TEFL Heaven Thailand | TEFL/TESOL & Placement Program

I had a blast, if it wasn't for ETA and their placement scheme from England to Thailand, my life would be entirely different.

Take it from the girl that is still in Thailand, three years later, it will change your life for the better.

I actually can't really fault TEFL heaven. Right from the beginning you are told how great Thailand is AND the hard parts.

You artfully prepared with what you need money and items wise. I was on Koh Kood and yes it was pretty boring as there wasn't much to do and there was scary thunder. But again tefl heaven told us that and actually it was a fairly unique experience which I am glad I had. Plus we went to Koh Chang a couple weekends so there is alternatives.

When we first arrived they resort did not live up to expectations basic it was not. More like TEFL Hell with shacks over swamps but very quickly they changed us to far superior accommodation which went beyond our expectations.

The trainers were fun and friendly and we learnt some thai. They told us what school would be like and they were fairly wrong but they also said every school was different.

I had my 3 weeks on a paradise island and got a TEFL certificate and an awesome school can't be better than that.

Ill keep it short and simple:

- TEFL heaven are extremely helpful in the build up to you getting to your program. Will keep you to to date with everything way advanced and went out their way further with information re my visa runs as I had a few issues I should have dealt with before leaving. So, very helpful, and supportive.

- Location and travel to training program in Koh Samui was very well organised, no issues!

- Our training was very fun and informative. Had three great, helpful trainers and although, as mentioned below, a couple only had a semesters worth or experience, I believe, after doing just one semester myself I could provide more than enough information to help new arriving teachers, just as they did for me. To be honest the job is potentially one of the easiest jobs going... (Teaching in Thailand).. The only thing you need to be taught is prepare your lessons, teach with a big smile on your face and kids will love you. So I do rate the course - it gives you the basics to work off and allows you to go out there with a few ideas which you use, then expand in your own way to your own level of students and schools ability.

- After training you don't hear much from them (which is fine, you don't really need to... I'm sure if you had a few problems they would help you out though but I personally didn't need any help so no need!). They pass you on to the partner organization, Media Kids, who are a bunch of Thai's who just like robbing schools and, so I've heard, teachers of money. Wouldn't trust them as far as I can throw them and really think TEFL Heaven would improve if they found new recruit agency in Thailand.

But ye overall very good company, do everything you need them to. Don't think about it just sign up and get in involved. Met some very cool people through the experience and had some amazing times so sign up and get started - you won't regret it!

Overall, the experience was amazing.
Thailand was just as beautiful as I remebered from previous holidays and the people I met on the course were amazing.
Though we arrived in rainy season it was still great weather with incredible thunder storms.
The internet was knocked out by a Tropical Storm on our 2nd night and we had to return to the basics of human interaction, which lead to many hilarious and memorable conversations.
The TEFL experience is something I would recommend to everybody and would LOVE to do again.
I would more than happily return to Thailand, but not to Bangkok. The loud and busy city can be daunting for a girl on her own and I found it to be quite an isolating place, yet the 4 days I spend visiting a friend in Chiang Mai made me realise how easily I could settle into Thailand's Second City and love every minute of my life there.
I certainly miss all the 'WTF? Moments' that Thailand has to offer... from Chihauhaus in baby slings with little red plastic cowboy hats; to 5 people on a motorbike; to seeing a guy casually walk his 7 foot tall, baby elephant through the market casually; to drunkenly learning Thai Tongue Twisters with the locals in exchange for teaching them ''She sells Seashells on the seashore'' and ''red lolly, yellow lorry''... from which absolute hilarity ensued...

The children were so impressed when teacher finally learnt how to say ''Yiy Gin Lam Yai, Naam Lai Yiy Lai Yoi''...
I have so many amazing memories I can look back on with so much joy. It truly was a life changing experince.

The only disappointment to the experience was the company I was placed with.

The managers are utterly devoid of social skills, the company refused to pay me for my final 2 weeks when I had to rush home as my Grandma was rushed into hospital on Boxing Day. (They only bothered to tell me this the day before I was due to leave and they were due to pay me)
I found the management to lack any form of empathy or underrstanding about the circumstances and I can completely understand why they have such a high turnover of staff, they really made me feel alienated and unappreciated.
The staff at the company, however, were fantastic! The nicest group of you could ever ask to work with.

