Hello everybody,
I'm a Canadian teacher, living in Bangkok, Thailand. I learned a few things after teaching English here for about 3 years, that I would like to share with foreigners who would like to come to Thailand to teach, or the foreigners who are already in Thailand and are thinking about teaching.

Firstly, I would like to make sure you take the legal aspects seriously. To teach in Thailand, you will need a Non-B (non-immigrant) visa, then if you have a 4 year Bachelor's Degree or higher, you can get you a 'Teacher's License' and after that you will be able to get a 'Work Permit'. To keep a long story short, anything less than a 4 year Bachelor's Degree(NO online Degree),means no 'Teacher's License' and no 'Work Permit'. So if you decide to teach illegally (on any kind of visa but a Non-B),and just in case any Immigration Officer, Ministry of Education Officer or Ministry of Labor officer goes to your school to check the foreign teachers' above documents and you don't have them, you will be arrested on the spot and deported from Thailand in a matter of days.

You can teach at a few different places in Thailand. Before I explain about those places, I should let you know that money is in Bangkok. It's a very crowded city with lots of traffic and air pollution. Most other cities and towns in Thailand are nicer to work and live, but if you think about a little bit of saving, Bangkok is the place to go.

Ok, the places you can teach at:

1.International Schools: pay the highest salaries and usually hire directly from English speaking countries. They give most jobs to experienced teachers with a Bachelor's in Education. They can do the paper work for educated teachers, so you don't need to worry about working illegally.

2.Private Bilingual Schools: Pay lower, but still the second rate of pay. There so many of these schools in Thailand. Some of them can do the paperwork for you and some of them CAN'T. Before accepting the job, talk to the foreign teachers who have been working there for more than six months. If the educated teachers there don't have work permits, It's not the right place to work.

3.Language Schools: pay less than the above or will give you less hours to work, so unless you are ready to work on weekends and work all day on weekdays, you will make a little money. Language Schools rarely do the paperwork for any teacher, so at least 90% of their teachers are already illegal.

4.Universities:Most of them pay much less than the above, a few Universities pay as much as bilingual schools. But they take care of the paperwork for educated teachers.

5.Government schools: Most of them pay the lowest salaries. They take care of the paperwork for educated teachers.

At the time of writing, the best website for teaching jobs in Thailand is: www.ajarn.com

Most Thai employers still like to have a face to face interview with you. So , your best bet is to come to Thailand with about $3000 USD, see if you like to live in Thailand, see the schools and talk to as many foreign teachers as you can, get the feel, line up the interviews and you will get the job you want.

Good luck