Oz82

It's not about that. It's about tourists who may only be in Thailand for a few days and a sudden ban can disrupt their holiday plans.

Highly variable. Some of them are great. And some you can't have a conversation with.

At my school we have 14 English teachers. I am the only one who was born in an English speaking country.

There is no requirement to be from an English speaking countries. Schools used to almost only hire people from these countries, but it's hard to find teachers these days and schools are now full of Russians. The only legal requirement is that they have to pass a TOEIC English test. But some clearly couldn't have passed.

Some of them don't. But they have a white face that the school can stick on a poster.

A majority of English teachers in a lot of schools now are from Ukraine and Russia. And they have work permits and non B visas.

You should ask this question in the Teachers forum on this site.

You need a degree. The degree can be in any subject. The reason why there are very few foreign English teachers in the Philippines is that they already have their own English teachers. The majority of English teachers in Thailand are Filipino. There are also a lot of Filipino English teachers in Vietnam.

Corporal punishment is illegal in schools here. They just ignore the law. But in recent years some parents have been sharing evidence in social media and created some drama. But it's still usual.

They have had some education campaigns in Australia to try to explain you can still have alcohol in your system the next day. As a warning regarding drink driving. Australia takes drink driving very seriously. Thailand claims to, but only seems to check around New Years and Songkran. I was pretty alarmed when I first came here and saw everybody riding their motorbikes home from the bar at 4am.

Yeah that's due to the drinking culture. They wouldn't need to do that if drinking wasn't the norm. If you work in jobs where you have to operate heavy machinery etc. They need to do that as they can't trust that people are sober when they come to work.

It might also depend what part of Thailand you're in. Maybe it's more normal in Isan. Here in rural Lower-north, people are very conservative, and being drunk is frowned upon and done behind closed doors. Most people I see just bring a bottle of whiskey to a picnic and listen to some music, they aren't yelling and yahooing. They are mindful that being publicly drunk is taboo. In addition to that it might depends on the backgrounds of you and the people around you. I come from a working class background and where I come from not getting drunk regularly is a bit unusual. And in Thailand I'm surrounded by middle and upper class Thais who like to drink but consider drunkenness taboo. If you come from a middle class background and are hanging around working class Thais you might have the opposite experience. Thailand's relationship with alcohol is complicated. The laws are extremely strict, but not very enforced. There are so many public holidays where you can't buy alcohol, hours are heavily restricted. On the other hand you can buy alcohol in a convenience store, which is illegal where I come from.

It's an expectation in western culture too. But in western culture people don't go around saying "he drinks on the weekends, therefore he's a bad man". And western employers don't threaten to fire you if you like to have a drink on the weekend.

Exactly. What he described is normal all over the world (except for muslim countries) and I wouldn't call the people he described "drinkers". All sounds very mild and normal to me. The fact remains that Thai culture in general doesn't celebrate drinking.

I live in the "villages" all of what you said is true. But that is nowhere near the level of drinking culture among working class Australians or Brits. What you described is just normal, and very mild compared to where I come from. And drinking is still taboo here. A few teachers have been fired from my school on the basis of "he/she is a drinker, this is not acceptable in our culture". And this is despite the fact that the Thai male teachers are quite heavy drinkers (but the female teachers don't dare to ever be seen drinking), but it's discreet and taboo to be seen drunk in public, whereas in western culture it is often celebrated.

You make a good point with the last sentence. I think that's it. there is a judgement about people who drink, but in reality people are drinking to excess. They just like to pretend they don't.

I live in a rural area, and yes there is an element of that. There is always that bunch of locals who are always getting drunk. But the locals are also very judgey about it. It's not considered normal and socially acceptable like it is in western countries. There is a social taboo, despite it being fairly common. Definitely not considered normal or broadly acceptable. Maybe it depends on where you're comparing it to. In Australia, UK, and most of Europe, it's often considered a bit odd if you don't like to get drunk. But the US is a bit more uptight about it.

That's why I said he must be somewhere like that. In normal parts of Thailand it isn't the norm. But certainly in expat/tourist areas there are bars open all the time.

It's not even evening yet, and it's a Monday. I wouldn't expect there'd be any other customers. I'm surprised there are bars open unless he's in Bangkok or Pattaya.

I've always found Thailand to be very uptight about alcohol consumption. Binge drinking is not a normal way of life like it is in western countries. Yes there are people getting drunk at bars on weekends, but society is far less alcohol oriented here than in the west. Tourist areas revolve around alcohol, and Thai people who hang around in tourist/expat areas, are often drinkers. But in normal Thai towns it isn't the norm, and being drunk is quite taboo here.

Yeah that's why it will be interesting to see. True marriage equality would indeed imply that gender is irrelevant and any married couple would have the same rights.

Physical punishment is still the norm in government schools. It would be very unusual for a Thai teacher not to hit their students. Foreign teachers are generally forbidden though. At my friend's school a foreign teacher was fired last month for hitting a student but the Thai teachers are all belting their students.

What I'm curious about is whether having a Thai husband would qualify for a marriage visa.

I don't care much about relationships so the commercial thing isn't a concern. But what impresses me here is that I live in a small rural town and the school I work at is full of LGBT teachers foreign and Thai. And there's never been an issue. This would be pretty tough back in rural Australia. Bangkok may be similar to western cities for LGBT people but rural Thailand is definitely more tolerant than a lot of rural areas in western countries.