Hi Campers,
I was just looking at Americamp's Camp Thailand website and noticed that they've put up a whole load of blurb about TEFL certificates in relation to accreditation. I think it's been up a while actually. Click on TEFL They're no longer claiming that their certificate is "internationally accredited", which is a major step forward. I congratulate them on their honesty. However, what they've put up instead is a pretty vague piece that really tells us nothing at all, just a series of generalities with nothing specific. Basically, it's a load of hogwash designed to pull the wool over your eyes, cloaked in that kind of formal language that makes it sound oh so credible. "School and authorities"? Yes, the schools they give free lessons at. "The Ministry of Education"? Take it from me, there's no way the ministry gets involved in farang run TEFL schools. Their concern is state schools and private schools running the proper national curriculum. EFL courses are not part of their domain. The point is that Camp Thailand's courses are completely unaccredited and it's pot luck how good any one course will be. Worst case scenario is if Philip Crabb himself gives the course.
While here, I'd like to remind all you potential campers that you'll be spending over £700 for only three weeks of "training" and activities. So are you really getting your money's worth? Remember that, while accommodation is included in the price, it is bunk beds in a dorm, and even then you have to pay extra if you want air-con. You can stay in a 3 star hotel in central Bangkok for just £20 a night. So surely they could afford to give you something better than 5 in a room with no air-con for your £700? The TEFL course isn't worth more than £100 and the same goes for the excursions. Camp Thailand's expenses are simply the rent for the premises and some low salaries for their workers. Even the trainer won't get more than a $1,000 a month. So you can see just how much money is going directly into the pockets of Philip Crabb and Americamp. They're cutting costs any which way they can to maximise their own profit. Philip Crabb is interested in one thing only, and that's your money. You're being well and truly fleeced. You really need to open your eyes to that.
So once again, we recommend that you avoid this kind of overpriced summer camp and set out independently. Do an online TEFL course, preferably not English For Fun's, and go direct to a Thai placement agency for a free placement and orientation course. Do the excursions at your own leisure during your year in Thailand. It's such a wonderful country. Just take that bold step to be independent. Thailand is a very safe country if you stick to common sense precautions. You should have a wail of a time.
Good luck, campers!
EFL Greg
Showing posts with label EFL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EFL. Show all posts
Tuesday, 29 August 2017
Wednesday, 28 June 2017
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
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
Monday, 24 April 2017
Deleted Post - by Americamp !!
Hi Campers !!
We've just had a stunning experience on our blog! Our Camp Thailand Review post of October 2016 has been deleted in the UK. Also some comments on the Camp Thailand post of January 2016 have vanished. The stated reason on the blog post is that it is the result of a "legal request", presumably from Americamp. It seems this only applies to the UK, because elsewhere, including here in Thailand, the post is up and running as normal.
I can only assume that the reason is the mention of the incident in which a Thai worker at Camp Thailand is alleged to have pulled out a gun on some girl trainees for not using Philip Crabb's taxi. I would guess the legal reason would be that the incident is unproven. However, we clearly stated in the original post that we could not verify the incident independently. All journalists and news channels do this kind of thing. Just watch CNN, they're always saying that they are unable independently to confirm something when they rely on external sources. So I am genuinely surprised that a UK court of law has passed this order.
What's really surprising about this is that we've had absolutely no direct communication from anyone. You would have thought Google would have sent us an email explaining what had happened. Or perhaps something from the lawyer involved. And hopefully something from Americamp themselves. But, no, absolutely nothing!
I'm particularly surprised that Americamp have at no stage tried to contact us directly. If you have a problem with someone, surely the first course of action is to speak candidly with that person and try and find a solution. Only if that doesn't work would you embark on the expensive and laborious task of legal action. The fact that Americamp have chosen such a roundabout route indicates to me just how morally bankrupt they are. They are clearly unsure of their position and so are clutching at legal straws to eradicate an inconvenient review. I think they would do much better to deal with the root of the problem, which is clearly the set up at Camp Thailand.
I hope my readers will read all the posts on my blog, which are actually pretty complimentary towards Americamp. It's primarily the TEFL side of the Camp Thailand that we consider suspect, because of its unsatisfactory course standards and trainer behaviour. We feel it is essential that in a democratic society that recognises free speech our comments and opinions be allowed unfettered.
Happy camping!
EFL Greg
We've just had a stunning experience on our blog! Our Camp Thailand Review post of October 2016 has been deleted in the UK. Also some comments on the Camp Thailand post of January 2016 have vanished. The stated reason on the blog post is that it is the result of a "legal request", presumably from Americamp. It seems this only applies to the UK, because elsewhere, including here in Thailand, the post is up and running as normal.
I can only assume that the reason is the mention of the incident in which a Thai worker at Camp Thailand is alleged to have pulled out a gun on some girl trainees for not using Philip Crabb's taxi. I would guess the legal reason would be that the incident is unproven. However, we clearly stated in the original post that we could not verify the incident independently. All journalists and news channels do this kind of thing. Just watch CNN, they're always saying that they are unable independently to confirm something when they rely on external sources. So I am genuinely surprised that a UK court of law has passed this order.
What's really surprising about this is that we've had absolutely no direct communication from anyone. You would have thought Google would have sent us an email explaining what had happened. Or perhaps something from the lawyer involved. And hopefully something from Americamp themselves. But, no, absolutely nothing!
I'm particularly surprised that Americamp have at no stage tried to contact us directly. If you have a problem with someone, surely the first course of action is to speak candidly with that person and try and find a solution. Only if that doesn't work would you embark on the expensive and laborious task of legal action. The fact that Americamp have chosen such a roundabout route indicates to me just how morally bankrupt they are. They are clearly unsure of their position and so are clutching at legal straws to eradicate an inconvenient review. I think they would do much better to deal with the root of the problem, which is clearly the set up at Camp Thailand.
