Just wondering if anyone is in the same posistion as me......

Im close to finishing my Degree in Photography at The University of Cumbria, i have decided that a TEFL Internship is where i want to go with my career because i have always wanted to travel and take Photographs of as many different and unusual places as possible around the world. ive also always thought i would end up as a teacher so this seems almost perfect for me. With me being still in study until June the May internship coming up is out of the question. I could possibly get on the October internship but i think i would be better to get all the info i can and hopefully be able to save up enough money so im comfortable if i want to continue to travel after the internship.

Anyway i think this way will be best for me and if anyone is in the same situation as me would be good to hear from you!!

Cheers

Gaz

Hi

Im in the same situation as you. I finish my degree in Acting in June and really want to travel and teach so this experience is perfect. I have also considered the October Intern but feel that I should wait that little bit longer for the 2013 internship.

How are you getting along with the process?

Stacey

Hello, can you direct me to where I can find out about more information for the May internship? Thank you,

Hey, im thinking about going onto the may internship as well. I've only recently decided that tefl is what I want to do and I dont think i can save enough money by October to do it, so may should give me plenty of time, as long as i start saving!

Hey,

I'm thinking of applying for the internship. Has anyone applied yet?

Danielle

I'm considering it too, torn between this and the Vietnam one...mainly depends on jobs as I'm currently in new zealand  and not sure if my job will sponsor me or not..but feeling like its time to travel again! Will just be hard leaving my partner here whilst I travel, even if it is only for 5 months or so..anyone else in this position?

Hi everyone I am looking at taking this internship as well, going to talk to advisors about what it entails but if anyone has any info on it it would be greatly appreciated. Basically the advantages of going on this internship over simply getting TEFL certified and going out looking for a job.

Has anyone applied for the May '13 one yet? If so have you started the TEFL course?

Hi

Yeah I've been looking at this internship, it looks great, a beautiful country and the cost of living will be affordable, has anyone signed up yet?

Rob

Hi

I booked my place a few weeks back and have attempted to do as much of my TEFL as physically possible, whilst working full-time.
Can't wait until April to finally get over there and get in about it all! It really does look like a the best place on earth.

Graham

Hi everyone,

I'm strongly considering doing this internship as well.  How much money should we save up before doing this internship, does anyone know?

I'm considering doing the teach in Thailand internship starting May 2013. I left my hometown in England in June 2010 and did two years work and travel in Australia, now I'm on a working holiday visa in New Zealand and I'd love to continue working and travelling when I leave NZ in April 2013 -I've always wanted to go to Thailand, it looks amazing!!

BUT, I do have some concerns and hopefully you guys can help me out with this!

- Not finding out where we'll actually be based until arriving in Bangkok on 29th April
- The living conditions
- Being in the middle of nowhere
- Extra costs not covered in the i-to-i price eg: visa costs
- Do we get put in schools in pairs?
- Do you have to pay the whole lump sum before you actually get accepted onto the internship and if you don't get accepted you don't get your money back?
- How much support there is from i-to-i once you've actually started teaching.

I guess I'm just worried about what to expect! Anyone else have these concerns?/

Hey guys!

I'm on the october internship and so far am having an amazing time!

Beverley, for your questions:

- you will find out what school and area you are in before you get to Bangkok as you need this info for your visa

- living conditions are basic compared to at home, but actually better than I was expecting. My room has a double bed, air con, bathroom, wardrobe etc

- there were extra visa costs than I was expecting from the i-to-i website - it actually costs £50 for the initial visa to get into Thailand, but once here you need to pay around another £250 for teaching licence, work permit and visa extension

- where possible everyone is either in a school with another person, or living with someone working in a school close by - there are a few of us who are by ourselves but we were contacted before hand and asked if this would be ok. The Teach and Travel Thailand guys are lovely if you need any help once on placement too

- yep you do pay the whole lump sum, but from what I understand you get some of it back if your not accpeted (minus the cost of the TEFL course), although i'd say its pretty unlikely to not be accepted

- Once you've signed up for the internship, you'll actually be dealing with a company called Teach and Travel Thailand rather than i-to-i - these guys are lovely. We've only just got to our placements but we each have a contact person who we can contact if we have any problems, and I think also come to check we are ok!

Hope that helps - let me know if you have any more questions :)

Nikki

Very much considering this internship! Sounds amazing. Glad to hear you're having a good time Nikki.

Nikki, thank you so so much for answering some of my questions they were a big help! I think I'm going to go for it, I just have to find the money from somewhere to actually pay for it!

Hey Guys. 

I've just finished my degree & Im now set on doing the May 2013 teaching internship in Thailand. I've been researching internships for a while and came across Tefl Heaven & i-to-i courses. However this course seems to appeal to me more. Your info has been really helpful Nikki, like Beverley my only worry was not knowing where we would be placed. Id love to hear from others who are currently teaching in Thailand or who have already started the course for May 2013.

