That's it! I've done it! I'm booked onto the internship! How's everyone doing for the funds and shizz?

Well done Devl90 ! :) Good to have you on board. I'd advise you to get your application over to Masako (the coordinator) ASAP. I'm not in good shape as far as funds go, clearing an OD at the mo but my last few paychecks should do the trick :-p Everyone says the monthly salary is sufficient to survive. There is a good facebook group set up for May 2012 interns which you may want to join. We are all pretty much waiting on the final offer letter which is to be used to get the working VISA finalised.  

Has anyone mentioned their preference of location? or is everyone willing to go wherever?!

hi wasim1986, thanks! I'm really nervous and excited and scared and stupidly happy! I'm going through my application at the moment, though I have a bit of a problem... Upon finding my passport, I noticed it had expired!!! So, I don't know if this is going to affect my application? Or whether I can send a copy of my out-of-date passport and mention my new one is currently being processed? Any advice? I'm such a wolly, I didn't even think to check! Just shows I haven't been out of the country for so long!

I've requested to become part of the FB group, though I'm not included yet! How has your/ everyone's application gone?

Hello!

For anyone who Has applied to go on the internship in May, I would recommend looking at the foreign and commonwealth office and the information they provide about Thailand. I have found it very useful so fa, and I really do believe it is helpful for first time travellers or if it's your first time in Thailand! Here's the link:

www.fco.gov.uk

You can also follow them on twitter and Facebook!

Hi Eira, sorry for the late reply.  I managed to do a few weekends away within my salary from i to i. It depends really what kind of things you want to do.  If you don't want to splash out you can probably cover most things within your salary.  Transport is incredibly cheap in Thailand, a bus from Lopburi to Bangkok (about 3 hr drive) is under £3.  You can get a sleeper train from Bangkok to Koh Samui for around £20.  As long as you stay away from Western food, and are happy with street food (which is generally just as good as restaurants), you can eat really cheaply as well, even in Bangkok you can get a main meal for under £2.  Alcohol in bars isn't particularly cheap so if you want lots of big nights out then that will cost more.  You can buy bottle of local rum or whiskey for about £3 in supermarkets though.  On average, for a weekend in Bangkok I'd spend around £40 in total, and that was with a decent hotel with a pool, some nice food and drink. 

DO NOT BOOK WITH I-TO-I!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was part of the Thailand internship October 2011, we were
taken to the north of Thailand where we waited for over 6weeks for a school
placement, during this time there was no communication between our Thai
co-ordinator and myself, even though we paid for 24hour support!!

Over 15 interns were without placements for over 6 weeks,
and when we were finally forced to contact i-to-i offices in the UK, due to the
lack of support in Thailand, the staff had no idea what was going on, were rude
and didn’t respond to our emails for days!!!

This situation was made worse by the fact that we were
continuously being told that we would be teaching tomorrow, or the day after. This
meant that we were unable to travel and spent the majority of that 6 weeks in
our rooms trying to get answers from i-to-i! Very frustrating, especially when you’re
in such an amazing country!!

Finally we got some answers and i-to-i blamed the whole
situation on flooding, which I can understand, but we were all emailed before
we left the UK by our Thai co-ordinator stating that despite the flooding in
Thailand the internship was still going ahead and there was no mention of
problems with schools!!!

Initially we were placed in horrendous living conditions
while some other interns were placed in 5star luxury accommodation. Even though
I wasn’t expecting much, when there was such a vast contrast in living
conditions, despite the fact that we all paid the same amount for the
internship is very unfair  It seems that
you are either very lucky with i-to-I OR extremely unlucky.

Eventually I and three others were offered a job in Bangkok,
a job that was found for us by someone who doesn’t work for i-to-i. We were
then emailed by our Thai co-ordinator, Masako, saying that we should no longer
contact her as she was no longer our co-ordinator.

Over half of the October interns finally left the internship
because they were so dissatisfied with the way the internship was run, some
interns were placed in dangerous situations, some were expected to teach in 5
different schools over the course of the week, while others were treated badly
in schools and eventually left.

Last year i-to-i gave everyone on the internship a refund
because it was run so badly, however this year they have refused us refunds,
despite the fact that we endured the exact same problems. I-to-Is main concern
is profit and not maintaining satisfied customers!!!!!! FACT!!!      

I wouldn’t advise anyone to book the internship with i-to-i!!!!!
in the end I had an amazing time teaching in a school in Bangkok but this job wasn’t
found for me by i-to-i, which is what I paid for! I had also already missed out
on 2months worth of teaching, and this experience was my main reason for doing
the internship.

My advice would be to try and find a job in a school without
using any agencies, you get paid twice and sometimes three times as much. I
know this sounds very daunting, and that’s why I had decided to booked with
i-to-i, but in the end I received no support or security anyway. I’ve made a
lot of contacts and friends during my time in Thailand, if anyone wants advice
on how to go it alone feel free to contact me, or if you want me to send you pictures
of what to expect accommodation wise or some of the emails I have received from
i-to-I please let me know.

Dear Georgia,

Thank you for your post and your detailed feedback. It’s important for us to receive feedback, even if it does make us wince, so that we can improve what we do as a company.

I’m sorry to hear of your disappointment with your experience of the Thailand Internship. I understand that you were in contact with our support team during the period of unsettlement when the local team were doing all that they could to find alternative schools for the small amount of interns who were not placed. Everyone who was not placed (for a variety of reasons including the floods as you stated) received full updates as often as possible from both the team in Thailand and the team in the i-to-i office. I’d be happy for our team to go over the email correspondence with you in full detail directly at any point also.

It does not appear that the team had heard from you since they sent you an email back in November to say you could write to them directly with your feedback, and while it’s your choice to choose a public forum for your feedback, it’s always helpful for the support team to be aware of your full feedback so that they can help as much as they can. 

You can email the support team on Courses.TeamUK@i-to-i.com at any point. I’m sorry once again that your experience wasn’t as expected and I hope that you do follow up with the team so that they have the opportunity to restore your faith in us as a business.

Best wishes,
Katie