Asian University’s Master of Education programme in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) has almost completed its first year, and the three current students are looking forward to their graduation and returning to real teaching.
Martin and Beer with Summer Campers
I took the opportunity to talk them and find out where they had been before and where they plan to go after they complete their studies. Martin is from England, Khun Beer from Chiang Rai and Beverley from Wales.
It is a very small class so they have all had ample opportunity for discussion as well as listening to regular lectures.
Martin gained his first degree in Production Engineering at Nottingham University, and then worked in Germany for a while before returning to the UK for an MBA at Sheffield University. After ten years, mostly working in IT, he came to Thailand as a dive master, and spent three months in Thailand and also three months in Australia. He took a dive instructor course in Thailand and decided that he would like to stay on in the land of smiles.
He wanted to get a qualification that would allow him to continue to work here, and having tried his hand teaching in the UK and Germany, and enjoyed the challenges that it posed, he looked for a professional qualification that would enable him to teach.
He wanted to live near the sea, didn’t fancy the traffic and pollution of Bangkok and of course wanted to study in English. With a little surfing, he found a suitable English language programme on the Asian University web site.
When Martin finishes his studies later this year he hopes to be able to find employment in a similar location, not in a big city, but near the sea, and somewhere where the cost of living isn’t too high.
Khun Beer is a tourism management graduate from Mae Fah Luang University, where she studied in English, in the north of Thailand. She has worked in the service industry in Bangkok and at the Don Muang airport information desk as well as Mae Fah Luang University’s registrar’s office.
She wasn’t finding the work fulfilling and really wanted to become an English teacher, so she went along to the education fair at the Queen Sirikit Convention Centre where she saw Asian University offering a one year M Ed course. Other universities offer longer part time courses, or courses that weren’t taught in English, so she opted for Asian U. Khun Beer is the only one of the M Ed students living on the campus, which she finds conducive for study.
She enjoys living near the sea and is taking the chance to see the area around Pattaya which is quite different from her home area in the North of the country.
She hasn’t decided what comes next, but she is enjoying the teaching experience, so that is likely to be the way for her to progress.
The third student is Beverley from South Wales. Beverley has traveled a lot, mostly for pleasure and often finding work in the new locations. She was awarded a BA Honours degree in Politics from Liverpool University and also obtained a CELTA from Swansea. She has already taught in Korea, China and the UK. Beverley found out about Asian University on the internet, while still living in the UK, and did the calculations to convince herself that it was cheaper overall to come to Thailand to study (taking into consideration the fees and the cost of living) as well as the bonus of living by the sea with plenty of sunshine.
Compared to many of the places where she has lived, Pattaya offers more attractions for westerners; cinemas, good value food and restaurants, numerous markets, and she especially mentioned chocolate, cheese and other dairy products that she missed when living in China! One criticism of Pattaya was the lack of reliable public transport, as well as the isolation of the university campus. However she is enjoying the course and looks forward to moving on to the next location and starting teaching again, for real.
The three students have been doing their teaching practice locally, at the Austrian Thai College, the Huay Yai primary school (where Asian University students have also gone to teach English) and in The College at Asian University. This week they taught on the English Summer Camp at Asian University, as shown in the photos taken by Ajarn Robert.
Some of the Summer Campers pose with their MEd English teachers
Asian University staff will follow the careers of these first three M Ed graduates with interest when they leave here later this year.
For information take a look at the website http://www.asianust.ac.th/tesol/index.htm
or e-mail medtefl@asianust.ac.th