Cheers Guys. :) 

Hi Guys,

I think I am definately going to go.  Thailand sounds amazing, the only thing is that I would going by myself (friends do not want to teach :( )  Is anyone else going by themselves? Or would you really need someone to go with you?

Thanks :)

I'm going alone! I think most people go alone :) We'll make friends when we get there, don't worry about it :D

Thanks for your reply! it makes me feel sooo much better and im going now, alone aswell! booked my place yesterday :) Roll on next year :D

Hey guys!

Most people here came out on there own so don't worry about not having anyone to come out with. There's about 65 of us from the october group and I think there were only 2 pairs of people who came out together!

Hello Future Teachers, 

I think it is my duty to tell you how this internship actually works.

So you book through a company called i-to-i then you will be contacted by a company called IES Global. 

I booked my internship in June 2012 for October 2012, I didn't receive my letter of invitation till September 22nd 2012. This worried me as you need the invitation letter to get a visa. 

The hotel was about 30 mins away from the centre of Bangkok. The majority of people got sick from the hotel food :(. 

Our school was not confirmed until the last day of orientation, and then we went to our teaching destination.  I was told I would be teaching in Surin however there was a problem with the school so I was told I would be put in temporary accommodation until the school had been finalised.

About 2 and a half weeks later I was still not sure about my school I had been asking but the communication was very poor. I read my contract which stated I should start school on the 1^st November, so I phoned IES Global to complain about the service. They told me I would start on the 5^th November, however this was not the case. Finally on the 6^th November I found out my school had not signed as they did not want to pay my salary.

I was told I had to move to Maha sarakham as there was a school there that needed an English teacher.

We arrived at the school and the teachers were under the impression that I had taught before, they also thought I had only just arrived in Thailand and that I was 25 years old.

I finally started school on the 12^th November, however our transport is still not sorted.

I have been talking with the teachers at my school and they told me that they have needed an English teacher for 3 weeks so I am not sure why I was not told sooner.

If I was you I would look into getting a teaching job in Thailand by yourself as it would be much easier, from my experience I don’t think the company has helped me that much. IES Global pays you 10000THB and 2500THB more as a bonus each month, if you apply for a job on your own you will be paid around 30000THB a month. This is more than enough to live on including food and rent plus any saving money, whereas 12500THB will just get you by.

Thailand is a beautiful place and I have had a good time and met some great people but in my opinion the company didn’t live up to its expectations. 

Hey all! I am also on the October Internship in Thailand, so if anyone has any questions, either leave a comment or send me a private message. :-)

I booked it, paid for it and I'm doing my TEFL course right now!!!  Yay!  For anyone worried about going alone, I'm also going alone having only travelled with my other half of 6 years (but we broke up in August)

How's everyone getting on with the course and how are you all feeling about it? WOuld be great it we could all keep in touch as some of us will probably be meeting in Bangkok!

Also, don't know what the above about IES Global is?  I was under the impression it was Teach and Travel Thailand that this was with?  Any thoughts?

With regards to the whole IES Global thing, as far as we know i-to-i kind of advertise to TEFL people to go to Thailand with their partner company IES Global. All we know for certain is that IES Global is the company that does the internship in Thailand, and i-to-i is the people that train you. When you get here you will have no contact with i-to-i, only IES Global. 

Hey guys!!

Im currently on the internship in Thailand! Just thought id tell you whats its like as know one told me!!

So firstly ive got a great school and great accomodation. I cannot complain about that however i believe its just pot luck as lot of people didnt have a job or accomodation to go to when they got here.I just want to make people aware of what its really like as i think the website paints a false picture.

On the week we arrived in Bangkok we were brought to The Legacy hotel. A hotel which no one in Bangkok had ever heard of making it a total NIGHTMARE to get back from when we were actually allowed out. When i booked this i was told that the week was basically a holiday where we got to know each other and would be taken out to see the sights! We did get taken out for one day and it was rushed and timed. We were either being told to hurry up or we were constantly having our picture (to show people just how happy we were to be set free) taken for the website. Anyway out of the 7 days we were taken out once. This is a day that the website describe as exploring time. The only thing is explored was the bus.

The Legacy Hotel was average. We were told we would get 3 meals a day, we did it just so happens that it was the same 3 meals. If we didnt finish it for breakfast it would be disguised as something else for lunch, dinner, basically until we finshed it. This made a lot of people ill and after a few days most people ate out meaning having to spend more money to get to places etc.

The night before we were due to leave most people got the news that they were either not going to the places they thought they were or that they did not have any job but would be basically shipped out to some sort of accmodation to wait. I was one of the lucky ones. The main issue with the company is that there is no communication. Even when you directly ask them they very rarely give you an answer instead you have to wait and wait and wait a bit more until they finally tell you. On the website its described as 24 hour care which was a major plus point for me booking this however there is not. I still dont know who this is meant to be and i havent got a clue what i would do in a real emergency. It can take a while for people to get back to you (days) and this is for yes or no answers. There is a small team (2) here but they have far too much work to do for so moeny people so its a long wait for a reply and when you do get one.

