BlackArtemis

Honestly, people like you are going to have the biggest impact. Thai people who have been raised in a more educated environment. 50 years ago you threw the food packaging on the ground, because it was banana leaves, well that mentality and practice has continued despite the packaging being foil and plastic... The Farang community is often vocal, but we are not met with much enthusiasm. Perhaps "one of their own" would do better. When i taught 3rd and 5th grade I would do projects on pollution and burning etc, instill it in them while they're young. Plus, most parents will change their ways, not because it's the right thing to do, but because it stops their kids from riding their ass about it all day long.

if you can get access to a .edu address win741.com is $60 direct download. It was $30 when it first came out.

I paid $300 usd for an unfurnished 4 story town house that had aircons. So I know you can find a nice furnished apartment for 200.

I have always loved 311's grassroots and Music albums. They had a much more reggae funk beat to them back in the early 90's

Depends on your age group, intentions, and what you consider fun.

Unlike the majority of CM expats, I stick to Nimm. area, Warm up, Monkey, Berlin, etc.

I agree with you Ian. I loved living in the Old City because I could easily walk everywhere. I walked to work, I walked to Sunday Walking street, to restaurants and 7-11's. But we drove when going to robinson, the in-laws (only a short trip to Prince Royal area). Walking, Thai food, and a healthy dose of spite helped me lose a lot of weight my first time in Thailand haha.

If you want someone who acts like you then go after someone from a similar background. If you want to hold an intelligent conversation go find a girl who holds a degree or two and can speak English, or take the time to learn Thai.

If you don't want someone who looks at you as a moneybag then get someone who comes from a better background or has a job and has means to provide for themselves.

There seems to be a lot of complaining that X type of people are too different for me, I don't understand why someone from a completed different culture, educational, and socio-economical background is so different than myself! Oh well, I'll just grab the closest one and manipulate them into something that resembles what I am used to, but not understand when sparks fly.

Traffic? I lived inside the old city and drove a car. Never had a problem with traffic.

As for farang attractions, I agree the Thai ones are more fun, thus the reason my wife and I were around Nimm. a lot.

I have probably mentioned this in every Wii thread so far but here goes...

The Wii no longer needs a chip. If you have a chip the copy games will still work, but i wouldn't run the system online.

Look up homebrewing, it is a 100% undetectable and reversible software modification where you can simply load downloaded games off an external HDD.

I have a 500GB HDD full of games, no more discs

The only downfall I could see is if you had a slow connection.

Had a townhouse within the walls and would hit Nimm a few times a week.

I pretty much did 90% of my living "downtown"

One of the funniest things to me was that when visitors came to my school they would ask me "do you like Thailand?" "Do you like Thai food" and then walk next door to my Filipino coworker and grill them on teaching strategies...

My wife is pale and doesn't care much if she gets darker from the sun. What she does care about is what the UV rays does to her skin, such as cause wrinkles, make the skin lose it's elasticy, and cause cancer. She won't fret getting a bit darker, but it's the end of the world if a new wrinkle shows up!

Let people cry over how horrible the mentality about it and how it's so superficial, they tend to forget just how many things like this exist in their own home countries. hel_l, even if we mix the races enough that as a race humans become a nice mocha color, we will still have people find something to have a pissing match over. "Oh, but I am light mocha, not dark mocha". "I have thick hair, not stringy thin hair". As a race we're pretty much <deleted>, get used to it :shrug:

If saving face and the idea that the rich can do no wrong is under the idea of "Thai Culture", then I would say it has a huge impact.

Sorry it's not such an in depth answer, but I should be writing a paper right now, not reading forums >_<'

Two things here:

1. Somehow, somewhere I read a post from a teacher who taught in Thailand some 20-30 years ago and said the salary ranges were the same then as they are now. If so, then the profession of teaching in Thailand for foreigners has not advanced (given all things are reasonably equal). This will not change as long as there are foreign teachers available at the current salaries...it's how markets work.

2. Having shared something I read, I have to say I am quite comfortable with my school and situation. Salaries are from 28-33 for first year teachers, 2-3 weeks (paid) off in October, March is also an off month which you can be paid for as long as you have signed a 1 year contract for the following year before their deadline, April is usually off (without pay) with the exception of a 2 week orientation for incoming students which, when it comes down to it is elective for returning teachers and whomever works gets paid. I am also a part of the Thai Social Security system with good health coverage for which I pay half the monthly premium. There are a couple of additional weekend camps you are required to attend each year but, if you enjoy teaching and your students, it is a fun thing to be with them outside of the classroom setting.

If I had to change one thing about the contract it would be to not have to be at the school from morning to late afternoon but rather have a specified amount of scheduled "office hours" so students can come see you for additional help (much like universities in the USA). I can better prepare my lesson plans etc in the quiet of my home that has a much better internet connection for resources and communication.

I live in a larger town about 90 minutes out of Bangkok and cost of living is very reasonable. I have a Thai wife and we outright own the land and house we live in.....so..... there are some costs I don't have which I paid up front for such as rent. My wife and I each have a motorcycle (don't want a car) but have access to a car and truck if needed.

If you are looking for a pleasant simple life and aren't afraid of work, teach in Thailand. If you need to build a nest egg go elsewhere or get lucky with a much higher paying job here.

It's also not about getting lucky, but put in the time to get a degree that grants you access to those higher paying salaries.

Well looks like I'm going to be on my own here. I live in the Northeast and get by very well on less than 30k.

Admittedly I live a Thai style life. I have a Thai style house, which was built 4 years ago for 350k.

My daughter goes to the best Government school in the province which is free.Her school are just starting an EP which we will not be applying for,why would we? I'm a native speaker and she gets all the help she needs at home.

