ITA Chiang Mai course

I went during Songkran of 2019 and it was amazing (I highly recommend doing so because they may also be running a special at the same time)! Songkran is like their New Year's and it's this HUGE water fight and all types of festivities. I've never been that far out of the country and this was a very pleasant first experience. The staff were from all over the world just like the coursemates you have which adds to the experience (strangely though in my course that specific time there were a lot of Americans, the teachers found that odd as well).

They gave us language and cultural awareness classes and excursions along with our TEFL classes to aid in mobility around the country. They assisted with opening bank accounts, job search assistance during and months after the course while also assisting in searching for housing and even dental work! If you were to teach in Thailand literally the head of the ministry of education is one of your instructors and gives you a stamp of approval if you really need it (no pressure!)

The course itself was quite rigorous given the fact that it's just a month and if it was longer it would not feel as taxing. You feel rather bombarded after the first week and the end of week 3 and start of week 4 feel like pure chaos but that's because you've never made a lesson plan/taught before. Once you have it's beyond smooth sailing. You may get a psudeo-coteacher to help with some kids so that is also nice plus the kids can really take a liking to you rather quickly which makes your job that much easier.

Also for anyone else who is black in the diaspora (I'm African American) I was one of three in the course and to my knowledge the instructors did not make us feel unwanted or incapable of completing any tasks or any feelings of targeted discrimination (subtle/coded or otherwise); any feelings of doubt were coming from the course load itself. Final point on this, I speak AAVE (first) and SAE (second) and re-learning how to "properly" speak English in it's standard British or American format can make you feel as though there is no way you can feasibly teach English because you're default is already strongly dialectal borderline second language. However, I promise if you are someone who can/do already code switch habitually you will be fine and complete the course no problem; code-switch back when you're not at work!

Taking this course has given me friends from all over the world and those from the country I taught in. It has truly transformed my life for the better and has opened doors to opportunities I had not idea existed; also lasts a lifetime. The job search assistance and onboarding and personalized help is still going on with this company and I can still communicate and get proper documentation with my instructors in Chiang Mai still to this as well. I personally recommend this company and hope this review can give you a little more honest insights into the course!