Topic: Ajarn.com hot seat interview with someone from Bangkok Christian College

[Bangkok Phil]

http://www.ajarn.com/Hot%20seat/hotseatjayjohnson.htm

[Mods-Rockers]

Thanks Phil

[NukeThemSlowly]

Thanks, Phil, it is certainly informative.

It's also apologist tripe by a newbie pawn who has no idea what he's gotten himself into.  He's admitted to being some sort of administration flunky, so he can't be too negative and keep his job- he makes the point himself that the wrong kind of squeaking gets squashed.  Furthermore, he's completely new (since May 2006?!?  WTF, Phil, can't you find anyone there who's been working longer than that to interview, or is it that they simply know better?) and by his own admission also knows nothing about the place.  The people he talked with to "get the history" were all the ones who'd survived, who would obviously not have much invested in rocking their very shaky boat.  He brings out the "backpacker teachers" again as an excuse for the unacceptably unprofessional way in which BCC hires and fires staff and their incredibly high turnover (of which his own employment in his new position is a prime example).  Let's hear a BCC person admit a mistake in the firing of someone- when hell freezes over, eh?

He's the perfect person to do this because, being a complete newbie, he hasn't gone through the shell-shock of a BCC purge when perfectly decent teachers are fired because little Somchai's mother complained that the teacher doesn't understand Thai culture, probably because he wouldn't let Somchai throw rocks.  The administration there is probably still giving him the illusion that he has any power or influence at all.  Let's have another interview with him, say, about September when the next purge is due, and see what he thinks then, eh, Phil?

The only points he addresses from the OP of the BCC thread (c.f.) are the 10B per month annoyance, which hardly matters but is a safely trivial complaint to bring up, and the unspeakable rudeness of the students.  And he admits both of these problems are continuing.  He also confirms that the story about teachers being fired last year because they stood up for themselves later in the BCC thread.  And while he assures us that "things are changing," there are no details of how or independent confirmation of this.  The cumbersome multiple interview process he cites is no different than the one they were using 5 years ago, presumably before they "changed."

It seems like business as usual at BCC.  The best news perhaps to be extracted from the interview is that this website may be having some effect.

It might be useful to post a link here to the original thread:
http://www.teflwatch.org/forum/index.php?topic=259.0

[Mods-Rockers]

I have to agree with NTS about the needs for another interview either in Sept/Oct or even better maybe in late Feb next year when the contracts come up for renewal again.

The optomist in me likes to think that the place may be trying to turn over a new leaf, but then I think about phrases about leopards and spots and decide to take a watching brief on the matter.

Get him back Phil at a later date and see if...

[NamTok]

Thanks, Phil, it is certainly informative.

It's also apologist tripe by a newbie pawn who has no idea what he's gotten himself into.  He's admitted to being some sort of administration flunky, so he can't be too negative and keep his job- he makes the point himself that the wrong kind of squeaking gets squashed.  Furthermore, he's completely new (since May 2006?!?  WTF, Phil, can't you find anyone there who's been working longer than that to interview, or is it that they simply know better?) and by his own admission also knows nothing about the place.  The people he talked with to "get the history" were all the ones who'd survived, who would obviously not have much invested in rocking their very shaky boat.  He brings out the "backpacker teachers" again as an excuse for the unacceptably unprofessional way in which BCC hires and fires staff and their incredibly high turnover (of which his own employment in his new position is a prime example).  Let's hear a BCC person admit a mistake in the firing of someone- when hell freezes over, eh?

He's the perfect person to do this because, being a complete newbie, he hasn't gone through the shell-shock of a BCC purge when perfectly decent teachers are fired because little Somchai's mother complained that the teacher doesn't understand Thai culture, probably because he wouldn't let Somchai throw rocks.  The administration there is probably still giving him the illusion that he has any power or influence at all.  Let's have another interview with him, say, about September when the next purge is due, and see what he thinks then, eh, Phil?

