Farangs need to pass "Thainess" course to get teacher license

Bangkok:- To get a teachers’ license in Thailand, foreigners must first take a 21-hour course on Thainess and Thai education laws.

Prof Dr Paitoon Sinlarat, who heads the Teachers Council of Thailand (TCT), says the course is mandatory for any foreigner who is interested in taking a teaching job here.

“We have required them to take this course because Thai culture and theirs are completely different,” he says.

According to him, the course is a must even to foreigners who have already got a teacher’s license from their home country.

“For those who have already been a licensed teacher in their homeland, they take just the 21-hour course. For those who have never got a license from their homeland, they must take a longer course,” Paitoon explains.
He adds that the longer course covers a total of 42 hours, with content spanning from Thainess, to Thai laws, to Thai education concepts, to Thai educational psychology, and to educational evaluation.

Paitoon says in the past, only two universities were authorized to conduct such courses. However, the TCT has now decided to make these courses available at more facilities.

“Other universities should contact the TCT now if they want to organize such courses. They can even arrange the training in collaboration with schools,” he says.

The TCT has made these courses on Thainess mandatory for foreign teachers despite loud complaints from international schools, which lament that the courses make it even harder to recruit foreigners to teaching jobs.

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Punctuation Mistakes: Possessive of S-Nouns Singular in Meaning

The rule that plural nouns ending in s form the possessive by adding only an apostrophe is well understood. For example:

the babies’ beds
the writers’ laptops
the witnesses’ testimony

The rule that nouns singular in meaning but ending in s also form the possessive by adding an apostrophe is perhaps not so well understood. For example:

mathematics’ rules
politics’ true meaning
Highland Hills’ late mayor
the United States’ role

Here are some examples from the Web that do not follow the rule:

Incorrect: The world beyond the United States’s borders can be conceptualized in any number of different ways. —Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, 2009.
Correct: The world beyond the United States’ borders can be conceptualized in any number of different ways.

Incorrect: Some of them have had weddings on the powder-soft sands of the Bahamas’s beaches. —Business site for wedding photographer.
Correct: Some of them have had weddings on the powder-soft sands of the Bahamas’ beaches.

Incorrect: The United States supports Belarus’s efforts to complete this commercial project as expeditiously as possible. —US government site.
Correct: The United States supports Belarus’ efforts to complete this commercial project as expeditiously as possible.

Incorrect: Cyprus’s parliament rejected its government’s bailout deal with the euro zone without a single vote in its favor. —The Wall Street Journal.
Correct: Cyprus’ parliament rejected its government’s bailout deal with the euro zone without a single vote in its favor.

Incorrect: It turns out that much of General Motors’s profits were derived from the sale of such parts through its Delphi division. —Environmental blog about electric car.
Correct: It turns out that much of General Motors’ profits were derived from the sale of such parts through its Delphi division. 

Source:www.dailywritingtips.com

Inverted Idioms

As the residents of my state prepared for a cold front, one of the local television anchors remarked, "We are in store for a big chill."

His meaning was that extremely cold weather was about to descend upon us, but that is not what he said. 

The word store in the idiom “in store for” means, “a stock of something laid up for future use.” Figuratively speaking, events or conditions (like a cold front) are “in store for” those who will experience them in the future. The people of the state were not in store for the big chill. The big chill was in store for the people of the state.

Here are some examples from the Web that get it right:

More Snow in Store for Turkey, Jerusalem This Weekend

The New Congress: What’s In Store for Natural Health?

That same television anchorman, reporting news about two businessmen, said,

They’re in the works of opening up two new restaurants.

The businessmen are not “in the works”; the two new restaurants are “in the works.” 

One meaning of works (noun) is “the working parts of a machine.” For example, one removes the back of a clock to reveal the works inside.

“In the works” is a figurative expression meaning “being prepared” or “in development.”
The processes or stages of getting something done are being compared to the workings of a machine. 

Here are some examples from the Web in which the expression is used correctly:

A new big solar panel farm in the works in California

Beamdog confirms that a new Baldur’s Gate game is in the works

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Comment: One might say that “in the works” means “in the process”.

