scorecard

Getting all the students in the group/team to actively conteibute to discussions/preparation of submissions is a problem at every Thai Uni and globally. I've had students, Thai students and especially foreign exchange students insist(after poor experiences with this matter) that - Records of attendance at team discussions are kept, but at the end of the team discussion, so that students don't come, attendance taken immediately, then they go home, go shopping. - Records of who is contributing to the discussions and some indication of the value to the overall assignment. - The team leader gives every team member a specific task and every member gives a progress report at every team discussion. In fact a couple of times when I've had larger numbers of exchange students from Europe (most from Germany) these students have politely asked to be in a team which is all European students. I've had teams come to me after maybe 2 team discussions and ask me to move student xxx (always a Thai student) to another team. In one case I asked the 3 or 4 other teams if they would accept student xxx to join their team and they said NO. I then told student xxx you have 2 options: - Do the project totally alone. (And you can't ask other students to join you.) - Receive an automatic F for the whole course. Many professors would share all of the above re this matter. To try to bring this under control I've often limited the total number of team members to a total of 3 students, plus enforced a rule that mobile phones must be totally switched off for team discussions. In one course I gave a couple of teams an overall grade of B or B+ for the project but also publically named a couple of students who would receive a C or C- or F grade. All because no matter how many times they were told to join dicussions but they just refused to contribute.

Same 'woman' makes up laws as it suits her. She's been fined a number of times for going through red lights. Most recent case police caught her, lights had changed to red 2 seconds earlier. Cops stop her, she abuses the cops and tells them they don't know the law. She claims that if a person is employed in any job in the government that person and all their relatives are entitled to take 3 more seconds to go through traffic lights. Cops take her to the local police station. Snr. copy tells her there is no such law and cannot be because it's just illogical and dangerous. She abuses the snr. cop and tells him he should make his staff clean the office every day and she starts to give orders to cops present where they should clean, sweep, mop etc. Snr. cop confiscates/cancels her licences for life (she's already got a list of driving offences as long as your arm) and fines her 10,000Baht. She still drives wherever she wants to go. But always alone, her family and extended family and her friends refuse to get in her car is she's going to drive.

Yes, and more, especially in quality of education. At least 100 years more maybe some progress here.

Which of your listed weapons works best on ghosts?

My son's buddy is Thai and he has a Thai wife.

Realty is that plenty of men and womend quite like the 'I'M TOUGH, JUST ASK ME, I EAT BEER BOTTLES FOR BREAKFAST, JUST WATCH ME, YOU'LL BE IMPRESSED, GUARANTEED' approach.

AND... " To death to us part and all that stuff, I don't know any other way, without that, life don't mean much. Your bar girls resistanthe bar girl your ATM card and PIN and tell her to return it tomorrow whe yce is futile you will be assimilated go to ATM immediately, woosah." Even better give her your ATM card and PIN number and tell her "Return the card to me tomorrow evening when I come to the bar". Nothing like efficiency.

My son installed motion detector cameras/lights a couple of years ago. When triggered strip LED lights me on around the whole house and in the whole yard. WHY? Easy answer, his wife is really afraid of the dark and wouldn't go outside to get something from the car even for 2 or 3 seconds (car in the carport under the main roof). Now with the automatic lights she has no hesitation to walk around the whole house, in the yard. Good and worthwhile result.

There's also the point that very very few security companies give any training at all to the guards. Hence they don't know how to identify a potential thief etc., and then they don't know what to do if they do suspect someone or what to do if there is a robbery etc., taking place.

Well maybe it's worh asking if the bank will accept replayment of the O/S principal and other O/S charges but add no further charges. Keep in mind that the bank staff have to follow bank regulations which probably give very little leeway on these items. But there is perhaps a possibility if they think they will get 99% of all O/S quickly they will go for it to get the matter resolved out of their hair and incur no more bank management time or processing. (so to speak). But there's also the possibility that the bank officer responsible will think 'they (the customer) seems to pay 99% which probably indicates the customer can pay 100%.... so we go for 100% payment. Depends on the weather in the bank on the day of course.

