Project", Sasithara said.
"Chinese officials were very interested in the English programme and offered to create a Chinese version – where they would send over 1,000 Chinese teachers to Thailand and provide scholarships to 1,000 Thai students to study in China," said Sasithara. "I told them, 'Yes, why not?' If we can learn both, it would be a great success."
Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/feb/14/thailand-speak-english-campaign
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
The Thai government has embarked on an ambitious nationwide programme to teach English at least once a week in all state schools as part of the new 2012 English Speaking Year project.
The initiative is intended to ease Thailand's entry into the Asean community in 2015, when southeast Asia becomes one economic zone and a universal language is required for communication and business.
The project will focus on speaking English rather than studying its grammar, with teachers provided training through media modules and partnerships with foreign institutions, including English-language schools, according to Thailand's education ministry.
The initiative, which started in late December and is still being ironed out, is a formidable task, aiming to reach some 14 million students in 34,000 state schools across Thailand from pre-primary to university age, said Ministry of Education permanent secretary Sasithara Pichaichanarong.
"Our goal is to reach students all across Thailand – from the remote, far-reaching villages to the capital – by teaching them English through educational tools on TV, the radio and internet, and conversations with native speakers," said Sasithara. "Obviously the students are not going to be fluent immediately, but the idea is to get them speaking English better today than they did yesterday."
While the ministry aims to incentivise teachers to create an "English corner" in classrooms containing English-language newspapers, books and CDs, the programme is in no way mandatory and will rely instead on a system of rewards. Those who embrace the project may receive a scholarship to travel abroad or be given extra credit at the end of term, Sasithara said.
The programme saw a recent publicity boost when former UK prime minister Tony Blair, who visited the education ministry as part of a three-day trip to Bangkok, taught some 100 Thai students basic English and called the Speaking English Year project a "brave … and sensible decision for Thailand". Now the ministry is discussing a partnership with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation for assistance with the project in upcoming months, Sasithara said.
To date, government-run language programmes have focussed on rote learning that makes for poor improvisation when it comes to having conversations in the real world, critics argue. Recent university admission exams show that Thai students scored an average 28.43 out of 100 in English, according to the National Institute of Educational Testing Service.
Native speakers will have a role to play in the project, said Sasithara, who expects to start recruiting teachers from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK and US, as well as from countries where a high level of English is spoken, such as Singapore, the Philippines and India.
School director Panya Sukawanich said his Bangkok school would go ahead with Speaking English Year modules but that they may not reap the benefits the government was expecting.
"Many of our students have poor English – some Mathayom 1 [first-year secondary school] students still can't write A-Z," he recently told the Bangkok Post. "We have to teach them the fundamentals again and again."
Final-year student Rossukhon Seangma, who has been learning English for the past 10 years, explained, in Thai, why that was the case. "Thai students don't speak English in their daily life, so we are not familiar with using it," she told reporters. "When the class finishes, we switch to Thai."
If English fails, perhaps Mandarin will succeed – as the Ministry of Education has also been in discussions with China about creating a similar "Speaking Chinese Year Project", Sasithara said.
"Chinese officials were very interested in the English programme and offered to create a Chinese version – where they would send over 1,000 Chinese teachers to Thailand and provide scholarships to 1,000 Thai students to study in China," said Sasithara. "I told them, 'Yes, why not?' If we can learn both, it would be a great success."
Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/feb/14/thailand-speak-english-campaign
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Sunday, June 24, 2012
UK University to Open Campus in Thailand
UK University to Open Campus in Thailand.
A UK university is to open a campus in Bangkok - in what is claimed as the first such UK branch university to be established in Thailand.
The University of Central Lancashire has signed a deal with a Thai-based entrepreneur to open a university campus in Bangkok in 2014.
Degrees will be taught in English and validated by the UK university.
This will be the latest example of universities "globalising" with overseas branches.
It follows a path set by the University of Nottingham which set up a branch university in China.
The greatest concentration of such branch universities, from UK and US universities, has been in Asia and the Gulf states.
Newcastle University is establishing a medical school in Malaysia, where Nottingham also has a campus. University College London has a campus in Qatar.
The announcement of the University of Central Lancashire's plans will give this "new" university an international identity and an opportunity to expand.
The University of Central Lancashire's vice-chancellor, Malcolm McVicar, said its market research showed "strong demand" for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Thailand.
Thailand has been identified as a hub for South East Asia, which it expects to be a "key area for future global growth".
The UK university will invest £7.5m and will work alongside the entrepreneur Sitichai Charoenkajonkul.
'Global brand'
There are other UK universities which have partnerships with universities in Thailand, but the University of Central Lancashire is claiming to be the first from the UK to set up a full university there.
It expects to have 5,000 students in 10 years and will offer courses in areas such as business, built and natural environment, engineering, creative and performing arts and languages.
Kevin Van-Cauter, higher education adviser at the British Council, says this is part of an increasing pattern of globalisation in higher education.
Setting up overseas branches allows universities to "establish a global brand", he says.
The physical presence of a campus can also be presented as a bigger commitment to a region than the more widespread partnership arrangements, he suggests.
Such branch campuses can be used to attract students from across the wider region, he says.
Overseas universities in South East Asia might recruit students from China, Vietnam and Malaysia and further afield, such as the Middle East and North Africa, he says.
There are US universities which have set up chains of overseas campuses in several different countries.
Read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16509673
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
A UK university is to open a campus in Bangkok - in what is claimed as the first such UK branch university to be established in Thailand.
The University of Central Lancashire has signed a deal with a Thai-based entrepreneur to open a university campus in Bangkok in 2014.
Degrees will be taught in English and validated by the UK university.
This will be the latest example of universities "globalising" with overseas branches.
It follows a path set by the University of Nottingham which set up a branch university in China.
The greatest concentration of such branch universities, from UK and US universities, has been in Asia and the Gulf states.
Newcastle University is establishing a medical school in Malaysia, where Nottingham also has a campus. University College London has a campus in Qatar.
The announcement of the University of Central Lancashire's plans will give this "new" university an international identity and an opportunity to expand.
The University of Central Lancashire's vice-chancellor, Malcolm McVicar, said its market research showed "strong demand" for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Thailand.
Thailand has been identified as a hub for South East Asia, which it expects to be a "key area for future global growth".
The UK university will invest £7.5m and will work alongside the entrepreneur Sitichai Charoenkajonkul.
'Global brand'
There are other UK universities which have partnerships with universities in Thailand, but the University of Central Lancashire is claiming to be the first from the UK to set up a full university there.
It expects to have 5,000 students in 10 years and will offer courses in areas such as business, built and natural environment, engineering, creative and performing arts and languages.
Kevin Van-Cauter, higher education adviser at the British Council, says this is part of an increasing pattern of globalisation in higher education.
Setting up overseas branches allows universities to "establish a global brand", he says.
The physical presence of a campus can also be presented as a bigger commitment to a region than the more widespread partnership arrangements, he suggests.
Such branch campuses can be used to attract students from across the wider region, he says.
Overseas universities in South East Asia might recruit students from China, Vietnam and Malaysia and further afield, such as the Middle East and North Africa, he says.
There are US universities which have set up chains of overseas campuses in several different countries.
Read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16509673
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Monday, May 28, 2012
36 Hours in Phuket Thailand
36 Hours in Phuket Thailand.
THE teardrop-shaped island of Phuket has long been known for its dazzling beaches and naughty night life. But for many, it was the catastrophic Asian tsunami in 2004 that finally placed Phuket on the map. Recovery has been swift, and in recent years the island has firmly reasserted itself as a premier beach resort in southern Thailand, with a growing crop of luxury hotels, top-notch restaurants and even a thriving art community.
Friday
4 p.m.
1) PARADISE LOST
The beach town of Kamala was hit hard by the tsunami, but today the town has sprung back to life with renovated cottages that dot the hillside and beach bars along the promenade. Grab a crepe-like roti — this Thai version is filled with egg and fruit and topped with condensed milk — from the Chef Roti stand (near the Coconut Garden bungalows; banana roti, 30 baht, or 95 cents at 32 baht to the dollar), and stroll along Kamala’s wide crescent of sandy beach, dipping your toes in the mesmerizingly clear water.
5:30 p.m.
2) BIG BUDDHA IS WATCHING
Seek nirvana at the top of Mount Nagakerd, where an enormous, white jade marble-covered Buddha is close to completion. Follow the red-and-white signs from the town of Chalong pointing the way to the 147-foot-tall Big Buddha, officially known as Phraphutthamingmongkhol-akenagakhiri Buddha. Workers are still finishing the Buddha’s big lotus seat, but already it’s an impressive sight, with magnificent views of the Andaman Sea.
7 p.m.
3) STALL TACTICS
Skip the tourist-filled beach restaurants and instead follow the locals inland to Phuket town and the night food market on Ong Sim Phai Road near the Robinson Department Store. A food market by day, it’s a lively food court at night. Portable stalls and carts pull up to the curb, and a sea of plastic tables and chairs spills onto the street. Tasty Thai and Chinese dishes include spicy papaya salad, barbecued pork buns, coconut curry, grilled fish balls and, for dessert, sticky rice with mango. Having trouble deciding what to eat? Look for the stall with the longest line and join it. The whole meal, plus a couple of beers, shouldn’t cost more than 200 baht.
9 p.m.
4) KICK FACE, WIN PRIZE
Thailand’s national sport is brutal. In the ancient martial art of muay Thai, fighters pummel each other with fists, feet, elbows and knees. An authentic place to catch a fight is Suwit Stadium (15 Moo 1, Chaofa Road), where ceremonial prefight dances and traditional music are reminders that this is more than just violent entertainment. Friday night fights start with a few pipsqueak bouts, so if you’re opposed to watching oiled-up 10-year-olds duking it out in the ring, plan to arrive an hour late, around 9:30. Itching to get into the ring yourself? The stadium doubles as a gym and runs a training camp for aspiring fighters. Fight tickets start at 900 baht and include free transportation to and from the stadium.
Saturday
9 a.m.
5) ELEPHANT EXPRESS
Start the day precariously perched on a pachyderm. Bang Pae Safari (12/3 Moo 5, T. Srisoonthorn Road) offers elephant trekking excursions through shallow streams and groves of rubber trees. Midway through the trip, you can scramble down from your seat and take a turn in the mahout’s spot, riding on the elephant’s head. A 30-minute trek costs 900 baht per person, or 1,300 baht for an hour.
10:30 a.m.
6) WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
Next door is the Khao Phra Thaeo Wildlife Sanctuary (entry, 200 baht), where singsong gibbon calls lead you to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, a nonprofit organization that works to return captured gibbons to their natural habitat. If you can pull yourself away from the adorable, acrobatic apes, hoof it a few minutes into the rain forest to Bang Pae Waterfall and take a refreshing dip in the pool below.
1 p.m.
7) MOM’S COOKING
Mom Luang Tridhosyuth Devakul, better known as Mom Tri, is a local architect and entrepreneur who runs a growing empire of respected hotels and restaurants on Phuket. His latest restaurant, Mom Tri’s Boathouse Regatta, is a breezy spot on the boardwalk of the Royal Phuket Marina. The service is as polished as the colossal yachts docked out front, but the real star is the food. Recommendations include lobster ravioli with morel mushroom velouté (500 baht) and curried fried rice with seafood, pineapple and cashews (300 baht).
