Topic: Sarasas Schools- All campuses

[hero]

Against moderators' guidelines I edited the above post slightly.  Please try to avoid posting anything that is confrontational toward another poster, everybody is entitled to their opinions, whether positive or negative.

Two previous Sarasas threads were locked as a result of users getting overexcited!  Please, make your point and allow others to do the same, that way the threads will stay open and anybody is free to add to the debate.

The "caning incident" is now the subject of a thread in the "Sour Gripes" forum, http://www.teflwatch.org/forum/index.php?topic=226.0 it shouldn't be a subject for discussion on thsi thread because it involves a different school and not Sarasas Romklao

[NamTok]

Nam Tok I believe I am correct in asserting that you received a public "caning" at the hands of Sarasas admin and stayed there reasonably long after, I presume at that time you were loyal to the cause!? Now you have left the employment of Sarasas schools you are entitled to have your complaints, which hugely outnumber on this forum any defence that El Tel is offering.? Maybe El Tel works for Sarasas, maybe he doesn't.? Maybe he will tell us, maybe he won't.? Either way he is more than entitled to his opinion, after all it wouldn't be much of a forum if we only had negative bitter comments from ex-employees of bad schools, would it?

  Agreed, hero. Without free and open discourse on these trhreads, and in society in general,? we'd all be mum and isolated, except for our private circles of friends who simply, almost always, only reinforce one another's views and experiences, a rather incestuous situation and cricumstance. Having read El Tel's "tell all,"  he seemed fairly balanced in his assessment of conditions affectiing foreign teachers at "his" Sarasas school.

   Honest and open discourse of course excludes personal negative characterizations of the behavious and reaction of a particular teacher at a particular Sarasas school, under particular and, especially, peculiar circumstances.?

   Further, I was pleased to see El Tel declare himself and to comment on the pros and cons of being a foreign teacher at his Sarasas school. I doubt that I'd have any coment or public reaction to El Tel's description of the everyday working lives of foreign teachers at  "his" Sarasas school, which---yes---seems a far cry from the working conditions of foreign teachers at Ektra, eg, at El Tel's Sarasas school there aren't pledges that anyone must make. That alone relects a different attitude toward foreign teachers by the leadership of El Tel's school to that of Sarasas Ektra.

   I've visited four (4) Sarasas schools besides Ektra, of the extant total of 16 Sarasas schools.? Not having been to the Sarasas school where El Tel teaches, I read what he states and generally accept his assertions. I don't know El Tel's Sarasas school. Therefore, I wouldn't presume to paint all Sarasas schools with the same brush (a nice cliche' by El Tel), nor would I consider what El Tel reports to us about "his" Sarasas  school and experiience to be less than the truth.

  One reason I can say this is that, still, for the many radical differences that seem to exist by El Tel's account of life for the foreign teacher at 'his" Sarasas school and what I know in depth and in greath breadth and detail of Sarasas Ektra school, many of the same old similarities seem to exist at each school, pro and con.

   For example, as to a few differences, the Ektra health program is good but not as good as El Tel describes at the Sarasas school where he teaches; and, positively, Ektra teachers have to submit an order from the Privy Council to leave the campus when the Ektra teacher doesn't have a class. As to an example of a similarity, TL and WP are also done precisely on time at Ektra, as the woman who does this great volume of work (100+ foreign teachers at Ektra) is the most competent Thai in Thailand.

   In all, there seems a great difference of attitude on the part of the owners and managers of El Tel's Sarasas school (not bad at all) and of those counterparts at Ektra, which is simply horrendous.

[dorian_gray]

El Tel mentioned "Flips". What does it mean?

[El Tel]

Having read El Tel's "tell all" above, he seemed fairly balanced in his assessment of conditions affectiing foreign teachers at "his" Sarasas school, Romklao.

Sorry but nowhere in my post did I state I worked at the Romklao school.
I know the thread is on that subject but to set the record straight, I'm not at Romklao.

Flips. Short for Filipinos.

[El Tel]

Ektra teachers have to submit an order from the King himself to leave the campus when the Ektra teacher doesn't have a class.

Eh? Are there guard dogs?
Watchtowers?
Razor wire?

