You’ll be met at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport.
You will be offered a complimentary meal en route to the volunteer residence in north central Bangkok.
If you’ve just come off a long international flight, you’ll want to have a hot shower and a long sleep in a comfortable bed. The residence is in a gated residential community with 24 hour security so you can relax in comfort. Complimentary snacks and beverages are available to you 24 hours a day. The residence is also equipped with a high speed internet connection with wireless access.
There you’ll stay for one or two nights, depending on your wishes. There you can relax, decompress a little and learn about Thai students and schools and learn a little about the culture.
As we get to know you we’ll get a pretty good idea of the best placement location for you based on your background and school availability. We’ll do our best to accommodate your location preference and your wish to teach alone or in a group, but we hope you’ll trust our judgment in selecting the best placement for you. You’ll have an opportunity to browse through the personal journals of former volunteers. And browsing the high speed internet connection will help you as you choose one of our 20 placement schools.
If your school is close to Bangkok, we’ll drive you there. If not, we’ll escort you to the bus or train station and arrange your ticket. You’ll be met by a school official at the other end. Teach as little as two weeks or up to two months or longer. While there you will get free accommodation and two meals a day. Shown here is Mochit Northeastern Bus Terminal, 30 minutes by car from the volunteer residence.
If you need help renewing your visa, we can help. We know the best border crossings and we know the procedures.
Once you have completed a minimum two week placement and want to teach longer at another school. Please return to Bangkok. Stay at the house and we’ll arrange another placement for you. On your way back home you may stay at the residence overnight before you catch your early morning flight
Orientation is the key to a successful placement
Without any orientation to teaching in Thailand or to the culture of Thailand, rushing off to teach in a school is a recipe for trouble. If you commit a cultural faux pas in a Thai school or in Thai society, a volunteer may never fully recover from it. Thai culture is totally different from western society, so novices don’t even know what they don’t know.
It is vital that volunteers start off confidently and on the right foot. Doing anything less and the entire teaching experience is compromised.
In our orientation program you will be given two 45 minute orientation classes on how and what to teach. You’ll also learn Thai etiquette and a few basic Thai phrases. The orientation will be given by a native English teacher who has taught at all levels of the Thai school system including PhD candidate students at BangkokUniversity.
The orientation will address:
How to dress and conduct yourself at school
Small village schools are culturally speaking, quite conservative. If an agency tells you that informal sports wear is okay to teach in, they are wrong.
How well do Thai students speak English?
If you're scheduled to teach 8 year olds or 10 year olds you have to know what age related skills and vocabulary they have. Otherwise you'll waste your time finding out. Our teacher trainer has taught at all levels of the Thai system. So he can give you a heads up before you start teaching.
What to teach and how to teach it
If you truly want to make a difference for kids. You have to unlock the knowledge they already have. If you can do that, your students can actually start creating English conversation. Perhaps for the first time in their lives.
Giving them more information rather than unlocking their skills, doesn't help them. In fact, two months after you've left the school, the information you've given them will be forgotten. A skill, however, is not forgotten.
Etiquette at the school and in the community
If an agency doesn't orient you to basic etiquette at the school and at the nearby temple, you can do the wrong thing without knowing it.
Getting around and staying safe in Thailand
There are two zero tolerance issues for westerners in Thailand. We'll tell you what they are and how to avoid problems they can create.
Ten useful Thai phrases
What you should look for in a volunteer agency
Finding a volunteer placement service can be tricky. Especially for first timers. Here's a guide to the things you need and the questions you should ask.
Rule #1: Give everything to your students, but don’t overpay your placement service
Thailand is one of the most popular teaching destinations in Asia. Some firms are exploiting that popularity by charging outrageous fees. The fact is, no school in Thailand that we know of ever charges fees to have volunteers teach at their schools. Nor do they ask for school donations. Most provide free housing for volunteers. All are grateful to have them.
So we can’t justify high prices for our services. And we don’t see how others can either. You are paying for an introduction to a good school and some support along the way. Perhaps some teacher training and help with language and culture. Period Finding good schools and maintaining that network involves operating costs. Training on the ground here in Thailand and providing temporary accommodation in Bangkok before you travel out to the school involve costs.
Placements of two weeks to two months should cost no more than $500 U. S. for placement and training. If you pay more than that, you need to find out why.
So we can’t justify high prices for our services. And we don’t see how others can either. You are paying for an introduction to a good school and some support along the way. Perhaps some teacher training and help with language and culture. Period Finding good schools and maintaining that network involves operating costs. Training on the ground here in Thailand and providing temporary accommodation in Bangkok before you travel out to the school involve costs.
Placements of two weeks to two months should cost no more than $500 U. S. for placement and training. If you pay more than that, you need to find out why.
Some firms charge higher prices because they have high overheads in their offices in America or Europe. The services you need are here on the ground in Thailand. But if you feel more comfortable with a bricks and mortar operation in your home country. Fine. Just know what you are paying for.
Rule #2: Check references. Ask to be put in touch with school Directors and former volunteers. If the agency is unwilling or unable. Maybe you’ve stumbled onto one of the growing number of website agencies who don’t have anything behind their service. You may have read on the internet stories about volunteers who pay a lot of money to be dropped off in front a school in the middle of nowhere. Those things do happen.
Ask them how they select their schools and where they are. You don’t just want to teach. You want to experience life in the community. If your school doesn’t have a village you will feel isolated (and a little creepy at night). If it’s not near a city or a local attraction, you won’t have anything to do on weekends.
Rule #3: Get at least a little bit of teacher training. The worst thing you can do is to rush into a Thai classroom without knowing what to teach and how to teach it. You won’t have any confidence and the children will know it. You’ll never recover from that first day. It’s also a good idea to get a little training about Thai etiquette and traditions. Again, if you go into a small community you could risk offending someone without knowing what you don’t know. All schools in Thailand are connected to a local Buddhist temple. It is essential that you know etiquette required in a temple before you ever set foot in one.
