Rose of the North

Paradise TEFL’s "Rose of the North’s" tiny Hamlet (Ban Pong a real Gem)

For many of those who have visited Northern Thailand (or those who maybe considering a visit someday) no doubt the city of Chiang Mai is high on most tourists wish lists for visiting. Famous for its alluring Buddhist Temples, Lanna Style music and dancing, Elephant Shows, traditional Thai massage and burgeoning international food scene, this is perhaps one of the best places to spend some time exploring and possibly even retire.

The “Rose of the North” stands as one of the best places in all of South East Asian to experience a vast smattering of all that Thailand has to offer, including incredible and thriving arts and crafts scene put on display weekly at the Sunday Night Walking Street Market as well as the Saturday walking street in the old silver district on the south side of the ancient city. It’s close proximity to the Golden Triangle, well distinguished Hill Tribe cultures and nearby connection with nature and adventure activities make Chiang Mai Province a place that has something for everyone whether it is a round of golf, a restorative retreat, or a Mecca of shopping opportunities, without the same gigantic traffic and flooding issues of Bangkok.

The ancient city, which was once walled and defended for generations by Siamese soldiers this incredible river side town, still remains an iconic travel destination, encircled by a once strategic now  park like moat, adding a unique ambience which permeates the place. At the same time Chiang Mai maintains a reasonable sense of elegance and affordability, despite it’s the relentless droves from the world over who come to the land of smiles on holiday or for longer stints, many of whom return on an annual basis.  With nearly a dozen or so academic campuses in and around the greater metropolitan area of about one million, Chiang Mai retains its youthful feel, despite the high level of senior citizens who migrate here to take advantage of the high quality of life and their shrinking buy power in the West.

Just on the outskirts behind the looming Doi Suthep mountain is the Mae Sai Valley, accessible by the Samoeng Loop Road #1269 which runs roughly north and south from Hang Dong all the way to Mae Rim. Here, the sounds of insects and birds mingle with the cooler breezes which rustle through the forest and rice fields in a mish mash of tropical and Himalayan foothill vegetation.

About 5 miles off the irrigation canal road that runs into the city is the tourist area of Ban Pong filled with waterfalls, butterflies, and orchid farms. This is where Paradise TEFL has chosen to develop its TEFL Buddhist Exchange program, allowing foreign speakers of English the opportunity to obtain Basic TEFL/TESOL and Advanced certifications while at the same time studying the noble truths of Buddhism with local monks and helping to provide English conversational skills to the villagers so that they can have increased economic opportunities. (For a closer look at this and other certification opportunities go to TEFLChiangmai.com and take review the possibilities of working and living abroad).

The temple in this place is truly a hidden gem, complete with a babbling stream, two sparking temples and a courtyard area complete with a new school for the community situated next door. On top of the small peak above the complex, a new towering temple is being built. Accessed by a 999 step walkway to the top, the views are beautiful and awe inspiring.

Ban Pong is where the Paradise TEFL Buddhist Exchange is situated because it not only provides an authentic rural Northern Thailand experience within a stone’s throw of cosmopolitan Chiang Mai, but because it allows perspective teachers the chance to live, study, and gain work opportunities while filling their minds and hearts with the wisdom and enlightenment of the Buddhist perspective. Why wait, when you could be here for half the price of what most other accredited certification programs charge? Contact us today!

FEAR FACTORS (Don't Let them Decide for You)

FEAR FACTORS (Pack your trunk & FACE AND EMBRACE THE CHALLENGE)

There are indeed many factors an aspiring English Language teacher needs to consider (in addition to the price, location and reputation) a TEFL program has to offer. One of the biggest for most travelers is what will the living conditions consist of where they are going and how can they prepare for the inevitable culture shock of leaving their home country and teaching on the road.

First and foremost you have to accept that you cannot effectively prepare for everything you might encounter when you decide to live and teach abroad. Variables of experience are one on the things which makes embarking on such a path both challenging and rewarding. In addition to doing some extensive research before their departure, most foreign language teachers have found that having a liaison who is familiar with the anticipated destination remains the biggest possible asset. Those with familiarity are in a unique position to advise and make recommendations in a way a guide book cannot because they know you and their insight is based on their first hand expertise. As a beginner or “novice,” you can and should consider asking questions relative to your own particular needs, situation, budget and desired level of comfort specifically.

A few areas you will want to consider is the length of time you intend to stay, availability of jobs in that region(s), access to quality health care, and availability of Western products/goods and services. It is a good idea to figure out things like the kind of visa or insurance coverage you will need to streamline you stay. (Travelers insurance is often a good option). You may want to begin determining where you want to end up by figuring out where the kind of job opportunities you are looking for are located in advance instead of the other way around.

