Topic: TLS Language School

[lils]

Has anyone heard of TLS Language School. Or XXXX XXXXX.
Please post any positive or negative comments... 

[crocodile]

Owned and run by English guy XXXX and his Thai wife XXXX. He seems a kosher guy.
Never heard of XXXX XXXXX, who has nothing to do with TLS.
Least that's my understanding.

[lils]

Crocodile thanks..The emails I've received have come from an email account named XXXX. But the man writing to me is named XXXXX XXXXX. A little strange...No XXXXX mentioned. Do you know anyone who works for them? you mentioned XXXXX seems like a kosher guy??

[lils]

From their website...

http://tlslanguageschool.com/front/

Thai Culture Course

TLS Language School would like to introduce you to our Thai Language and Culture course. A 30 hour course teaching basic Thai language, customs do's and dont's.

Enrollment in this course provides an Educational Visa (EV) which would allow the student to live and work in Thailand legally for one year.

There are three courses basic, intermediate and advanced.

Thai Language and culture

0ur first course will begin the week beginging the 23rd of April, After signing up to this course TLS can apply for a Educational Visa (there must be 6 weeks left on your old visa ) this can be changed to a Educational Visa giving you peace of mind and no border runs, as a student you are entitled to live and work (part-time) in Thailand, we have several teaching positions available who whould be willing to pay the hourly rate that makes up the salary. You are entitled to have 36 months of the Educational Visa's. At the moment we are the first government approved school that can offer these visa's and this course will also become a must do course for all farang teachers applying for a teaching permit in the future, we expect this course to be in high demand and suggest that intrested parties contact us as soon as possible.


Is this true that you can work with a Education Visa?

[lils]

Also from the website....

   

can you live and work in thailand without a degree?

yes join our Thai culture course and you can get a Educational Visa and can work part time on a hourly rate.

How long is the course ?

120 hours 3 hours a week for 40 weeks more to suit the class.

How much does it cost?

There are 2 types of course the full course and the short version , the full course costs 40,000 baht and the short version costs 25,000 baht.

Do i have to do visa runs?

No once you have you Educational Visa no more border runs.

[Andy]

Sounds like a shady operation to me, my friends. It's illegal to work on an educational visa so the school is encouraging teachers to break the law.

[hero]

What a load of rubbish.  You can't work with an education visa any more than you need to go to school tolearn about "Thai culture".  They say you can work "part-time", they may be right about that I suppose.

They also say you can get educational visas for 3 years - I'm pretty sure that would depend upon you being enrolled on some course of study for 3 years and not merely signing up for a 3 hours-per-week "Thai culture" course.

Is it a coincidence that the the course lasts for 40 weeks, which is about the length of an agency contract at most places here.  A cyninc might suggest that perhapos this school are signing folks up for a "Thai culture" course with a "visa assistance" program to ensure for themselves a steady inflow of new teachers from abroad.  Their first move when you arrive might be to offer you a job while you are "studying".  Not a bad ploy, except they are offering visas that would not allow you to get a WP and they are charging what seems like a lot for "Thai culture" classes!  Obviously you wouldn't be able to work for anybody else as then you'd lose your "eductaion visa" - effectively you would be at the mercy of this company as long as you wished to remain on the visa that they helped you get.

If they want teachers, why not just advertise for teachers and offer WPs instead of education visas?

Of course I am reading a loy between the lines here and being very cynical, but it pays to ask these kind of questions when you are confronted with (essentially) bullshit advertising.

I may be wrong - the "Thai culture" course may be a wholly rewarding experience and not at all a crafty ploy to employ teachers illegally.

 

It would be nice if TLS came here to explain ......

[Mods-Rockers]

Why is it Hero? that I am absolutely certain that you have hit the nail on the head here!

[sham]

Hello my name is Chris and with my wife Tewi we run a government approved school called Tls Language School in Bangkapi, my wife is in her final year of a Phd Doctors Degree in educational leadership, we have recently been awarded the licence from the education department to teach Thai Language and Culture, Apart from the universities we are the first school in Thailand to be awarded this licence, If you sign up to our course you are entitled to a Educational Visa which will allow you you work part time(20 hours per week) like any student around the world you are allowed to work part time to help you study in your choosen field. The visa after the 1st border run is transfered to a educational visa at the education department, with documents that have already been issued to us by the education department, once transfered to a (EV) you don't have to do the dreaded visa runs costing money and time, your readers are not aware of the facts and we were  infact approached by the education department to set this course up, I feel once again this is rumours at its worst and to mention one of my employees by name is absolutly out of order, you dare not do this in our own country for fear of a lawsuit why do this here.
So Andy I suggest you learn the true facts before you try to destroy someones business.

[lils]

Can you post the details of the course? Costs? Schedule?

[Andy]

Countries around the world? Very few countries around the world let you work for 20 hours a week on an educational visa alone, especially for a cultural courses. I thought all foreign workers needed a work permit in Thailand. These teachers do not need a work permit with ed visa? I said post proof not post innuendo. It seems shady to me, sorry.

[hero]

Can you post the details of the course? Costs? Schedule?

I'd be very interested to hear this too.  By the way, do you also run English courses or employ English teachers?

[hero]

One further question - why the heckity flip do I need to register with your website to find out about the TEFL course?

 

[samvimes]

Nice use of moodle to set up a website.........

"At the moment we are the first government approved school that can offer these visa's and this course will also become a must do course for all farang teachers applying for a teaching permit in the future, we expect this course to be in high demand and suggest that intrested parties contact us as soon as possible."

I don't think the government or MOE would give the rights to run this kind of course (if it is official) to someone who has no proven track record.

I suggest that before you complain you produce the proof to backup your claims that your course is approved by the government and is a "must do course for all farang teachers applying for a teaching permit in the future" which seems like good marketing but also at the same time complete bollocks....

Also we have hotmail email addresses = not professional

The whole site is badly written and does not look professional at all "Teaching Thailand (sic) Culture to the West!" and looks like someone is just trying to take advantage of visa insecurities to make a fast buck....

[sham]

we are a school we are very busy teaching english, we also teach english to the police, the army and some hotels , we teach Chinese, Japanese, German, French, we supply Translators for exhibitions here in Bangkok.

The Thai Language and Culture at 40,000 baht for 120 hours this makes it 333 baht per hour where is this expensive,compared to making the visa runs, on the front page of our web page that is infact myself presenting the deputy director of educational standards for the whole of Thailand ,with a certificate for completing one of our english courses.

we also provide teachers to over 30 schools, that will not employ teachers direct