If you thought your first day at school as a student was tough, imagine your first day as a teacher. Then imagine being a teacher in a new school, in a new country. It’s quite an experience, and it’s one that ESL teachers go through all the time. As well as dealing with culture shock,…
Students come with a range of abilities and attitudes. After teaching in Thailand and Vietnam for 16 years, I’ve come across the whole spectrum. In this book on teaching English, there’s a description of the various students a new teacher may come across. Here’s an extract: If you think teachers come in a range…
In case you’re interested in literature, or just writing in general, you may like to head over to my YouTube channel. It’s aimed mainly at helping students improve their writing, but there’s also some analysis of literature, such as Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, Seamus Heaney’s Digging or Carol Ann Duffy’s Medusa. If you like what you…
What’s the difference between a ship and a boat? When does a hill become a mountain? The answers to these and numerous other questions are revealed in a new ebook. Author Mark Beales collected hundreds of examples of trivia and strange facts while teaching in Thailand and Vietnam, and decided to collect them all in…
Ajarn.com was kind enough to interview me about my teaching career, life as a travel writer and what it’s like living in Thailand and Vietnam. Go here for the full interview, which also mentions my favourite celebrity interview and some strange tales from Thailand, including a cat plummeting into my noodles. https://www.ajarn.com/ajarn-street/hot-seat/mark-beales
Walk outside my apartment in central Saigon and it looks like a scene from 28 Days Later. The streets are empty, the shutters are rolled down in the shopping malls and it’s eerily quiet. The only thing missing are a few zombies. A few weeks ago, the same street buzzed with life. Street-side hawkers sold…
(originally published by Cambridge University Press) Top 10 tips for bringing content into the English classroom Showing students that their learning isn’t done in isolation can be hugely rewarding – for students as well as teachers. Here are some simple and effective ideas for introducing elements from other subjects into your English lessons. 1) See the…
Pattaya’s newest mega shopping mall – Terminal 21 – has opened its doors. The 7.5 billion baht mall was launched on October 19, with thousands of eager shoppers queuing to snap up promotional bargains from designer brands. The very first shopper through the doors was able to go on a 15,000 baht shopping spree, while…