Another tidbit of advice in addition to effective pre-planning, is to remain open to opportunities and situations as they present themselves. If you remain too cautious or intent on fulfilling preconceived ideas and expectations chances are that you are going to miss out on some valuable options they will no doubt present themselves (whether they are related to education, work, adventure or romance.) Most of the time we know what we want and we strive to gain it, but we don’t know what we might consider until it shows up in front of our nose. This is the beauty of studying TEFL abroad. Not only are you learning by working with people from another culture (many whom you may well end up teaching in the future) but you are pushing your comfort and fear zones, which inevitably, is how we all grow, learn and ultimately evolve.

Many people worry how they are going to acclimate and cope in an environment where they don’t speak the language or know all the customs, but in fact this serves as a catalyst for empathy for you, your peers and your students who are also in the same boat. 

Current educational research indicates that students learn best through a process of “immersion,” or to put it more bluntly, “by jumping in the fire.”This is why Paradise TEFL students focus more on hands on student teaching and lesson planning than they do studying educational theory or syntax usage and rules of grammar. Remember that by remaining fluid and open to new experiences, the more opportunities will present themselves, and that the more you are able to dance with the evolving situation, the less likely you are going to drop out or get burned.

Immersion, more simply stated, is a process of “learning by doing,” and is the same process which you learned your own native language of English by living in an English speaking country, picking up on and utilizing all the verbal, visual and kinesthetic clues as they appear in the surrounding world. This is also going to be how you are going to familiarize and adapt to your new teaching country and its surroundings in order to become comfortable and adept in living and working in a foreign culture. By understanding the customs, traditions, and lifestyle, as well as interpreting body language and listening for phrases you recognize, eventually you will move beyond your fear threshold to become experienced, seasoned and more refined.

Fear can be a resistance or motivating factor depending on how a person chooses to react to and cope with an unfamiliar setting. It can either hinder self-confidence or enhance it depending upon how we perform under pressure. Often, some of the biggest reward for many professions requires individuals to not only confront their fears, but use them to push themselves toward overcoming them as part of the growth and success process.

In the Paradise TEFL English Certification program it is important that participants seize the opportunity to challenge themselves and come out of it stronger and more adequately prepared. Unfortunately many folks considering enrollment often undermine their abilities to learn new skills by expressing that they don’t know enough grammar, or understand their alphabet well enough to go for it. Don’t let fear dictate or deter you from accomplishing your goal of traveling, studying and obtaining a job overseas.

Paradise TEFL graduates are among the most successfully placed of Native English Speakers around. Our instructors specialize in getting to know you as a person and helping to enhance and improve your individual strengths and weaknesses.  We take great pride in treating you as a professional with specific needs and interests and tailor our program to meet those needs every single time.

Don’t let your fear of the unknown or preconceived notions steer you away from going for your goal and making the kind of future for yourself that you envision and aspire to create. The bottom line is, the old adage that you don’t have anything to fear except fear itself hold relevance.  It’s important not to pretend that there is “NO FEAR” in their minds when making a big step like studying overseas, rather the wiser choose to KNOW FEAR and use it to better themselves and those students who gain new opportunities by learning English as a second language

 

Best Time of the Year in Northern Thailand

LOOKING FOR A NEW JOB? ARE YOU AN ENGLISH SPEAKER? CONSIDER GETTING A TEFL CERTIFICATION AND JOB GUARANTEED!

I spent most of the summer promoting TEFL Chiang Mai at Universities in California and the Pacific Northwest. As much as I loved living in those locations I can honestly say that there is no place closer to paradise than the Mae Sai Valley near Doi Kham,

just west Doi Pui of behind Northern Thailand’s most famous temple Doi Suthep. 

Now, with the end of the rainy season and the start of cooler (and hopefully drier weather) we begin to realize that Loy Krathong is just around the corner, coming with the full moon on November 10th. The month of November is highly regarded by travelers and tourists as truly one of the most magic times in Chiang Mai. 

This is a perfect time to visit and explore all of the affordable options that Northern Thailand has to offer.Unlike some of the theory based TEFL/TESOL Certifications out there, an accredited Paradise TEFL Chiang Mai Teacher Certification offers more than just a piece of paper and a pat on the back. We assist in finding you teaching jobs that meets your individual demands, preferences and needs while helping you to learn effective methods, techniques and teaching strategies you can use right away in a real classroom.

Click here to check out our practical approach

INTERESTED IN THAI BUDDHISM?

