Sex, Drugs and ESL

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• Reader Comments (10)

  Page 1 of 1 pages

  ... at the end of the day, Jessica, you’ve just cobbled together a few simplistic stereotypes as window dressing for the somewhat less dramatic story on the tightening up of visa regulations.  Did you speak to anyone from the Teacher’s Council of Thailand, the Ministry of Education or Immgration regarding any of this ?  If you did, what did they say ?  If you didn’t, why not ?

  John Mark Carr was arrested in 2006, tightening up on the visa regulations started soon after this, but the 15 day visa (down from 30 day) didn’t appear until either early this year, or late last year.

  Why do any articles of this type always portray the women involved in the sex industry as passive, helpless victims ?

  Posted by John Lockwood on Apr 11, 2009 at 11:27 AM

  Mark Carr + 15-day visas rolled together.  Sex with children + sex with prostitutes rolled together.  Having teaching qualifications + having a police check rolled together.  These really are quite separate issues. 

  It may be distasteful that people sleep with prostitutes but what happens between consenting adults is still a world away from harming children.  Describing westerners as ‘the most visible clientele’ is another stereotype - only true if you’re in a rich area of Bangkok or Chiang Mai - I notice you didn’t describe them as ‘most of the clientele’ as they are of course a small minority.  Thai brothels are the only places where girls are sold to, and the only places where people are likely to catch STDs. 

  Most girls are quietly pressured into this kind of work as they discover they can’t make enough to pay rent and send money back to their families working as waitresses etc.  Looking at how girls actually end up in these situations and what happens to them later on would have been much more interesting - though of course still irrelevant to the stated subject…

  Schools can only demand proper qualifications if they pay enough - British Council has no problem only hiring people who have proper qualifications (not some piece of paper they got in a village near Bangkok after 3 weeks).

  Police checks and checking references is a different and much more important issue which is lax in most countries around the world in TEFL.  A teacher at a language school where I used to work in Taiwan was caught sleeping with one of his 17-year-old students.  Nobody checked his references and he got a job at a High School before the family of the girl caught up with him…

  I think you could have scratched the surface a little more.

  Posted by Sean Wordingham on Apr 23, 2009 at 12:06 PM

  I have been once to Thailand and was amazed to see how openly the sex market is flourishing there.
  It has become a major part of their revenue today !!

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  Posted by jack dance on May 21, 2009 at 3:47 PM

  I have also been to thailand, and it is really horrible !!

  I even saw child prostitutes I hope this will change as thailand is a beautifull country, but the image gets destroyed because of this.

  Posted by Lisa Baker on Jun 10, 2009 at 9:43 PM

  Jessica Olien, you don’t know their culture. When a “sexpat” claims moral relativity, and you come back with the retort about kalua pig in Hawaii, it makes you look a moron and removes all credibility aside from a wingeing feminist arguing from universality claims. These men don’t want to appreciate Thai culture, just like an American doesn’t want to appreciate Hawaiian culture by eating a pig from an imu. It simply means that this is the way things are and some things are nice about them for some people.
  I am an ESL teacher in Asia and I personally know sex workers and Thais. Their lives aren’t all bad. Some of them enjoy their work; some of them find it demeaning and hated; some of them look at it like another job—which it is. A job.
  To be honest, as a graduate of an American university that offers Womens Studies, I find the sextrade morally and ethically problematic. But I find a lot of things problematic, and a guy having a good time and a Thai woman making bank are among the least problematic.
  What it means to be different for each culture—and for each person with a culture. It is arrogant of you to presume to know what it means to be human for an entire culture, let alone a single person.

  Posted by Justin Hahn on Jun 27, 2009 at 5:29 AM

  Most girls are quietly pressured into this kind of work as they discover they can’t make enough to pay rent and send money back to their families working as waitresses etc

  Posted by inthfapt on Jul 9, 2009 at 7:40 PM

  Another good point… :)

  Posted by Sean Wordingham on Jul 9, 2009 at 8:02 PM

  Even massage parlours in Thailand are largely associated with sex. Massages are a popular tradition in Thailand but massage parlours offer you a lot more than just an innocent body rub.

  Posted by Brenda Cope on Jul 21, 2009 at 7:41 PM

  This is not only dangerous to teenagers but I think for everyone to go under this.

  Posted by besttv001 on Jul 27, 2009 at 3:14 PM

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