3 p.m.
8) CANVAS COMMUNITY
The laid-back village of Rawai, near the island’s southern tip, has emerged as an enclave for talented local artists. Leading the way is the Red Gallery, where the artist Somrak Maneemai shows trippy paintings imbued with a whimsical dreaminess. The gallery recently relocated to the Art Village, joining a cluster of other small studios and galleries, like Tawan Ook Art Gallery and the Love Art Studio. On an island inundated with mediocre imitation art, the originality of this bohemian art colony is refreshing.
7 p.m.
9) BOX ON THE ROCKS
With sweeping ocean views, floor-to-ceiling windows and an elegant terrace, White Box Restaurant (245/7 Prabaramee Road) has been a foodie favorite since opening two years ago on the rocky beach north of Patong. The menu is a mélange of Thai and Mediterranean flavors, and as the name implies, the design is sleek with white décor. Dinner with drinks for two is about 3,000 baht. After dinner, linger upstairs in the trendy open-air lounge sipping spicy Tom Yum martinis, made with vodka, galangal, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaf and chili (280 baht).
11 p.m.
10) BEER ON WHEELS
Beer-soaked Bangla Road in Patong is Phuket night life at its brashest and seediest — a heaving crush of hostess bars, go-go clubs and “ladyboy” cabaret. But if that’s not your thing, head south toward Rawai to the bright orange Volkswagen minibus parked along the right side of Viset Road, just past the Art Village. Customized with a bar, the minibus is a party on wheels that attracts a mix of locals, expatriates and sunburned Swedes sipping ice-cold Chang beers (35 baht).
Sunday
10 a.m.
11) WAKE UP, RUB DOWN
Inexpensive massage parlors staffed by gaggles of young Thai girls are everywhere in Phuket. For a quick foot rub, these places will do just fine. But for a head-to-toe treat, go to the sprawling Sukko Cultural Spa & Wellness. Book a traditional Thai massage, a method that incorporates acupressure and yoga-like poses to stretch your aching limbs into glorious submission (1,300 baht for 60 minutes).
Noon
12) PARADISE FOUND
For miles of untouched golden sand all to yourself, head to the blissfully deserted Mai Khao Beach, part of Sirinat National Park, along Phuket’s northwestern shore. Between the warm, cerulean water stretching out to the horizon and a backdrop of lush forests filled with palms, a wide swath of powdery sand sits tantalizingly undisturbed. So sling up a hammock and pretend that you’re stranded on a deserted island for a few hours.
Read more at http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/travel/21hours.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
THE teardrop-shaped island of Phuket has long been known for its dazzling beaches and naughty night life. But for many, it was the catastrophic Asian tsunami in 2004 that finally placed Phuket on the map. Recovery has been swift, and in recent years the island has firmly reasserted itself as a premier beach resort in southern Thailand, with a growing crop of luxury hotels, top-notch restaurants and even a thriving art community.
Friday
4 p.m.
1) PARADISE LOST
The beach town of Kamala was hit hard by the tsunami, but today the town has sprung back to life with renovated cottages that dot the hillside and beach bars along the promenade. Grab a crepe-like roti — this Thai version is filled with egg and fruit and topped with condensed milk — from the Chef Roti stand (near the Coconut Garden bungalows; banana roti, 30 baht, or 95 cents at 32 baht to the dollar), and stroll along Kamala’s wide crescent of sandy beach, dipping your toes in the mesmerizingly clear water.
5:30 p.m.
2) BIG BUDDHA IS WATCHING
Seek nirvana at the top of Mount Nagakerd, where an enormous, white jade marble-covered Buddha is close to completion. Follow the red-and-white signs from the town of Chalong pointing the way to the 147-foot-tall Big Buddha, officially known as Phraphutthamingmongkhol-akenagakhiri Buddha. Workers are still finishing the Buddha’s big lotus seat, but already it’s an impressive sight, with magnificent views of the Andaman Sea.
7 p.m.
3) STALL TACTICS
Skip the tourist-filled beach restaurants and instead follow the locals inland to Phuket town and the night food market on Ong Sim Phai Road near the Robinson Department Store. A food market by day, it’s a lively food court at night. Portable stalls and carts pull up to the curb, and a sea of plastic tables and chairs spills onto the street. Tasty Thai and Chinese dishes include spicy papaya salad, barbecued pork buns, coconut curry, grilled fish balls and, for dessert, sticky rice with mango. Having trouble deciding what to eat? Look for the stall with the longest line and join it. The whole meal, plus a couple of beers, shouldn’t cost more than 200 baht.
9 p.m.
4) KICK FACE, WIN PRIZE
Thailand’s national sport is brutal. In the ancient martial art of muay Thai, fighters pummel each other with fists, feet, elbows and knees. An authentic place to catch a fight is Suwit Stadium (15 Moo 1, Chaofa Road), where ceremonial prefight dances and traditional music are reminders that this is more than just violent entertainment. Friday night fights start with a few pipsqueak bouts, so if you’re opposed to watching oiled-up 10-year-olds duking it out in the ring, plan to arrive an hour late, around 9:30. Itching to get into the ring yourself? The stadium doubles as a gym and runs a training camp for aspiring fighters. Fight tickets start at 900 baht and include free transportation to and from the stadium.
Saturday
9 a.m.
5) ELEPHANT EXPRESS
Start the day precariously perched on a pachyderm. Bang Pae Safari (12/3 Moo 5, T. Srisoonthorn Road) offers elephant trekking excursions through shallow streams and groves of rubber trees. Midway through the trip, you can scramble down from your seat and take a turn in the mahout’s spot, riding on the elephant’s head. A 30-minute trek costs 900 baht per person, or 1,300 baht for an hour.
10:30 a.m.
6) WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
Next door is the Khao Phra Thaeo Wildlife Sanctuary (entry, 200 baht), where singsong gibbon calls lead you to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, a nonprofit organization that works to return captured gibbons to their natural habitat. If you can pull yourself away from the adorable, acrobatic apes, hoof it a few minutes into the rain forest to Bang Pae Waterfall and take a refreshing dip in the pool below.
1 p.m.
7) MOM’S COOKING
Mom Luang Tridhosyuth Devakul, better known as Mom Tri, is a local architect and entrepreneur who runs a growing empire of respected hotels and restaurants on Phuket. His latest restaurant, Mom Tri’s Boathouse Regatta, is a breezy spot on the boardwalk of the Royal Phuket Marina. The service is as polished as the colossal yachts docked out front, but the real star is the food. Recommendations include lobster ravioli with morel mushroom velouté (500 baht) and curried fried rice with seafood, pineapple and cashews (300 baht).
3 p.m.
8) CANVAS COMMUNITY
The laid-back village of Rawai, near the island’s southern tip, has emerged as an enclave for talented local artists. Leading the way is the Red Gallery, where the artist Somrak Maneemai shows trippy paintings imbued with a whimsical dreaminess. The gallery recently relocated to the Art Village, joining a cluster of other small studios and galleries, like Tawan Ook Art Gallery and the Love Art Studio. On an island inundated with mediocre imitation art, the originality of this bohemian art colony is refreshing.
7 p.m.
9) BOX ON THE ROCKS
With sweeping ocean views, floor-to-ceiling windows and an elegant terrace, White Box Restaurant (245/7 Prabaramee Road) has been a foodie favorite since opening two years ago on the rocky beach north of Patong. The menu is a mélange of Thai and Mediterranean flavors, and as the name implies, the design is sleek with white décor. Dinner with drinks for two is about 3,000 baht. After dinner, linger upstairs in the trendy open-air lounge sipping spicy Tom Yum martinis, made with vodka, galangal, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaf and chili (280 baht).
11 p.m.
10) BEER ON WHEELS
Beer-soaked Bangla Road in Patong is Phuket night life at its brashest and seediest — a heaving crush of hostess bars, go-go clubs and “ladyboy” cabaret. But if that’s not your thing, head south toward Rawai to the bright orange Volkswagen minibus parked along the right side of Viset Road, just past the Art Village. Customized with a bar, the minibus is a party on wheels that attracts a mix of locals, expatriates and sunburned Swedes sipping ice-cold Chang beers (35 baht).
Sunday
10 a.m.
11) WAKE UP, RUB DOWN
Inexpensive massage parlors staffed by gaggles of young Thai girls are everywhere in Phuket. For a quick foot rub, these places will do just fine. But for a head-to-toe treat, go to the sprawling Sukko Cultural Spa & Wellness. Book a traditional Thai massage, a method that incorporates acupressure and yoga-like poses to stretch your aching limbs into glorious submission (1,300 baht for 60 minutes).
Noon
12) PARADISE FOUND
For miles of untouched golden sand all to yourself, head to the blissfully deserted Mai Khao Beach, part of Sirinat National Park, along Phuket’s northwestern shore. Between the warm, cerulean water stretching out to the horizon and a backdrop of lush forests filled with palms, a wide swath of powdery sand sits tantalizingly undisturbed. So sling up a hammock and pretend that you’re stranded on a deserted island for a few hours.
Read more at http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/travel/21hours.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Hua Hin Beach Resort Quiet Enough
Hua Hin a Beach Resort That’s Quiet Enough for a King.
AS the late afternoon sun bathes the horizon in purple and crimson, I wander slowly down the long, curving beach. Though rocks mar part of the five-mile-long stretch, most of the waterfront is covered with white sand. On the southern end of the beachfront, a towering, slim golden Buddha statue peers out over the sea, and I can see small white and yellow shrines cut into the rocks of a nearby mountain fringed with low mist.
When I sit in the surf, I notice young Thai men riding black-and-white spotted horses up and down the beach, offering rides to tourists. Thai families doggy paddle near me, luxuriating in the bath-warm water and searing sunlight. Not one Jet Ski, tour group or powerboat in sight.
There aren't many places left in Thailand where travelers can sit in the surf undisturbed. Over the past decade, it seems that clusters of hotels and condominiums have colonized nearly every strip of beach. So I was surprised, on a trip in March, to find that Hua Hin, the country's oldest beach resort, just a three-hour train ride from Bangkok, had not yet fallen to the wave of building and water sports.
Arriving in Hua Hin, in fact, I quickly notice the mellow atmosphere far different from the blaring beer bars and neon dance shows of other Thai beaches like Pattaya. At Hua Hin's colonial-style train station, all white-and-red columns and mahogany floors, a small group of taxi drivers sleeps in the shade of a jackfruit tree. When I try to rouse them for a ride into town, they nod “no” to my offer and then nod off again.
Friends explain to me there are several reasons for Hua Hin's slow pace of life. Because it sits so close to Bangkok, many foreign tourists skip it for other beach resorts like Phuket; Hua Hin now attracts mostly Thai families. Because Thailand's revered royal family spends much of its time in Hua Hin — in a palace of marble and teak named, aptly, Far From Worries — developers may be reluctant to overbuild, knowing that the king has made sustainable development a centerpiece of his reign.
