After my first return to Udon Thani since leaving for Bangkok I know made my second comeback. This time however not only to visit friends but also to attend the Graduation Party of the Udon Thani Vocational College. The students I taught in my first year in their first and second year at college now graduated and I promised them to be there when they do so.

So I went back to Udon and experienced something similar to last time. Still everybody remembers what lead to an immediate feeling of happiness in the early morning. Even the hairdresser who didn’t see me for over a year jumped and said ‘Saschaaaaa, you’re back!’ and the 7-11 staff once more greeted with ‘Kun Kru (Teacher!) you are back again. Kid teugn Udon chai mai (you miss Udon, right?)’...

A few days ago me, some colleagues and our students had to visit the MV Logos Hope – the world’s biggest floating book fair. While that sounds kinda cool – the world’s biggest! – it’s not surprising when thinking about it. How the heck sends books on a ship around the world?

Answer to that question: Sponsors with a very christian belief. At least that is what has been told by the FAQ’s on the leaflet we received before entering the boat.

After some issues with our own planning & organisation we arrived at the Bangkok Harbour and Logos Hope. Many friendly people welcomed us on board and showed us an introduction movie (in Thai – great for the international students of the international college) and then explained how this book fair works...

Back to where it started was the motto of the past weekend. After almost 6 months away in the Big Mango I decided it was time to visit the place where my Thai adventure started and where I spent quite some time. In pure numbers it was only 1.5 years or 3 school terms – it felt, however, like ages. No wonder that being away for only half a year also felt like way longer and the urge to see what my exes are doing grew more and more.

After a 9 hour bus ride (how I did NOT miss that!) with the Transport Company (Don’t use them unless it’s a necessary evil. Chan Tour for example is much better.) I finally arrived in Udon Thani at around 7 a.m...

Welcome to an upclose and extremely personal recap of my past two years over here in Thailand. This is not a super informational post but more a ‘what happened so far’ kinda thing with a lot of extremely personal opinions and biased conclusions. Just so you know. And yes, that was the first of many bad musical references.

Furthermore I’ll divide this post into the three familiar parts Living, Traveling and Teaching/Work.

Disclaimer: //end

Let’s start with the easy and for most people probably most interesting part: Traveling.

Over the past two years I’ve seen a lot but I’m still far away from having seen ‘it all’. Even though I would say I’ve seen most ‘must see’ tourist attractions (with some exceptions like the Full Moon Party for example) there is so much more to explore...

It’s a new day, it’s a new dawn…I actually have no idea why Michael Buble is singing in my head right now. However I do have to announce something new. After 1.5 years (3 school terms) in Udon Thani as teacher at the Udon Thani Vocational College I will finally pack my bag and leave this awful place (PLACE, not students!) behind.

I already talked about why I don’t like the Udon Thani Vocational College and why I wouldn’t recommend anybody coming here as a teacher. The students have been awesome but the officials are simply incredibly stubborn and a pain in the ass plus unbelievable lazy liars. A sucking combination.

However. It’s over and all focus on the work and challenges ahead...

This is again a personal blog post. Not an informational one. I try to keep the criticism out this time (won’t work I guess though) and just tell the story of ‘How the Udon Thani Vocational College tries to find a new foreign English teacher’
(the cover picture is something for nerds by the way).

Initial situation

I already complained about the fact that the college doesn’t pay very well and treats me kinda shitty. They are nice as long as they need something but as soon as they don’t see an immediate use they treat you like an idiot. Three days later, when they realize they need you again, they try to be nice again of course….but we got that already covered. So back to the basic situation at hand: I’ll leave at the beginning of June and they are looking for a replacement.

Thanks to ASEAN ...

February 18th: Last school day of the term. Finally holidays. Yeah. Let’s gooooo…oh no. Back to school!

Why? Because the college said so. When? One week before the holidays.

Besides the usual school work we’ve also been waiting for a ‘College Evaluation Committee’ for the past few weeks. Since the ladies and gentlemen from the committee were tooooo busy coming here in time they came up with a great plan. “Let’s visit Udon Thani Vocational College AFTER they already finished their term…”.

students udon thani - no, no holidays

Obviously a great idea! Thanks for that. Now, with that in mind, our college decided to extend the current school term and extended it for one week telling students last week ‘btw, you have to come to school next week’...

‘Sascha, you know what is missing here? The ability to think’

That quote of one of my colleagues over here at Udon Thani Vocational College says it all and I couldn’t agree more. During a conversation we had last week we tried to figure out why Thai people would rather spend their time searching for and copying things they find instead of using the same amount of time to think of their own.

This is not a students problem only though. This problem can be found everywhere in Thailand. Among teachers, workers, doctors….everybody is a copy cat – and not a thinker. While we all copy things once in a while it still stays important to think about the things you copy...

As time goes by! The next semester at Udon Thani Vocational College comes to an end and since last term’s ‘cooking adventure’ was such a success I decided to invite my students again to our big college kitchen and cook ‘European food’ with them.

pizza with thai students

Last term we focused on German food (Schnitzel and potato salad), this term it was ‘forza Italia’ time. Pizzaaaaa! Now you might say ‘come on, everybody knows Pizza – why do you have to introduce it to students?’ (yeah, that’s how I think you talk while you are reading my articles). Well the answer is easy: Thai Pizza sucks! Pizza in Thailand does not deserve the name at all. The Pizza here is ‘over americanized’ and has nothing to do with fine italian cuisine...

Over the past few weeks I received a lot of mails asking what it takes to teach English as a second language (ESL) here in Thailand. So here’s a short post covering the most important facts and qualifications you need to know.

Personal Qualifications:

Don’t take this to easy! You really need to be able to adapt to a completely new culture, life style and learning approach. I’ve seen many foreign teachers come and go – most of them annoyed by the Thai style of organizing the school system, curriculums and all things regarding work in a school. It’s even worse when you work for a governmental school and are forced to do office hours. So really think twice before you say ‘yeah let’s go to Thailand’ – it’s not the funny and relaxed thing you probably dream of.

Here are some requirements your p...