I don't see how you can 'insist' that you won't pay any additional charges. There's a good chance (especially if the loan is from a bank or proper finance institution), that the extra charges are well detailed in the loan agreement. Therefore you can't stop them adding extra charges. Beware that your insistence to not pay 'extra charges' doesn't get you into some further legal bother. Be realistic, if the extra charges are laid out in the contract you've got perhaps a 1% chance (or less) of any negotiation. Banks see such loans as highly profitable (if all goes well) but most banks don't see such loans as their primary way of making money, therefore they limit the amount of time and resources they put into any loans 'gone wrong'.

Agree. I also encourage using technology but I also want to have a pleasant experience at every restaurant I visit and that includes some pleasant interaction with the staff which can easily be Covid- 19 safe.

Sure, the 'big sister' concerned has said many times before 'foreigners have to pay more' and similar. Another family member was in a florist shop in Chiang Mai with 'big sister'. Florist was selling a bunch of flowers to a foreigner. Big Sister intervened and asked 'what the price for Thai people and for foreigners?' Florist responded 'same price'. Big sister now insists it's Thai law she must charge foreigners 4 times the Thai price. Foreigner says nothing, just disappears. Then a severe argument between the florist and Big Sister. Florists Thai husband then asks all present to leave the shop, then pushes Big Sister out the door and locks the door. Shop re-opend a couple of hours later.

The 'big sister' in this family has caused many serious problems for her siblings and friends*, she's been fined for refusing police / court orders and fined twice for being rude to snr. police officers. *Some years back she decided to go to Bkk for a holiday and turned up at the house of an old friend unannounced and abused the maid for no reason. Next morning she decided to go shopping but her husband had already taken their car somewhere. She noticed another car parked at the front of the house and noticed the keys in the house. So she took the car and couldn't be contacted until late that evening. Turned out it was a rental car, picked up the previous afternoon by the son of the 'friend', for the son to, next morning, drive himself and several friends to a wedding 250 Km away. Big sister returned to the house in a tuk tuk. When asked about the location of the car she had stolen she said 'it's damaged, can't drive it'. The young man who rented the car quickly called the car rental company, they called the police. Police and rental mngr turn up at the house quickly and young man who had rented the car told he has to pay about 20000Baht for the damage to the car. Family turn to 'big sister' who refuses to acknowledge any responsibility and insists that car rental companies are all thieves and scammers. Snr. cop tells his men to take 'big sisters' car to pay part of the money now due to the rental company and orders 'big sister' to be locked up. Ten days later 'big sisters' husband has been able to borrow the remaining money owed to the rental company. Snr. cop instructs that all of the families ('Big sister' and husband, plus the young man who rented the car and his parents) to report to the police station. Snr. cop orders 'big sister' to 'grap' to all present (lie on the ground and apologize). She refuses and insists she had done nothing wrong and proceeds to seriously abuse the snr. cop. She's fined a further 5,000Baht (which station chiefs can do) and does 3 more days in jail. When she comes out she demands the young man who initially rented the damaged car rent another car and pay for the car to take her back to her home town. Snr. cop intervenes and tells her to take a bus. This is just one of many incidents this nasty woman has generated. Nowadays the whole family ensure they are nowhere near her and have told her she is banned to come to their homes. And her husband has put notices / statements in local newspapers refusing to accept any debts that she incurs.

Point taken. Right now it's a proposal...

There's also a general attitude that people in cars come/go first!

From original headline: "... The crossing has lots of zigzag lines, something called a "refuge island" in the middle coned off..." I wonder is there are plastic portable non-fixed cones or permanent cement fixtures. If plastic non fixed cones they will be gone, scattered, stolen etc., in a couple of days. Same in Australia, 99% of drivers take zebra crossing laws very seriously, if a driver is caught the fines are very severe, 2nd time and license suspended for an extended period. One year back I was in Australia. I took my village bus to a big shopping complex, bus driver stopped for pedestrians but a car went through luckily missing a couple of pedestrians. The village bus driver is a retired airline pilot. As soon as the pedestrians had all passed he followed the errant car and asked a bus passenger to take several pgotos of the errant car, them bus driver safely passed the errant car with many bus passengers taking photos of the errant driver. Back at the village the bus driver asked all the passengers who had pgotos to quickly send them to him. He quickly packaged all the photos and sent them to the police. The case was picked up by the media, the errant driver lost his license for 1 year and fined A$2,500-, it turned out the errant car driver was on a second offence for the same thing.

