Gecko123

The more they try to increase the appeal of these high cost so-called "elite" visas by reducing the annual paperwork required, the less incentive they have to streamline the paperwork for visas which are renewed on an annual basis. Depressing. Thailand needs to understand that the only way retirees are going to spend more money here is if they have confidence that the goal posts aren't going to be moved down the road. How they expect people to loosen up their purse strings when clouds of uncertainty about future visa requirements (medical insurance, bank deposits, discontinuation of visa programs) hang over everyone's head, is beyond me. Retirees already are confronted with plenty of uncertainty stemming from non-visa issues: (currency exchange, future viability of entitlement programs in the West, future returns on investments, long-term care, etc.). Thailand needs to lose its bean-counter mentality, and take a more humanistic approach to its retirement visa program.

My well-thumbed Thai dictionaries.

When I read that "many sex abuse cases that the foundation sees involve perpetrators who work as security guards, and people who hire security guards should more carefully vet security guards when hiring them" I thought for sure there must have been something lost in translation. I tracked down the Thai language article which did indeed say the same thing. https://www.khaosod.co.th/around-thailand/news_6834312 "นางปวีณา กล่าวว่า ระยะหลังมีหลายเหตุการณ์กรณีล่วงละเมิดทางเพศที่ผู้กระทำผิดเป็น รปภ. ซึ่งรปภ.เป็นผู้รักษาความปลอดภัย ควรจะต้องตรวจสอบประวัติให้ดีก่อนเข้ารับทำงาน เพื่อจะได้ไม่เป็นอันตรายกับผู้อื่น" The reason I thought this might have been a translation error is because I had never heard of a statistical correlation between the security guard occupation and sex offenses against children, although it is probably true that this occupation does attract a disproportionate number of individuals with low educational levels and prior criminal histories. I would point out that while the perpetrator in this case may have been a security guard, the sexual assault against the child wasn't committed while he was on duty or in connection with his employment as a security guard. It happened while he was looking after his step-grand kid(s). While vetting security guards is no doubt important, it would seem that carefully vetting anyone put in a position of child care, regardless of what occupation they held, would be of even greater importance.

"Doc, My foot hurts when I squeeze it like this." Doc: "Stop squeezing your foot."

I took the OP as self-deprecating humor, which I tried to riff on with my post. All of the feelings I described in my post were "real" but they were greatly exaggerated for humorous effect.

My post was totally tongue-in-cheek and light-hearted as well.

I know exactly how you feel, you're not alone, brother. Are you as proud as I am about how quickly and efficiently you can place an order? Do you get as excited as I do tracking a package as it gets closer and closer to the house? Are you ever disappointed if a package arrives sooner than expected and prematurely cuts short your anticipation? What a buzzkill, right? And when all your deliveries are "completed" and that 'darkness-at-noon' feeling starts creeping in? The sight of flattened cardboard boxes and bubble wrap in the trash bin making you twitchy like you you need a fix? You get all restless, start fidgeting, maybe snap at the wife for no good reason? And you know no matter how hard you try, the only thing that's gonna make that feeling go away is placing another Shopee order!!!

I feel more accepted in my village than anywhere I've ever lived. I would say humble living, having a vegetable garden, and not causing problems are keys to success. Certainly doesn't mean I'm loved by every last person in town, but I'm friends with a number of the puu yais, the gam nam, the amphoe manager, the postman, the local cops, quite a few farmers and most of my immediate neighbors. I have found older Thai men in my age range to be the most genuinely friendly. (We talk about farming, the economy, exchange health tips, etc.) I talk to the local women (mostly about gardening and food, sometimes village scuttlebutt), but I have to say that another key to getting along and being accepted in a village is to avoid getting overly friendly or flirtatious with anyone's wife or girlfriend. ????

I'm not trying to be a pain in your backside Eric, but the above video is about 99% standard Thai, which is what you learn in Thai language classes and through book study. The only conversational components in the video which you might not pick up in the class room are the conversational flourishes and expletives and the small amount of informal/slang terms. But there's no way a non-native student is going to pick up on this without first having a solid foundation in standard Thai. That's why I take exception to your complaints that formal study is of little value because "people don't talk like that in real life." Also, you keep talking about being ridiculed for using vocabulary learned in language class. I've never had that experience, ever.