What better time than now to further your career options while getting a sense of the Buddhist  culture and lifestyle? Enrolling in the Paradise TEFL’s Buddhist Exchange program and see for yourself just how incredible and what an authentic experience it can be. Short of that you, can see a slide show about TEFL Buddhist Exchange on You Tube or click here to see a photos link with updated images for yourself. 

Live in the moment and beginning your step toward a new consciousness by contacting us today.

WORLDWIDE TEACHING ENGLISH POSITIONS WAITING TO BE FILLED

WAITING FOR ECONOMIC RECOVERY?

( TEACHING ENGLISH JOBS WORLDWIDE WAITING TO BE FILLED)

 

Average length of unemployment now at 60-year high

By Zachary Roth | The Lookout – 

 

The average unemployed American has now been out of work for a longer period than at any time since records began being kept more than 60 years ago -- more evidence, as if any were needed, that the jobs crisis is in reality a crisis of long-term unemployment.

The average duration of unemployment rose to 40.5 weeks in September, up from 40.3 weeks in August, according to the Labor Department's monthly jobs report, released Friday morning. That's the longest since the government started tracking the information in 1948, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show.

Being out of work for a long period has several negative effects, analysts say. As President Obama and the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke have noted, workers' skills tend to atrophy as they lose touch with developments in their field. Older workers become increasingly likely to give up searching for work. With rates of long-term unemployment as high as they are now, the jobless threaten to become a semi-permanent class, exacerbating growing inequality. And that's leaving aside the psychological and emotional toll of going for so long without work -- something Yahoo! readers told us about firsthand this summer.

Other measures of long-term joblessness in the government's report were almost as bleak. The number of Americans who have been out of work for more than 27 weeks -- the official definition of long-term unemployment -- rose to 6.24 million, up from 6.03 million in August. That figure is lower than it was for most of the spring and summer of 2010 -- it reached a high of 6.71 million in May of last year -- but is near its high point for 2011.

The median duration of joblessness also rose last month, to 22.2 weeks, up from 21.8 in August. It's now at its fourth-highest monthly mark ever. The share of the total unemployed population who are considered long-term unemployed -- that is, they've been out of work for at least 27 weeks -- rose last month to 44.6 percent, from 42.9 percent in August.

 

With the stronger dollar overseas now is the perfect time to invest in something that has the greatest rate of return. YOURSELF!

We at TEFLCHAINGMAI hold  a fully accredited and globally recognized TEFL English Language Certification  program (recognized for our high number of fully employed graduates) not only strive for our students  to learn Teach English with the latest proven strategies and methods, but share up to date methods and strategies as part of our teachers career development through the latest teaching opportunities in Asia and beyond. 

If you have a family and are presented with a job offer, and have obtained a work permit for an English language position or international school position, many schools will assist you and your family members with acquiring international visas. We have expertise in helping our students find a jobs in a country or school location that works best for their individual (and family) needs. 

Graduates with advanced certifications have the advantage of substantially increasing their marketability and employment status. Improve your chances of getting a good job with a higher level of pay by enrolling today!

 

 

 

 

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A Program Based on a Belief in Reciprocity

TEFL CHIANGMAI’S BUDDHIST EXCHANGE –

(A PROGRAM BASED ON A BELIEF IN RECIPROCITY)

 

With the number of worldwide TEFL programs out there these days, why not consider getting something more than just a piece of paper with your certification? Why not give the gift of English to those who can really benefit while you complete your coursework, namely the working poor farmers, roadside merchants and field laborers who need become more fluent in order to compete for higher service based jobs in hotels, restaurants and administrative positions.

 

In addition to receiving your accredited certification you will be rewarded with an authentic and meaningful cultural experience by studying Theravada Buddhism and developing a sense of “mindfulness” about your daily life practices, interactions and intentions. Why not study Thai Buddhism with TEFLChiangmai’s TEFL Buddhist Exchange, and give something back to those who would welcome you to your new home in the land of smiles?

 

As part of TEFLChiangmai’s goal to increase cultural and religious sensitivity among our participants, we also offer the TEFL Buddhist Exchange program where future TEFL teachers have the opportunity not only to become certified instructors but to participate as student's of the Buddhist philosophy and traditions to better understand the religious beliefs which permeates our student's lives through out many parts of South East Asia.

The Buddhist Exchange concept is based on the idea of reciprocity for would be foreign English Language teachers who aren’t only interested in being tourists while they study abroad by visiting and working with locals from the many temples of the incredible Mai Sai Valley, situated just west of Chiang Mai in the shadow of Doi Pui and Doi Suthep about 25-35 minutes from the heart of downtown. 

 

You can still enjoy all the cosmopolitan benefits of the “Rose of the North” while at the same time interacting with not only native Lanna (northern) Thai citizens, but in addition also culturally distinct Hill Tribe folks and working immigrants from Burma and Laos, for all of whom conversational English has become a crucial modern day economic lifeline.