The laid-back, small-scale life has also made Hua Hin Thailand's pioneer in boutique hotels and spas. (The Hua Hin area set the world record for the largest group massage.) Thirty minutes south of Hua Hin town, I drive to Aleenta, an intimate boutique hotel in the beach village of Pranburi made up of bungalow-style buildings with gleaming white walls and thatched roofs. Aleenta seems to attract Thai artists seeking a private but avant-garde resort — I overhear two Thai men with thin goatees and long ponytails discussing the latest films to hit Bangkok art theaters.
Aleenta's burnt siena walls, curving outdoor staircases and crimson tiles give it the feel of a Mediterranean or Mexican beach resort. A resort at the end of nowhere: in the lap pool adjacent to a swim-up bar, I paddle around without seeing another guest.Aleenta also quickly coddles me with homey touches. My room, the size of a large New York studio and built from natural wood, thatch and smooth tile, looks out onto a lonely longtail fishing boat bobbing in the surf outside. The hotel staff has programmed an iPod in my room, and when I request coffee at bizarre, late-night hours, they laugh and bring Thai java. At the hotel's Frangipani Wing, where cooks teach Thai cuisine in an open kitchen, the chef takes time to demonstrate to me how she makes piquant Thai salads of fresh squid, basil and chopped chilies.
Aleenta has spawned a boutique hotel industry. Along the Pranburi beach road, other developers are building small bungalows and spas with Mediterranean and Moroccan themes, and Hua Hin town now features Let's Sea Hua Hin al Fresco Resort, a cheaper yet still charming 40-room boutique hotel on the water. Near the Aleenta lies the Evason Hideaway, another high-end boutique. Even the bigger hotels have gotten into the act. This spring, the Hyatt Regency Hua Hin will open its own boutique, the Barai, eight suites with their own gardens or plunge pools.
I wander up to Aleenta's spa, which advertises unique detox treatments featuring Thai herbs and tamarind juice and massages with kaffir lime, lemongrass and jasmine flavors. On the roof of the hotel restaurant, it commands a stunning panoramic view of the sea, but I decide to head back into town, where massages will be cheaper.
In central Hua Hin, I stop for a break from the 105-degree heat at the Sofitel Central, a renovated version of the town's classic colonial-era Railway Hotel, famed for its topiary gardens full of bushes shaped like elephants and its wide, curved balconies. Gardeners obsessively trim the bushes with clippers so small they look like nail scissors.
FROM the beginning of the 20th century until the development of other resorts like Phuket, Hua Hin was the place for wealthy Thais to escape Bangkok's heat. The Sofitel's coffee bar, which still serves high tea each afternoon, features aging photographs of that older era, a time when the king and queen were host to royal parties at the hotel, and people gathered around the radio to hear the latest jazz coming from America. (The king is a jazz maven who once played with Benny Goodman.)
From the Sofitel, I can walk right onto the beach. Children play on the boulders jutting out of the water in low tide, and on one end of the beach, families clamber up small hills covered in thick forests with clusters of small monkeys.
I stroll into the quiet town, just a grid of small interlocking alleys. No one grabs my arm or tries to sell me anything, as often happens in Phuket. I stop in the central market, where vendors sell piles of stinky dried shrimp, fresh fish on ice and luscious mangoes topped with coconut custard, to be eaten with glutinous, sweet sticky rice.
I peek into Hua Hin Thai Massage, a small shop near a beach market selling towels and trinkets. The massage parlor truly feels like a family affair. Local women sit in circles massaging one another's feet and gossiping about their clients. When I interrupt them to ask for a foot rubdown, one reluctantly pulls herself away to bathe my feet in warm water and then prod and poke them for an hour, all for only $10.
For many Thai tourists, the greatest attraction of Hua Hin is neither the miles of beach nor the multitude of spa treatments. With fishing boats pulling into Hua Hin pier every day packed with bass, giant prawns, lobster and other delicacies, the town has built a reputation as one of the finest places to try Thai seafood dishes. On recommendations from friends, I stop at Ketsirin restaurant on Naresdamri Road. The back of the dining room sits on a pier moored over the ocean, and crowds of Thais dig into whole steamed fish flavored with chili and lime juice. I order geng som, sour orange soup with vegetables and shellfish. It hits my tongue hard, the fiery spices tempered with a hint of sugar, and I order a platter of giant local shrimp to go with it, the prawns charcoal-grilled over a barbecue and topped with a tangy, delicious garlic-and-lemon sauce.
When dessert arrives, a plate piled with fresh papaya, guava and watermelon, I can barely finish half of it. I sit at Ketsirin for another hour, digesting my feast and watching fishing boats bobbing in the water, their lighted-up masts gleaming in the dark sky like light sabers.
Read more at http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/travel/06Next.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
AS the late afternoon sun bathes the horizon in purple and crimson, I wander slowly down the long, curving beach. Though rocks mar part of the five-mile-long stretch, most of the waterfront is covered with white sand. On the southern end of the beachfront, a towering, slim golden Buddha statue peers out over the sea, and I can see small white and yellow shrines cut into the rocks of a nearby mountain fringed with low mist.
When I sit in the surf, I notice young Thai men riding black-and-white spotted horses up and down the beach, offering rides to tourists. Thai families doggy paddle near me, luxuriating in the bath-warm water and searing sunlight. Not one Jet Ski, tour group or powerboat in sight.
There aren't many places left in Thailand where travelers can sit in the surf undisturbed. Over the past decade, it seems that clusters of hotels and condominiums have colonized nearly every strip of beach. So I was surprised, on a trip in March, to find that Hua Hin, the country's oldest beach resort, just a three-hour train ride from Bangkok, had not yet fallen to the wave of building and water sports.
Arriving in Hua Hin, in fact, I quickly notice the mellow atmosphere far different from the blaring beer bars and neon dance shows of other Thai beaches like Pattaya. At Hua Hin's colonial-style train station, all white-and-red columns and mahogany floors, a small group of taxi drivers sleeps in the shade of a jackfruit tree. When I try to rouse them for a ride into town, they nod “no” to my offer and then nod off again.
Friends explain to me there are several reasons for Hua Hin's slow pace of life. Because it sits so close to Bangkok, many foreign tourists skip it for other beach resorts like Phuket; Hua Hin now attracts mostly Thai families. Because Thailand's revered royal family spends much of its time in Hua Hin — in a palace of marble and teak named, aptly, Far From Worries — developers may be reluctant to overbuild, knowing that the king has made sustainable development a centerpiece of his reign.
The laid-back, small-scale life has also made Hua Hin Thailand's pioneer in boutique hotels and spas. (The Hua Hin area set the world record for the largest group massage.) Thirty minutes south of Hua Hin town, I drive to Aleenta, an intimate boutique hotel in the beach village of Pranburi made up of bungalow-style buildings with gleaming white walls and thatched roofs. Aleenta seems to attract Thai artists seeking a private but avant-garde resort — I overhear two Thai men with thin goatees and long ponytails discussing the latest films to hit Bangkok art theaters.
Aleenta's burnt siena walls, curving outdoor staircases and crimson tiles give it the feel of a Mediterranean or Mexican beach resort. A resort at the end of nowhere: in the lap pool adjacent to a swim-up bar, I paddle around without seeing another guest.Aleenta also quickly coddles me with homey touches. My room, the size of a large New York studio and built from natural wood, thatch and smooth tile, looks out onto a lonely longtail fishing boat bobbing in the surf outside. The hotel staff has programmed an iPod in my room, and when I request coffee at bizarre, late-night hours, they laugh and bring Thai java. At the hotel's Frangipani Wing, where cooks teach Thai cuisine in an open kitchen, the chef takes time to demonstrate to me how she makes piquant Thai salads of fresh squid, basil and chopped chilies.
Aleenta has spawned a boutique hotel industry. Along the Pranburi beach road, other developers are building small bungalows and spas with Mediterranean and Moroccan themes, and Hua Hin town now features Let's Sea Hua Hin al Fresco Resort, a cheaper yet still charming 40-room boutique hotel on the water. Near the Aleenta lies the Evason Hideaway, another high-end boutique. Even the bigger hotels have gotten into the act. This spring, the Hyatt Regency Hua Hin will open its own boutique, the Barai, eight suites with their own gardens or plunge pools.
I wander up to Aleenta's spa, which advertises unique detox treatments featuring Thai herbs and tamarind juice and massages with kaffir lime, lemongrass and jasmine flavors. On the roof of the hotel restaurant, it commands a stunning panoramic view of the sea, but I decide to head back into town, where massages will be cheaper.
In central Hua Hin, I stop for a break from the 105-degree heat at the Sofitel Central, a renovated version of the town's classic colonial-era Railway Hotel, famed for its topiary gardens full of bushes shaped like elephants and its wide, curved balconies. Gardeners obsessively trim the bushes with clippers so small they look like nail scissors.
FROM the beginning of the 20th century until the development of other resorts like Phuket, Hua Hin was the place for wealthy Thais to escape Bangkok's heat. The Sofitel's coffee bar, which still serves high tea each afternoon, features aging photographs of that older era, a time when the king and queen were host to royal parties at the hotel, and people gathered around the radio to hear the latest jazz coming from America. (The king is a jazz maven who once played with Benny Goodman.)
From the Sofitel, I can walk right onto the beach. Children play on the boulders jutting out of the water in low tide, and on one end of the beach, families clamber up small hills covered in thick forests with clusters of small monkeys.
I stroll into the quiet town, just a grid of small interlocking alleys. No one grabs my arm or tries to sell me anything, as often happens in Phuket. I stop in the central market, where vendors sell piles of stinky dried shrimp, fresh fish on ice and luscious mangoes topped with coconut custard, to be eaten with glutinous, sweet sticky rice.
I peek into Hua Hin Thai Massage, a small shop near a beach market selling towels and trinkets. The massage parlor truly feels like a family affair. Local women sit in circles massaging one another's feet and gossiping about their clients. When I interrupt them to ask for a foot rubdown, one reluctantly pulls herself away to bathe my feet in warm water and then prod and poke them for an hour, all for only $10.
For many Thai tourists, the greatest attraction of Hua Hin is neither the miles of beach nor the multitude of spa treatments. With fishing boats pulling into Hua Hin pier every day packed with bass, giant prawns, lobster and other delicacies, the town has built a reputation as one of the finest places to try Thai seafood dishes. On recommendations from friends, I stop at Ketsirin restaurant on Naresdamri Road. The back of the dining room sits on a pier moored over the ocean, and crowds of Thais dig into whole steamed fish flavored with chili and lime juice. I order geng som, sour orange soup with vegetables and shellfish. It hits my tongue hard, the fiery spices tempered with a hint of sugar, and I order a platter of giant local shrimp to go with it, the prawns charcoal-grilled over a barbecue and topped with a tangy, delicious garlic-and-lemon sauce.
When dessert arrives, a plate piled with fresh papaya, guava and watermelon, I can barely finish half of it. I sit at Ketsirin for another hour, digesting my feast and watching fishing boats bobbing in the water, their lighted-up masts gleaming in the dark sky like light sabers.