To Thai Language Coach @EricTh: Don't quit your day job.

From what I can gather the You-tube "reality TV" lifestyle, with the constant pressure to perform, produce new content, attract viewers and subscribers, exposing your vulnerabilities and exposing yourself to viewer criticism in the process, is pretty unsustainable. Your life eventually reverts to the mean, people lose interest, revenue goes down, you age. The whole focus seems to be on experiencing things and image, with little time for true inner personal growth or any activities which don't make for good content. A lot of pressure on the couple too, especially if one partner feels under constant pressure to mug in front of the camera, and play the hot/loving girlfriend or boyfriend role. Travel can be stressful enough without a camera constantly in your face. I've noticed more than a few of these travel vloger couples end up splitting up. The Gabrielle Petito/Brian Laundrie murder/suicide may be an extreme example, but it does illustrate the pressures which can come with the "influencer"/travel vlog lifestyle.

Call your immigration office and see if you can get a medical exception/one day extension and at least get it documented that you alerted immigration to the problem before your visa expired. Yesterday I called immigration because I had a problem where my 90 day report (including grace period) has to be filed by January 21, but with my annual retirement visa expiring Feb 21rst, the earliest date I could renew my retirement visa (30 days beforehand) was January 24th. By calling immigration and explaining the situation, they agreed to allow me to renew my visa on Feb 21st, which is technically earlier than 30 days beforehand. Not saying the same latitude will be shown in OP's case, but worth a shot.

For the first year of study I used phrase books and language tapes which were the only resources available to me at the time. To learn how to read, write, and pronounce the 77 odd consonants and vowels, memorize how the tone marks affect the different consonant classes, to understanding how vowel length and live and dead vowels affect the tone? Took you all of two weeks, eh? It took me well over a year just to gain a reasonable degree of confidence that I understood and could consistently apply the tone rules, write clearly, recite the alphabet, quickly look up words in a dictionary, etc. Claiming that you accomplished this in less than a month beggars belief.

Virtually impossible for non-native students to become proficient in pronunciation or build extensive vocabulary without first learning the alphabet and tonal system. I used the Benjawn Poomsan Becker books and tapes and Mary Haas' Thai-English Student Dictionary. The advantage here is that they both use the same phonetic alphabet for pronunciation. All the transliteration guides I've seen are unreliable and will impede progress beyond the phrase book level. Almost all advanced Thai dictionaries will assume the user can read Thai, so without the writing system under your belt, vocabulary acquisition and retention will be painfully slow. I started seriously studying Thai at the age of 40 while still living in America, and continued studying until I moved here at age 50. The number of times over the years when I have been grateful for having put in the effort are too numerous to count. The two caveats I would offer are that some Thais will try and take advantage of you no matter how good your Thai is. It just doesn't register with some people that being able to speak Thai means you've been around the block a few times. I would also say that nowadays, especially in the larger cities, many Thais will try to buffalo you into speaking English with them by claiming they can't understand your Thai no matter how good your Thai is. The tug of war over what language you are going to speak and who has the better command of which language can sometimes be tiresome, unlike in years past when so few Thais spoke any English at all. It's also a total myth that you can easily pick up the language "under the sheets" or by moving to a small village where no one speaks English. I don't think there's any substitute for getting a solid foundation by cracking the books either through language classes or self-study. Due to social distancing during Covid, the opportunities to engage in casual conversations are much more limited, so in the past two years my Thai has really slipped quite a bit, just from disuse. I do enjoy studying languages a lot and I have been studying French virtually every single day for the past several years. I do subscribe to the belief that language study is good for the brain.

You are 100% correct itsari, and bravo to you for having the guts to speak up. Just look at the ridicule and humiliation this guy has been subjected to on this thread. It causes people to hide in shame when this happens, which is another reason why this cycle of financial abuse continues. People write this off as "stupidity" and "gullibility" without taking into consideration that cultural disorientation, and outright fraud often play a prominent role in this activity.