 

The Thai Buddhist portion of the course consists of opportunities for daily meditation, chanting and “Dharma talks” with local monks about the underlying meaning and purposes of Buddhist methods of achieving internal peace, mental healing and acceptance of universal suffering.  According to one local monk Pra Da Nai and the Kiriket Wat (a temple which translates roughly to mean “Place in the Jungle”) the true purpose of Buddhism is about helping people, not about building elaborate temples and monuments to make merit.  He has demonstrated this by focusing the goal of his temple to teach English to the local people (including those from neighboring countries living in Thailand with the aspirations of better economic opportunity) while creating unity among the local village populations who see the rise of materialism in Thailand as something to compete and aspire for, even if it means being aggressive toward their neighbors.

 

Teaching and studying at the Wat can be a transformative and enlightening experience, one that a typical TEFL course or partying after class with other Westerners cannot offer, although those opportunities are certainly there for merriment on the weekends.

Teaching as a profession is perhaps one of the most conventional ways to obtain this kind of merit. But the profession also takes much mental development which also takes Effort and Concentration, two additional “right” paths for those interested in seeking self-improvement.

 Improve your chances of getting a right livelihood job with a higher level of pay by enrolling today!

 

 

 

 

 

BEST VALUE IN TEFL TODAY

Best Value in TEFL/TESOL Today (3 Methods of Delivery to Meet Your Specific Learning Needs!)

Unlike some certification programs, Paradise TEFL offers a wide array of top quality programs from a basic introductory Teaching English as a Foreign Language, to specific advanced subjects in a wide variety of areas for meeting the specific employment needs of a large variety of English language learners.

In addition to a standard on site class with two to three weeks of observed teaching, Paradise now offers their classes in both an online format and a virtual course as well.

Imagine the comfort of being able to practice teach second language learners right from the comfort of your own home without having to travel to some distant part of the globe in order to complete you certification criteria. The virtual classroom is a natural step in utilizing the advances in technology to meet the rising costs of getting together face to face with students in a real time basis, even if they are living on the other side of the globe. Not to mention the incredible savings that students can manifest by limiting travel, food and accommodation expenses without the risk of jetting off to Timbuktu just to see if TEFL teaching is right for them.

Paradise TEFL founder and owner Dr. Stephen Gardener has delivered his practical approach to hundreds of students both from his home in Chiang Mai Thailand and on line to students worldwide for over eight years and stresses the importance of not only making learning how to teach English practical for his student teachers, but strives to make acquiring English as a Second language engaging for the students who his pupils will be teaching as well.  He reminds those who are considering enrolling in an accredited TEFL or TESOL certification program that they don’t need to be experts in teaching grammar. “Teaching is about making a connection, being patient and having fun.”

More and more English is becoming the global language of business and more and more people desiring to work in the field of English as a Second or Foreign Language are finding employment with little prior experience or knowledge. ESL/EFL has immerged in response to both domestic and international shifts and demands.  Many individuals unable to “pull up their roots” and travel abroad in search of work are looking to meeting the needs of an increasing number of foreign nationals right in their home towns or nearby cities.

Having a TEFL/TESOL certification allows many individuals to pursue teaching as a career as either a primary and/or secondary source of income. It allows non-native speakers to benefit and improve their chances of competing in the global market place while at the same time providing opportunity for English Speakers to enter into a growing employment market.

With a dynamic background both in computer science and education Dr. Gardner’s Virtual TEFL learning has numerous advantages over learning in a “traditional” on line approach, to begin with you can interact using visual and auditory communication more readily, and actually see the students who you are teaching, be it on the other side of town or the world. Given the nature of cost cutting measures in education today, virtual learning is no doubt the wave of the future.

Dr. Stephen also provides outstanding services for "Western" university and college  bound second language learners with assistance in international entrance exams such as TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS and PET preparation courses, there by providing and enabling services for those second language learners who intend to further their academic studies and ESL skills for use in their future careers. Those who already have a an intermediate level of English proficiency can even train to become a certified English Teaching Assistant. 

Why not take a closer look and consider creating new income generating opportunities for yourself or adding to existing educational credentials you may have today? Sound interesting? Then consider the idea of opening your own branch of Paradise TEFL with the opportunity of a lifetime by working to develop your own TEFL franchise, which has recently become available and is growing by leaps and bounds across the continent of North America as of late, including Mexico and our newest Paradise TEFL location in Portland, Oregon.

Paradise doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective, but it is a place you will want to be to create your own slice of heaven wherever you choose to roam. Why wait? Contact us for additional information on available dates and locations today!