Read more at http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/travel/06Next.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Saturday, May 26, 2012
36 Hours in Chiang Mai Thailand
36 Hours in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
BLESSED with a cooler climate than Bangkok and buffered by lush mountains, Chiang Mai has long served as a backpacker’s gateway to Thailand’s northern reaches. But an influx of Thai artists and Western expatriates has turned this quiet city into a vibrant destination in its own right. Design studios have sprung up in town, fusing traditional Thai with modern twists. Age-old curries are now paired with Australian red wines and croissants. The area around Nimanhaemin Road now looks like South Beach, packed with BMWs and Art Deco homes, alongside contemporary art galleries run by young Thais with purple hair and nose rings. But traditional Chiang Mai is still there. Walk away from Nimanhaemin into the old city and you’ll see shaved monks meditating and backpackers chowing down on banana pancakes.
Friday
3 p.m.
1) OLD KINGDOM
Packed with crumbling old stupas, jewel-encrusted temples and wooden houses, Chiang Mai’s central old city hasn’t lost its old charm. And since Chiang Mai was once the capital of the Lanna kingdom, its temples and other historic sites have a unique look, with starker lines and darker woods. Start a long walk at Wat Chiang Man, the city’s oldest temple, built in the late 13th century, and then wander southwest, to Wat Chedi Luang, which houses a giant, partly damaged traditional Lanna-style stupa. Get your exercise by continuing on for about a mile, southeast, just past the old city walls, where you can stop for a break at a branch of Wawee Coffee, a local chain serving northern Thai joe. (Inside the Suriwong Book Center; Sri Donchai Road, near the intersection with Thanon Chang Khlan.)
6 p.m.
2) BODY SHOP
The bumpy roads can take their toll on your legs. Rejuvenate them at the Ban Sabai Town (17/7 Charoenprathet Road). The spa offers aromatherapy and other treatments, but the specialty is, of course, Thai massage — a method that emphasizes stretching. The masseuse pulls and prods your limbs in every direction, like a chiropractor. Your muscles might be tempted to scream, but they’ll end up feeling like soft butter. An hourlong Thai massage costs 1,900 baht (or around $60 at 32 baht to the dollar), far less than you would pay at most hotel spas.
8 p.m.
3) CRABS AND KARAOKE
For a taste of the city’s cosmopolitan edge, stroll along the Ping River, where university students and young professionals gather at a strip of rollicking restaurants that serve modern Thai, Japanese and Western food. Among the liveliest is the Good View, a sprawling pub and restaurant where the young patrons sing along to live Thai country and rock music, while downing pitchers of beer and shots of Johnnie Walker. Try the geng som, a soup flavored with a sour Thai orange, and the poo phat pong kari, crab stir-fried with yellow curry. Dinner for two people costs about 1,000 baht.
Saturday
7 a.m.
4) HOLY MOUNTAIN
Get up early — it’s worth it — for the classic Chiang Mai experience: a morning hike on Doi Suthep, the 5,498-foot peak that overlooks the city. Many residents consider Doi Suthep a holy mountain, and hike it as often as they can. Head to the base of Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, a Buddhist temple that, according to legend, dates from the 14th century, and is topped by a glittering gold chedi. On a clear day, the temple’s terraces afford views across northern Thailand. You’ll see Thailand old and new: monks in sandals begging for rice and young couples smooching in the corner (a taboo among older, more conservative Thais).
Noon
5) RENEWABLE DESIGNS
Chiang Mai has become a design laboratory, with foreign and Thai designers blending traditional styles with minimalist lines. Head to Nimanhaemin Road, a major design drag, for boutiques that sell textiles, pottery and other crafts. Thai art students wander the street in packs, occasionally whipping out sketchpads. Stores like Studio Kachama (10-12 Nimanhaemin Soi 1) and Gerard Collection sell funky lamps with shades made from local mulberry paper, furniture constructed from bamboo and women’s suits made from a traditional, thick-spun cotton.
2 p.m.
6) CLASSIC CURRIES
New, stylish bistros have colonized the city, but true fans of northern Thai cuisine — which incorporates Burmese and Chinese spices, and is lighter than southern Thai cooking — congregate at the classic Huen Phen. The restaurant’s cramped tables are packed with taxi drivers who dig into heaps of steaming curries and fiery salads. Have the khao soi, a delicious mix of creamy curry, crispy egg noodles, slices of pickled cabbage and bits of shallot and lime. Lunch for two is about 300 baht.
4 p.m.
7) ARTIST CROP
In recent years, many of Thailand’s best-known artists have moved to Chiang Mai from Bangkok. Several have won global recognition: Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, a performance artist who reads poetry to corpses, was featured at the 2006 Venice Biennale. And Navin Rawanchaikul, who paints cartoonlike murals inside taxis and tuk-tuks, has exhibited his work at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York. For emerging talents, visit La Luna Gallery).
9 p.m.
8) SPICE MARKET
For a late dinner, the fashionable crowd migrates to Dalaabaa for cocktails and small Thai plates like spicy squid salad. The midcentury modern bungalow is furnished with eclectic furniture, polished wood and tons of glass, as if Frank Lloyd Wright had gone East. The young crowd includes rail-thin women in slinky black dresses smoking from long cigarette holders, Frenchmen tossing back martinis, and students with ponytails and wispy mustaches engrossed in conversations about Buddhism and art. Dinner with drinks for two is about 1,200 baht.
Sunday
7 a.m.
9) TUSK TIME
Every travel guide recommends an elephant ride, but the typical trip involves a short, bumpy elephant walk led by a bored trainer. Skip that and take a taxi instead to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center between Chiang Mai and the town of Lampang. The center will not only teach you how to command and handle a tusker, but also how to honor the pachyderm, a revered animal in Thailand. Classes, which last most of the day, start at 3,500 baht.
4 p.m.
10) ROCK OUT
With its cooler climate and rugged terrain, Chiang Mai has become the hub for adventure sports, including rafting, trekking and mountain biking. An American expat, Josh Morris, pioneered the rock climbing scene, especially at Crazy Horse Buttress, a rock face that overlooks lime green, terraced rice fields. Mr. Morris’s outfitter, Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures offers introductory courses starting at 1,800 baht per person. After sweating to the top, head back to the bars along the Ping River to cool off with a Singha beer and cap off your adventure in style.
Read more at http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/travel/13hours.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
BLESSED with a cooler climate than Bangkok and buffered by lush mountains, Chiang Mai has long served as a backpacker’s gateway to Thailand’s northern reaches. But an influx of Thai artists and Western expatriates has turned this quiet city into a vibrant destination in its own right. Design studios have sprung up in town, fusing traditional Thai with modern twists. Age-old curries are now paired with Australian red wines and croissants. The area around Nimanhaemin Road now looks like South Beach, packed with BMWs and Art Deco homes, alongside contemporary art galleries run by young Thais with purple hair and nose rings. But traditional Chiang Mai is still there. Walk away from Nimanhaemin into the old city and you’ll see shaved monks meditating and backpackers chowing down on banana pancakes.
Friday
3 p.m.
1) OLD KINGDOM
Packed with crumbling old stupas, jewel-encrusted temples and wooden houses, Chiang Mai’s central old city hasn’t lost its old charm. And since Chiang Mai was once the capital of the Lanna kingdom, its temples and other historic sites have a unique look, with starker lines and darker woods. Start a long walk at Wat Chiang Man, the city’s oldest temple, built in the late 13th century, and then wander southwest, to Wat Chedi Luang, which houses a giant, partly damaged traditional Lanna-style stupa. Get your exercise by continuing on for about a mile, southeast, just past the old city walls, where you can stop for a break at a branch of Wawee Coffee, a local chain serving northern Thai joe. (Inside the Suriwong Book Center; Sri Donchai Road, near the intersection with Thanon Chang Khlan.)
6 p.m.
2) BODY SHOP
The bumpy roads can take their toll on your legs. Rejuvenate them at the Ban Sabai Town (17/7 Charoenprathet Road). The spa offers aromatherapy and other treatments, but the specialty is, of course, Thai massage — a method that emphasizes stretching. The masseuse pulls and prods your limbs in every direction, like a chiropractor. Your muscles might be tempted to scream, but they’ll end up feeling like soft butter. An hourlong Thai massage costs 1,900 baht (or around $60 at 32 baht to the dollar), far less than you would pay at most hotel spas.
8 p.m.
3) CRABS AND KARAOKE
For a taste of the city’s cosmopolitan edge, stroll along the Ping River, where university students and young professionals gather at a strip of rollicking restaurants that serve modern Thai, Japanese and Western food. Among the liveliest is the Good View, a sprawling pub and restaurant where the young patrons sing along to live Thai country and rock music, while downing pitchers of beer and shots of Johnnie Walker. Try the geng som, a soup flavored with a sour Thai orange, and the poo phat pong kari, crab stir-fried with yellow curry. Dinner for two people costs about 1,000 baht.
Saturday
7 a.m.
4) HOLY MOUNTAIN
Get up early — it’s worth it — for the classic Chiang Mai experience: a morning hike on Doi Suthep, the 5,498-foot peak that overlooks the city. Many residents consider Doi Suthep a holy mountain, and hike it as often as they can. Head to the base of Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, a Buddhist temple that, according to legend, dates from the 14th century, and is topped by a glittering gold chedi. On a clear day, the temple’s terraces afford views across northern Thailand. You’ll see Thailand old and new: monks in sandals begging for rice and young couples smooching in the corner (a taboo among older, more conservative Thais).
Noon
5) RENEWABLE DESIGNS
Chiang Mai has become a design laboratory, with foreign and Thai designers blending traditional styles with minimalist lines. Head to Nimanhaemin Road, a major design drag, for boutiques that sell textiles, pottery and other crafts. Thai art students wander the street in packs, occasionally whipping out sketchpads. Stores like Studio Kachama (10-12 Nimanhaemin Soi 1) and Gerard Collection sell funky lamps with shades made from local mulberry paper, furniture constructed from bamboo and women’s suits made from a traditional, thick-spun cotton.
2 p.m.
6) CLASSIC CURRIES
New, stylish bistros have colonized the city, but true fans of northern Thai cuisine — which incorporates Burmese and Chinese spices, and is lighter than southern Thai cooking — congregate at the classic Huen Phen. The restaurant’s cramped tables are packed with taxi drivers who dig into heaps of steaming curries and fiery salads. Have the khao soi, a delicious mix of creamy curry, crispy egg noodles, slices of pickled cabbage and bits of shallot and lime. Lunch for two is about 300 baht.
4 p.m.
7) ARTIST CROP
In recent years, many of Thailand’s best-known artists have moved to Chiang Mai from Bangkok. Several have won global recognition: Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, a performance artist who reads poetry to corpses, was featured at the 2006 Venice Biennale. And Navin Rawanchaikul, who paints cartoonlike murals inside taxis and tuk-tuks, has exhibited his work at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York. For emerging talents, visit La Luna Gallery).
9 p.m.
8) SPICE MARKET
For a late dinner, the fashionable crowd migrates to Dalaabaa for cocktails and small Thai plates like spicy squid salad. The midcentury modern bungalow is furnished with eclectic furniture, polished wood and tons of glass, as if Frank Lloyd Wright had gone East. The young crowd includes rail-thin women in slinky black dresses smoking from long cigarette holders, Frenchmen tossing back martinis, and students with ponytails and wispy mustaches engrossed in conversations about Buddhism and art. Dinner with drinks for two is about 1,200 baht.
