BananaBandit

I can totally picture this. Do you know if the government hospitals conduct this sperm check? Most of the time, I'm not in any area that has clinics geared to foreigners.

Almost 10 years ago, I had a laser vasectomy in the U.S. Three months after this procedure, I had the same hospital's lab tell me I was now infertile. The chances that, after 10 years, things suddenly realigned to make me fertile are pretty remote, right? Also, in case it's ever necessary, how does someone prove he got a laser vasectomy? Do hospitals and insurance companies keep long-term records of such procedures?

Though my own job activities were non-sketchy, the U.S. company I worked for as a remote freelance contractor was reportedly a bit sketchy. In fact, the owner has just been charged with serious federal crimes. And the company has apparently ceased operation. I'm wondering how to get my last month of payment. Do I have any recourse here? Is there some particular organization I should contact?

So if I'm an American based in SEA and have a Thai wife ... Each year, on two separate occasions, I can cross a land border into Thailand, get a 30-day visa-exempt, and then extend 60 days? That's like a combined 180 days each year. Can do?

Might someone be able to point me to the best venue for viewing loanwords from Sanskrit/Bali in the modern Thai / Lao / Khmer & Burmese scripts ? At risk of being annoying, I'd like to emphasize the word "scripts" I want to see how the same word appears in the writing systems of these four modern languages.

How rare (or common) is it to find someone who can write professionally in both English and Thai? By professionally, I mean: logically connected paragraphs, structurally sound sentences, suitable grammar and word choice, avoiding vague phrases, etc.

By far the hardest part of reading a Thai newspaper for me is the front page, with all its abbreviations. Aside from กทม. and สนง. I get lost pretty quick. Is there a dictionary-type list of the most common abbreviations that appear in Thai newspapers?

No, probably not. I'd failed to consider that factor, but it's likely significant.

I visited that link with considerable interest. Thank you for sending. I recall reading some English-language articles in Thai publications with bylines attributed to Thai writers. The quality was good, far better than most examples found in the link you sent. I don't quite understand the reason for such a disparity. Do you know the best link to review English writing by actual Thai professors?

Why is that? I'd wanted to post a question on that particular matter, but I feared a deluge of inane responses from some of the forum's more reflexively spiteful contributors. You don't strike me that way at all. So I'd be especially interested to hear your viewpoint.

Really? I never caught that strong a vibe, though I'm sure Udon has more educated upper-middle class persons than, say, Beung Kan or Yasothon. What particular part of Udon city do you have in mind? I would have thought Khon Kaen is the closest thing in Isan. Maybe because there's a major university with a med school and a bunch of important hospitals. All those doctors have to live somewhere. Maybe they live near each other and raise their kids to become future doctors?

I probably should've made myself more clear in the original post that I'm not referring to some expat family enclave next to a private school for their offspring. Rather, I'm curious to know if there's an actual Thai community (or Thai-Chinese, Thai-Viet community) that somewhat resembles the description in the original post. One earlier poster said something about the haves and have-nots tending to live in proximity because there are comparatively less zoning regulations than in most western countries. That was intriguing to hear.

I don't feel so strongly in either direction. Am simply curious as to whether such places exist in Thailand.

The assumption is incorrect. maybe it is

fluency: able to watch an English-language news program and understand most of it proficiency: able to speak English at a level exceeding that of a typical farang in Thailand

The assumption is incorrect. The first issue is to define the terms proficiency and fluent. In the clinical profession many Thai words already exist and do not require an English transliteration. Prominent research publications tend to appear in English. That's a very different matter from whether or not terms in a specific field require English transliteration.

I don't know for sure. But I would assume an advanced degree professional in a world-class city like Bangkok would have some English proficiency. Also, someone like a clinical psychologist would likely have significant experience with research articles and other such materials that often appear exclusively in English.

A number of my inlaws are former grade school teachers. They don't speak any English (not that there's anything wrong with that!). I do wonder, though, if it's possible at this point for Thai university instructors, lawyers, docs, etc., to have basically no English proficiency. I would expect, of course, for a clinical psychologist in Bangkok or a urologist in Pattaya to be fluent. But what about a general practitioner deep in water buffalo country? Is someone like that also overwhelmingly likely to have significant English speaking proficiency and literacy?

In my homeland, there are suburbs, sometimes entire small cities, where the kids get standardized test tutors and play the clarinet, the moms all do yoga and read book reviews, the dads have massive stock options but almost zero cash money on hand. Does Thailand have these upper-middle-class places anywhere? I'm not talking about a street or two of McMansions but, rather, a place sizable enough to have a local public high school with a nationally ranked debate team. So far, the closest I've seen to this is in the city of Lampang.

I feel like, in this sentence, the words "family" and "overstay" are interchangeable.

I tried installing this and actually think I might've succeeded. I feel like a tech wizard. So, from now on, if I have to open a link about which I'm less than 100% confident, I just launch a web session from the "Sandboxed Web Browser" desktop icon and then plug in the link?

I'm often placed in a position where I'm compelled to open links to PDFs. Does opening such links in a "New Incognito window" provide any layer of protection against something malicious that might lurk within the PDF?

Sounds like my kind of strategy.

renting an apartment for a month. water drips from shower. i don't particularly care, except for the possibililty of a big water bill. from what i can tell, it's probably enough water drip to fill three or four laundry bowls (like the kind thai grandmothers use to wash clothes) over a 24hr period. how much of an extra bill for the month do you think this will be?

Sounds excellent, but it seems all these venues are in or right near Bangkok. I wish I'd posted about this matter a week ago. I was briefly in BKK for the first time in years. Would gladly have made a visit to Panasonic.