CWMcMurray

I think I remember seeing more than a few posts by others on this Forum that 'Translator' was on the list of occupations that foreigners were not allowed to do.

Thank you Scott for all of the information, it seems that I may have needlessly worried about the entrance exam....

He is actually very motivated to learn and we are not pushing him into this, he seems genuinely interested. He is also a big fan of English language movies and downloads torrents on his own all the time (English language, no Thai Subtitles). Will also work with him to increase English language use around the house a bit more as well.

We talked it over and since this year has already started, we will try to enroll him starting next year M3 and for the rest of this year he will increase the after school English classes to better prepare himself.

Thanks for your message Scott,I did not realize that.

Do you know if most schools or Sarasas in particular have programs for new students to take additional English lessons to help "Catch Up"?

My wife's younger brother is in M2 and currently studying at a government school.

We have discussed the issue and have agreed that we would like to give him the opportunity to study at University in USA and are now trying to set up a realistic plan on how to give him that opportunity.

In order to be accepted at US university he will need to pass the TOEFL and will I also believe that he will need to get some experience in 'Academic English' prior to going to the US.

Given this, I believe that it would be best if he was in a bi-lingual program. Sarasas Witaed Rom Klao is right by our house and my 3 yr old just started here this year, so this the school we are looking at.

He came to Bangkok near the end of B6 and his English skills were pretty much non existent, but we have been working with him and have been sending him for additional classes after school (2 hrs a day, twice a week).

In the past year his English has started to get a bit better and he has gone from bottom 10 in his year group (aprox 300 students) to about 37th. So he is starting to show progress, but I still think he is quite far off from being able to pass the entrance exams for Sarasas.

Also the English classes he is taking are more of General English, but are not Academic Centered so are not likelyt to help him pass entrance exams in Science, Math, History etc.. that will all be in English.

Do any have any recommendations on where the best place to study would be to prepare for entrance exams for a bi-lingual school? I have though of going to the school to see if they have anything like this available for prospective students, but figured I would try here first to see if anyone had any ideas.

The problem is it is very difficult to find an equivalent comparison in terms of the love and reverence the vast majority of Thais feel towards His Majesty and the institution. What you may see as backwards or outdated, the Thais hold in great esteem in terms of being proud, unique and representative of the greatness of Thailand. His Majesty (past and present) is somebody who can always be trusted to look after Thailand and its people as well as be above all the pettiness that we see in politics all over the world. The only way to really relate even remotely to this is to consider how a parent looks after and protects their children and those children having an unconditional love and trust that their parent(s) will always protect them and never lead them down the wrong path. The King is the father of Thailand and its people as is the Queen the mother.

I think what you have stated above is absolutely correct, but the very fact that it is true makes the current LM laws even less needed.

Any person who truly criticized or disrespected the King would be insane... there is no need to throw them in Jail or to censor their words, the Thai people themselves would ostracize the person if the comments they made truly disrespected the King.

Respect has to be earned

But the Buddhist perspective has is that to be afforded respect is a fundamental human right. As is the dignity of all life. Sometimes we really ought to try and understand things from a perspective outside of our own culturally determined ones. :jap:

If that were truly the case, then the law would state that anyone who fails to show respect to any other person would be guilty and thrown in Jail... but that is not what LM are about.

I think it is a fundamental difference in thinking, as in the west it is ingrained in all, that the more powerful or public a person is, the more rights the people should have to question them, their actions and their motives. It is believed that this is truly needed in order to prevent those in power from abusing their power. It is believed that a truly free press is the ultimate 'check and balance'.

In Thailand it seems that the exact opposite is true, the system seems to be in place to protect the powerful and the more powerful a person is, the less right you have to question them publicly. This is not just in reference to LM laws, but also slander and defamation laws.

I believe that in the present time, we in Thailand are very lucky and with or without the LM laws, I very much doubt that anyone would truly wish to criticize or show disrespect to the current royal family. This being said, LM laws do not say say that it is only illegal to show disrespect or criticize if the current king and monarchy are "good" and I think that this is why most westerners do not like the very thought of such laws.

If for example, in the far distant future or past or in a parallel universe, if anyone associated with the monarchy ever happened to do something wrong.... most westerners believe that the people and the press should have the fundamental right to mention what happened it and call the wrong doer into account without fear of being thrown in Jail.

