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Getting quality translations at an affordable price has become a real headache. We recently tested an applicant who wanted to join our professional translating agency and discovered that the translations from English to Thai (the applicant's mother tongue) had been done with Google Translate.

DELTA is generally considered a higher qualification after CELTA, but CELTA is not strictly a prerequisite. From the Cambs site: Ideally you should: - have at least two years' full time (1,200 hours) experience of teaching English to adults within the past five years - have a range of teaching exper...

I persevered with this 23 year old girl in Avignon for 2 x 2 hrs/week for a month. Another trick of hers was not to do her set homework, but to write pages and pages of essays in terrible English and expect me to correct them. That kind of work is neither remedial nor does it teach new language. Bef...

I had an almost identical situation in Avignon about 20 years ago. Believe me - I remember it well. What you don't say is whether this is a purely private arrangement or a one-to-one student at a language institute you work for. I was fortunate, the language institute belonged to me and I didn't dep...

Perhaps if we knew what a 'SPED' degree is we could give some advice.

Short answer: Yes. But there is nothing to stop you asking the school. I cut my very long hair off just before I came to Thailand nearly 13 years ago. Until you know, best thing to do is to tie it back so it doesn't show on your pass and CV photos.

Well, this has been answered many times before, and I remember answering a similar question very recently. In Thailand and most SE Asia countries, mainstream schools start on or around 5 May. High street language institutes operate all year round and one can start anytime.

Very briefly, although Intesol has a good reputation, CELTA is obviously the best known and most respected. Getting work in Germany is not so easy because many Germans nowadays speak reasonably good English learned in school, and most German teachers speak perfect English. There may be chances in Be...

The best advice I can give you about agencies in Thailand is: avoid them. The best way to get a job here is to be here and ready for an interview. Most schools up country will offer some kind of reasonable fully furnished accommodation. You will need a bachelor degree to get a work permit, but you c...

Thailand also requires a degree for visa and work permit but can be from anywhere, but only from fully accredited and recognised universities. Beware of degree mills - they will quickly be found out.

I have to echo Alex's words. I had some personal experience with EF 12 years ago in Thailand and it was the worst I had in my entire 30 years experience in education. 'Nuf said.

It depends on what kind of organisation you want to teach in. Obviously mainstream schools and universities prefer teachers to sign for a full school year, but many will give a contract on a one semester basis. High Street language institutes are more flexible because they operate all year round.

Yes, as I said before, there are many ways to increase vocabulary that are far more efficient than the lists we had to learn by heart at school 40 or 50 years ago. If you are fortunate enough to own an iPod or a smart phone of almost any kind, the Ultralinua dictionary software mentioned above is no...

Teaching without a degree is always more difficult. [...] however in private language schools it is definitely a possibility. In most cases, the degree is required not by the schools, but by the government. You won't get a visa without one, you won't get a teacher's licence without one, and you won...

I've worked with Harmer (not online, but side-by-side). He has never suggested that his book(s) should replace TESOL courses. Harmer's books however are a major course component of many, if not most TESOL courses. If we are going to look for cases of money grubbing, then we need to start sifting thr...

I am not connected with LTTC in any way. I have employed dozens of teachers who have come to the interview bearing LTTC certificates. I know the course content intimately. I have no idea who assesses the assignments. For all I know it might be Sally herself. One thing is for sure, anyone doing the c...

There's a lot to be learned from reading this thread from the top, and all the other threads that mention LTTC (use the search box). Whatever their accreditations are and whatever their affiliations are, they have this in common with all online courses: - There are no international accrediting syste...

Probably Lom Sak or somewhere. Know the area well !

Thanks for that Simon. Any chance of letting the cat out of the bag and saying the name of the town (or at least the name of a nearby big town)? Is it in Isan by any chance?

Thanks and good luck with your course. Please do consider coming back to TEFL.net to let us know how you got on. The Trinity is one course on which up to now we have very little feedback; your information would be of great interest to our readers.