richard_smith237

At my age and with so few teeth, my wife now chews my grapes first Wife tried ‘treading’ mine !... ..... forgot I wasn’t wearing the mirrored sunglasses in the mall !!!...

Violence of any kind is unacceptable.... this would be in an ideal word. The issue of course is that many of us recognise the realities of life and that we do not live in an idea world. I would like to argue that there is never any need for violence, but there are scenarios in which I would not hesitate to use violence - but these are extreme scenarios and not involving children or in a school. A school environment has to be a safe place for children - violence of any kind cannot be tolerated or sanctioned in a school, even in extreme situations. Is violence ever accepted in an civilised adult work place ????.... Why should it ever be accepted in a school ?

You obviously have no experience of, understanding of or exposure to schools such as Bangkok Patatana, Harrow Bangkok, NIST, ISB, Bangkok Patana, Shrewsbury, St Andrews, Bangkok Prep..... .... Just to name a handful which are all head and shoulders above the average comprehensive schools in the UK. I have a child at one of the above mentioned schools. I have friends and family in the UK who’s children go to good comprehensive schools in good area’s of the UK... the Bangkok International Schools are just a lot lot better at what they do.... (IMO). I also have family who’s children are at Private Schools in the UK - in having discussions with parents and the students the standards appear comparable to the International Schools listed above.

I think there is a higher risk of contracting covid or any illness in any built up area.... Is there even a true handle on how much covid there is out there and where it is ??? So many people now contract Covid-19 and treat it as a cold (we did and just stayed away from everyone). I don’t think blaming people for travelling is fair. Perhaps people could take an ATK when they arrive where they at their destination, just to be sure. We did recently (when travelling in from the UK) and given the queue at security and general airport chaos, and transit chaos and queue numbers I’m amazed we didn’t catch covid !!! (again). But, really, where do we draw the line now ????...... Of course, risk doesn’t disappear, but Covid is not the risk it once was. Is it not time to move on ? I’m sure there are people who fall gravely ill from covid, but there are also people who are falling gravely ill from influenza, food poisoning and many other factors.... In perspective, is Covid-19 still a magnitude of severity greater than other illnesses ???

No thats what he’s written or implying at all - he is recognising that the issue may not be as black and white as many of us like to believe. We are after all dealing with an imperfect system that doesn’t suit every child. Given your response it can be interpreted that your reading comprehension has suffered... did your school fail you ????

I suspect that is always a possibility, but one a good school and teacher has experience of and can deal with. At my sons school there are kids who are from overwhelmingly wealthy backgrounds... Family backgrounds many of you on this forum will have heard of... Owners of Major Shopping Malls and huge companies.... Some of these children are undoubtedly spoiled at home, we’ve been away on holidays with some of these families. There is a range in how the children are treated by the parents... some parents simply give the child everything they want, give into their every whim... whereas other parents are clearly more responsible and are grounding their children as much as possible. For the most part, the kids are lovely, even the ones who are completely spoiled by their parents - usually when they are that spoiled they are only behaving like this at home. Good teachers set their own standard in the class room, the children know this. Obviously as the children age and they realise the power their extremely wealthy parents have and they may attempt to flex - however, a good school will not worry about dealing with this. The top schools can be selective - there are waiting lists. Some extremely wealthy and powerful families are waiting for a couple of years to get their children into their preferred school. The parents had to fight and wait to get their children in the school... they will not wish to compromise this position with their child misbehaving.

As confusing as "teachers" always are. You are entirely happy to take money from the fascists of the Thai education system, but not to enrol your precious ones, or to even try to change/fix the fascist system. Excellent example of sheer hypocrisy. I hope your beloveds grow up and make you try to explain all that, which you cannot. He [SoilSpoil] cannot change the system he can only improve his lot. Its not hypocritical at all that he has worked in the Thai Governments schools, recognises their flaws and instead chooses to home school his child. It could be argued that this is an extremely sensible thing to do. Hopefully SoilSpoil's child will grow up with a decent enough education that he doesn’t embarrass himself and jump to such sanctimonious and pathetic judgements that you have just made !!!!

Perhaps flatulance is also an issue.... mask wearing clearly protects riders behind from breathing the flatulate left downstream from riders up ahead..... I think that adequately covers the issue of ‘dilution’ in open air with regards to Covid-19....

Unless freedom of movement is stopped there is always a risk of transmission anywhere, as there is transmission of any respiratory disease. Your comment simply reads that you have a chip in your shoulder about those from Bangkok for some reason. Can someone from your village tranmit the virus to those in another village?.... y’know the only people who cop it and get covid in other smaller villages is from stupid people coming from your village not wearing a mask ??? or is it only blamed on Bangkok ? I think you get my point there - mask wearing may help, but is not the sole prevention method. Vaccines and antibodies are a major factor and how many people in your village who 'copped it’ were vaccinated ??

