Topic: Chiang Mai University Language Institute

[Minxlady]

Having a PhD doesn't mean a lot. A lot of the PhDs I know are very up their own tails (for no good reason). They have "researched" (often paraphrased or drawn inferences about) something very specialised (say, the inside of a gnat's anus) for four or five years. In the TEFL field, they do something useless like "Dipthong Utilisation among Amish Farmers with Cleft Palates" or some such drivel.

I heard about someone (a yank or a limey) who had one from the University of Uzbechistan. He was a complete idiot, according to my sources. Not all places have the same rigour as Harvard. In some places, you can get by if you suck up to the PhD supervisor. Yes, and you can buy a PhD. The University of Rushmore (USA) advertises in the Economist (even). It will dispense MAs and PhDs based on your "life experience".

As a colleague, as a teacher for a Thai friend, or even for Teacher Training, I would always hope for someone who had a lot of experience and the "knack". You either have it or not. Most PhDs I know don't have it. Two of the best teachers I know here in LOS have BAs or BScs only. One does not have a CELTA. They have loads of experience, and watching them is poetry in motion. A friend of mine worked at one of the top three unis here, and I hear that many of the Thai PhDs are also a joke. She told me that Associate Profs and Assistant Profs (the Thais like to call themselves these names) WITH PhDs used to come to her all the time with basic queries about tenses (etc)

It is true. Having a PhD is not the be-all and end-all. Don't worry if you don't have one. You will be a better teacher without one.

M

[bomha]

Me cousin is the only bloke I ever knew, what said he didn't want his mother to ever call him "doctor" after he earned his Ph.D.  I say even if Dr. Matt has his Ph.D. in wallaby forking, we should call him doctor.

Me lady friend, what actually knows Matt Kay and actually taught with him, says he's all right, and they never forked, either, and he was a good teacher.  But this isn't about Matt's teaching, is it?  Is he a competent administrator at CMU?  He is, by definition, if he's still on their payroll.  The bloke what started all this commotion is no longer on the payroll.

Who knows ten graduates of the course at CMU?  I mean, well enough to have professionally judged their competence in the classroom?  Who knows ten graduates who have judged the course at CMU?

[Thighlander]

Dr. Matt:

In post number 8 you state wages of 450 Thb, per hour; in post number 12 you say 350 Thb per hour.  I knew wages were falling, but 22% in 83 minutes?

[hero]

It is true. Having a PhD is not the be-all and end-all. Don't worry if you don't have one. You will be a better teacher without one.

Hmmm.  Not sure if I agree.  Pretty sure that there are good and bad teachers with PhDs and good and bad teachers without!

Fair enough to say that a PhD doesn't necessarily make a good teacher - but quite different to say that a PhD will necessarily make an inferior teacher!

[hero]

I'm locking this thread here, there is enough information for readers to draw their own conclusions about the place.  It will be reopened in future should any new posters come forward with new information.

It won't be reopened for morons to post crap, sorry Anna Key your post is in Sour Gripes - feel free to whinge all day long in there!

Hero