The only points he addresses from the OP of the BCC thread (c.f.) are the 10B per month annoyance, which hardly matters but is a safely trivial complaint to bring up, and the unspeakable rudeness of the students.  And he admits both of these problems are continuing.  He also confirms that the story about teachers being fired last year because they stood up for themselves later in the BCC thread.  And while he assures us that "things are changing," there are no details of how or independent confirmation of this.  The cumbersome multiple interview process he cites is no different than the one they were using 5 years ago, presumably before they "changed."

It seems like business as usual at BCC.  The best news perhaps to be extracted from the interview is that this website may be having some effect.

It might be useful to post a link here to the original thread:
http://www.teflwatch.org/forum/index.php?topic=259.0

    I think this speaks well as to my own reaction to the PR stunt by BCC. I also take the skeptical view and attitude of Mods-Rockers. In fact, we might want to hear again from the BCC mouthpiece around the end of this month, nevermind Sept or Feb of next year. 

[blackmail]

Interesting interview.  I would have added the following questions:

1.  Have you been hit in the face with a soccer ball, yet?

2.  Does the female half of a teaching couple still come to school with an occasional black eye?

3.  Does the workroom still smell like a dirty jockstrap?

4.  Did they tell you to be there at 7:15, even though your contract says 7:30?

5.  How much of your time is spent breaking copyright laws?

6.  Is the nipple tickler still there?

7.  How many teachers are wearing earplugs at assemblies?

8.  Do the male students still walk around holding hands?

9.  Did you know that your "good insurance" will require you to pay hospital bills in full during the first year and wait
     for reimbursement, which could be as low as half of your bill?

10. How many of the teachers are working on tourist visas?

11. How much did you spend obtaining your Non-Immigrant B?

12. Did the people at the Thai Embassy laugh in your face?

13. Are they still using the police to threaten, coerce, and blackmail teachers?

14. How many of the teachers actually have experience in their home countries?

15. How many of the teachers make more at BCC than they did in their own countries?

16. Did they ever buy any toilet paper or soap?

17. Do they still have one 30 dollar printer, with no ink, in the workroom?

18. Did they give you a copy of your contract?

19. Did they tell you that you will have to sing Hanukah songs at the Christmas party?

20. Are the teachers still getting massages from students in the workroom, even though there are 200,000 professional massage therapists in Bangkok?

21.  Are the students still cheating their tails off?
 

[samvimes]

The sad thing is that last year there were a lot of problems on both sides. Several nut-job, wannabe teachers sneaked in the doors. There were several backpackers looking for a few months pay so they could continue their travels got. I remember several go-go alcoholics got in who simply wanted to clock in and clock out and get back to the party, and then call in sick with the brown bottle flu twice a week.

He has only been there two months so how can he remember last year?

Thanks Phil for the good read, however....

How about giving some of the ex teachers room to vent and give their side of the story on ajarn.com; "Thailand's Most Popular Teaching Website"?

It's a shame you didn't ask him about his educational qualifications as he doesn't come across as someone who is well qualfied within the field of education.

First off, the administration and the IEP dept is extending an invitation to you Phil

Also I'd also like to know your academic qualifications Phil if you intend to accept an offer like this about evaluating a school.

[NukeThemSlowly]

Mwahahahaha.... I like this thread more and more.

You caught a good bit, SV- just how can he "remember" last year?

I'd say a flip-side interview of a former teacher is certainly in order- or at least someone who's been working there longer than, oh, a month.   

Of course, one has to be careful...  remember what the Thai admin person posted in response to the OP on the last BCC thread?  (can one of the mods dig that up and repost it here, as a real example of BCC management panache)?  If one is identifiable, no doubt at all they'll go after you with every dirty trick they can.

[Bangkok Phil]

Let's have another interview with him, say, about September when the next purge is due, and see what he thinks then, eh, Phil?

There's no reason why we can't do that.

Jay contacted me and said that he would like to do a hot seat interview and present both the positive and negative aspects of BCC. If you go back and read it, I think that he achieved that. I admire him for stepping up to the plate. Many people who ask for an interview, receive my 15 questions and then head for the hills never to be seen again.

Which is quite frustrating on my part.

[samvimes]

I didn't have time to dissect the interview in any detail apart from catching the point about just how can he "remember" last year when he has only been there two years. Methinks something is rotten in the state of this member of staff.....