Nam, correct me if I'm wrong here.
Foreign Ektra teachers are experienced & qualified, yes?
They survived uni and have some life experience, yes?

So for the life of me, I just don't understand why anyone like that would allow themselves to be treated with such disrespect.

I just don't get it!

[NamTok]

At Sarasas Ektra I worked with Fillipnos (Amer Eng spelling, ie, double "l") but had never until now heard the term, "Flips.". I immediately recognized the term as what it is, but had never heard the term in the US or during my eight years of teaching English in Thailand. Amazing!!!

[dorian_gray]

Many Filipinos (the only correct spelling--please go to http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/fillipino) find "flip" very offensive. Some equate it with the "n" word, "chink", "yank", "froggie" and others.

Anyway, what is wrong with having many Filipino teachers in one school?

[NamTok]

El Tel,

The mood and atmosphere of all of those elements are present, if not the physical items themselves, but it's a simple matter of the gates being locked. Foreign teachers who step across the soi for lunch are known to be locked out on a daily basis. However, Ektra school did place a buzzer button at that particular gate, so that the foreign teachers who aren't back from lunch time by 5 minutes in advance of the experiation of lunch hour (which roll at Ektra, so that students and Thai and foreign teachers eat in "shifts,") can be "buzzed in," an event that is duly reported and recorded against the foreign teacher. A Thai teacher who similarly has to be buzzed in is hanged by the thumbs after school, from 18:00 to 20:00 (you know I josh on this point, but Buddha save the Thai teacher who has to be buzzed in from lunch just a few feet across the soi from the school at that particular gate, from small outdoor restaurants directly across the soi from the particular gate).

[NamTok]

dorian gray,
   I didn't raise the matter of "Flips" and I'm sure it's an offensive word to people from the Phils, the Phils not being offensive to friends of Fillipinos. Astralians advise me that the word "Fillipinos" with the double "l" is the Australian English spelling of the word as well.
   I do believe we're discussing cultural differences and semantics here, but I could be correctied on the point. But that's what I do believe.
   Philippines having the double "p" and Fillipinos having the double "l."
   How'd I get dragged into this esoteric and cultural matter, anyway. The End. Thank you.

[NamTok]

El Tel
? ?Yes and no. There were and continue to be foreign "teachers" emplyed as teachers at Sarasas Ektra school who've never set foot on a university campus, much less have a university degree. The Ektra hierarchy loves to have such foreign teachers. Both the Ektra ownership and leadership know that foreign teachers who've never set foot on a university campus hired to teach at Ektra are the most obedient, respectful, subservient of all foreign teachers. The reasons for this are obvious, are they not? The farang without a degree or a single credit of study at a university is the most entirely dependent on the Ektra ownership and especially to the third tier of? Ektta leadership, ie the coordinators, of pre-school,? primary, secondary? education. The foreign "teachers" absent any university education are welcome and easy to control. Incidentally, 99% of such hires are from the UK,, as being from the UK automatically defines one to the Ektra hierarchy as the original and, thus, the ultimate native originator, possessor and definer of the English language.

For example, the director of Sarasas Ektra school in 2001asked me to organize a US style "Prom" for the 2nd graduating class of this young bilingual school. A South African black-skinned woman teacher called me over as I happened to be walking past the stage and arrangements while they were being set up. "Oh, oh, " she said to me, pointing to the stage. The drapes (curtains) providing the backdrop? had the word? "Prompt." So I went to the senior Thai teacher of English to point out to him that the word is "Prom," orginiating from the French word "Promade," as to walk about and to display one's self in a PROMinent place, such as in France, the West Bank but other places as well.

Well, the senior Thai English teacher was incredulous. He could not accept my statement that the word is "Prom," as used and applied in the US. The senior Thai teacher of English went dashing to a Brit who had taught English at the school for three consecutive years to seek confirmation that the word for the event was indeed, "Prompt," The Brit corrected the senior Thai teacher of English, advising him that the word associated with the event is, indeed, "Prom." Only then did the senior Thai teacher of English make the correction by removing the letter "t" from the word on the drapes. So, only then did? we had our Prom, as invented and developed by people of the US. But it took the word of of a Brit to convince the Thai senior teacher of English that the US event called a "Prom," was indeed a "Prom" and not a "Prompt."