Sunday
7 a.m.
9) TUSK TIME
Every travel guide recommends an elephant ride, but the typical trip involves a short, bumpy elephant walk led by a bored trainer. Skip that and take a taxi instead to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center between Chiang Mai and the town of Lampang. The center will not only teach you how to command and handle a tusker, but also how to honor the pachyderm, a revered animal in Thailand. Classes, which last most of the day, start at 3,500 baht.
4 p.m.
10) ROCK OUT
With its cooler climate and rugged terrain, Chiang Mai has become the hub for adventure sports, including rafting, trekking and mountain biking. An American expat, Josh Morris, pioneered the rock climbing scene, especially at Crazy Horse Buttress, a rock face that overlooks lime green, terraced rice fields. Mr. Morris’s outfitter, Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures offers introductory courses starting at 1,800 baht per person. After sweating to the top, head back to the bars along the Ping River to cool off with a Singha beer and cap off your adventure in style.
Read more at http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/travel/13hours.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Friday, May 25, 2012
Education a Priority for Vietnam’s Youth
Education a Priority for Vietnam’s Youth.
Hanoi (Asia News) – Education for young Vietnamese is getting worse. A survey among high school students in Ho Chi Minh City shows that 32.2 per cent are disrespectful towards teachers, 38.8 per cent uses foul language often and 53.6 per cent does it sometimes.
Another survey indicates that from 2005 to the present the number of students involved in antisocial behaviour increased in both frequency and gravity. The rise in sexual abuse is another aspect of the broader moral decline among young people.
In 2011 alone, 1386 minors were sexually abused by adults, that is 11.8 per cent more than in 2010. Of these, 51 were killed, 427 raped, 495 forced to have intercourse with adults and 128 intentionally injured. Many children and teenagers have also become the victims of human trafficking through the border with China, Thailand and Cambodia.
AsiaNews spoke with Prof Hoàng Tuy, 84, who recently won the first Constantin Caratheodory Prize established by the International Society of Global Optimisation. He is very concerned about the state of education in Vietnam.
“Education is an urgent matter. Our life increasingly needs an overall reform of education if we do not want our country to remain backward . . . . Shortcomings in and harm to education have accumulated and reached an extreme level. We can no longer tolerate them. Now a total overhaul of education is the first order of business. Reality requires us to change the current state of education.”
When the educational level of a country reaches such a low level, it becomes imperative for society to wake up, the professor said, from ordinary citizens to its leaders.
“An enlightened education must begin with a true democratic spirit and determination to build a clean, just and civilised society, and train its leadership in view of this,” he said. “Today, the moral decline and unlawful behaviour by young people should alarm families, schools and universities. The sense of morality among young generations is going down.”
A decline in academic ethics as well as lying and dishonesty among public officials are among the reasons for this trend, the scholar noted. They affect young people in particular. On the other hand, university education appears to be the key to ensure an overall higher quality education, but for decades, policies in this area have been inadequate, touching the lives of millions of students.
“Education must be at the top of the nation’s priority list. The role of education is important and affects the country’s survival. It is the foundation of society and helps maintain and develop values.”
It is a social good and as such, “the government should create the conditions that allow religions and the Vietnamese people to participate in the education of younger generations. We need a healthy social environment free of corruption, respectful of human dignity, freedom of religion and human rights for all.”
Read more at http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Education,-a-priority-for-Vietnam%E2%80%99s-youth-23813.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Hanoi (Asia News) – Education for young Vietnamese is getting worse. A survey among high school students in Ho Chi Minh City shows that 32.2 per cent are disrespectful towards teachers, 38.8 per cent uses foul language often and 53.6 per cent does it sometimes.
Another survey indicates that from 2005 to the present the number of students involved in antisocial behaviour increased in both frequency and gravity. The rise in sexual abuse is another aspect of the broader moral decline among young people.
In 2011 alone, 1386 minors were sexually abused by adults, that is 11.8 per cent more than in 2010. Of these, 51 were killed, 427 raped, 495 forced to have intercourse with adults and 128 intentionally injured. Many children and teenagers have also become the victims of human trafficking through the border with China, Thailand and Cambodia.
AsiaNews spoke with Prof Hoàng Tuy, 84, who recently won the first Constantin Caratheodory Prize established by the International Society of Global Optimisation. He is very concerned about the state of education in Vietnam.
“Education is an urgent matter. Our life increasingly needs an overall reform of education if we do not want our country to remain backward . . . . Shortcomings in and harm to education have accumulated and reached an extreme level. We can no longer tolerate them. Now a total overhaul of education is the first order of business. Reality requires us to change the current state of education.”
When the educational level of a country reaches such a low level, it becomes imperative for society to wake up, the professor said, from ordinary citizens to its leaders.
“An enlightened education must begin with a true democratic spirit and determination to build a clean, just and civilised society, and train its leadership in view of this,” he said. “Today, the moral decline and unlawful behaviour by young people should alarm families, schools and universities. The sense of morality among young generations is going down.”
A decline in academic ethics as well as lying and dishonesty among public officials are among the reasons for this trend, the scholar noted. They affect young people in particular. On the other hand, university education appears to be the key to ensure an overall higher quality education, but for decades, policies in this area have been inadequate, touching the lives of millions of students.
“Education must be at the top of the nation’s priority list. The role of education is important and affects the country’s survival. It is the foundation of society and helps maintain and develop values.”
It is a social good and as such, “the government should create the conditions that allow religions and the Vietnamese people to participate in the education of younger generations. We need a healthy social environment free of corruption, respectful of human dignity, freedom of religion and human rights for all.”
Read more at http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Education,-a-priority-for-Vietnam%E2%80%99s-youth-23813.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Thailand - One Man’s Dream Becomes a Bangkok Sanctuary
Thailand, One Man’s Dream Becomes a Bangkok Sanctuary.
BUDDHIST temples in Bangkok are about as ubiquitous as hot dog stands in Manhattan, and after a day or two of playing duck-the-camera with tour groups, even the most devout tourists can become shrine shirkers. But Bangkok has a fantastic sanctuary from the sanctuaries that stands out for both its secret grandeur and for its ancient style. You just have to find it.
It took our cab driver two calls on his mobile phone before he was able to navigate Bangkok’s traffic jungle a half-dozen miles east of downtown. He dropped us off on the side of a street that had evidently once been a quiet country lane, but over the last decade had become absorbed by the suburbs. Entering a nondescript gate we emerged into a six-acre compound of languorous gardens and ponds surrounding ancient temples and pagodas — an urban Angkor Wat whose exotic Technicolor setting could have been painted by Gauguin.
As my two sons, aged 10 and 8, and I made our way farther into this unexpected oasis, Bangkok’s pervasive diesel fumes were replaced by the scent of wildflowers, plumeria and incense. Prickly pears, ficus and fantastically gnarled trees — deliberately twisted according to classic Thai gardening traditions — framed aged statues and temples above koi-filled ponds. It was one of the most transcendent, bewitching places we’d ever been, as if Kurtz’s compound in “Heart of Darkness” were situated on a remote tributary of Bangkok’s airport highway rather than on the Congo River.
And like Kurtz’s compound, all of this came from a single man’s vision.
“I saw so many of our national treasures disappear or leave Thailand,” said Prasart Vongsakul, 67, a real estate tycoon turned collector and gardener. He was sitting cross-legged in a teak pavilion where he often greets visitors wandering through his gardens. “I have worked most of my life preserving our heritage so that it can be cherished by future generations.”
Mr. Prasart’s serene, broad face mirrors those on the dozens of Buddhas inhabiting his gardens. Once a samurai in Bangkok’s cutthroat business world, he now seemed as whimsically rooted to this lush spot as his fantastically sculptured trees. “My father disappeared in the war, and my mother couldn’t afford to send me to school,” he said. “I started work when I was 7, and I learned the value of being an honest middleman in buying and selling property in Bangkok.” As his fortune grew, so did his garden. “I never married, and I never had children,” he said, gesturing around him. “What you see here are my children.”
Over the course of two decades Mr. Prasart and his staff have assembled and recreated a dozen shrines, ranging from a 30-foot-tall Khmer temple surrendered by the Cambodian jungle, to a classic Sukhothai teak library pavilion suspended on stilts over a lotus pond — insurance against insects, fires and rats.
Mr. Prasart personally sawed, painted and masoned much of this complex, sometimes resurrecting long-forgotten building techniques in his quest. He even fired up and painted much of the Chinese and Thai reproduction porcelain lining the pavilions to complement the remarkable array of treasures he has amassed during six decades of wandering.
An exquisitely carved Qing dynasty screen elicited a tale from Mr. Prasart’s early, leaner years. “When I was studying real estate I would go every day for years to the store to look at the screen,” he said. “One day the owner said, ‘I’m tired of seeing you in here all the time. If you give me 20,000 baht right now, you can just take it.’ He was bluffing because he thought I was still poor, but right away I went to my bank, withdrew the money, and bought it. He was very surprised, but he couldn’t withdraw his offer without losing face. It’s probably worth at least a million baht now.” (This would mean that Mr. Prasart paid about $675 for a screen now worth more than $34,000, at the current exchange rate.)
Despite having a staff of 30 gardeners and caretakers, Mr. Prasart said, he usually rises at dawn from his Chinese-style one-bedroom pavilion to personally tend to the plants. “I am the head gardener,” he announced. “I get to sing the loudest when we water.”
He is joined by the sounds of chimes, swaying palms and balmy breezes blowing through ancient relics. Not included in the chorus are the mosquitoes and flies that regularly hover above Bangkok’s swamps and canals like a dark mist. To keep the insects at bay, Mr. Prasart has lined his paths with barrel-size water-filled porcelain jars and vases — some more than 500 years old. Bugs alighting on the water’s surface are swallowed by fish lurking beneath — antique fly zappers.
Mr. Prasart hasn’t neglected the more modern, Western-facing Thailand in his collections. A green-and-white Italianate building in the neo-colonial style popular in Thailand during the 19th century houses a “Citizen Kane”-like bewilderment of European statuary and art, including a collection of elaborately decorated French and German porcelain plates, vases and figurines.
“These were for the Thai royal family’s private use,” Mr. Prasart explained. As tribute to the royal family’s Westernized tastes, Mr. Prasart has placed an offering of a cigar and a glass of Cognac before an Italian bust of King Rama V, the great modernizer of what was then known as Siam. His exploits are celebrated in dinner theaters around the world thanks to the memoirs of his tutor, Anna Leonowens of “The King and I.”
The relatively high entrance fee (about $16) and remote location ensured that despite being here during the packed tourist season, we had the place almost to ourselves. “Sometimes we get tour groups and we’ve even rented the place out for cruise ship dinner parties,” said Benjawan Kayee, 39, the museum’s docent. “But otherwise visitors come here to enjoy the museum in peace and privacy.”
