Americamp and Camp Thailand

Hi EFL World!

Let's just have a quick look at Americamp's relationship with Camp Thailand.  Although Camp Thailand comes under Americamp's general umbrella, it is actually at least half owned and run by Philip Crabb. The CEO of Americamp is Lee McAteer, and for his operations in Thailand he has teamed up with Philip Crabb, who runs the show there. He also has a rep called Dean Hallworth there, but his power is limited.

Up to now, this blog has been pretty complimentary towards Americamp and the aspects of their camps that they organise directly. However, it is clear that there is something amiss with the way Philip Crabb is running operations at his end. Typical complaints so far against him are:

1.  He claims his TEFL certificate is "internationally accredited", but this is completely unfounded. It's not accredited in any meaningful sense of the word, and is basically a junk qualification.

2.  Most of the trainers for the courses are unqualified. Instead, they are often just random teachers are in the area at the time who happen to be looking for a job.

3.  Similarly, Philip Crabb himself has no formal EFL qualifications, and is best known in the EFL world for being fired by a school in Bangkok for coming in drunk.

4.  Even now Philip often attends sessions either drunk or clearly hung over.

5.  Philip usually fails and expels a student quickly in order to create fear and compliance among the other students. The student will invariably be someone who has caused some kind of problem or asked some awkward questions.

6.  Later, he often does the exact converse and passes students without even looking at their submissions. The "blank document" incident in 2016, when he passed a student who submitted a blank document, is well-known.

7.  He tries to extract extra money from students anyway he can, with all kinds of extra charges for towels, taxis, air-con, etc.

8.  Most importantly, in 2016 one of Thai staff pulled a gun on some girls students because they did not use Philip's own expensive taxi service. We now have this evidenced from three separate sources.

9.  His history with Island TEFL, which he ran as Philip Dunne before acquiring Camp Thailand, is truly shocking. Google and lots of results will come up. They can't all be lying.

10.  He charges as much as £500 for a five day orientation course before placement in a school by an agency. An identical orientation course can be obtained directly from the agency completely for free.

I will leave it to the reader to decide whether the above is merely sharp practice or outright criminality. The point is that Philip Crabb is clearly not a man you should be entrusting yourself to or giving your money to. It also reflects back on Americamp that they continue to work with him.  It shows that they themselves lack any real ethicality. Clearly it's just about money at the end of the day.

So we conclude that, even though there are some wonderful positives about the Camp Thailand experience, potential campers should boycott Camp Thailand, and use another provider until such time as Americamp disown Philip Crabb.

In my next post, I'll quote from some of the numerous emails I have received.

Stay wise!
EFL Greg

Camp Thailand Review (2)

Hi Everyone, EFL Greg here!

Due to the mysterious deletion of our original Camp Thailand Review post in the UK, we've re-posted here in its entirety for the benefit of our UK readers:

"We've had quite a few reviews of Camp Thailand now, with a mixed bag of reports. Everyone seems pretty agreed that the activity part of the camp, i.e. the excursions and elephant trips, as well as even the live teaching in the schools, is pretty well set up, and has been a positive experience for most campers. Most of this is directly under the control of Americamp, who seem to be providing a reasonably genuine service.

However, it's the TEFL side of Camp Thailand that is seriously suspect. This is run by Philip Crabb together with his Thai wife, and we've had several reports of unacceptable course standards and severe bias in the treatment of students. See the comments on the Camp Thailand post. In addition, it has now been conclusively proved that the TEFL certificate issued by EFF (English For Fun, formerly Island TEFL) is wholly unaccredited, and is basically a junk qualification.  

From the reviews we've received, Philip Crabb, formerly Philip Dunne, seems to be running the place like a dictator, ruling by fear. Anyone who causes him any kind of problem quickly gets removed from the Camp, whether it be a a student or an employee. There are no refunds incidentally. The most disturbing incident, however, occurred just recently when he or his wife actually had some of the Thai workers pull out a gun on some of the girl students just because they weren't using the camp's own taxi and were liaising with a former teacher and employee banned by Philip. We cannot verify this independently. However, we've heard about this incident from two separate sources. So it needs to be taken seriously.  It's possible Camp Thailand is even paying off the police. The incident was apparently quickly hushed up by both Americamp and Camp Thailand.

So because of the atmosphere of fear that Philip Crabb specialises in creating and the sub-standard courses he is fraudulently offering, we're recommending that prospective campers vote with their feet and boycott Camp Thailand until such time as Americamp have dealt properly with the situation and brought Philip Crabb to heel. Anyone who knows anything more about any of the above should come forward and post.

It's always important to remember that in developing countries like Thailand, and even more so Cambodia, law enforcement is weak. In fact, corruption is rampant, particularly within the police force. So don't expect that you will automatically get justice in the event of any criminal or illegal action inflicted upon you.  

Always be careful when committing yourself and putting yourself in the hands of people you don't know, particularly when travelling alone to a developing country.

Good luck with whatever camp you finally decide on."