The squeaky wheels from years past that may have had a credible complaint did not get any grease - they just got replaced.

That's nice, anyone who had any constructive comments or wanted to make any changes at all just got axed.

OK, that's 120 baht a year that the bank charges - and so is the fact that we all receive at least 40,000 baht in bonus money and from 17,000 to 24,000 baht in flight allowance money from the school, depending on your attitude and work ethics, as well as a yearly pay raise, depending on performance.

Justify it however you want, it's still illegal and it's still not in the contract.

There are now 482 teachers at this school - over 70 foreign teachers and the rest are Thai. In the past years, the personnel department lost, misplaced, misfiled paperwork, and if you made someone angry enough, maybe even flushed.

I can't believe that anyone could even attempt to justify losing people's paperwork just because a teacher made them angry. Is this a professional school or not??

The new teachers here make about 50,000 + baht a month

Minus the 4000 baht a month deduction to "keep people honest" and "If you pull a runner, you deserve to lose it", oh and minus tax.

Let's not forget the summer camp where teachers had to pay for their own accommodation for a camp that they had to do....

Oh and I did laugh when I read about the

Very good insurance.

Which covers practically nothing and you have to pay for your treatment first and then claim it back.

For me the interviewee shows the symptoms of everything that is wrong in Thai schools and people like him are one reason why things are so hard to change.

BCC is one of the best - and it truly is.

It sure is, it's one of the best at

[Speaksoftly]

In my humble opinion, BCC is the kind of school that created the need for this kind of website.  It's a shame the the interviewee was not pressed harder about his ignorance (or his apparent lie) or about other specific problems mentioned by posters on our thread.

[Due Diligence]

It will be nice to ask him or other teachers there how they feel about 1 week before their end of year holiday, where bonuses are threatened to be with held if grades are not handed in on time.  Therefore the general feeling from the Axed teacher was "Will i get my end of contract bonus in April as told, what about my salary i'm entitled to??" 
Yes they did pay it, but there was that worry they wouldn't with the various events that happened during the last few weeks of the school year.  An axed teacher was promised papers to get a new non-b visa as they needed provide us one during April. However the said teacher was missing papers to get the visa and had to return on a tourist. 
They got rid of some great teachers including teachers who busted their arse to set up the curriculum for their final grade 12 in EIP to be told after that hard work they are no longer wanted. Even with replacements hired before they are told they are gone. 

[NamTok]

   Following the spirit of Blackmail, a few more suggested interview questions that weren't posed:

*Do the Thai administration, speaking to students at assemblies, speak in Thai against the foreign teachers, saying we're scum?

*Do the farang administrators happily enforce rules and policies because the farang administrators like to be "enforcers?" Some say "bullies?"

*Do you teach and sing songs in your classroom in between sports day, special activities day, Teacher's Day singing and dancing at the school, marching practice, English Camp, Scout Camp, Christmas activities week etc?

*What do you do with all of that super amount of pay you get each month?

*How many lunches provided by the school do you eat each week? Do some new teachers start spooning the food onto their plates from the swill bucket at the end of the tables, unknowingly because of only the slight  difference in taste between what's in the buckets at either end of the line?   

One could go on....
 

[accurate reporting]

I was wildly amused when i read the hot seat interview.  The interviewee was a former colleague of mine in a past life
who left the school we both worked at in the first two weeks of term with minimal notice meaning undue cover for us all. Now that he has his admin job he'll feel he has 'made it' because lets say his interest in teaching wasn't the most methodogically sound.  Now that he has turned up in BCC makes that soap opera one to watch more closely for me.  With BP's in put maybe one of the former staff should be allowed to give their views or let the the hot seat interviewee answer those questions posed by blackmail for example. 

[Bangkok Phil]

Jay has been in touch to tell me I made a mistake when editing the interview for brevity. The choice of the word 'remember' was in fact misleading and there is no way Jay could have 'remembered' what happened last year because as Sam Vines states 'Jay has only been there two months". This is my editing mistake and I do apologize.

Unfortunately I'm out of town until Friday but I will edit the interview and correct things when I return.

Phil