Visitors are usually given an hourlong guided tour after which they are free to wander at whim. I was worried about the guided tour part, especially as I was traveling with two short attention spans, but under the gentle direction of Ms. Benjawan, the boys, who protest when being dragged to so much as a Christmas service, became ardent acolytes, bowing forehead-to-floor before centuries-old Buddhist altars, ringing holy bells and waving incense while absorbing the ethereal designs.
“Why do you think we elevate our doorways?” Ms. Benjawan asked, as we stepped over a foot-tall doorsill into a soaring Ayutthaya-style royal pavilion built entirely without nails. “To keep out rats?” volunteered my older son. “Close,” she responded. “To keep out evil spirits.”
Not that more earthly matters are neglected in this celestial place.
Over on the western reaches of the compound a blood-red Chinese temple guards the collection. Within the temple, an 18th-century gold-covered Goddess of Mercy dominates the altar, her eyes half open as if bemused at having ended up back here after a long odyssey that ended when Mr. Prasart bought her at an auction gallery in England. She was illuminated by candles and sweetened by incense for worship by Mr. Prasart’s employees and their families.
A local woman circled through the temple twice, using two separate doorways for exits. “The left door is for luck in love, the right one for luck in money,” Ms. Benjawan explained.
My sons instantly darted through the right door. I somehow managed to circle through both.
Read more at http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/travel/20cultured-bangkok.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
BUDDHIST temples in Bangkok are about as ubiquitous as hot dog stands in Manhattan, and after a day or two of playing duck-the-camera with tour groups, even the most devout tourists can become shrine shirkers. But Bangkok has a fantastic sanctuary from the sanctuaries that stands out for both its secret grandeur and for its ancient style. You just have to find it.
It took our cab driver two calls on his mobile phone before he was able to navigate Bangkok’s traffic jungle a half-dozen miles east of downtown. He dropped us off on the side of a street that had evidently once been a quiet country lane, but over the last decade had become absorbed by the suburbs. Entering a nondescript gate we emerged into a six-acre compound of languorous gardens and ponds surrounding ancient temples and pagodas — an urban Angkor Wat whose exotic Technicolor setting could have been painted by Gauguin.
As my two sons, aged 10 and 8, and I made our way farther into this unexpected oasis, Bangkok’s pervasive diesel fumes were replaced by the scent of wildflowers, plumeria and incense. Prickly pears, ficus and fantastically gnarled trees — deliberately twisted according to classic Thai gardening traditions — framed aged statues and temples above koi-filled ponds. It was one of the most transcendent, bewitching places we’d ever been, as if Kurtz’s compound in “Heart of Darkness” were situated on a remote tributary of Bangkok’s airport highway rather than on the Congo River.
And like Kurtz’s compound, all of this came from a single man’s vision.
“I saw so many of our national treasures disappear or leave Thailand,” said Prasart Vongsakul, 67, a real estate tycoon turned collector and gardener. He was sitting cross-legged in a teak pavilion where he often greets visitors wandering through his gardens. “I have worked most of my life preserving our heritage so that it can be cherished by future generations.”
Mr. Prasart’s serene, broad face mirrors those on the dozens of Buddhas inhabiting his gardens. Once a samurai in Bangkok’s cutthroat business world, he now seemed as whimsically rooted to this lush spot as his fantastically sculptured trees. “My father disappeared in the war, and my mother couldn’t afford to send me to school,” he said. “I started work when I was 7, and I learned the value of being an honest middleman in buying and selling property in Bangkok.” As his fortune grew, so did his garden. “I never married, and I never had children,” he said, gesturing around him. “What you see here are my children.”
Over the course of two decades Mr. Prasart and his staff have assembled and recreated a dozen shrines, ranging from a 30-foot-tall Khmer temple surrendered by the Cambodian jungle, to a classic Sukhothai teak library pavilion suspended on stilts over a lotus pond — insurance against insects, fires and rats.
Mr. Prasart personally sawed, painted and masoned much of this complex, sometimes resurrecting long-forgotten building techniques in his quest. He even fired up and painted much of the Chinese and Thai reproduction porcelain lining the pavilions to complement the remarkable array of treasures he has amassed during six decades of wandering.
An exquisitely carved Qing dynasty screen elicited a tale from Mr. Prasart’s early, leaner years. “When I was studying real estate I would go every day for years to the store to look at the screen,” he said. “One day the owner said, ‘I’m tired of seeing you in here all the time. If you give me 20,000 baht right now, you can just take it.’ He was bluffing because he thought I was still poor, but right away I went to my bank, withdrew the money, and bought it. He was very surprised, but he couldn’t withdraw his offer without losing face. It’s probably worth at least a million baht now.” (This would mean that Mr. Prasart paid about $675 for a screen now worth more than $34,000, at the current exchange rate.)
Despite having a staff of 30 gardeners and caretakers, Mr. Prasart said, he usually rises at dawn from his Chinese-style one-bedroom pavilion to personally tend to the plants. “I am the head gardener,” he announced. “I get to sing the loudest when we water.”
He is joined by the sounds of chimes, swaying palms and balmy breezes blowing through ancient relics. Not included in the chorus are the mosquitoes and flies that regularly hover above Bangkok’s swamps and canals like a dark mist. To keep the insects at bay, Mr. Prasart has lined his paths with barrel-size water-filled porcelain jars and vases — some more than 500 years old. Bugs alighting on the water’s surface are swallowed by fish lurking beneath — antique fly zappers.
Mr. Prasart hasn’t neglected the more modern, Western-facing Thailand in his collections. A green-and-white Italianate building in the neo-colonial style popular in Thailand during the 19th century houses a “Citizen Kane”-like bewilderment of European statuary and art, including a collection of elaborately decorated French and German porcelain plates, vases and figurines.
“These were for the Thai royal family’s private use,” Mr. Prasart explained. As tribute to the royal family’s Westernized tastes, Mr. Prasart has placed an offering of a cigar and a glass of Cognac before an Italian bust of King Rama V, the great modernizer of what was then known as Siam. His exploits are celebrated in dinner theaters around the world thanks to the memoirs of his tutor, Anna Leonowens of “The King and I.”
The relatively high entrance fee (about $16) and remote location ensured that despite being here during the packed tourist season, we had the place almost to ourselves. “Sometimes we get tour groups and we’ve even rented the place out for cruise ship dinner parties,” said Benjawan Kayee, 39, the museum’s docent. “But otherwise visitors come here to enjoy the museum in peace and privacy.”
Visitors are usually given an hourlong guided tour after which they are free to wander at whim. I was worried about the guided tour part, especially as I was traveling with two short attention spans, but under the gentle direction of Ms. Benjawan, the boys, who protest when being dragged to so much as a Christmas service, became ardent acolytes, bowing forehead-to-floor before centuries-old Buddhist altars, ringing holy bells and waving incense while absorbing the ethereal designs.
“Why do you think we elevate our doorways?” Ms. Benjawan asked, as we stepped over a foot-tall doorsill into a soaring Ayutthaya-style royal pavilion built entirely without nails. “To keep out rats?” volunteered my older son. “Close,” she responded. “To keep out evil spirits.”
Not that more earthly matters are neglected in this celestial place.
Over on the western reaches of the compound a blood-red Chinese temple guards the collection. Within the temple, an 18th-century gold-covered Goddess of Mercy dominates the altar, her eyes half open as if bemused at having ended up back here after a long odyssey that ended when Mr. Prasart bought her at an auction gallery in England. She was illuminated by candles and sweetened by incense for worship by Mr. Prasart’s employees and their families.
A local woman circled through the temple twice, using two separate doorways for exits. “The left door is for luck in love, the right one for luck in money,” Ms. Benjawan explained.
My sons instantly darted through the right door. I somehow managed to circle through both.
Read more at http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/travel/20cultured-bangkok.html
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Travel the World and Teach English in Chiang Mai Thailand
Travel the world and teach English in Chiang Mai Thailand.
Katherine Hardy and her partner Rob, both from the UK, jacked in their jobs in the civil service to travel the world and teach English. They slung a few things in a backpack and after seeing a few countries, they both ended up in Chiang Mai. But they’ve already got itchy feet.
Q: You both 'bummed around SE Asia' for several months. Were you intent on looking for work or was it purely a holiday? Where did you actually stay on your travels and what were your thoughts on the various places?
A: Well we headed first to Hong Kong as I have a friend who teaches English in China and I wanted to visit her. We had a vague plan in our heads, with a Chinese and Vietnamese visa ready in our passports, so that began our journey.
From there we really just travelled along the usual routes but with no real destination in mind (again part of the ‘being spontaneous’ idea behind the whole adventure). We travelled from China, though Vietnam, into Cambodia and finally Lao.
Overall, we saw so many things that it’s hard to put into words. For us, our favourite country was without a doubt Cambodia - so much history, so many beautiful sights and very friendly people.
Realistically we always knew we would have to stop and start work at some stage. We had booked a one-way ticket after all and money was certainly not limitless. We had no real plan for ‘where’ or ‘when’ but we knew that teaching English would probably be our best bet.
A: As with everything that we have done over the last year, we're going on a a bit of a whim!
We knew that we wanted something different to Chiang Mai. While we love it here, we want a complete change of scenery and I in particular want to be nearer the beaches.
We know someone already teaching in Nakhon and he has told us that there is a great ex-pat teaching community there, which is very lacking in Chiang Mai, probably because there are just so many ‘farangs’ here.
I applied for a couple of jobs, was made an offer, and that was that. The drastic increase in salary is obviously a big incentive as well, along with much better benefits from the school and a lower cost of living. We’ve never even been to Southern Thailand, let alone Nakhon, so it’s a very exciting move for us.
A: Well I think realistically we shall stay in Thailand for the next 1-2 years. After that we may need to think about money more seriously and head for an Asian country that pays better.
Neither of us see ourselves back in the UK within the next 5 years, but who knows? We have no plan set in stone, only to continue teaching out here for as long as it’s fun and feasible.
Read more at http://www.ajarn.com/ajarn-street/hot-seat/katherine-hardy/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Katherine Hardy and her partner Rob, both from the UK, jacked in their jobs in the civil service to travel the world and teach English. They slung a few things in a backpack and after seeing a few countries, they both ended up in Chiang Mai. But they’ve already got itchy feet.
Q: Katherine, welcome to the ajarn hot seat and firstly, a big
thank you for all the other excellent contributions you've made to the
ajarn website. OK let's get down to business, tell us a little about how
you and your partner Rob met and how long you've actually been
together?
A: We met back in the UK while both working for the government.
We’ve been together about a year and a half now. We were friends first,
but only together as a ‘couple’ for six months before we decided to
leave the UK.
Q: I think it's fair to say then that you and Rob are still in the
relatively early stages of your relationship. So to pack up and head out
East together must have been a massive decision?
A: Before we got together we both had ideas in our heads about
travelling, though admittedly to very different parts of the world. As
it became apparent that our jobs were not secure we began to discuss
travelling more and more.
When it started to get to crunch time and booking tickets, we decided that we wanted to stay together and travel together, so without much hesitation we booked a pair of one way tickets to Hong Kong and that was that.
Part of the reason behind us travelling was to be spontaneous and do something out of our comfort zone, so the thought of going together, after not having known each other that long, wasn’t really a concern.
