Cynthia G. Tady

How did you get here?

Cynthia’s story is another case of being in the right place at the right time. This seems to run true for this trio of friends – Suzie, Helen and Cynthia.

Cynthia was in the Philippines, with no thoughts of going to Thailand, when opportunity came knocking on her door – actually, it was at the doors of the university where she was a college professor and teaching some courses for graduate students, at the same time.

How did you get a job at an international school?

A distant relative went to see her to ask if she would be interested to teach in an international school in Bangkok. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but since Cynthia is a mother, and therefore, wants only the best for her family. So to make a long story short, she accepted the job.

From college professor, Cynthia started work at Ruamrudee International School in Bangkok 15 years ago, teaching kindergarten.  From not having the experience to travel outside the Philippines, all of a sudden Cynthia was thrown in the midst of a very foreign culture and an alien language. She was working in a school with students from very varied cultures, and teaching a Western curriculum. To say that she was experiencing culture shock would be the understatement of the century.

Cynthia went home, tickets paid by the school, for Christmas on that first year of her work in Bangkok.

She told her husband she will just finish her contract that first year, but she’s not renewing for the next one.

“Getting a job in an international school in Thailand, nowadays, has become very tough.

you have to care for the people that you work for, because that is one of the famous traits of Filipinos –hospitable, caring, bayanihan trait. 

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