steveromagnino

>>With Non Imm "B" and Work Permit I actually got financed years ago from National Housing Bank for my first property after showing a legal source of income in country. No need for transfer. This probably doesn't apply any longer.

I assume it does; I just got a mortgage with Tanakarn Tanachart and they are saying the same thing; no need for TT3.

Strange that when some sicko tried to molest my brother when we were kids; despite us clearly being non white, and hime being an old white dude, no one noticed or cared - and that was not here.

I can think of many ways in which child molesting takes place around the world; it is well documented in pretty much the whole world that it occurs; so why are so many perpertrators able to get away with it? Mostly the smart ones have stories, gimics and so on to get away with a terrible crime; and in some places it is hard to stop - take all the debate on NAMBLA in the USA for instance, and their up again down again website (according to FOX news, never have had the interest to view it myself). This is not Thai specific; this is a worldwide problem.

However, due to complicity; tourism and other reasons, countries like Thailand can be a magnet, because it is easier to get away with, and it is sometimes possible to still wriggle out even when caught. Plus, from my experience with some foreigners here for the sex trade, they consider Thai people to be inferior, and therefore somehow justify that they are not doing anything wrong as a result - not right, but some people do feel that way.

More vigorous law enforcement will help, but for every major well promoted conviction, it makes the pedos a little more skeptical to come here, sadly the serial pedo will move onto the elsewhere like Cambodia or India, so it solves little.

It is truly tragic for the child though, no question.

as far as I know yes; notwithstanding that only 49% of the shares can be in foreign hands excluding Treaty of Amity which allows up to 100% for Americans only (but presumably does not apply if this is a Thai company).

Process?

Share transfer, money transfer, change in the share holding structure and you might have to submit some forms - I would seriously consider hiring an expert to do this stuff.

I can answer this (as a 1/2 Thai CHinese!)

Upon being naturalised, the Thai Chinese took surnames; and generally converted their existing last name.

However, since each family had to have a unique last name, quickly the common names of the main Chinese last names got used up.

So, then the name started to to have additional syllables added to it, to thus find a unique combination.

I think they had to submit 5 options; and the first one available got selected.

Ironically, my family discovered something similar upon emmigrating to New Zealand. As well as having to pay the poll tax (only levied on Chinese to avoid the yellow peril taking over the joint) they were also told that too many "chinks" had the last name "wong" so they were summarily changed to "Tong" instead; ironically one of the components of the Thai last name.

Still; didn't matter; my grandmother still can't speak a word of english a mere 50+ years later - well - other than the McDonalds menu. No doubt she is right this moment on some Thai or Chinese web board, complaining about all the things she doesn't like about "those Kiwis" who are all out to "rip her off" and she can write about all the "lessons she will teach them" and the like Silly old trout that she is

I too have attended weddings with sin sots I have known to be in the realms of 5m baht and up...however key point is that much of this is often returned (or all of it) to the couple after the marriage...for house purchase, that sort of thing. In general a wealthy family either doesn't need the money; or uses the money to make the husband grow up/take responsibility for things/discourage marriage in the first place....

Minor wives...well yes we all know that ample money might be spent on that sort of thing, but usually not with regards to a sin sot is it!?!

900k is a considerable amount for someone from upcountry; and in general significantly higher than bar the richer city folks (often Thai Chinese) but such an amount is not unheard of.

However, based on what I am hearing here, this does not seem to be the case. And there are not many pick ups costing 900k - in fact - I cannot recall going to a wedding with a pickup presented at all! (ok, some cars along with a bunch of other stuff...but.....)

The problem is the same as Patpong or taxi scams, jewel scams or the like - so many foreigners are willing to pay large amounts, that it becomes common knowledge among some people wanting to take advantage; foreigners wouldn't be asked if there wasn't already a decent stream of foreigners paying.... this may be a family trying to take advantage.

I would suggest that the face saving is one issue (which is often a big deal to upcountry folk) by giving them giving back (and thus "proving" you can look after her); it seems like with this family you are going to be expected to look after them; do not marry into the family if you are not willing to take on that obligation; Mr Farang is right in that point that often particularly the older daughters and sometimes the youngest are expected to look after the parents as they age.

