This article discusses English language teaching in Thailand through a biographical case study of a teacher working in a government school in the rural north-east. It explores a particular context of teaching and learning, showing how an individual comes to be a teacher and deals with the day-to-day demands of teaching, as well as reflecting on the place of English in a society where it is a foreign language. The article contends that case studies of this type have the power to illuminate the context of teaching, to enable us to come to a fuller understanding of the demands of being a teacher of English in societies where it is a foreign language, and thus to provide essential data on the realities of teaching in various contexts. This data may then be used to inform centralized programmes to reform English language teaching which at present rarely consult the principal change agents--teachers--prior to their implementation. Curriculum reform programmes in Thailand have been criticized for their lack of impact at the classroom level and the article maintains that, if these programmes are to be effective, they should be based on an understanding of the local contexts of teachers' work.