My First Experience as an ESL Teacher

Roger Hall (Completed STP)

While browsing the internet one day, I came across a very attractive website which gave me the idea of an educational tourism package in Thailand involving a guaranteed teaching job. On the pre-text of making a teaching career, I set alone to kiss the grounds of Thailand for the first time, of course the main motive of travelling was the underlying fact of the whole idea. For an adventurous being like me, travelling takes a crucial place in my life and is my hobby, despite many odds that come my way. I love travelling not only to get away from my hectic daily life but simply because I want to learn about the variety of cultures, races and nationalities. Travelling to me is very educational.

Travelling to Thailand and knowing its treasured sights, vibrant culture, diverse terrains have been a lifetime achievement. With all this and more, travelling to Thailand has provides an extra punch, beyond my expectations. Thailand travelling is complete with mountain ranges and ocean from four sides, as if God is protecting this treasure land from all the odds of the world. On top of that I also realized there is something very fulfilling about arriving to a job that you like, using a mode of transportation that you enjoy, while living in a place of amazingly warm n courteous people, that you thoroughly take pleasure in. I've been lucky to have had the opportunity to live and work in Thailand for a year now, travelling, biking, and studying other languages among other things. My ESL career started in Thailand where I began teaching migrant workers conversational English. Living and working here has given me great insight into Thai country and culture, giving me a global view that cannot be learned by studying, but only by doing.

How did you start your teaching career in Thailand and how did you achieve your position as a school manager?

While studying my MBA in the states for 2 years, I became friends with a large group of International students from Thailand. We studied most of our classes together, did assignments together, and traveled in our free time. Upon graduation everyone invited me to come to Thailand to visit. (As I side note, when I met them, I had no clue where Thailand was, and had to go home and look it up on a map.) I originally thought of 1 month to tour around after graduation and then back to the states to start the job hunt. I then started thinking that coming to visit my friends right after graduation, they would be doing the same thing, looking for a job, and they would not have any time for me. I was reading one of those free magazines you can pick up on your university campus, and it had an article about people going to teach in Thailand. So I did a search on the Internet, (which was still in its infancy 13 years ago) and found the present school I am working for was looking for a business instructor for 10 months. Perfect, just finishing my MBA that would be great. I signed up, and 2 days after graduation, I was on a flight to Bangkok! What an adventure it would be! Twelve years later, and I am still here.