Hi everyone.

My wife and I are moving to Thailand in a couple of months, we will be living in Nong Khai.
I want to complete a teaching English as a second language course before I leave. Can anyone recomend a good one please?
We live in Brisbane so anywhere here or on the Gold Coast will do.

Someone told me it is cheaper to do one in Thailand, is this true? how about the quality?

Thanks in advance.

Hi - sorry to say this but hopefully you have researched this and know that you need a Degree before you can legally work as an English teacher in Thailand. To make yourself 'future proof' that should be a Degree in English, or at least Education.

TEFL courses cost around 35,000 baht, or thereabouts. Personally I think they are quite useful for non Teachers to get insights, but they are certainly not guaranteed to be of a high quality by world standards.

TEFL = Teaching English as a Foreign Language, since English is very different from Thai, thus Foreign to Thais. TESOL = Teaching English as a Second Language, therefore OK to teach Europeans or those for whom English is not totally alien. A 'natural' second language for Thais might be Laos, Chinese or something with commonality to Thai. No doubt somebody will correct my rough explanation if they feel it is required ;}

http://australia.i-to-i.com/weekend-tefl-c...queensland.html ~ these 'cowboys' in Brisbane offer a weekend TEFL course, get a Certificate in just 20 hours. Honestly, I think it is disgusting that anybody claims to Teach a Teacher in just 20 hours. Here in Thailand the typical course is at least 100 hours, and includes a Thai language & culture component, and some practical classroom experience.

Why not just use Google and search for 'TEFL Brisbane Gold Coast' then pick your way through ?

This post has been edited by AjarnChan: 2009-07-04 20:58:00

TAFE runs TESOL courses through universities in Australia. Google them and check out the details. There are some cheaper private courses but I don't know how good they are.

IMO pick a course where you intend to work and live, because they can normally help with visas, jobs, local knowledge and be a support if you get in to trouble or need help.

Thanks for the link arjarn,

I have allready got a few numbers to ring and some prices too, I just wanted to see if someone here had a good recomendation. Maybe some first hand experience with courses here in Brisbane.

Cheers mate

This is not true, and saying so violates the rules on this forum. Warnings are earned by stating this lie.

The issue of degrees vs non-degrees is enforced differently in different areas. In the area where I work, we cannot (or haven't so far) been able to get approval for a teacher with less than a Bachelor's degree.

I will be applying for a waiver for a teacher whose degree (associate) is in Health Education, as he will be a Health Education teacher. We were roundly turned down for this person a few years ago. He subsequently went to another school and received a work permit.

With the flu around it seems like a good time to try and soften them up. That, plus a copy of his old work permit.

If you have a degree it's much easier to make it all the way through the process everywhere in the Kingdom. If you don't there are some places that might not be able to employ you, even though they want to.

Hopefully, we have cleared up the degree thing, so we can get back to the OP's original request for information.

Thanks Scott

Has anyone gained their teaching certificate from within Thailand?
I have noticed an academy near Pattaya that conducts an intensive course, anyone know of this?

If you want to do something in Brisbane the University of Queensland have run a CELTA course for many years and people I know have spoken well of it. One month full time. Not sure how much it costs now, but not cheap.

I believe SEA English Academy and Australia City College offer Certificate IV TESOL courses in the Brisbane-Gold Coast area, but I'm not really sure what Certificate IV equates to.

I would like to remind our members to keep track of the subforum guidelines when posting.