Singhaman Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 We have this girl in the office who went to school were a teacher from Singapore gave lessons. Now she has this Singlish Slang - which is really cute. For the Indians I really wonder if this would be good. I mean just imagine all the girls shaking their head ....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Singapore, la ? Is good, la ? Lalalalalalalala :: On the point of Indians being excellent English teachers, I have to question that - its a little like learning Mandarin from someone whose first language is Hokkien. Nailing vocabulary and grammar is one thing, but the cadence and intonation are another challenge - think 'singsong' vs 'machine-gun', and a rising tone in the middle of each word : it just doesnt sound right to a native speaker. Immersion is the only way to really learn a language, because all of this becomes unconscious. We have many Indians here at work, and the Malaysian Indians have far better spoken English than those whose interaction has been limited to other Indians and the odd Westerner. Similarly, educated Singaporean Chinese have an advantage over the majority of Chinese from other parts of the world, IMO - Singlish and all. Interestingly, Slashdot recently reported that the giant Indian call centre industry has run into a problem - the majority of their staff may speak English, but they dont speak German, French or any of the other European languages. India is now importing Europeans in an attempt to lessen their dependance on customers from English-speaking countries. Interesting times ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 << Most Indian and Filipino(a) teachers I know are quite good. They are inexpensive, professional and well qualified. Many would be in the 10-16K range, and most schools in Thailand would be able to afford them. They tend to stay at the schools for a long period, unlike many farang "teachers" >> Let's face it. Thais are racists. They expect an English teacher to be a Farang, not a "Khaek", Filipino or even black-Brit/American. I've met Germans, Swedes and Poles teaching English here. Yet a Filipino with more fluent English will be rejected as an Asian. Too many Thais expect a teacher to "look the part". Competence isn't that important. I can't see this one flying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cardinalblue Posted June 10, 2005 Report Share Posted June 10, 2005 FM, Following your logic, then are you saying that all these good looking 20 something males and females that i see in Thai TV soap operas and movies are NOT selected due to their talent and skill but other factors come into play???? As to thai racism, there has been some follow up responses by educated thais who took exception that thais were racist and discrminatory due to different prices for foreigners and thais. This is currently a hot topic in the Ntion commentary section. What i took away from these thai responses is how scary the present thai mentality is if these people are representing the above average educated thai thought-process. It is not only sad but approaching tragic that they cannot see or not wanting to see racism and unjustifiable practices within their own society... CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted June 11, 2005 Report Share Posted June 11, 2005 I agree on the amazing ignorance of supposedly educated Thais, at least educated enough to write letters to the editor in English! There are often writers who demand much harsher action against foreigners, since it is hard for Thais to gain easy admission to the US, UK etc. For starts, they could ban all Farangs from owning land in Thailand; charge them higher rates at hospitals, national parks and tourist attractions; demand that they report every 90 days to immigration; deny them the right to perform many occupations; demand that they have a minimum salary for a visa and require them to have a sizeable amount of money (by Thai terms) invested here if they want to retire and spend their money in Thailand. Oops. They are already doing that. :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted June 11, 2005 Report Share Posted June 11, 2005 Customer service call centers of major American companies as well as government agencies (Calif. Dept of Motor Vehicles for instance) have 'outsourced' (shhh ...naughty word here in the states. ) their call centers to India. The Indian companies that operate this have teachers that train them in 'unaccented' english. They train them to sound like they are from Iowa with a middle american accent. They are quite good. I have spoken to a few and they are difficult to detect, in fact they enunciate their words better than me (or is it 'I'? see, my bad english again) as I have a more pronounced 'east coast accent'. Getting back to LOS, this would put pressure on the salaries of falang english teachers. I would tend to think though, that schools will want 'native' teachers because students would feel more at ease with an American or Englishman or Ozzie...well maybe not Ozzie I can't understand them...haha...joking guys... I've never taught english but as an aside, would students seem a bit confused if they get an American teacher and later on a Brit, Aussie or Kiwi who have their own words (boot-hood, etc.) and spelling (you gotta stop adding 'u' to color and 're' to center and 's' to capitalize :: ) Are any of you english teachers on this board worried? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cardinalblue Posted June 11, 2005 Report Share Posted June 11, 2005 CS, If the question is that a current teacher should be worried because the supply would then exceed the demand???? My answer would be no way! There is a tremendous need for quality let alone for teachers. Many places cannot find good or qualified teachers so they end up taking the "warm body" approach.. I have been teaching here now five years. While i do not consider myself a teacher by the formal process, I have gotten quite good at it at least in my own eyes and that of the students. Okay, we know you never get direct comments from the students but they are extremely effective in communicating who they like or not. Teachers definately get feedback one way or the other... As in any profession, if you are effective and professional at it, you will always be in demand. It is further aided by what transpires here. The thai culture further narrows the supply pool of teachers by discriminating on factors like age, color of skin, weight and just overall general appearance. Competency comes into play only after one passes the test of the initial factors. Just how it works here... I am 47 now so i am long in the tooth age-wise here for the ideal teacher image (reality is most teachers are over 40 if not 50), but fortunately i still maintain a "boyish" face look so i don't look my age. This factor along with the others i mention means everything to Thais (students and employers) in their initial impression of you as a teacher/person. Another example is that i put on a few pounds in my current job and boy the students let me know about it (indirectly of course). They watch my weight closer than i do meaning down to one or two kilos. So i have hit the gym hard the last couple of months to get back down to that direction of what thais want in their teacher image. I cannot understate how important what you look like/appearance when you stand in front of them. I think it is becasue it represents an extension of themselves and they will accept or reject you on these notions alone. I know an english guy in his mid fifties but is overweight. Highly educated and qualified as a teacher but has a hard time building that friendly/bonding relationship (i believe what is needed to get their buy in to you as a teacher) with his students and maintaining jobs because he is discriminated against from the get go.. So what i see out there is that thais on the one-hand want a Brad Pitt type standing in front of them (demand) but the current supply looks more like a Rodney Dangerfield... This translates to many openings and opportunities if you have the look/appearance/dress the part or at least on the right side of it and i didn't even address yet the whole competency/effectiveness level of teaching... CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted June 12, 2005 Report Share Posted June 12, 2005 Thanks CB, but how do they let you know it without directly letting you know it? Expand on that. I'm curious. Do you or any of the schools have a feedback card after the course is over? Would that be a good idea? Would they answer it honestly or not do so, so you won't lose 'face'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted June 12, 2005 Report Share Posted June 12, 2005 << I've never taught english but as an aside, would students seem a bit confused if they get an American teacher and later on a Brit, Aussie or Kiwi who have their own words (boot-hood, etc.) and spelling (you gotta stop adding 'u' to color and 're' to center and 's' to capitalize ) >> The situation here is somewhat chaotic. When I first came to Thailand, British English was basically the standard. Now it is American English. Foreign teachers at the lower levels should know that they are expected to use Noah Webster's spellings, since that is what the Ministry of Education's English text books use and Thai English teachers teach the students. But at the university level, a mixture of UK and US texts will be assigned in different classes. As to accents, I work with Brits, Canucks, Americans and Ozzies. Yet the students can't tell which is which. They say we "all sound alike"! They tend to judge nationalities by appearance, or rather stereotypes. I'm am usually thought to be English, and my Brit colleagues are thought to be Yanks. p.s. The Nation, Bangkok Post etc all use British English -- even though the Post was co-founded by an American. Go figure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilli13 Posted June 13, 2005 Report Share Posted June 13, 2005 Thanks for the insights flasher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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