When it started to get to crunch time and booking tickets, we decided that we wanted to stay together and travel together, so without much hesitation we booked a pair of one way tickets to Hong Kong and that was that.
Part of the reason behind us travelling was to be spontaneous and do something out of our comfort zone, so the thought of going together, after not having known each other that long, wasn’t really a concern.
Q: So it's a tale of two kindred spirits, both disillusioned with
life in the UK and looking for some great adventure. Have I just about
nailed it there?
A: Yes! We both worked under various departments of the UK
Jobcentre, so we were all too aware of how hard things were becoming in
the UK for people looking for work.
Neither of us had any real ties to the UK - no mortgage, no children, not even pets - and after years of desk jobs we both felt we needed an adventure and to see more of the world. The timing just seemed to fit perfectly.
Neither of us had any real ties to the UK - no mortgage, no children, not even pets - and after years of desk jobs we both felt we needed an adventure and to see more of the world. The timing just seemed to fit perfectly.
Q: You both 'bummed around SE Asia' for several months. Were you intent on looking for work or was it purely a holiday? Where did you actually stay on your travels and what were your thoughts on the various places?
A: Well we headed first to Hong Kong as I have a friend who teaches English in China and I wanted to visit her. We had a vague plan in our heads, with a Chinese and Vietnamese visa ready in our passports, so that began our journey.
From there we really just travelled along the usual routes but with no real destination in mind (again part of the ‘being spontaneous’ idea behind the whole adventure). We travelled from China, though Vietnam, into Cambodia and finally Lao.
Overall, we saw so many things that it’s hard to put into words. For us, our favourite country was without a doubt Cambodia - so much history, so many beautiful sights and very friendly people.
Realistically we always knew we would have to stop and start work at some stage. We had booked a one-way ticket after all and money was certainly not limitless. We had no real plan for ‘where’ or ‘when’ but we knew that teaching English would probably be our best bet.
Q: You ended up in Chiang Mai. It sounds like it was love at first sight? What's so special about the place for you?
A:We ended up in Chiang Mai on a bit of a whim. Sat in a
guesthouse somewhere in Lao, I decided that if we were going to teach
English, our only real option was to do a TEFL course, both to prepare
us for teaching and to hopefully help us to gain employment.
After a little internet research I found one in Chiang Mai that seemed to suit us both time-wise and what the course was offering. After a few exchanged emails, we headed to Chiang Mai and enrolled on the course, which was due to start in two weeks time.
We knew nothing of Thailand other than what the guide book said, but like most things over the last few months we just thought ‘why not’ and just packed our rucksacks and headed on.
Chiang Mai was definitely love at first sight. It’s a brilliant place to introduce yourself to Thailand. It still retains much of its Thai vibe while still having all the amenities you could ever need. The people really are so friendly and it just instantly became home.
After a little internet research I found one in Chiang Mai that seemed to suit us both time-wise and what the course was offering. After a few exchanged emails, we headed to Chiang Mai and enrolled on the course, which was due to start in two weeks time.
We knew nothing of Thailand other than what the guide book said, but like most things over the last few months we just thought ‘why not’ and just packed our rucksacks and headed on.
Chiang Mai was definitely love at first sight. It’s a brilliant place to introduce yourself to Thailand. It still retains much of its Thai vibe while still having all the amenities you could ever need. The people really are so friendly and it just instantly became home.
Q: OK, so you your own admittance, your funds had started to run
low so you looked for teaching work in Chiang Mai. Was that something
you had planned on doing?
A: It wasn’t planned, no. We had intended to travel around Thailand
for a while after the TEFL course and before finding work, but a
combination of lack of funds and the fact that we finished our course in
October (prime hiring time for Thai schools) meant that we decided to
stay put and find work
Q: I presume that you had also done a little research and already
knew that Chiang Mai wasn't perhaps the best choice in terms of
well-paid teaching jobs?
A: Hmmm, you presume wrong. We did no research into salaries in
Thailand whatsoever. We simply relied on the information from our TEFL
course - that Chiang Mai had a plethora of schools to apply to.
We wrongly believed that this would mean it would be easy to find work, when in reality it took a lot of ‘hitting the pavement’ before both Rob and I had secured jobs. We certainly don’t regret staying in Chiang Mai, but had timing and the money situation been different, I think we would have done more research and moved on.
We wrongly believed that this would mean it would be easy to find work, when in reality it took a lot of ‘hitting the pavement’ before both Rob and I had secured jobs. We certainly don’t regret staying in Chiang Mai, but had timing and the money situation been different, I think we would have done more research and moved on.
Q: Do you and Rob both work at the same school? If not, did you try and seek work at the same place?
A: I was lucky enough to be offered a full-time job pretty quickly
through a contact from our TEFL school. We never had the intention of
working at the same school, but as we were both looking for the same
type of jobs, we inevitably applied at many of the same schools.
Rob later found a part time job at another school, and we both worked for the same language school teaching private lessons.
Rob later found a part time job at another school, and we both worked for the same language school teaching private lessons.
Q: I've always said that for employers, teacher couples are a good
catch because they will support each other and you'll get decent loyalty
from them. Have you generally found that Thai hirers, school owners or
whatever have looked at you in a more positive light - purely because
you are a young couple?
A: At first, no, we never really advertised the fact that we were a
couple and mostly conducted our job searches autonomously. Recently,
since we have been looking for new jobs for the start of the new school
year, I would say yes it has helped.
I have actually been offered a new job in Nakhon Si Thammarat, and once I told the employer there that I would be moving with my partner Rob, he set about trying to secure him a job too, first with another school and now within the same school.
I think it depends on the employer and his or her experiences with western teachers, as to whether they see teaching couples as a good bet or not. One school in Suart Thani I interviewed with seemed almost ‘put-off’ when I said I would be moving to Nakhon with a boyfriend, asking how long we had been together and implying the relationship might not last and that upon its disintegration I would be on the first flight home! I very sweetly told them this would not be the case, and was offered the job anyway.
Q: Do you and Rob share the same personality traits? You've both obviously got a sense of adventure but is one person more of a worrier, who's intent on keeping your feet firmly on the ground, whereas one of you is a bit more carefree perhaps?
I have actually been offered a new job in Nakhon Si Thammarat, and once I told the employer there that I would be moving with my partner Rob, he set about trying to secure him a job too, first with another school and now within the same school.
I think it depends on the employer and his or her experiences with western teachers, as to whether they see teaching couples as a good bet or not. One school in Suart Thani I interviewed with seemed almost ‘put-off’ when I said I would be moving to Nakhon with a boyfriend, asking how long we had been together and implying the relationship might not last and that upon its disintegration I would be on the first flight home! I very sweetly told them this would not be the case, and was offered the job anyway.
Q: Do you and Rob share the same personality traits? You've both obviously got a sense of adventure but is one person more of a worrier, who's intent on keeping your feet firmly on the ground, whereas one of you is a bit more carefree perhaps?
A: Hmmm, well… We obviously share a sense of adventure and we both
set out on this experience with the same goals in mind - basically that
there were no goals. We simply wanted to see some of the world, have a
good time doing it, and not have to return to the UK anytime soon.
As to our personalities we probably are quite different. I’m certainly the organiser, to which Rob would say I am the worrier, but one of us has to gauge some sort of direction.
He’s very much suited to the Thai way of thinking. Don’t think too far ahead, let things happen, and to be honest it’s worked out for us so far.
As to our personalities we probably are quite different. I’m certainly the organiser, to which Rob would say I am the worrier, but one of us has to gauge some sort of direction.
He’s very much suited to the Thai way of thinking. Don’t think too far ahead, let things happen, and to be honest it’s worked out for us so far.
Q: I've got to ask this because in your 'cost of living' survey
that you did for ajarn, you mentioned that you both share a studio
apartment. So what happens when you 'fall out' or have words with each
other? Does one of you have to go onto the balcony for a sulk?
A: Ha ha, well lucky for us neither of us have particularly
volatile tempers and we don’t really fall out. Yes, we both have our
sulky moments, and the balcony is the perfect place for this, or the
5-minute walk to 7-11, but I think we both realise that we are out here
together, we share a small flat, and that we really shouldn’t let the
small things get to us. Maybe I’m adopting the Thai attitude more than I
thought!
Q: Would you be approaching the whole idea of teaching English in
Thailand differently if you didn't have Rob alongside you?
A: I think I would have approached this whole adventure differently
without Rob, and I certainly don’t think I would be planning the next
few years out here if I wasn’t here with him. It’s very hard to say. On
my own I might have just travelled a bit and then returned home when the
money ran out.
Q: You've already let me in on your future plans. That's to say you
and Rob are planning a big move to Nakhon Si Thammarat. Chiang Mai to
NST sounds like an unusual move. I don't know why; it just does. What
made you choose a town at the other end of the country and a place that
probably doesn't have the attractions and lifestyle that Chiang Mai has
to offer?
A: As with everything that we have done over the last year, we're going on a a bit of a whim!
We knew that we wanted something different to Chiang Mai. While we love it here, we want a complete change of scenery and I in particular want to be nearer the beaches.
We know someone already teaching in Nakhon and he has told us that there is a great ex-pat teaching community there, which is very lacking in Chiang Mai, probably because there are just so many ‘farangs’ here.
I applied for a couple of jobs, was made an offer, and that was that. The drastic increase in salary is obviously a big incentive as well, along with much better benefits from the school and a lower cost of living. We’ve never even been to Southern Thailand, let alone Nakhon, so it’s a very exciting move for us.
Q: I'm sure you'll do well Katherine. I wish you both the very best
of British luck. How long do you seriously think Thailand will be home?
A: Well I think realistically we shall stay in Thailand for the next 1-2 years. After that we may need to think about money more seriously and head for an Asian country that pays better.
Neither of us see ourselves back in the UK within the next 5 years, but who knows? We have no plan set in stone, only to continue teaching out here for as long as it’s fun and feasible.
Read more at http://www.ajarn.com/ajarn-street/hot-seat/katherine-hardy/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Sunday, May 13, 2012
TEFL Teacher Trainers at Chiang Mai University Thailand
TEFL Teacher Trainers at Chiang Mai University Thailand.
Q
A very warm welcome Robyn and Emma to the ajarn hot seat. Can I
start with you first Emma? Tell us a little about yourself in terms of
where you are from, how long you've been in Thailand and what you've
done in the past. You know - the usual stuff
A
I am from the UK, Manchester more specifically for 13 years
prior to coming to Thailand. I studied Environmental Science at
University there and went on to do a PhD in Agro-arachnology (using
spiders for pest control in crops). My PhD was unfunded and as a result I
began to teach at the University to fund my studies. By the time I had
completed my studies I was teaching almost full time, and teaching the
degree that I originally did. Anyway, to cut a long story short, things
began to change at work and I decided to take a leap into something that
had been on my mind for a number of years - teaching English in
Thailand. I moved here in August 2010 and began teaching at CMU about 2
weeks after arriving.
Q
And what about you Robyn?
A
I studied theater and French in university and put the two
together for my first job with a bi-lingual theater company that toured
the USA performing and bringing the French language to life for middle
and high school students. After a few years of working as an actor in
New York I got into teaching, first with volunteer work and then made it
my full time job. I went back to school and earned a master’s degree in
intercultural communication. I wanted to try teaching outside of the US
so I did some research and chose Thailand. I moved here in February
2010 and was working at CMU by April.