1,000 x 24 months does not add up to 200K. There's a good chance that a portion of the money was paid in some sort of lump sum for a specific purpose. If this was a case of the guy being strung along for a few years at 1000 baht a pop, the police would tell him it was not a criminal matter and he should pursue his claim in civil court. The claim that at least some of the money was given for the specific purpose of "arranging documents" makes this a potential case of fraud, which the police are obligated to investigate. Putting the pressure of potential prosecution on the girl is probably the guy's best chance to recoup his money. All the schadenfreude here is a just a vain attempt to mask the truth that much the same thing has happened to plenty of guys on this forum. It's rather sad (and telling) that Thai expats are so unsupportive of one another.

Interesting case... He's claiming that the money was neither a gift, an engagement gift, or sin sod. It was money paid for a specific commercial purpose: arranging documents at an embassy, which she failed to do. He's saying that contract law should apply, not marital property law. Clever argument.

@Gilligan In Drag I enjoyed reading the anecdotes you shared in your post. I could relate to most of them, including the sense of not belonging back in the US as well. Back home, those social slights always felt personal and mean-spirited, as if one was being deliberately excluded or marginalized, but for some reason I rarely take it personally when it happens here. I let it roll off my back here because it never seems mean-spirited or malicious. The one exception I can think of was a few years back I had a running feud with some neighbors down the road over loud music. Sometime not long afterwards they had a ngan buat (ordination) celebration which everyone in the neighborhood, except me, was invited to. That hurt my feelings to a certain degree, but the truth was, I probably wouldn't have gone anyway, even if I had been invited.

From what I've seen, there's not a ton of conversation during meal times even with just Thais present. After eating, the guys break off into a group to shoot the breeze, maybe with after dinner drinking. After cleaning up, the women form a second group, chatting among themselves, waiting on the guys, maybe doing a little light drinking themselves. The other guy was his wife's brother. If he came from a rural background, he probably had little to no experience interacting with foreigners, and even if there wasn't a language barrier, the usual topics of conversation for rural guys runs to tractor repair, price of corn, crop yields, weather reports, insect infestations, local gossip, cock fighting, etc. Some Thai guy's are extremely reserved and quiet no matter who's in the room. The brother's wife probably couldn't go overboard trying to make conversation with Kenny out of concern that she was flirting with another man in front of her husband, or trying to steal her sister-in-law's husband. Unless the OP has some dietary restrictions, preparing and eating his own meals separately from the house guests sounds like a serious faux pas to me. I think a lot of Thais would be privately offended by that. OP needs to work on his Thai. In the meantime, encourage the wife to play translator and conversation starter/hostess role. At the very least, OP could play court jester by constantly asking house guests to teach him Thai words for at-hand objects.

OP mentions several aspects of his social life in UK: no wife or kids, given up on dating, very few friends. Presumably he is hoping to improve his prospects by moving to Thailand, which is certainly a possibility. But I would gently point out that Covid has changed the social climate in Thailand, as it has around the world. In my opinion, Covid has greatly diminished the opportunities for social and romantic engagement here in Thailand. I, personally, have been contemplating relocating from Thailand for quite some time now, but until there is greater visibility about Covid, I'm staying put, erring on the side of prudence. I know there are those that argue "you've got to get on with your life" and "you can't let Covid stop you from living." Only time will tell which approach was best.

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Gotta tip my hat to you, brother. Looks like you've gone full Colonel Kurtz. That's immersed. Respect.

There is a couple down the road from me that fits this description. I think the guy may have realized he was gay years after he got married. Anyway, instead of trying to hook me up with his wife, every time I go to their noodle shop, he's wiggling his eyebrows, winking, blowing air kisses, and asking me when I'm going to come with him "to inspect the manoic." What am I doing wrong?

I think you are grossly over-stating the extent of racial animus, Sheryl. Most of those antagonisms are class related rather than based strictly on skin-tone. It's 'I am better than you because I can tell (by your sun bronzed skin) that you come from the agrarian class and I'm from the mercantile or upper class.' That caste system might be more pronounced in Bangkok, but upcountry I've never seen Thai-on-Thai mistreatment based solely on skin-tone.

I'll bet you and Tubby Johnson can't even speak Thai. LOL