scorecard

9% per annum - can you please share some details / ideas. Thanks.

Over decades Thailand has had many 'campaigns' to stamp out the illegal loan shark industry. None of these campaigns have achieved anything long-term.

You're wrong. There's many reasons why folks may have developed good English, perhaps some are in circumstances where they are exposed to English regularly when they are just kids, all meaning that they can easily soak up what they hear and develop languages quickly. Some degrees are 4 years, but not all. Some unis offer fast track studies. I've taught at 1 uni in Bkk where the students attended Monday to Friday and if they wished also attended more courses on Sat or Sun or both. Therefore reducing the total time to say 3 years.

Example: One of my Thai son's buddies has a mortgage (monthly payment is 80% of his take home salary). Also has 2 car loans and borrowed money to take his wife and 2 kids on a holiday in Japan. Plus he's late paying small school fees. Quickly much pressure from bank and 2 registered finance institutions. He's seriously bankrupt and struggling to feed his kids. (My son and his wife have been giving them a lot of fresh/cooked food.) He contacted a loan shark and after 6 months he's in even further debt. His aunt (who he has little contact with) is a bank manager. She was made aware of his plight and came quickly to see him and she/s made some progress with reducing the overall debt and she's instigated action against the illegal loan shark. But what she's also done is to carefull talk to a lot of local people to tell them: - If you can't pay the full amount of your mortgage, car loan etc., quickly make a small payment but do it every month. After a few months go into the bank / car finance company and ask for a delay or reduction on the interest rate. She revealed that her bank has hundreds of thousands of mortgage/loan holders who are paying very small monthly amounts, the bank understands why this happening and accepts that the small payments are OK until the borrower finds better circumstances and it may be a long time in the future.

'It was an official company'. So what? That proves nothing. 'Companies' start and quickly fail all the time in all countries. Further, even if they advertised 'all over Bangkok', how would the people who saw those ads know if the 'company was legitimate or registered or actually had / practised logical policies? Would it not be true that many folks who saw their ads would have no knowledge whatever of how to check their credentials, check the background of the managers / creators of this company? Unfortunately there's many folks who believe 'get rich quick' ads and influencers, all over the world, and they lose their money and will never see it again because the folks who stole their money had made sure 'it's gone' forever.

Another example, we were waiting at a small soi to enter the main road just out of Lampang. A schol van went past, lots of little kids, a couple of the little kids were sliding the van door full open then full closed, again and again while the vehicle was moving in the traffic. My son called he school and shared what he had seen, then went to the school to reinforce his concerns. Just as he got out of hic car the van arrived. Door already open, kids jumping out befor the van has come to a full stop. Response: 'but it's OK because there's a teacher in the van'. Son: 'Yes but the teacher was in the front of the van not watching the kids'. School: 'Yes but the teacher isn't paid for this so we can't tell her where to sit'. End of discussion.

Bottom line: there's a serious problem in this subject area and kids/every age Thais are dying because of lack of proper education about driving, good driving behaviors and about the rules of the road and because the RTP condone dangerous situations re the very young age kids are allowed to drive, regardless of the law. It needs a lot of attention but in reality that's not happening.

Hey slow down. I had no intention whatever to impose anything on anybody, I just shared one disgraceful experience, for a specific obvious reason, I made no mention about the cost or ability to afford. As above I am well aware that a very large % of the population wouldn't be able to afford a driving school, some very probably don't even know that driving schools exist. There's also the point that driving and the rules of the road should be compulsory in primary and high school. There's also the point that many parents are well capable of teaching their kids to drive (regardless of their income). And this would be enhanced by kids having well produced materials from schools. I well understand that many many poor families rely on an old scooter to get their kids to school and to carry out the daily chores for survival.

"...Isn't there basic education of road safety in Thailand?..." As a properly organized compulsory activity ... NO. Some schools do this occasionally but with less than professional instruction, usually by people who are not experts about the subject. Sometimes teachers who wouldn't pass and test themselves.

"... Some are given them to go to school as we would give a bicycle. ..." This is easy enough to explain; the parents don't want to say NO, because they fear their kids won't love them, Same exact reason why many parents will say 'it's school/teachers job to teach kids right from wrong, not my job'. Same exact reason why parents don't punish their tech school sonss (and from other scenarios). Sad

2 hours ago, VocalNeal said: I have come to the conclusion that there is a huge cultural feeling that accidents are karma/destiny and an element of fatalism. True but this subject has come up for discussions in coffe/luch etc breaks at the Thai unis where I have lectured. My belief is that less and less teens/early 20s Thai nowadays embrace these beliefs. One instance, a new batch of first year uni students, within a week or so I had overheard many times students declining to travel in the vehicle of one female student. I carefully asked several of the boys why so many were refusing to travel with Ms.xxx. Quite focused answer 'she drives way too fast and she's a dangerous driver, she's had many accidents and people have been hurt. I want to travel with someone who drives safely'.