So, while most of the world is leaning English---American English---some learners of English as a foreign language or as a second (or 3rd, or 4th) language continue to look to Engiand and the Brits to define the English language, even when there are new origins and/or applications to words of the English language that have different origins and meaning in a country, the US, separated by 3,000 miles of ocean (which some Brits love to call the"'pond," to symbolize to them the closeness of Anglo-American culture, society and civiliation) and a different experience of language and its culture which have litttle or nothing, to do with British English (beyond the Norman Conquest., which is another discussion).? ?

[Mods-Rockers]

El Tel
   
So, while most of the world is leaning English---American English---some learners of English as a foreign language or as a second (or 3rd, or 4th) language continue to look to Engiand and the Brits to define the English language, even when there are new origins and/or applications to words of the English language that have different origins and meaning in a country, the US, separated by 3,000 miles of ocean (which some Brits love to call the"'pond," to symbolize to them the closeness of Anglo-American culture, society and civiliation) and a different experience of language and its culture which have litttle or nothing, to do with British English (beyond the Norman Conquest., which is another discussion).   

Just a small point of order here Nam, but one that possibly accounts for the senior Thai English teacher checking the accuracy of something you said with the British speaker of English.
Whilst most of the world  is learning English, be it amereng briteng or the lesser known dialects of the upper swampland in lower swampville, they either learn English as a foreign language or as a second language. If learned as a second language its because its used as a second language, normally as an official second (often administrative)language, at all other times its because its used as a foreign language. If English or French or any language for that matter in known by someone and is not used along with L1 on a daily basis (or as an official second language) then it is classed as a foreign language not ?second (or 3rd, or 4th) language?

[Uncle Che]

I have locked this thread down and I will lock down any thread on Sarasas over the next week or so. As these threads continue, the posts and posters are rapidly losing their crediblity. I will re-open this thread when emotions have calmed down. Don't take this as censorship as users may continue to post in Sour Gripes, there is a special thread there for BCC and Sarasas.

[Uncle Che]

Ok, the Sarasas threads are now open. Please read the updated rules for the forum. The new addition is the the three strikes rules. Any more than two unconstructive posts on a thread by any user will be moved to Sour Gripes. What constitutes an unconstructive post will be up to the moderators.

[airpuka]

Ok here is some more drama from the sarasas schools, its not so bad but i insist on writing down everything they do to screw over its foreign teachers untill they are in the hall of shame!
anyways  they basically lied to about 5 of us about our salaries, the human resources guy made me come into the school at 7.00 on a saturday for no reason whatsoever just to sign some papers which i had already signed a couple days before which they said was lost. Then it was agreed that i would get a full months salary for the summer program before i signed the contract, which i signed on the 1st but started work on the monday which was the 3rd, but come payday they tried to cut my pay dramaticly saying i didint start work untill around the 12th and that i was not getting paid salary for this month and was infact getting paid for working days only which worked out to be less money, so obviously i was going to take this up with higher adminsitration but when i called her she was Extremely rude to me and accused me of lying and being rude to her, and i told them to look up my contract and they said it didint matter what the contract said cause they said that the financial office had me starting on the 12th, so to make a long story short i complained and kept calling untill they got my pay right, but 5 other teachers at the same school got screwed out of their pay and got paid way less then they were intitiled to. so basically What the hell is a contract for in this country?

[MrTam-di-dai-di]

Sarasas Ektra school currently is posting for 20 new teachers. After that it will post for 20 more....and then 20 more etc. After several consecutive years of full time teaching at Ektra School, to include having been lead foreign teacher,? I can point out major problems at the school which account for the high annual turnover of foreign staff. In fact, Ektra always is looking for foreign staff, as some leave after one day, or one week, one month, one semester.