Same in Australia, 99% of drivers take zebra crossing laws very seriously, if a driver is caught the fines are very severe, 2nd time and license suspended for an extended period. One year back I was in Australia. I took my village bus to a big shopping complex, bus driver stopped for pedestrians but a car went through luckily missing a couple of pedestrians. The village bus driver is a retired airline pilot. As soon as the pedestrians had all passed he followed the errant car and asked a bus passenger to take several pgotos of the errant car, them bus driver safely passed the errant car with many bus passengers taking photos of the errant driver. Back at the village the bus driver asked all the passengers who had pgotos to quickly send them to him. He quickly packaged all the photos and sent them to the police. The case was picked up by the media, the errant driver lost his license for 1 year and fined A$2,500-, it turned out the errant car driver was on a second offence for the same thing.

Wife of son's work buddy opened a coffee shop 10 minutes walk from the Chiang Mai night market, many pedesrians, shop quite successful with 2 full time employees, good selection of quality cakes, sandwiches etc. Same pricing for all customers Thai and foreign. Son's buddy and his wife decides to celebrate their success, booked a 7 days package to Bali. Wife of son's buddy was quickly appraoched by her older loud demanding sister who insisted that she run the coffee shop while little sister and husband away. They enjoyed their holiday, on return from Bali went to the coffee shop, 1 employee had been sacked by big sister. Signage had been changed, cost of coffee, all drinks, cakes etc., etc., all changed. Reduced prices for Thais and triple the old pricing for farang. Revenue had dropped significantly, son's buddy asked big sister 'how many coffees do you now sell to foreigners every day?' Answer 'Yesterday 1, some days none' Then 'why are the cakes and sandwiches all stale and hard?' Big sister angrily responds 'because foreigners refuse to buy them'. Big sister told to leave. Signs changed instantly back to same pricing for all customers, and big discounts on drinks, cakes, etc. It took about 6 months to get the revenue back to prior Bali levels.

And plenty of pedestrians will be too lazy to climb the steps up to the overhead walkway, they will continue to run between the traffic.

I did work for many years (for the same multinational) after I gained PR, and of course my WP continued. Then moved to a regional role (Based in BKK) for a giant management consultancy for 12 years, with Thai WP. Then retired, but instantly offered a role as a visiting professor for MBA / Executive MBA programs at a Thai Uni, with WP and then a second and a third Thai uni, all with WP. Then retired again, 78 coming soon. Role now; grandfather to 3 Thai grandkids 16, 12, 7. No WP but expensive costs.

Seems to me there's a key attraction of PR - it's for life, never needs renewal in any way, plus no 90 day reporting.

Wow, I'm glad I applied for and got my Certificate of Residency 24 years ago. Never needs renewal, no 90 day reporting etc. No insurance requirement.

Sure and then go to the hotel coffee shop for a bowl of noodles, Thai family members charges maybe 40 to 60 Baht per bowl. The one farang at the table charges 200 Bht for same bowl of noodles. How to win friends and repeat customers and good reviews - not.

"Lack of training and lack of police enforcement have been blamed as two factors." It's more than that, right back to basics. It's been researched before, a large % of Thai drivers hve no knowledge / no understanding what the repeated white lines across the road mean. Here's an example: 25 years ago a lot of new road work completed in Pattaya to upgrade various roads falling apart. All supervised (design and construction) done by a very young Thai engineer. Residents asked why repeated white lines were being painted in numerous locations including within 20 metres of every intersection, all directions. His response 'It's what they do in most other counties so I want our new roads to look international. Pressed if there was any further meaning with the repeated white lines, his response NO, just to look good/look international. Many times, when I've had extended Thai family members in the car, I've stopped at zebra crossings to let pedestrians start walking and get right acros the road. Instant negative/very negative comments from the folks in my car, insisting to keep moving. Many times when this has happened my Thai adult son has tried to explain 'it's the law of Thailand', they refuse to listen let alone acknowledge what he's telling them. It's like many things basic education / knowledge of the basics, the building blocks of road safety / good driving behaviors needs to be taught at high school, perhaps 10 hours or more every semester. Taught by trained officers, not by school teachers. And with well produced handout books, perhaps 5 to 10 pges per subject and with many photographs and simple but focused drawings. Attendance compulsory.