When my Thai son was old enough to get his license he said he had noticed a driving school 10 minutes walk from our condo. I had already offered to teach him to drive but he was keen to go to a professional driving school. He had already found and bought a book of 'Thai Rules of the Road' in both Thai and English. He asked for my comment on the book, I scanned it, (about 20 pages, mostly quite nicely drawn graphics). I was impressed. I suggested he go to the driving school and make enquiries, he did that and announced he would start the next day. Following morning he went to the school, paid for all the lessons, and he quickly discovered the 'manager' he had spoken to the previous day was the only instructor and wasn't all that pleasant. The 'instructor' told my son to get in and back the vehicle out of the compound and onto the outside road. Outside road was 2 lanes only, one way and always a large volume of traffic. This was quite some distance in the yard and between several other vehicles with very little gap between the vehicles, and piles of boxes etc.. The vehicle was an old, big, dirty pick up with the engine continously stopping. Son said 'I've never driven a car before or had any instruction before', which prompted much yelling from the instructor about 'try, try', but with zero instruction. Son got out of the vehicle, and then asked 'are you going to teach me the rules of the road?' Response: 'No this is a driving school and there are no rules of the road so how can I teach you the rules of the road'. Son produced the book of 'The Thai Rules of the Road'. Instructor claimed it was fake and then insisted on my son backing the vehicle out. Son walked out and came home quickly and shared his bad experience and was quite upset. I then offered again to teach him to drive, to explain the basics of what the pedals actually do, how the brakes work etc., etc., and to spend some hours together to study the rules of the road, best driving behaviors, what / situations to be careful etc. He was a good student and grew keen to ask many questions about how the car worked etc. I encouraged his questions and made sure he always felt comfortable, no yelling or impatience from me ever. About 3 months later he went for the test and got his license.

People do this because it's 'normal' bevavior. All of their lives growing up these are the behaviors they have observed and that includes their parents / families exhibiting the same behaviors. Bottom line: to the past and current generations these dangerous behavior are 'normal behaviors'. Needs a lot more education in primary and high school, regular compulsory education segments on TV and same with social media. All showing graphic photos/videos of accidents and death. Plus proper consistent enforcement by police. And politicians etc., not allowed to make comments about protection from amulets, good karma, etc. Sure, I know, this is the LOS!

Thanks.

Son changed the rego to private vehicle (was originally commercial van rego), and reduced the total number of seats. Make a difference to comp. insurance and to road tax.

No, not needed, just hit the siren 4 button which gives the specific command to the sailors of 'pedal backwards fast'.

That's not even serious practice. But I guess never had to shave your hands.

All true, 20 yo naive Thai girl started work in my office in Bkk, she spoke advanced English, degree in accounting. We had about 10 farang male staff, all accountants. About 6 were between 45 to 55 years old. The young lady took an instant shine to a 50 yo guy from London. Two years later they were happily married, 1 year later 1st kid.

"...but you really get used to processes being put in place and those processes being followed." Really! And I guess the USA would be an excellent example of this?

Good point. She continuously asked questions like 'Why didn't your parents teach you English insted of Thai? And equally stupid, inappropriate and rude questions. I refused to translate many of her questions/comments into Thai for the driver. THE 'WIFE' never knew. Another incident on same trip; AT 'Wifes demand we went to a western menu and not cheap restaurant for lunch and the 'wife' insisted on the driver joining the lunch. I tried to convince her it would be much better for all to politely give the driver 200Baht cash and give him a time to return to the restaurant to pick us up. She wouldn't have it. The driver couldn't read English, I discussed some items on the menu with him then the 'wife' called the waiter and ordered a roast beef and veg dish for him. Next; the driver had never before eaten with a knife and fork. I quietly spoke to the waiter and asked him to take the plate back to the kitchen and have it cut into spoon size portions. 'Wife' said 'NO, I will teach him hor to use a knife and fork'. At this point I spoke quietly with her husband and mentioned that the driver was feeling very uncomfortable about being 'the center' of discussion/actions at the table and he wanted to leave the table. The husband (first time in Asia) couldn't underatdn why. To break the situation I quietly asked the driver to come outside, gave him 500Baht, apologized for him being forced to be centre of attention, asked him to go and eat and come back and wait in the restaurant lobby area at xx:xx pm. I didn't ask him to come back to the table because I feared that the 'wife' would return to questioning him about everything.

Good point, but the case i'm referring to doesn't have a costing difference per one pair of shoes amounting to thousands of Baht, that doesn't compute.

Apparently they both have the same owner but like in many industries it pays to have 2 level marketing for the same product. Capitalism at work. E.g. a pair of mens shoes sold in a very high end shop with high end brand name for 10,000Baht. Same shoes available at low end mall, same production line but different brand name, price 1,500Baht. A real twist, very expensive department store in Melbourne Australia has an internal boutique for Sxxxx shoes, all very expensive, perhaps equal to 10,000Baht. Shoes are made in Thailand, sold (using same brand name) at Mah Bhun Khong (spelling?) mall for 800Baht. Owner well aware of how to structure / strategize his/her business for best total revenues/margins. Capitalism at work.

Re the bill, I'm aware of a Nth. American passing away in a Pattaya hospital just a few weeks ago. He was in ICU for all of his last 5 or 6 months. When he became very ill the hospital accountant prepared documents to access his savings account (Thai bank), and the sick man signed it and it was correctly witnessed etc. About every 5 days the hospital prepared a bill and took it along with the authority they held and got the funds transferred to their bank. Later it became every 3 days and then every second day, then every day. Bottom line when the guy died the hospital was left holding a bill for less than 24 hrs.

The police made one last attempt to get someone to pay for the funeral; they contacted the deceased guys acquaintance (certainly not a friend) and asked him to arrange a collection to pay for a simple cremation, he refused. Snr. Police guy mentioned that the police do have a fund for pauper cremations, and every year the cremations for deadbeat farangs is paid from this fund.