So with high comes a low... but you just learn to take a deep breath and say 'mai pen rai'' (no worries)

Teaching in Thailand has been a great experience, but I cannot rate the training as highly. I stayed on Koh Chang which is a lovely island but the accommodation was appalling. Tefl heaven advertised this as 'experiencing real Thailand' which really is a nice way of saying, 'we will do this as cheap as possible'. The 'hut' where I stayed was invaded by an army of ants on several occasions to which there was little done about it. During several thunderstorms I was awoke while sleeping on my mattress on the floor (no bed) to having rain dripping on my face and the mattress soaked. I also had two very expensive silk tops eaten by some sort of insects which I had to discard. While we stayed in horrendous conditions the trainers where in luxury huts, I think this is disgraceful.
The food in the accommodation was mediocre and rather pricey considering you have to eat there most days. There are no shops nearby as a substitute. To get to the nearest shop you have to either walk along the beach which you cannot do when the tide is in or get a taxi which costs 50 baht per person each way.
We did our training above the restaurant at the resort which was once again, another hut. This obviously lacked air conditioning which is highly uncomfortable when you are training 7hrs a day and have not acclimatised to Thai weather.
The training itself was poorly put together as we were taught by previous teachers who only had the experience of 1 or 2 semesters. This meaning that they had only taught for around 4 months, I highly doubt they are qualified to teach anything other than English as a foreign language.
Whilst having this experience my friend did his training at the same time in ko Samui and stayed in a 4 star hotel with air conditioned classroom. We paid the same amount and I think he got a lot more for his money while I feel very much ripped off.
Tefl heaven also neglected to tell us that our tefl certificates are not up to the highest standard and although we have all paid a lot of money, we can not get a job teaching in a language school back home. So basically the only countries you can teach with your tefl certificate is where tefl heaven have their training programmes.

I would like to say that the teaching itself is great and thoroughly enjoyable but this is not with any thanks to tefl heaven as they send your information a consultancy agency, who are responsible for placing you and everything after that. I have heard some bad reports from the partner organization, Media Kids, but through my experience they have been very helpful.

You are well prepared by ETA before coming to Thailand. They tell you exactly what to bring, and what clothes are appropriate. Not everyone gets this level of advice.
The course is set in a tropical, laid-back atmosphere, which unfortunately means some of the students take a similarly laid back attitude to their studies. The 'trainers' do not enforce their initial rules, as they have only been teaching for 3-4 months at the most. I would appreciate more experienced teachers to teach hopeful teachers how to be teachers.
There are plenty of fun and exciting activities if you do not have the time or inclination to travel around Thailand during or after your job, you can get your rewarding holiday experience as part of the TEFL Heaven Course!
I went to Koh Chang and I found the locals friendly and welcoming - although a little too friendly in the late night bars. Women beware of creepy Thai men looking to score a foreigner.
Accomodation was lovely, I got to wake up to a beach view every morning with some local macaque monkeys hanging out in the forest next to our huts.
I felt very prepared for my teaching placement after we were sent to teach in a local school for practise, this was the highlight of the academic side of the course as it provided real hands-on experience!

Moving abroad is stressful itself especially to a non English speaking country. Right from the start I was put in touch with my fellow course mates taking much of the stress of moving away!
By the time I got to my town I felt well equipped to deal with my teaching life. I had a good social network all around Thailand from my course which made settling in much easier!!
Although going to a small town was daunting at first especially as every where I went I got laughs and giggles for being white I quickly made friends both English speaking and Thai And really felt at home!
One of the highlights was morning assembly and teaching the whole school English songs.... 1500 kids singing and dancing is hilarious.
Another big highlight was riding my bike through a rice field after getting lost only to stumble across an Australian teacher skipping at a boxing camp... Almost 2 years later i now live in Oz! Without taking a leap of faith with tefl I doubt or paths would have ever crossed!
Food was unbelievable and I'm pretty sure I have consumed things I didn't even know were edible!
I was lucky not to suffer much home sickness however I did have difficulties as does everyone from time to time from missing home.