Q
Emma, I noted that you have a passion for spiders on your
website profile. Apart from already being a recognised arachnology
expert, you're currently writing a book on the spiders of northern
Thailand. How did this unusual obsession begin and secondly, why did no
one tell me there were dangerous spiders in Northern Thailand?
A
Haha, the reaction I get from people when I tell them about this
ranges from terror to confusion, for me it is normal. As I said earlier
my PhD was in spiders and I have been researching them ever since. My
most recent work was in Belize working on the Mexican Redrump tarantula.
This involved micro-chipping them to try and work out something about
their ecology as they were caught and sold for the pet trade, almost
resulting in extinction.
Now I want to provide a book of the most common spiders in this area and some information about them - such as that most of them are not dangerous. I would also like to provide education about the spiders in the area and try to change the attitude of those who still kill and eat tarantulas.
Now I want to provide a book of the most common spiders in this area and some information about them - such as that most of them are not dangerous. I would also like to provide education about the spiders in the area and try to change the attitude of those who still kill and eat tarantulas.
Q
Robyn, it says in your description that in your free time you
enjoy nothing more than relaxing by the pool with a smoothie. I presume
that that's 'smoothie' as in 'blended fruit drink' as opposed to a
rather oily foreigner whose intentions are dubious. Is there anything
else you like to do when you are away from the teacher training room?
A
Oh, Phil. I’m really talking about fruit! The best fruit in the
world is found right here in Chiang Mai. There is nothing more relaxing
than a fresh mango smoothie, a good book, a pristine swimming pool and
sunshine! Chiang Mai is also a good town for live music, with
restaurants and bars featuring music most nights of the week. I like
exploring the markets and blogging about what I find there. When we have
a week between TEFL courses, I usually plan a trip out of town to visit
somewhere new. There are many lovely small towns, great national parks,
caves, hot springs, all just a bus ride away.
Q
OK, let's talk about TEFL training courses. Do both of you teach
the same course? Do you teach alternate courses? Does one take over
when the other one needs a lie-down? How does it work?
A
Robyn: There is no time for a lie-down! We work as a team.
Before each course starts we make a color-coded chart showing who will
be teaching what input sessions and which nights we will be observing
the teaching practice. We like to change the topics that we teach to
keep things fresh. Of course, if something comes up or someone gets
sick, we are there to cover. Luckily this doesn’t happen often!
Emma: We certainly do work as a team and I think we are very lucky in that we think in the same way about a lot of things. We also believe that we both have different skills and experiences so to have us jointly running the courses ensures the students get the best, most well rounded experience we can give them.
Emma: We certainly do work as a team and I think we are very lucky in that we think in the same way about a lot of things. We also believe that we both have different skills and experiences so to have us jointly running the courses ensures the students get the best, most well rounded experience we can give them.
Q
Let's look at the anatomy of the typical TEFL course. If you
take into consideration the current course you are teaching or if not,
the last course you did, how many participants did you have and what was
the ratio of young to more mature, male to female, native speaker to
non-native speaker, etc?
A
Robyn: Our last course had six trainees. Five men, one woman.
Four native speakers, two non-native. We had three more mature trainees
and three young people.
Emma: We tend to get a real mix of people as Robyn has said.
Emma: We tend to get a real mix of people as Robyn has said.
Q
I'm always interested in this question if I get to meet with a
group of TEFL course participants and I'm not exactly sure why - how
many participants planned to stay on and teach in Thailand and how many
intended to move on and ply their trade in another country?
A
Robyn: This always surprises me – many of our trainees say that
they want to stay in Chiang Mai and teach here. Then something comes up
and they leave the country. Of course, quite a few do stick around since
Chiang Mai is a great place to live, but a surprising number do not
pursue teaching in Thailand at all.
Emma: I agree with Robyn, this always surprises me. But in reality if you are considering teaching English as a Foreign Language then learning to do that in a foreign country is by far the best way to experience the reality of it. Even if you were not planning to stay why wouldn’t you come to Thailand, it’s beautiful here.
Emma: I agree with Robyn, this always surprises me. But in reality if you are considering teaching English as a Foreign Language then learning to do that in a foreign country is by far the best way to experience the reality of it. Even if you were not planning to stay why wouldn’t you come to Thailand, it’s beautiful here.
Q
I'm proud to say it but Thailand is almost becoming the centre
for TEFL course training in Asia. It's certainly a competitive business.
Why do you think so many choose to take their TEFL course here?
A
Robyn: One reason is the cost of living. Most people who are
doing a TEFL have quit a full-time job or haven’t started working yet. A
little research into the cost of an apartment, food, transport, etc.
will show that savings from the West can go quite far in Thailand.
Emma: I think Thailand attracts people for numerous reasons. The cost of living, the different pace of life compared to most western countries, the climate, the people and the ease of living here. Thailand has it all, and more
Emma: I think Thailand attracts people for numerous reasons. The cost of living, the different pace of life compared to most western countries, the climate, the people and the ease of living here. Thailand has it all, and more
Q
From my limited experience, one of the more 'harrowing' parts of
a TEFL course is when an inexperienced trainee has to stand in front of
a group of students for the first time. How do you best prepare the
teacher for this 'ordeal'?
A
Robyn: We don’t! No, just kidding. Honestly, I think that the
less time a new teacher has to worry about what they are going to do,
the better. I’ve watched nerves build up for a whole day about a 10
minute lesson and I decided to find a way to minimize that. So, our
trainees get up on day one. At about 3:30pm we announce that teaching
practice starts today and each trainee will lead a 10 minute “getting to
know you” warmer or game. This method seems to work well for most
trainees.
Emma: I think this is a hard one because although many trainees have either given presentations or similar things, but this is very different. As Robyn said we ease them in with a very short activity that they have to teach. This seems to give them a bit of a confidence booster and it seems to work well.
Emma: I think this is a hard one because although many trainees have either given presentations or similar things, but this is very different. As Robyn said we ease them in with a very short activity that they have to teach. This seems to give them a bit of a confidence booster and it seems to work well.
Q
Have you ever had a teacher who has absolutely been unable to get through it and run out of the door in tears?
A
Robyn: Thankfully, I can honestly say that we have never had tears! Maybe we’re doing something wrong??
Emma: No, as of yet this has not happened. Maybe we are doing something right!
Emma: No, as of yet this has not happened. Maybe we are doing something right!
Q
TEFL courses are often said to be so intensive that there is
little time for entertainment. Do you actively discourage participants
from going out and burning the midnight oil?
A
Robyn: I don’t discourage anyone from going out, but I do
encourage them to prepare their lessons and do their homework!
Emma: I actively encourage students to take one whole day off at the weekend. If they feel that they can burn the candle at both ends then that is their choice, sadly I am no longer able to do that and still function properly the next day.
Emma: I actively encourage students to take one whole day off at the weekend. If they feel that they can burn the candle at both ends then that is their choice, sadly I am no longer able to do that and still function properly the next day.
Q
In general, which part of a TEFL course do participants like and dislike the most?
A
Robyn: I think most trainees find the teaching practice sessions
to be the most rewarding time spent on the course. Thai students are
wonderful, fun and enthusiastic students and I’ve watched trainees form
really nice relationships with the students over four weeks. I think
English grammar is the least popular part of the course. We try not to
spend too much time teaching the grammar itself, but teaching methods
for teaching the grammar, if that makes sense.
Emma: I totally agree with Robyn about the grammar. Students find this daunting and many do not remember being taught it themselves. But I believe that we give them the tools to teach it. As for liking, well their trainers of course (only kidding), I think they enjoy the real experience they get with us.
Emma: I totally agree with Robyn about the grammar. Students find this daunting and many do not remember being taught it themselves. But I believe that we give them the tools to teach it. As for liking, well their trainers of course (only kidding), I think they enjoy the real experience they get with us.
Q
How do you handle a situation when you have a course participant
who is clearly going to be difficult? Perhaps he or she is a bit of a
know-all or a show off or they're just being a pain. I'm sure you get
them from time to time?
A
Robyn: Sure, of course, you will run into difficult people in
every industry, including TEFL. As a teacher, I think it’s important to
treat every student with courtesy and respect, no matter how difficult
they are.
Emma: This is something that we would deal with as a team to ensure that the other TEFL students are not affected by it. We also try to make our teaching sessions interactive and student centered so it is possible to make sure all students get to input into sessions, rather than allowing anyone to dominate.
Emma: This is something that we would deal with as a team to ensure that the other TEFL students are not affected by it. We also try to make our teaching sessions interactive and student centered so it is possible to make sure all students get to input into sessions, rather than allowing anyone to dominate.
Q
As a TEFL course trainer, what's the most satisfying thing about the job for you?
A
Robyn: I get really excited when I see students excited about
learning. When a trainee is able to inspire their students, it makes me
feel warm and fuzzy. To see trainees really taking on the role of
teacher and succeeding is an awesome feeling.
Emma: The most satisfying thing is probably seeing the penny drop on some of the more difficult teaching tasks and watch the trainees grow and develop. It is also extremely rewarding when you see ex-students out and about being teachers and loving it.
Emma: The most satisfying thing is probably seeing the penny drop on some of the more difficult teaching tasks and watch the trainees grow and develop. It is also extremely rewarding when you see ex-students out and about being teachers and loving it.
Q
I presume that you both really love working and living in Chiang
Mai and for sure it's one amazing city. What do love about the place
most of all? Secondly, what do you think makes teachers want to work
there when the teacher salaries are lower than say Bangkok?
A
Robyn: You know, it’s tough to compare the cities based solely
on salary. Chiang Mai is much less expensive than Bangkok, so you don’t
need to make a high salary to live here quite comfortably. There is
always work for a motivated teacher and many teachers are able to save
quite a bit of money. The thing that drew me to Chiang Mai was the
people. Most are very open and helpful and willing to share their
culture. It’s a small city with small city values. Coming from New York,
I find it really charming.
Emma: I think that Chiang Mai has that big city, little city thing going on – what I mean is there is everything you could want here at your finger tips but it does not feel like a big city as it is not dominated by high rise buildings. I also think that the climate up here is preferable to many westerners, especially the cooler winter months. I also fully believe that quality of life here is higher than in Bangkok, despite the lower wages. It is easy to live well on little here and still have an amazing time. Further to this is the people, they are very friendly, welcoming warm and helpful.
Read more at http://www.ajarn.com/ajarn-street/hot-seat/robyn-and-emma/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
Emma: I think that Chiang Mai has that big city, little city thing going on – what I mean is there is everything you could want here at your finger tips but it does not feel like a big city as it is not dominated by high rise buildings. I also think that the climate up here is preferable to many westerners, especially the cooler winter months. I also fully believe that quality of life here is higher than in Bangkok, despite the lower wages. It is easy to live well on little here and still have an amazing time. Further to this is the people, they are very friendly, welcoming warm and helpful.
Read more at http://www.ajarn.com/ajarn-street/hot-seat/robyn-and-emma/
http://www.languagecorpsasia.com
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