Mr Farang - are you trying to boast that you know little about Thailand because you don't know many "average Thai men" or that you know a massive amount of Thailand and somehow have knowledge the rest of us have missed out on because you don't know many "average Thai men"?! ngong wa

Dear Mr Farang

Please bear in mind that some of the posters in this thread are either

- 100% Thai

- part Thai

- foreigners (mostly farang) who have spent equally long times in Thailand to your good self

- interested learners from a variety of backgrounds

- total losers

- partial losers

- more than one of the above

That is quite a variety, and while you may not share the same goals and dreams regarding what you want in Thai language of all these groups, you should understand that making comments implying that knowing words like too ret and the like are not things to be learned is kind of strange; one of the most satisfying parts of learning a language is to then be able to understand what goes on; and in a lot of conversations with various people, you will hear:

- too ret

- lamok

- dtor lair (or as is currently said, strawberry)

Hmm... I seem to hear all 3 of these words on a fairly regular basis, maybe the people I hang out with are perhaps too common for you who use these words...hmm let's see - senior police, major Thai-Chinese business families, senior civil servants, senior entertainment industry figures - nope, that group don't seem too "common" to me

On the other hand, I do have other groups that I know who would be extremely annoyed to any one of these words...and perhaps these are the type of people you associate with? Certainly no more "common", no better educated, just a different attitude and upbringing.

So...this is a webboard, and while the "majority" that you have decided don't want to learn about profanity may be offended by this thread, well, they don't have to read it do they. For those who do; for whatever reason; this thread is aimed at increasing their knowledge of the Thai language.

Furthermore, regarding transliteration; I am guessing you are a North American - you therefore may be perhaps unaware that the way you speak english is not the same as countries like England, New Zealand, Australia or Singapore.

air in Commonwealth english is pronounced with no R sound. Americans pronounce all the letters, including the R. As I am sure you are well aware, many of the first Thai-english translators had studied in the better universities and schools many moons ago, which were mostly english/british; so they created a transliteration system which reflects that - many of the books on transliteration will translate as follows:

dtor dtao (turtle) = DT (to explain that it is neither a D or a T sound)

Bpor Bplar (fish) = BP (to explain that it is neither a B or a P sound)

or ang = or sound (without the R being pronounced as would be understood by people from NZ, Australia, UK - but would be then mispronounced by people from USA, Canada)

etc

Transliteration does a terrible job and butchers the Thai language because there are sounds in one language that cannot be communicated via transliteration to the other - vowel length for instance, or the sounds like Dt, and Bp.... And the tones are yet another complication.

I respect that you have your own transliteration system, but you should be careful in your negative appraisal of other systems if it is only based on your own personal experience; being that as (I am guessing) a North American, your knowledge of the english language reflects your accent already; and other accents are not the same as yours. There is no "right" transliteration method, and there are ample threads debating this already.

I am delighted to hear that your accent sounds "like music" and have little doubt that you probably have a great understanding of Thai and Thai culture. I too have little doubt from the times I have been honoured to discuss matters with monks that they also would be very interested to hear views on translation from a 17 year old Thai girl - if I learned little else from the short time I have spent in learning about Buddhism; the art of listening is indeed something very important to one's self development.

My pleasure

You would have to expect it to be cheaper, since the cost of labour (and building maintenance is a labour intensive business, from security to cleaning to painting) is much cheaper.

Picking the building is the key thing for a condo; however bear in mind buying a house in a housing estate is much the same; if there are not rules, you end up with the same problems as a condo - no rubbish collection, dirty streets, nappies lying in the gutter, prostitutes and roustabouts on every corne....hold up...maybe payment should be optional based on some of the other posters interests.

Shop houses can also be problematic, with shared walls and so on....

Completely standalone house gets around all of this, but good luck for getting a centrally located one in BKK for a decent price; so you are then left living in the middle of nowwhere or living with pounding noise from 5am - 2am everyday IMHO...

Condo solves many of the problems, and the money saved can easily be invested in shares or similar; or doing what that guy Harmonica says, and shorting oil

Of course, ignore all this if out of BKK, since then the options open right up

Try getting her to make the F sound and hold it....which is just the air going through; then get her to hum at the sound time...there you have it V! That's the way I have taught people to speak english properlee, and that is also the way I know to say, as in your example, dor dek and dtor dtao correctly; just by physically getting it right.

I would write van as wairn in Thai, since that is the correct transliteration. But teaching someone correct english, well then I would not write it in Thai at all and write it in english - point taken though - I think there is no easy or right way early on.

FYI I tried the teaching thing as a chance to give something back to the community; taught for free for a year at a temple school as I was making considerable money working part time at the time, and thought I might as well fill in the rest of my day.

