Tales and Travels of a Teacher in Thailand

by Jeff Sparks

Disillusioned with the tedium of life in the UK, Jeff Sparks spends months each winter roaming Thailand. Increasingly drawn to the liberation of a tropical climate and the ease with which Thai people enjoy life, Jeff yearns to feel more involved. Eviction from his U.K. flat by an overbearing local authority propels Jeff to move to Thailand where he soon finds a job teaching English alongside fellow ex-pats in a private Bangkok school owned by a matriarch who regards all the staff as members of her own family. Jeff and the teachers try to establish new lives and families in the Land of Smiles with varying degrees of success over the next two decades. The reader joins Jeff and his friends on their adventures, both humorous and reflective, in rural Thailand and the Bangkok classroom. A graduate of Thai language, the author’s lengthy time in Thailand makes ‘Tales and Travels of a Teacher in Thailand’ an engaging, joyful and insightful personal account of a Westerner abroad.

ebook

Published April 1, 2017

Reviews

[Lizzie Croker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A warm hearted and entertaining read, sharing the adventures to be had in Thailand while employed as a high school teacher. I laughed outloud at some of the situations and personalities that Jeff describes, in the staff room, and out-and-about in Thailand. Always generous in his appraisal of those he meets; Jeff charts the successes and demise of many encounters.