Teaching English and Scuba Diving in Phuket

[Globaltrailblazer]

Hi
I currently teaching English in China, I am a native speaker, I have a degree, an in classroom TEFL certificate and by the time I am looking to go to Thailand I will have a year and a half worth of teaching experience.

What I would like to do is build up my Scuba diving experience and qualifications. Possibly to teach Scuba diving for a while in the future or just for the sake of enjoying it. This rules out places such as Chang Mai or Bangkok as they are inland. I've looked at places like Koh Samui and Koh Tao, but they seem too small for me to find reasonable work as an English teacher. Phuket seems to fit.

Does anyone know whether this would be workable or not? Is Scuba diving just too expensive of a standard teachers budget? Do I need to live in certain area of Phuket to make Scuba diving regularly feasible? I’ve never been to Thailand so any advice would be good.
Thank you

 

[diversteve]

Ask [user]Quero[/user]. She lives there.

Often I'm an English language teaching professional; off and on I'm a writer; some days I'm a scuba instructor; and I'm always self-employed, independent.

 

[Quero]

I think your chances of meeting your objectives on Phuket are very good. Mind you, the pay isn't all that great, so if you want a brief stay, you may end up spending more on diving than you make by teaching, but sure, it can be done, given enough time on the island to make the financials work. I'd be glad to correspond with you, if you wish.

(BTW, in RE my background, which diversteve has quoted, I have pretty much withdrawn from ELT to focus only on scuba, but I do have a rather extensive experience as a teacher, teacher educator, textbook author, international speaker, trainer trainer, etc., and have served on the boards of directors of a number of ELT teachers' associations, including TESOL.)

 

[stevenl]

Yes, you will be able to find a job here. On a teacher's salary you'll be able to do the occasional dive, but paying for courses including Divemaster and IDC plus IE will not be possible of that.

 

[lord khram]

Many Thai Schools are now using 'English' teachers from the Philipines, which I dare say will only suppress the already low wages paid to foreign teachers in Thailand.

 

[Quero]

LK, if the Filippino teachers are indeed actual teachers who have earned a teaching degree at a university or teacher training college as opposed tourists pretending to be teachers who have only their English-language speaker competence and little or no background in teacher education as skill attributes (i.e., even if they have a certificate from one of those online TEFL courses or from one of the many short TEFL courses given in shophouse TEFL training centers locally), I would venture to say that the students are better served by the Filippinos even though they're not native speakers. Real students deserve real, dedicated, professional teachers, and the essence of classroom practice is not mainly the subject matter being taught, but instead the art of teaching. If Thai schools can attract good Filippino teachers and don't have to pay non-teachers to stand in front of a class of students, I say more power to them.

Even given the low wages offered here, an English teacher who stays long enough and is careful with finances should be able to undertake dive training. It will probably mean not buying plane tickets to go home for holidays or special events like weddings in order to pay for the training, but it can be done, given enough time on the island and taking the training slowly over a longish period of time. Over a short period, it would require arriving here with enough money to pay for the training already budgeted and just living/doing fun dives with the money earned by working here.

 

[stevenl]

Many Thai Schools are now using 'English' teachers from the Philipines, which I dare say will only suppress the already low wages paid to foreign teachers in Thailand.

I have yet to see that here on Phuket.

 

[lord khram]

I have yet to see that here on Phuket.

There are many now around the Pattaya area. A number of people I know with children in schools are experiencing this, and even some of the more expensive schools are employing them. A number of parents are unhappy about the situation as many are still in training themself and are working virtually free to gain experience. One Thai couple who live near me who for a number of years have been paying 65000bt per half year for their child to be educated by 'English' teachers are most unhappy about this staffing change and are considering switching schools.

 

[stevenl]

Yes, understandably, I would be unhappy about it. I also value that my kid gets taught 'western values' at school, and somehow I think that non-westerners would be less proficient at 'teaching' those.

 

[lord khram]

LK, if the Filippino teachers are indeed actual teachers who have earned a teaching degree at a university or teacher training college as opposed tourists pretending to be teachers who have only their English-language speaker competence and little or no background in teacher education as skill attributes (i.e., even if they have a certificate from one of those online TEFL courses or from one of the many short TEFL courses given in shophouse TEFL training centers locally), I would venture to say that the students are better served by the Filippinos even though they're not native speakers. Real students deserve real, dedicated, professional teachers, and the essence of classroom practice is not mainly the subject matter being taught, but instead the art of teaching. If Thai schools can attract good Filippino teachers and don't have to pay non-teachers to stand in front of a class of students, I say more power to them.

Even given the low wages offered here, an English teacher who stays long enough and is careful with finances should be able to undertake dive training. It will probably mean not buying plane tickets to go home for holidays or special events like weddings in order to pay for the training, but it can be done, given enough time on the island and taking the training slowly over a longish period of time. Over a short period, it would require arriving here with enough money to pay for the training already budgeted and just living/doing fun dives with the money earned by working here.

Yes, but in the words of the English man who teaches my daughter, who is a fully qualified teacher and worked in UK schools all his life until moving to Thailand. The amount he earns is not sufficient to sustain a decent quality of life, and he would not be able to remain in Thailand on his teaching income alone, he teaches because he enjoys doing it, not primarily for the income.
We all have our own requirements when it comes to lifestyle, but his salary he quoted to me, again I would not want to try and live here on that alone, it would be a pretty sorry existence.