I hope my readers will read all the posts on my blog, which are actually pretty complimentary towards Americamp. It's primarily the TEFL side of the Camp Thailand that we consider suspect, because of its unsatisfactory course standards and trainer behaviour. We feel it is essential that in a democratic society that recognises free speech our comments and opinions be allowed unfettered.
Happy camping!
EFL Greg
Friday, 30 December 2016
TEFL certificates
Hi EFL World!
I've just been doing some research on schools that offer properly accredited TEFL Certificates and two names that stood out from the crowd were The International TEFL Academy (ITA), and International TEFL TESOL Training (iTTT). They've both been around quite a while, and have proven track records. Actually I mentioned ITA in one of my previous posts. They may be a little more expensive than a school like English For Fun, but at least you will get a proper internationally accredited certificate. Best of all, of course, is the full blown CELTA, if you can afford it. Unfortunately, the old adage "you get what you pay for" still stands true.
If you want a job teaching in Thailand I recommend doing ITA or iTTT's online course (both are pretty cheap), and then going straight to a placement agency in Thailand, who will give you an orientation course and placement for free, because they take a direct cut from the school. Don't be conned into doing English For Fun's orientation course, particularly if you're signed up with Camp Thailand, because you'll be paying through your nose for something that should be free.
Some people have managed to get jobs in Korea using an EFF certificate, but I'd say that's just luck or poor checking by the school in Korea. Often they'll take you on the back of your teaching experience in Thailand rather than the validity of the certificate. The point is that any reports of people getting jobs there doesn't suddenly make the EFF certificate "internationally accredited" as Philip Crabb claims. It's still a junk qualification.
Good luck to all of you in the New Year !!
EFL Greg
I've just been doing some research on schools that offer properly accredited TEFL Certificates and two names that stood out from the crowd were The International TEFL Academy (ITA), and International TEFL TESOL Training (iTTT). They've both been around quite a while, and have proven track records. Actually I mentioned ITA in one of my previous posts. They may be a little more expensive than a school like English For Fun, but at least you will get a proper internationally accredited certificate. Best of all, of course, is the full blown CELTA, if you can afford it. Unfortunately, the old adage "you get what you pay for" still stands true.
If you want a job teaching in Thailand I recommend doing ITA or iTTT's online course (both are pretty cheap), and then going straight to a placement agency in Thailand, who will give you an orientation course and placement for free, because they take a direct cut from the school. Don't be conned into doing English For Fun's orientation course, particularly if you're signed up with Camp Thailand, because you'll be paying through your nose for something that should be free.
Some people have managed to get jobs in Korea using an EFF certificate, but I'd say that's just luck or poor checking by the school in Korea. Often they'll take you on the back of your teaching experience in Thailand rather than the validity of the certificate. The point is that any reports of people getting jobs there doesn't suddenly make the EFF certificate "internationally accredited" as Philip Crabb claims. It's still a junk qualification.
Good luck to all of you in the New Year !!
EFL Greg
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Camps in Thailand
Hi EFL World!
A new trend has been developing recently in the EFL world, and that is the summer camp as a way of combining EFL training, practice and adventure activities all in one package. It's certainly a great idea and very attractive to youngsters today, particularly gap year students. So, as there are quite a few of them, we thought it might be a good idea to have a site committed specifically to reviewing these camps. Often testimonials on the websites themselves are massaged up and don't give a properly objective overview. Hopefully, through this site prospective students or trainees can get a clearer idea of what to expect, and will be better informed when making a decision or choice.
Please submit reviews to our email address (below) and we will post it if it meets our criteria, which are as follows:
1. Please be specific with regard to the name of the camp, as many of them have similar sounding names, many of them almost generic in nature.
2. State clearly when and where you attended.
3. Who ran the course?
4. Did you feel it represented good value for money?
5. Did you actually receive everything that was advertised? If not, what?
6. What was the customer service like? Did they help you overcome difficulties?
7. Describe the main features, positive and/or negative.
8. Please be objective. Make sure you can support any negative comments, and please don't degenerate into using abusive language.
I hope we can get a good mix of comments about a variety of camps.
Look forward to your responses.
Greg Watson
Secretary,
Camps in Thailand Review Committee
gregeflwatson@gmail.com
A new trend has been developing recently in the EFL world, and that is the summer camp as a way of combining EFL training, practice and adventure activities all in one package. It's certainly a great idea and very attractive to youngsters today, particularly gap year students. So, as there are quite a few of them, we thought it might be a good idea to have a site committed specifically to reviewing these camps. Often testimonials on the websites themselves are massaged up and don't give a properly objective overview. Hopefully, through this site prospective students or trainees can get a clearer idea of what to expect, and will be better informed when making a decision or choice.
Please submit reviews to our email address (below) and we will post it if it meets our criteria, which are as follows:
1. Please be specific with regard to the name of the camp, as many of them have similar sounding names, many of them almost generic in nature.
2. State clearly when and where you attended.
3. Who ran the course?
4. Did you feel it represented good value for money?
5. Did you actually receive everything that was advertised? If not, what?
6. What was the customer service like? Did they help you overcome difficulties?
7. Describe the main features, positive and/or negative.
8. Please be objective. Make sure you can support any negative comments, and please don't degenerate into using abusive language.
I hope we can get a good mix of comments about a variety of camps.
Look forward to your responses.
Greg Watson
Secretary,
Camps in Thailand Review Committee
gregeflwatson@gmail.com
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