However, I can honestly say, that is a TOUGH job; I could not imagine doing it full time for a long time without coronary problems; I know I teach snowboarding and various sports well enough, and apparently I could teach english ok, but I know the amount of effort put in just was too much. maybe if I feel generous again in future, I might do it again though...it was nice to have a few kids learn some stuff and also to exchange some jokes with them :-)

In general, the money for a condo goes into some sort of sinking fund, (referred to in the country I grew up as the "body corp") which then is supposed to handle lift maintenance, painting the building, 10 year overhaul of plumbing etc etc.

In a nicely run building (e.g. one managed by say LPN, Sansiri, etc) this is charged monthly, usually somewhere in the realm of 30 baht per sq m; and it all works out.

In a badly run building (of which there are countless):

- manageement doesn't charge enough so there isn't enough money to do maintenance

- management pays excessive amounts for work and then runs out of money

- management skims money off or flat our right steals it

- vacant tenants don't pay the body corp leaving the remaining tenants to cover more than their fair share, or go without lifts etc

- excessive charges for water, power, telephone

This results in the building getting worse, which means that people don't want to live there, which makes a worse type of tenant, which means. .... and so on.

In general, the buildings lived in by Thais are looked after at the level AFAIK that the Thais living there expect. Buildings full of foreigners are the ones that can either be really good or really below expectation; most due to the 4threason for badly run buildings.

There are plenty of buildings that are well run to choose from, but of course, these tend to be the ones with few units for sale; and buying new it is difficult to know how things are going to turn out. The nice gym and so on are all possibly not self sustaining, and are the first things to go into disrepair. Based on what I've seen of the developments selling well in the mid-market level such as the Ananta project on Ratchada or the Kris further up, they've given up and instead have the gym as a tenant with apartment owners just receiving a slightly better rate and a first year free as a member. Mind you these are 50k a m properties.

I recommend buying 2nd hand or buying new from an established developer with a trackrecord of looking after the properties such as Sansiri AFAIK who do a good job, if the maintenance bit is a big deal.

From what I have seen, with a half decent manager, the costs for a 2 bedroom for a westerner (and resultant usage of aircon, hot water, kitchen) would be something like this:

- fee when the property was first bought going to sinking fun of about 3% assuming 100 sq m (1000 sq ft) = 120,000b

- body corp fee of about 30 baht per sq m; assuming 100sq m = 3000b per month (garbage, cleaning public areas, scum off the pool, etc)

- water (in almost all building separately metered) = maybe 1000b

- power (in almost all buildings separately metered; you should definitely check the rate per unit, as some buildings add a heavy margin on this = guess 3000b

- telephone (in most buildings you can put in a direct line) = 500b fixed

So there you have it..... about 7500b a month for the fixed bits... not so bad.

Taxes are paid when you purchase the unit I think, but there isn't the equivalent you are talking about in Canada. Mind you, you don't have to pay that in NZ either, so this is not a direct apples with apples comparison that you get what you pay for. Canada likes taxing people, some other places don't. But nevertheless, you should choose the building carefully, or you may get less than what you pay for (which is already not going to be much).

"Guess she thought the apartment was "bad luck" after her "accident"."

If i read this right, you are implying to organise a hit on someone?! Seriously, do you know some of the people around here and who they are connected to?! Hopefully I am reading this wrong

Legally, he has most likely given up interest, since he cannot take an interest in the land as a foreigner. He may have been wise enough to arrange a contract with an interest in the house, but then again why not just ask nicely and try to resolve it LIKE A HUMAN, rather than one of the Sopranos..

Richard -

at a guess you are American or Canadian.. therefore the word air you actually say the R in it. If you were from NZ, Aussie, England etc it would come across without the R sound.

Therefore, the word fairn; I would write it fairn, I know exactly how it sounds, and yes in that case it does sound and rhyme with fan, ban, man, but if later on I wrote ma, you would probably say that to rhyme with car, lah, fah; whereas in actuality using the fan system of transliteration, it should be said as the Thai word for mother, which I would have written as mair (which is a fairly standard transliteration of sara air)....it all gets far too complex and is a good reason why anyone who is even slightly serious about speaking Thai needs to learn to spell, or forever will get the vowel lengths, tones, and exact vowel pronounciation wrong from time to time. And of course get completely screwed up with dor dek and dtor dtao or bor baimai and bpor bplar...