I run an 8 year old Nissan Frontier.

I have free health care at the Provincial Hospital because I pay 450 baht a month Social Security. Why go and spend money at the private hospital when the Doctors are the same ones at the Government hopital,they moonlight there on their days off.

I eat mostly Thai food. Do not go out and spend 500 baht a time on KFC/Pizza etc that often. I,my wife and my daughter eat good,tasty and healthy food for around 200baht a day. Must admit I eat western food aswell but ususally make it myself. We do eat out every now and then. Korean BBQ or maybe at the Issan chicken and somtam place.

I like a drink too. 3 large bottles of beer for 100 baht in the local village shop.

We also save money for emergencies.

I now work locally and took a 50% paycut to come back and live with my family on a full time basis. To me being near the family is more important than bank balance. I did have a very good job in Bangkok, in a top 5 in the country school, and gave it up as I was not seeing my daughter grow up.

I should also point out that I have been in Thailand continuously for 12 years now and fully intend to make here my home for ever,although I am planning my first ever trip back to England in October this year.

If the cost of living is as high as some of the posters have mentioned then how the hel_l do Thai teachers manage to do it?

I know some people just can't adapt to the Thai way of life but if you did, or even met it half way, then I would say 35k is more than enough.

I think the main problem is food and partying. Like you said 500B is easy to blow on a single meal and a night out can go from 500-3000B depending on a lot of circumstances...

We made about 80K/month

12k rent

2k for electric and water (we ran an after school tutor program, so we had multiple rooms with aircons on)

5k for internet and cell phones. (I talked a lot to my parents who do not work computers well... Skype would have saved a bundle)

8k for car

2-3k on gas

That's 30k even before food & entertainment

the killer was probably food, we ate out and didn't care how much we spent. Since we were done tutoring at 7pm we didn't want to cook for two people after working all day. So I would say that out of 30 dinners a month 20 would be local places, 5-6 would be muu gata and the rest would be upscale places were 1k for the two of us was normal. Plus we went out for lunch too since the school food was horrid.

We went to the movies a lot

Had our dog groomed weekly

and went to the bars 2-3x a month, more if a band we liked was coming to Chiang Mai

Let my wife go to spas regularly every few months she would spend about 10k on beauty and skin care products

and we still put 15-20k a month away.

We could reel in the life style a bit, but why? We live in the US now and plan to return, why should we have to tone down our lives to be able to make it.

I would like to come back and have kids by then. I would like to put away $1k USD/monthly since I will not have any social security, IRA, 401K etc. I want my kids to go to an international school, no substitute.

Now unlike a lot of other people on the forum, I don't think you are a failure or stupid or farang kii nok if you are surviving on X amount of Baht. If you and your family are happy, then it's right for you, and each person is going to have a different magical number set for themselves. So it's really a matter of trying to understand what other people see as a good life, rather than having a pissing match over how much you make.

Jiparta were not only expensive, but the quality was crap. I was told they were silk screened, but got something that cracked and aged like iron-ons.

I and my wife were making 80k/month in CM and we returned to the US for further education. (I for a 2nd BS in ED and her, a MS in ECE).

We were not going to be able to afford the life style we wanted, so we are toughing it out here while all of you get to play Songkran >_<

Yes, because I am sure it's blazingly obvious that when a bike is coming towards you that an infant is sandwiched in between two people who block it from view. I wouldn't doubt that the throwers didn't see the child until after the water was released. Furthermore, why scream idiot farangs, they are simply mimicking the Thai's who also throw water at motorcycles. As PB says, don't ride during Songkran, it's not like this is something new. Each year people whine about the same thing as if it's groundbreaking news.

With an English degree, you might be closer to 40K, depending on availability.

Don't know what the scene is like in Nakon, but I think Abubaan Nakon pay's 30ish.

Tutoring is one of the best ways to make extra money, especially if you teach government students. Simply offer classes of no more than 8 students and charge cheaper than the local "posh" places.

An hour after school and 4hrs on sat put an extra 20k/month in my pocket.

When I have children I want them to be a mixture of both and I am sure the majority agree.

Proper Thai children are extremely polite and want to take care of family. Socially they are more polite as well. I don't want my kid laughing like a baboon with this feet up on chairs in the movie theaters.

On the other hand, I want my kids to be able to think for themselves and speak their mind and be self sufficient.

While I want these things, we will see what happens, just guide them the best we can. However, the only mandatory rule is that they speak Thai, Northern, and English fluently. I find it quite sad that I speak better Thai than many half kids or even full blooded over here in the US.

Songkran is my favorite holiday, as winnie says I look forward to it yearly. Sadly I am stateside now and can't make it over until July. No idea when I can make the next one.

Get a waterproof camera or case if you want photos. Don't ride a motorcycle if you are worried about being knocked off, or just take a vacation away from the major cities. It's not that difficult to avoid.

Depends on who your daddy is.

I've known people to get off for vehicular homicide due to daddy being a high ranking officer.

dam_n, the waitresses at Warm Up are much hotter... Then again you aren't guaranteed to get some at Warm up, so I guess that's the drawl?

In summary it's a high end Karaoke bar...

Rote learning is often teaching towards a test. S. Korea is evidence of this, and even their government is wary of what is happening. The kids only memorize facts and not how to think, they are not learning how to be meta-cognitive.

Now, does this mean that rote learning is 100% wrong and needs to be done away with? Absolutely not! It's a great tool for math and science and most of us have learned grammar via rote learning.

The problem with many older Thai teachers is they know little else than this and are often 1 trick ponies.

They are just as Bad as when the yellow shirts protested...

Both sides are full of idiots and thugs and both sides are doing a fantastic job of further messing up their country for the sake of paid protesting and perceived loyalty.