Topic: Thewpaingarm School in Bangkok

[Mike2007]

It has been an interesting year at Thewphaingarm, the students are well behaved and are easy to work with.  There are two sides to Thewphaingarm, the first side is EF  which teaches Basic English Skills (this posting is not about them) but I will address TSEP.  TSEP has been undergoing a series of changes over the past year.  We have a Curriculum Director, a pleasant enough Indian Girl who monopolizes most of your day, bogging down teachers in meeting, projects, overnight seminars, watching through windows and meeting after meeting of evaluation.  The Curriculum Director ***** has made comments towards male teachers expressing her interest in them, and when they refuse they usually get fire soon after.  The school feels like they pay too much, and has fired over half of their staff this year.  Most of the firings had to do with the immigration crackdown, but Thewphaingarm teachers were encouraged to buy fake degrees.  Many teachers bought fake degrees (20,000 baht) and then the management decided to get rid of them anyway.  The school actually had their students, at least 100, dress up as Nazis this year and goose stepped around the pavement.  The school in culturally insensitive, and finds themselves in embarrassing situations frequently.  The name of the school should be corruption.   I had to jump ship, and have many friends associated with this school, I hope they find better jobs soon.  I have kept my posting fair and accurate, and have left the information as only as a small window of problems, This school will eat you alive.  If you are considering one of the many positions at this school, you can E-mail me at teachingweb@gmail.com

[hero]

Thanks mate.

I'm interested in knowing what an "overnight seminar" is all about 

[Bangkok Phil]

Oh Mike.

[freedom fighter]

"The school actually had their students, at least 100, dress up as Nazis this year and goose stepped around the pavement."

Sorry.  What?? 

Please eloborate because I'm choking on my knish.  Oy vey!

FF.

[Mike2007]

On Sports day, they planned this Charade for some time, the students then became very interested in Nazis, and started wearing more Nazi stuff to class.  Granted, the students are ignorant to the truth, but the staff who gave the go ahead??  Well you know.  I saw the post for 5 new teachers, and It is not surprising.  They don't have teachers stay for long term, many people are short timers, and recently they went with an agency to pick up the slack.  The pay looks good on paper, but you will surely earn every last baht. 

[Thai Me Up]

Mike,
So sorry, but I don't have any sympathy for teachers who buy degrees, regardless of the expense.  I think the Nazi activity was outrageously offensive.  Did any of the foreign staff even try to explain to the Thai staff how this was terribly inappropriate?  What is an overnight seminar and did it have something to do with the Curriculum Director hitting on teachers?

[freedom fighter]

Perhaps you could arrange for the farang staff to dress up as WWII Japanese war criminals and reenact the forced occupation of Thailand? 

[Thai Me Up]

freedomfighter,
For even better revenge, show the musical number "Getting to Know You" from "The King and I" and have all the students sing along.  They won't even know you're poisoning their minds with this movie banned in Thailand.  Better yet, TAKE PICTURES the next time Thai students or ANY students dress up as Nazis and parade around school.

[anyonefortennis]

The school feels like they pay too much, and has fired over half of their staff this year.  Most of the firings had to do with the immigration crackdown, but Thewphaingarm teachers were encouraged to buy fake degrees.  Many teachers bought fake degrees (20,000 baht) and then the management decided to get rid of them anyway. 

The people they fired, were they replaced? If so did they hire replacement teachers on a lower salary?

Are the management who made the firings the same people who suggested getting fake degrees?

I'd suggest anyone who was fired who has the proper paper work check out the thread about recouping three months wages from a school if you're fired without just cause before the end of your contract.

Granted, the students are ignorant to the truth, but the staff who gave the go ahead?? 

The Nazi thing is really quite odd, but given the number of Thai TV dramas that show kids with swastika posters on their bedroom walls it is sadly not surprising. To be honest I should think that the staff that gave the go ahead were as ignorant to the offence it may cause as the students. In much the same vain, I doubt few of the kids walking round in t-shirts acclaiming "F**k off Nazi scum" actually know the meaning of either nazi or scum, but the t-shirts are quite popular down my neck of the woods.

[freedom fighter]

I wonder how those Thai students would feel if they knew that the nazis considered them to be an inferior race.  Are they aware that Hitler's first actions in Thailand would almost certainly have been to execute the monarchy and abolish Buddhism?  Point this is out the next time you see nazi paraphernalia being worn by a Thai.  I do.

If you are unfortunate enough to have to address the entire school in assembly for a weekly speech, use this as your platform to educate the masses.  Ignorance is the reason that 9,000,000 people were slaughtered like cattle.

FF.

[bomha]

That is a good idea: say, "The real Nazis hate His Majesty the King, and would try to kill all Thai people."

I think the total killed in the Holocaust was more like 12,000,000.  You might tell your gay students the Nazis killed the homosexuals, too.

My mate actually sang "Getting to Know You" to a matayom class!

[brian_q]

"The Nazi thing is really quite odd, but given the number of Thai TV dramas that show kids with swastika posters on their bedroom walls it is sadly not surprising."

While Thai kids dressing up as Nazis is quite odd, the swastika has been a Buddhist symbol long before Hitler apprpoiated it.

Brian

[anyonefortennis]

True enough Brian, although the posters / t-shirts etc. do tend to display the swastika adopted by Nazi Germany, with the arms of the swastika going anticlockwise rather than clockwise, which tends to be the Buddhist symbol.

[khru]

Don't want to split hairs but the swastika is from Hinduism (and then adopted by Buddhism).

When I worked at Thewpaingarm the pratom girls dressed up in fishnet tights, micro-minis and thigh-high boots. Doesn't sound like it's changed too much!

[brian_q]

Thigh high boots are affectionately known as "fudge me" boots.