There is also a lot of confusion about the money. You never actually get told exactly where it goes. I was told when i booked that utility bills would be paid for however ive only recently been told that this is not true. They will only pay for a certain amount. Again this is confusing as every socket is live so power is being used wether or not you have stuff plugged in. Ive found that emailing the people who run this doesnt get you anywhere as they dont give you straight answers. Sometimes even being insulting or rude to you. I was also aware that we would not recieve a full wage as we are interns i agreed at the time but have since found out exactly how much they take. Described as a generous amount on the website i dont think it is. Its enough to get buy but it is not generous. I did agree to this but wish i had looked into it more as i am basically getting a third of my actual wage.

Again i have got a great school, great accomodation but the service that the company provides for the money we pay is poor to say the least. With the money i have spent to get here, the course and everything else that we are not told about i could have travelled for 6 months here i am sure. I want to make sure everyone is aware of what it is really like as i do not think the website tells a true story. Ive not read anywhere that you may need to be interviewed or that you may not get a job for a few weekswhich the company seem to think of as fine.

Some people are having a great time and thats the people they will tell you to contact but a lot of people are not some have even left in the last week. The way they have been treated is nothing short of a disgrace.

Ive not got enough time to say everything that has went wrong.

If you want to ask any questions email me lmurne10@caledonian.ac.uk I will tell you the truth and not the truth they want you to hear!

Hello,

I would like to share my experience of the internship with you all. I am one of those who have left in the past week.

As Laura said, it really is pot luck where you get placed, and you have no say in where that is. Myself and one colleague were placed in a town in the north-east which was so far away from anything else there were not even any public transport links, apart from one bus per day to each nearby town which went first thing in the morning and came back straight afterwards. Our nearest town was Sisaket, which was quite a long way away and also in the next province. The one bus a day which went there was unreliable, as sometimes it simply did not come and left us stranded, the only option being to phone the teachers from the school and ask for a lift. Once we got as far as Sisaket, we needed to get a minivan to Surin which took 2 hours. So in order to get to Surin to see our friends, it would take around 3-4 hours either way.

When we addressed the transport issue with the company, they simply told us that we had to "find our own way around". We were not provided with bikes by the company or by the school. The company eventually arranged for a man with a pick-up truck to be our 'taxi' service to and from Sisaket, and this cost us 500 baht either way for a 40 minute drive. Just to put that into perspective, it cost me less than that to travel from Surin to Bangkok with Nakhon Chai Air Gold Class. We were subsidised for this journey once, but other than that were expected to pay a stranger an extortionate amount of money, simply to get in and out of this town we were in.

The only amenity in the town was a Tesco Lotus Express. There was no 7/11 and nowhere to have a drink or even socialise in the evening- which is nothing short of a disaster for two lonely western girls. We lived on the other side of the school fence, so our weeks were spent in the same 100 yards, walking between the school and our rooms. Being so close to the school, privacy was limited to the extent that our students and teachers could always see us and everything we were doing, including seeing what we were buying in Tesco and once, some students even let themselves into my room without being invited.

I chose to leave because I started to suffer symptoms of solitude and isolation. This was a personal thing, but support from the company was minimal. We were promised that we would be visited once a week. We were not. I feel that we were left there and forgotten about. We started teaching the day after we arrived with no time to adjust to our new environment, which was a further inconsistency in the program as most people did not start teaching until late october/ early november and had a break at the beach in Koh Chang, which myself and my colleague missed out on. The company did not even inform us that this was happening.

Furthermore, our accommodation lacked basic amenities, most notably a fridge. I do not feel it is unreasonable to demand a fridge when living in Thailand because it is so hot and there are flies and bugs all over the food, especially where we were, where it is so rural and the rooms were full of ants. The lack of fridge meant we could not store food or keep water fresh, which I feel led to the deterioration of our physical health in addition to the emotional problems we were having.

After I chose to leave, IES Global promised that my colleague would be relocated to be with other people and she would not be left alone. This goes without saying. But when the time came, the company arrived with every intention of leaving her there alone, going back on their promise again. This led to further complications which included my colleague becoming so upset that she blacked out. This is where it became apparent that nobody had any knowledge of First Aid, as they had no idea what to do and didn't even seem to understand that she was unconcsious. Their lack of empathy was so severe that they would not even let me near her or listen to my advice- as even I knew the basics of what needed to be done when someone passes out such as putting their legs straight.

This is a story for another time, and I will be taking this further, but I believe that IES have let us down on so many counts. This is only my personal experience, and as Laura and Betty have explained there are other issues as well. I would recommend going it alone if you want to TEFL in Thailand. I believe that IES are ill equipped to deal with a large group of interns and have let us down on so many levels.