Working Spouse and Tag Along. Possible?

Hi,

My wife and I are looking to move with our 2-year-old son next year. I have 5 years ESL teaching experience at a university here in Canada and we are both TEFL certified with bachelor degrees (history for me and business for her with a master in counseling psychology)

We have tons of questions!

1. Is there any possibility of her working as a counselor? (English or French kids at private schools?)

2. Can a family survive with only one person teaching on a 30 000 - 40 000 a month salary in say Huai - Hin, Chang Mai, Chang Rai or Phuket? (We aren't looking to live a lavish lifestyle, but want to have a safe place to live for our family and plan on eating almost exclusively Thai food, and to save money we plan on homeschooling in the future if necessary)

3. Do most places require your transcripts or just your diploma?

4.  What is the stance on tattoos? I have one and it's not visible, but am wondering if it should be covered when going to the pool etc.

Hello. Just came across your post. You should be able to live here on a salary of between 30'000 to 40'000฿ per month, but don't expect to save much if your supporting another person on this. My advice would be to consider doing some extra online teaching work also. I teach in  government schools up and down the country but I mainly teach in Pakchong area and in my spare time I also do a bit of online teaching twice a week. I can say that it really does boost the monthly income.

To be hired as a teacher here you will definitely need your original certificates ( degree and transcripts ) also your TEFL certificate. Thailand is taking this very seriously now, so make sure you bring all of your original certificates with you otherwise you will not get a work permit. On the topic of tats, if they can be covered then that's perfectly fine.
If I can help you with anything more you can find me on Facebook. Dominic Shaddick. I have a group page called Teach in Thailand. Here you will get all the information relevant to teaching here and the expected requirements plus I recruit new teachers up and down the country Feel free to look at my page and I can add you as a member.

Thanks for all the amazing info. Do the schools need transcripts? I have them , but I've got some rather dismal marks in my first couple years.

They will ask for the transcripts. Don't worry about the marks. The transcripts are now asked for as standard as they are recognised as supporting proof of your degree certificate. Its main purpose is to entitle you for a work permit.

Could you suggest any areas where we could find cheap accomodations , but also somewhat near hospitals and ESL schools?  We heard Chang Rai is cheap , beautiful and a good place for westerners wanting to live a Thai lifestyle but with some support.

In that location expect to pay about 4 to 5000฿ a month for a decent apt. 2 month deposit down seems to be the norm as well. Theres  simply too many schools to list in the North of that area, it's best to do a bit of research and traveling around the country before settling for a place to stay. The biggest concern would be if the school is any good. If theres not many foreign teachers around the chances are it's a corrupt outfit and working there would be hell. Look for a school that is in the main part of the city or town.