Kitbaikitmah

To be honest....NOTHING will prepare you for the chaos that is working in the Thai education system! Just come here, get your feet wet, dont stress the small stuff. To be able to live here successfully you kind of mmmmm....how do I put this...need to dumb yourself down a little. If you expect things to work in a logical way like in the west you will get frustrated very easily. People have a strange way of going about doing things here. I am used to it but some people just cant handle it and eventually leave. If you are expecting 'German efficiency' as a workmate of mine once did.....you may as well not come. Thai's can be alot of fun to work with as long as you just go with the flow. Let them screw up and sit back and marvel at how....somehow, eventually things get done!

Utterly agree. Reading the above post will save you many wasted hours searching.
Prep....arrive....then survive thinging on your feet

I always carry a copy of my passport photo page visa stamp and abode...with 5x100B notes ( in 2x200 plus a 100 for leverage). My homemade insurance policy.
From my experiance, most local traffic coppers are happy with the copies. The Baht notes ease the process.
More than happy to provide my original passport....nothing to hide....but it will take me a number of hours to get from the bike hire shop.
Perhaps I should opt for the 5kB deposit plus a passport copy on the bike......actually it makes more sense.
Am learning.

Cool and important post OP-er.

Had recent annual check...elevated cholestrol with a noticeable mid-section spread. Now my diet is. 30% fruit, 40% veg, 20% carbs and 10% meat. I now home cook so control the added sugar, salt and oil..My life style is sedate.

Currently I am winning, reduced bodyfat generally but the spread is going slowly. My daily excercising is starting to show through as I lose the fat.. I think the excercise keeps me 'younger-more able' but the diet sheds the excess.

Best of luck....I think its a long term

game for us older guys..slowly, surely over time, no suddened impacts

Teaching English overseas developes a unique skill set.....pros and cons.
For youngish people: adaptability, ability to self-govern etc etc.
Counters the 'playboy' backpacker impression.
For the not so young people: dilligent, actively contributing etc etc.
Counters the 'long-stay 'playboy'' impression.

For a job application, you promote your strengths.

IMHO and experiance....teaching English in Asia should be mandatory for western management level candidates!

Succesfully teaching English (in Asia) requires, atleast, management level skills.

Ofcourse it depends on the job you are aiming for.
Any job involving people...you have a proven skill set.
A post at NASA....'taught in Thailand'...best to avoid embarressment

Again, the ability to teach English overseas isn't a rut... its a global passport for a lifetime of travel and adventure.

Ask my UK banking friends..lots of dosh, but still in the red, etc etc....zero freedom.
I teach English in exotic locations across the globe, year after year...my life is rich.

A very serious development....how many others ( with the capability) will now copy the same tactic to further/highlight their cause/political agenda.

Black market SAM prices most have 'skyrocketed' in the last 24 hours

The most distrubing aspect of this article is the initial test and measure of your cultural adaptation to thailand and the mental doubt that 'can' follow whilst weighing your local ex:periance against logical critical thinking.

April 1st same same but different in LOS.

Anybody want to go partners on a right-hand-drive motorcycle refit shop - must speak thai and able to relocate rapidly and frequently - amazing earnings potential.

What date is today?

Also why worry, a significant number of local drivers seem to be trying to master right-hand driving without the added cost of a refit.

Mmm..next April 1st centre lanes will be reserved mobile users and tourists?

Feels like rain is coming in chiang mai...? Maybe the blackhole is working 'orn' to thai eggheads.

Omg looks like they are low-level seeding as I text.

Now we have rain! ... orn orn orn

Now t:heres a niche. No electric and a blistering summer on the cards.

Anybody want to buy my spare solar mobile charger? Clips to a backpack etc.

Bugger me, should had brought a stack of them....live and learn!

A few years ago whilst staying in a CNX gh , a huge 'skinhead' type Serbian did a runner owing a months rent. He had used a photocopy of his passport.

The landlady reported it. Two days later Immigration and 'others' turned up and checked her records. They said the guy was on thier wanted list and made her promise to submit a detailed guest list everyday. Which she faithfully honoured.

A guy would come round each morning, collect yesterdays form and leave a new form to be filled in.

Months later after returning from Laos, in the same gh, reception where called by the consulate asking to speak to me (family emergency-go home asap). The consulate had found me via the guest reporting system and so I was able to say goodbye to my farther.

This system is priceless for safety and emergencies. It should be strictly enforced.

Mmmm...me thinks that it would be a clever cicada and mantis ruse to rattle both Koreas so the big boys can square off to each other with proxy justification, in prep for a future maritine clash once China decides to breach America's pacific picket ring.

Or...maybe should stop playing Master of the World and starting digging a bunker stocked with mama noodles and sam song. Plus a big sign on the door written in chinese 'Beware. Thai Wife.'

Oh dear...a warning between the lines: mass migration of first-time car buyers during samsong kran.

Wonder what the hospital occupancy points are projected to rise by?

I wonder...what is the proportion of 'wringing-hands' to 'shaking-hands' with the prospect of such a huge five project?

Spend a bit of time in HK. They won't touch mainland produce with a barge pole. 'Don't buy, don't eat. Fake and dangerous' _they say.

You will see scores of grey-marketeering mainlanders filling suitcases will HK freeport western produce.

They then carry a couple of suitcases each to the mainland where people don't trust local H&S and quality but are willing to pay higher prices because they have confidence in western goods.

The situation (on the mainland) is so bad that the grey-marketeers can buy from the high street shops (at HK high street counter prices not wholesale prices) and still make it a profitable venture.

BTW HK last year had problem with mainland eggs when the buyers opened the shipment...it was full of plastic imitation eggs. Also imported soup stock made with surplus milk powder!

From the centre of chaing mai you can't see doi supthep.

Doi Supthet is a bloody mountain with chiang mai at its base..

Bugger this, I 'm off to Singapore till it rains.

Chin chin chaps

Why shouldn't they cheat? Why wouldn't they? They have gone through school and Uni ...now have a chance for a job-for-life and status for loans and in society.

Teachers are conduits transferring knowledge from past and present into the future.

Teachers caught cheating...fail the grade...how can you teach students to be successful if you get caught yourself.

The article reads like a common above average lower mathyom assignment.

Rewritting the question (10 for comprehension)

Cut and paste. (5 for research, 0 for supported insightful analysis and argument leading to conclusion)

Left-field conclusion based on MY culture (20 for perception of own reality...priceless insight for the teacher)

Writes name in English (5)

Five paragraph essay with intro topics and conclusion (10)

Total: 50 (pass)

Next paper, no name...ahem!

I was generous but for what reason were 30+ points lazily wasted? (analyse the key words..always!)

Could somebody please define a cheap-charlie from a thai buisness view point.

I have been called this when I declined a massage because I just didn't want one. Another time a thai bar-owner said this when he saw tourist buying beer from the next door 7-11.

I worry I am inadvently offending local sensibilities, please advise because if I don't have 20k in spare change then local people will not need (nor want) me here...very distressing in such a polite friendly and peaceful culture with people that smile so much

Maybe I am wrong but...doesn't this article distill down to 'A group of Americans think Bangkok is the third most preferred city to spend one night in'

Putting into practice their Rosetta Stone tutorial 'dry-runs' ?

Work to be done on two night stays...maybe the yanks are smarter than europeans give them credit for?

At what point did the officer address the rip-offs and scams? He just reviewed the offical 'rules' without addressing the unoffical 'creative' ones. This the work of a politician not a policeman.

I wonder what the chinese make of this....oh nevermind...because within a decade or two thailand will finally be colonised instead of being annexed by proxy.