 One might say that it means that, but it doesn’t mean that. One might say “two” means “three” in which case 2 + 2= 6 makes sense, as well. The phrase “in the works” refers to endeavors, not to people undertaking them. Saying, “They’re in the works of” doing something is like saying, “They are on the drawing board with ideas”. The ideas are on the drawing board, not them.

Source: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/two-inverted-idioms/

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Five Great Reasons to Teach Overseas!

Where in the world would you like to go? Let me tell you how you can get there and be paid for it!

Here are five GREAT reasons why you should think about teaching overseas for a year or two:

1. Schools around the world need English teachers URGENTLY! At home, jobs are had to find but not overseas as a teacher. China and South Korea alone need hundreds… even thousands of qualified native English speakers to teach in their schools.

2. You get to experience a new culture, a new language and travel!

3. Meet and make many new friends.

4. Schools will often pay your airfare. You pay initially but the school will pay you back and pay return airfare at the end of your contract. Besides a salary and benefits, you may get free Internet access, free language lessons, free or subsidized housing, settling in allowance, meals and even  transportation (in some countries this may be a bicycle).

5. Teachers usually get lots of vacation time – a fantastic chance to explore the country and neighbouring nations.

6. Did I say FIVE reasons? Let me give you another TWO! Overseas teaching experience looks great on your résumé. Most companies these days are either multinational or have overseas connections. They like to hire people who have international experience.

7. All you need is a degree (any discipline) and a TESOL certificate to make it happen and we can help you achieve your goal.

Interested? Check out our web site. We have been training people to teach overseas since 1998 and have graduates teaching around the world. Browse our web site. See what graduates say.

If you are a native speaker (or fluent in English), we can have you TESOL certified and ready to go in four to six weeks. Some of our students are snapped up even before they complete our course! We are delighted to send their certificate to them at their new school.

This is your chance to Go Somewhere You’ve Always Wanted to Go! Start by going to our web site and register for our TESOL course. $375 is the full certificate course tuition and a very small investment in your future.

Dr Robert Taylor

Sunbridge Institute of English

http://www.teachesl.org/tesol.html

Plenty of New Teaching Jobs!

Where would you like to teach? There are plenty of new jobs just posted this week. You can always check them out on our website: http://www.teachesl.org/jobs.shtml but to save you time, there they are...

This Week's Worldwide Jobs

Cambodia 1,  China 100+, Colombia 1, Cyprus 3, Czech Republic 4, East Timor 1, Ecuador 1, France 3, Germany 4, Honduras 1, Hong Kong 7, Hungary 1, Indonesia 14, Ireland 1, Italy 21, Japan 7, Kazakhstan 2, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 2, Luxembourg 1, Malaysia 1, Mexico 2, Poland 4, Russian Federation 11, Saudi Arabia 25, Singapore 2, Slovakia 2, South Korea 2, Spain 32, Taiwan 3, Tanzania 1, Thailand 4, Turkey 4.

Haven't got your TESOL Certification yet? This is what most schools are asking for these days. With Sunbridge, you can earn your TESOL Certificate in 4-6 weeks!

Thailand: New basic education core curricula to be piloted in 2016

BANGKOK, 18 December 2014 (NNT) – The Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC) is looking to pilot its new core curriculum for basic education in 2016, before schools nationwide adopt it the following year.

Kamol Rodklai, secretary-general of the OBEC, said that the new core curriculum will be a major revamp of the one in use now. According to her, the B.E. 2551 core curriculum has been in use for six years and it is time to make adjustments to suit the social changes that have taken place since and also to support the goal of producing the type of human resources the country needs.

The OBEC will evaluate the pros and cons of the present curriculum, the curricula used by other countries as well as the draft of the basic education curriculum earlier studied by Mr. Phawit Thong-rot, a former secretary to the minister of education.

According to Mr. Kamol, the new core curriculum will place greater emphasis on local culture and way of life.

-- NNT 2014-12-18

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