Regarding teaching english using Thai transliteration; I see no more similarity between F sound and W sound to V... and a fair few europeans interchange the W and the V round the wrong way (e.g. is it vell icy in the walley)... better to instruct someone how to say it right by forcing them to manually construct the shape of their mouth to get it right first time.

Same for the ends of words; and especially plurals.

It is much the same for the butchering of Thai by westerners (including myself). Some words I know to use Dtor Dtao for instance, but I honestly cannot hear the difference when some people speak with the rhyming word using dor dek; nevertheless I know when to use which and I make my mouth form the shape right; out it comes and people say I am saying something right that I cannot hear any difference in. Mind you, I am tone deaf from too much drum and bass, so that is probably a lesson in itself.

Limited use of writing Thai helps get over a few humps probably; longer term, teaching the right way to say things is probably best.

And having volunteered to teach english for a few terms at a temple school... if you cannot speak Thai I think you'd have to be a gifted comedian or similar to teach well at a level below about beginner-intermediate, and especially for kids. To keep things interesting, in sport, or whatever, there have to be a few wins and fun along the way; doing phsysical comedy would be one way; learning a few jokes and translating them, or songs and explaining the meaning is another. But then again, I am not a good english teacher, I am sure of that much!

Just to be clear, I used to have a work permit to work in USA, but it expired. Previously I had from time to time played with the house band at the hotel I worked at. I was terrible, but they needed the help :-)

Anyway, after my legal status expired (I think it was a J1 Visa or something) the hotel would not let me play anymore; even though I was not getting paid. They pointed out that playing regularly and possibly receiving tips (even though they were not in control of that) could be construed as work; they could be construed as employers and therefore I could not play anymore. They were worried about a visit from the INS or my claim against them should I suffer an accident in the workplace (and theoretically that I could persue a case that they had engaged me to work for them in return for the possibility of earning tips and/or assisting others to generate income. I was just doing it for fun!

All this utter rubbish and drivel I read all the time on threads like this about Thais and Thailand. Please also expand to read... Thais and Thailand and Americans And USA. TIT indeed - I think not... please write TITAUSA.

Thanks.

er... no.

But by virtue of having Thai blood and relatives (although not having a Thai mother nor being born in Thailand) I have also been told that if I am granted residency, then I can immediately apply for citizenship; after 3 years of work permits or some other such thing. This advised to me by the immigration dept and also some police guy from that big place near Siam where they do this sort of thing. Apparently I have to do it this way, otherwise I may get asked to do military service or some such thing. I've completed some forms and stuff, so I assume it is under processing now, but it apparently does take some time.

All rather mysterious, but suffice to say that by the time they call me in for the meeting about the citizen stuff, then probably I will have already settled, but I won't have reached the point of paying the mortgage off and getting rid of the claim from the bank.

Hence my belief that by the time I finish paying the mortgage off, I'd be very surpirsed if I wasn't a citizen at that point, so I am not so worried then, I am more worried about a week or so from now when I show up at the property registry.

None of my family (on the Thai side) have a clew about this either.... we're all equally inept and confused!

that is sort of along the lines of what the banks said; but at the same time as doing this I am also sorting out my citizenship which should come through eventually, so I really have no intention of ever selling the place I have bought.

While this forum is really helpful, there seem to be times when people have odd circumstances and there doesn't seem to be a direct answer here; and it is especially since I have found threads that say I cannot get a mortgage here as a foreigner with a local bank, yet the 2 I bothered to pursue to the point of application both said yes and both claimed I did not need the tor tor 3 (which apparently has been eliminated and replaced with some other form) since the bank had a claim on the property and was providing the funding. I cannot find a person who has both a mortgage and has raised the TT3 issue.

So I am honestly mystified; I struggle to believe that the bank would lend me money if the property cannot be put in my name (which is what the intend to have me do on the day of settlement, while they then put a claim on it.)

Who knows?! Anyone? Anyone?> (shades of the teacher in Ferris Bueller)

I have a question then...

I am getting a mortgage as a foreigner for a condo with a local bank, and they keep telling me that I will not need a Tor Tor 3, because this is a mortgage and they are fronting up with the money (agreed, only 55%, but still....).

I have asked them and the other 2 banks that were willing to lend to me (goodness knows why!) and they all said the same thing.

When I rock on up to the property registry, I am completely unsure if there is someone going to say, "Nong Krub. Tor Tor sairm nong yoo nai" or not?!

If anyone has done it this way, can you advise, because everything I am being told is the opposite of this board; does having the mortgage make a difference or not?!

Thanks