First, the foreign teacher is always wrong while the students are always right. One needn't elaborate on this anomaly as to the effects on classroom management and the attempt to present lessons. Second, The school is in a compact space, which means there is noise pollution which is regularly unbearable to foreigners. The reaction of the school is "That's too bad for you. Just get used to it!" The band and chorus, for example, in an adjacent building can be heard in nearby buildings, as can the boom, boom, boom of the drum as scouts rehearse their marching immediately outside the secondary building. The PE area is centrally located on the grounds so, consequently, its noise permates buildings all day. Some foreign teachers wear swimmer's earplugs all day to mute all of this this constant, regular and maddening noise pollution. Also, most foreign teachers who provide proper departure notice are shorted money when they leave (in a rare exception, I wasn't). Further, at the beginning of each year each foreign teacher begins with a measly Baht 1,500 salary increment to take effect in the contract of the following year (the school has never ending optimism!). However, during the course of the year punative deductions are taken against the Baht 1,500? increment so that typically the foreign teacher ends up with an increase of perhaps Baht 500 (five hundred)

The secondary school corrdinator is a wild, arbitrary, whimsical man who is known to burst into a classroom, to boistrously direct the foreign teacher to sit down at the back of the classroom while declaring that he will show how to teach the subject to the class (this never happened to me, as he wouldn't have dared!) Secondary students refer to this coordinator, the person in charge of the secondary department of Ektra school, as the Buffalo. This is due to the fact that the human-animal resemblance is remarkably similar and, because of what students think of him personally and profesionally.? He is also know to have the foulest mouth in all of Thailand (I can't speak as to his native Australia, although he has a certai nersonality type--y'kow?!?.) Moroever, the school views foreign teachers as intruders into the society and culture of Thailand and has a long-standing, conscious and deliberate policy of reducing and humiliating foreign teachers to show students how dumb foreign teachers (farangs) are and how smart/clever the Thais running the school are. Indeed, one departing teacher during her one and only year commented, "I'm tired of being made to feel guilty," when of course there was nothing in reality for her or, typically,? for any foreign teacher to feel "gulty" about. There is a problem but it begins and ends with? the negative attitude of the school toward the foreign teacher(s) (foreign devils). The school knows it needs English from native speakers of English, but does everything it can to prevent the foreign teacher? from doing any more than teaching some English to students.

 FOREIGN TEACHER PUBLICLY CANED: Yes, so bold and aggressive is the Ektra school Thai directoral staff that one morning, during one of 5 morning assemblies each week, one foreign teacher was assaulted from behind , being caned on the back of the right calf by a Thai assistant director. The reason? The foreign teacher, one of many foreign teachers not reciting required public pledges, was singled out? for a public caning before all of the assembled students, Thai teachers and foreign teachers for non-recital of mandatory pledges. At each morning assembly foreign teachers have to recite two of ten weekly pledges, eg, "I will be loyal to your king and country;" "I will be a good teacher;" "I will obey the school's rules," and other like vacuuous platitudes, although Pledge No.1 "I will be loyal to your king and country" clearly is a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (adopted by the UN General Assembly effective 1976).. The public caning of a foreign teacher at a public event, ie, a morning assembly is yet another indication of the deliberate, shameless and systemic low regard and abusive treatment Ektra school owners and their top operatives have toward foreign teachers.

FOREIGN TEACHER THREATENED: In the Prathom (primary) school a 2nd grade boy urinated in his pants while in class. As "punishment" the Thai teacher made the boy remove all lower body clothing and required the boy to stand genitals exposed before the whole of the class. When the foreign teacher in the class strenously and vociferously objected, he was swiftly and decisively removed from the classroom building to the director's office. The foreign teacher, a European, spoke of reporting the barbarous treatment of the child to the Ministry of Education. However, the foreign teacher emerged from the director's office pale and gaunt and said nothing for days. The foreign teacher later stated that he had been told to remain silent or suffer the (ultimate) consequence. Many foreign teachers believed that much more than the teacher's job was at stake as a result of his vehement objection to this so-described traditional and customary Thai practice, something one would expect with historical shame to read in a Dickens' novel. Yet, the Chinese-Thai ownership of the school saw the farang's strong reaction as a direct challenge and as a most serious threat to Thai history, customs and tradition.

Do beware these Ektra people...... ? ?

An outstanding post that reflects my experiences there too. Well done.