Answer is simple, you are almost 6 times more likely to die from flu, pneumonia, and other respiratory disease than a motorcycle accident. Flu's are contagious and accidents are not Over 31,000 people die each year from flu and pneumonia, 5500 from motorcycle accidents. https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/thailand-influenza-pneumonia Edited 3 hours ago by Skallywag A utterly flawed comparison to the point of being quite silly... ... Not one person in Thailand evaluates the risk of not wearing a facemask vs the risk of not wearing a helmet on the basis of a World Wide statistic that they are 6x more likely to die from a respiratory illness. Additionally - your '6x more likely figure’ includes aggregate whole population numbers world wide and as such the comparison is fundamentally flawed... not even an apples vs oranges comparison but rather and apples vs eggs !!!.... IF you want to provide less flawed and distorted statistic you would perhaps consider a direct comparison: - Risk of Motorcyclists in Thailand dying from a respiratory illness vs risk of a motorcyclist not wearing a helmet dying in an accident.... I think then when you achieve an accurate stat for that comparison you’ll find that motorcyclists who do not wear helmets in Thailand are at a far higher risk of dying than those who do not wear face-masks.

A perfect example... a humdinger of fookwittery !!!!!

My son goes to a top international school in Thailand - I agree with everything you have written. That said, teachers at the top international schools are also under the microscope, high standards are expected and their performance as teachers is monitored closely. I also consider it my role as a parent to ensure that my son understands the standards expected of him while at the same time giving him the freedom to make his own informed and educated choices. I know a number of teachers at International schools here, some at the top International Schools, some at Mid-range international schools and some at Schools I’ve never heard of. The standards of those individuals differ, those at the top schools are rarely joining late for a beer after football on weeknight, whereas we see those at the ‘lower-tiered’ schools often staying late and calling in sick the next day etc.... the behaviour is notable. To a T, all the teachers I know who work at reputable internationals schools here find the actual job of teaching in a classroom far easier here than in the UK where discipline is often an issue. Teachers at the reputable internationals schools here do no need to be disciplinarians for the reasons you [Gecko123] highlight, they can spend quality time actually teaching, they are also provided the tools required that international school fees bring to a school. Are teachers at internationals schools better teachers ?.... (which seems to be something some may allude to as pointed out in your post), no, I don’t think so, but its easier for them to do a better job of ‘educating’. An excellent teacher will be an excellent teacher at whatever school they are at. Meanwhile those who are not at the top of their game are likely to find it easier at a renowned international school than at a government school which faces many of the issues you [Gecko123] highlighted. Teaching is a calling, many are natural born teachers and those who are find little need to discipline children, in many cases their presence and enthusiasm is sufficient. It seems to the ‘poorer quality’ teachers who lack the skills to engage children and students, they end up resorting to desperate methods because they lack the skills otherwise.

Agreed.... but thats at the local immigration office. Immigration at the airport have no interest in TM30 or 90 day reports and thus have no interest in your address or where you’ll be staying unless profiled and singled out for further questioning - which IMO is extremely rare (never happened to me or anyone I know), but reports on this forum suggest some are stopped and asked questions (maybe visa runners etc).

The answer is obvious a big fat no.. Immigration never ask for proof of accommodation. It is only requested that you list your accommodation on the TM6 form, which, if the news is correct has been stopped (but there is conflicting information on this). Immigration couldn’t possibly check the accommodation details of everyone, so its a non-starter. But, if stopped and questioned (for whatever reason) you will obviously need to prove an honest and clear answer - at this stage you are being profiled and if they doubt your response they can double-check if they so wish. For many of us, there is no hotel or booking, we simply go home. If pressed I have a copy of my Tabien Baan (yellow house book with my name in it) which shows my accommodation). But many won’t be travelling in with proof of their rental agreement or home ownership etc...

Ah... the good old fashioned seatbelt reply...... as in “I never wore a seat belt in a car and I’m ok”.... Times were obviously different back then... but that doesn’t make hitting children right or any more acceptable, we (as a society) know better now.

Wrong... Not every country. Wife had 3 months left - Travelling to Japan Thai Airways wasn’t sure if it was ok, I quickly checked the regulations, Japan has no such 6 month stipulation. Airline supervisor checked, check-in made us sign an affidavit just incase then had no issues with us travelling. They told us that if it was a flight for Singapore then they would have rejected travel as Singapore does have a 6 month passport validity stipulation. Thus: its a requirement for some countries, not others.

They couldn't answer my question about leaving the UK on a Thai passport. UK Immigration doesn’t check passports upon departure.... (just a cursory ‘flash’ of ID page at security) - so the validity is a non-issue. For Airline check-in your daughter will show her Thai Passport anyway to show she has permission to enter Thailand.

