Teach English to Thai children in co-operation with local teachers. No TEFL certificate required only good command of English language. Sing songs, play games and make learning more fun. There is a great demand for more knowledge, more contact with foreigners, learning English and getting in touch with the world.
Teaching English abroad gives you the great opportunity to share your knowledge with others and experience the Thai culture from within. You will have a lot of fun and gain valuable skills while your students practise their skills with you.
You will soon discover that your western way of doing things is different from theirs. Notice the differences but try not to judge. Keep an open mind and discover the advantages of their different approach and see how it will change the way you look at things. Let your students take you onto a journey into a new world and go home with the best from both cultures.
If you, like many others, are feel a little bit insecure, whether you are able to teach English, we can provide you with some material to get you started. Bringing some photos from home, things to show and start a conversation about yourself or your country is also useful. See also our collection of teaching material on the internet.
You do not need to teach grammar, but there might be a question arising from time to time. Your job is to overcome the children's shyness and motivate them to use what they already know by speaking to you and each other. Use your imagination, your childhood memories, songs your mum taught you to overcome the barrier. With older children pop music also works well. Listen to songs and read the song texts - and help them understanding. Many already can sing quite a few English songs as karaoke is very popular.
You either teach in the classroom or tutor small groups. The English teachers at school also want you to spend some time with the volunteers so they can practise their English and work on their pronunciation. This is also another good chance to get in contact with Thai people and the better the teachers are prepared the more benefit their students get.
The children will be curious. The first days everyone will try to practise their language skills on you even if it's just a few words. You will hear the same questions all over again and there will be a crowd around you trying catch you attention.
Do not expect to much in the begining. The children are eager to learn and
practise but they are also often shy if you talk to one of them
directly.
Spend time with them and you soon will learn a lot about Thai life
as well.
Volunteers teach about 10 hours a week, more if you like. Calculate some extra time for preparations.
If you are good at something, like singing, sports etc. there is the possibility to use that for extra curricular activities that naturally involve talking in English to you and provide some additionally practise for the students.
There is not much learning material available in bookshops or schools so we started to collect what we found as well as producing our own. New ideas and help with production is always welcome. This is also a good chance for volunteers who are not fluently speaking to participate.
Volunteers will work alone or in small groups. For those working alone we encourage that you group with others for lesson preparations.
To keep some continuity we ask our volunteers to keep track of what they taught each group, what worked and what did not..
Suitable for volunteers of all ages. Retired professionals welcome.
We also welcome disabled volunteers. Please contact us to check the
possibilities and understand that Thailand is not wheelchair friendly and
unfortunately accessible accommodation and bathrooms present a problem.