You have to book when you are in the UK (otherwise the’ll tell you to get an emergency travel document)... BUT... (a Big But).... Make sure there are appointments available - since Covid the HMPO has gone down the drain.... massively under-staffed with so many throwing sickies !!... So, don’t be surprised if you can’t get an appointment - In which case: Just use the Thai Passport to return, then apply for the British Passport from Thailand (then it doesn’t matter if it takes 12 weeks or so).

A good set of answers so far... You can get the Thai Passport in one day - make an online booking rather than turning up as the queue is a long one (they have a passport office at Seacon or at Lumpini MRT). You can (or could up until Covid) also get the UK passport in one day while in the UK. You have to call up for a booking and state that you have a flight out etc. You’ll pay a premium (cost is £177) for the one day service and have to go there in person, drop off in the morning and pick up in the afternoon. https://www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently/online-premium-service

Why singling out the British ???..... I think when generalising the is a trend of many counties where many of their nationals seem to have ‘anti-mask’ opinions.... some seem to have more people who see themselves as protesting free-thinkings who are not taken in by mainstream media and question everything... unfortunately that means they question the science too !!! Unfortunately, some of the masks rules also went and still go too far... on the beach for example, and whenever outside also while riding a motorcycles etc... in a car with the same family members... its just ridiculous... Conversely, wearing masks on a flight or on the BTS or in a Taxi is a perfectly reasonable requirement at the moment...

I remember being in Scratch Dog.... (15 years ago or so at a guess (for you oldies & millennials !!! its was a club under the Windsor hotel on Suk Soi 20)... Crowded... We found an area near the fire escape. I deliberately leaned against the fire-door bar, which opened the door. I nearly got kicked out - but I felt better. I recall at a similar time there was a club up on the 4th or 5th floor.. only one way in and out, a narrow stair well... that stairwell was crowded going up to the bar. I refused to go in, friends objected and wanted to go. I didn’t care, I was happy to go home instead - we went elsewhere. Levels on Soi 11 used to seem risky, at least it was open air for a lot of it, but it was accessed via a lift - I don't recall seeing the emergency exits, but being a hotel there must be some... erm.. right ?? I imagine there are so many places which fail at the very first steps of fire safety - its fortunate there are not more incidents.

It would make for an interesting study as the choice to wear a helmet for safety reasons implies an understanding of risk, someone with a better understanding of risk may ride more safety. Thus: In countries like Thailand where helmet wearing is more of a choice than it is enforced It is possible that there is a correlation between helmet wearing and accident rate. Thus, in many cases, particularly self caused accidents, whether someone is in an accident perhaps has more to do with mindset than the actual wearing of helmet. Then there could be the opposite effect whereby if someone is wearing a helmet or even all the gear, they may ride more assertively and perhaps this places them at greater risk of an accident. Then there is the type of motorcycle one is riding, a large more expensive bike is more noticeable by other traffic and is often ridden by more experienced riders where as any newbie gets on a scooter. Once the surface of this subject is scratched the relationship becomes multifaceted..... But, as far as helmet wearing goes... its clear that someone who doesn’t wear a helmet believes an accident won’t happen to them...

Statements such as this is why this thread has degenerated into an argument about how many Thai’s were actually wearing masks before Covid-19... when people make sweeping generalisations such as ’no one wore masks....’ or something similar... A minority of Thai’s have been wearing masks for decades against pollution, we would see some pedestrians or motorcyclists around wearing a mask... but certainly not the majority, not even close. The reason the majority people are now still wearing masks in Thailand is simply because of social conformity. There may be some who continue to choose to do so because of air-polution, but the vast majority continue to wear a mask simply because its ’still the done thing’. In other countries such as Japan, most wear masks for hygiene reasons out of social responsibility, i.e. whoever anyone has a cold, even minor, they’d wear a mask. Additionally, it was never uncommon to see Japanese wearing masks on flights as a form of protection. Tokyo is an incredibly clean city, air pollution is very low - this is not the reason some wear masks. In China, Yes, Air-polution is a significant reason people would wear masks.

Agreed... So.. how many hospitals and hotels are also using this cheaper material ??? (this is like Grenfell disaster - poorer cheaper materials and somewhere someone made the choice to go cheap) And really, in any industry, when the ‘lowest bidder’ wins, who is going to go for the more expensive option when it impacts the bottom line unless the decision maker themselves are potentially in the firing line if something later goes wrong ? So... Is Thailand now going to inspect all public places to make sure they are not using similar flammable material ??.... and then force retrofit on those which are not ???.... .... Of course, not silly question.... But, there will be a lot of announcements !!!

....otherwise known as the ‘involves a bit of effort’ basket !!!!