Aranyaprathet is the name of the town on the Thai side of the border and PoiPetis the name of the town on the Cambodia side of the border.

Not sure about your other questions as have only been there once a few years ago...

I believe that what Lopburi is advising is doing an end around having to deal with Immigration on whether or not Thai Investment qualifies with them...

By going the Embassy Letter route, you do not need to raise the question with Immigration, you simply need to prove the total income to your Embassy (both Thai and Overseas).

Your Embassy can then issue you an Income letter and you then submit the income letter to immigration.

You will need to apply for Medical school after graduating with your Bachelor's degree...

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... First, at the undergraduate level there is no such thing as a degree in pre-med. It is a curriculum layout or sometimes referred to as a tract, which prepares students who intend to seek admission to medical schools. Many individuals who pursue a career as a physician major in biology at the undergraduate level, many others come from a variety of other educational backgrounds.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Which_bachelor%27s_degree_is_best_to_get_into_medical_school#ixzz1NHSWMTuX

-----------------------------------------------------

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (B.Sc.)

The Science Division offers 7 major programs leading to Bachelor of Science degrees, including Applied Mathematics, Biological Science, Chemistry, Computer Science, Environment, Food Science and Technology, and Physics. A B.Sc. degree from MUIC is a good preparation for medical school or other graduate studies abroad, as well as for entering the job market.

Mahidol University International Colllege

The Biological Science Program of MUIC offers quality education which allows students entry into a wide variety of occupations, professional degree programs, and advanced research degree programs. The courses offered are surprisingly diverse for a college as small as MUIC, and are interesting and challenging. Required courses emphasize the basic principles required for all advanced programs. These principles cover every field from environmental science, population biology and regulatory biology to cell and molecular biology. The program offers three modules: Biology, Biomedical Science and Biotechnology.

I faced a similar problem a few years back when I brought my mountain bike over with me on a flight.

The box is a bit bigger and will not fit in a normal size taxi. When I was in the meter taxi line, they tried to pull the same thing on me. If there were only normal size taxi in the queue I would have understood and have been willing to pay the extra for a "special car", but the fact is that there were quite a few larger taxis in the queue waiting for passengers.

In fact I had just seen a person a few places in front of me get into one of the bigger taxi and he was alone and only had 1 small bag, so it was clear that they were not holding these larger taxis off to the side for passengers with larger bags. They were just a part of the normal taxi queue and when they reached the front the next passenger just hopped in the larger taxi at no extra charge.

I pointed to 3 or 4 larger taxis in the queue a ways back and told the person behind the counter that my box could easily fit in any of those larger taxi and that I would simply stand off to the side and let others in line pass me until the next bigger taxi came up to the front.

The lady behind the desk was not happy, but at the end of the day she really had no choice but to accept.

As others have mentioned... it seems like a pretty good deal given the short time that you have been with the company.

I think many who are advising this 5% break point on whether or not to pay down debt are not taking the tax incentives into account..

To make things easy... lets say you have debt of 10,000 USD and you want to know if you should pay off the debt or invest...

Lets even say the interest is 20%...

So 20% of 10,000 is 2,000

Lets say you invest your 10,000 in tax deductible investments in Thailand

the following year, you get a refund of taxes for USD 4,000 and the new debt amount is USD 12,000 but you also have USD 10,000 in investments

so lets say you pay down the debt with your refund and then the new balance is USD 8,000.

So if we compare paying off the debt with investing...even if we use a super high interest rate of 20% and if we assume 0% gains or even if we assume a 10-15 % loss on the initial investment of 10,000 USD, you are still better off investing than paying down the debt

Like I said earlier, this really is a no brainer...

I wanted to try and keep it simple, but in "real life" you could actual see an even better return that advised above.

For simplicities sake, I just added the tax refund to the total out pay... but in reality you will get that refund in yrs 2 - 5 and you could actually reinvest that refund again in something else that would provide a higher return or in something that would provide further tax incentives.

Find and example of what I am talking about below...

For example, lets say that you are in the 30% tax bracket and you take you 19.2 k tax refund for premiums paid and then invest that in a LTF (Long term Fund), this is also tax deductible...

....so the next yr you could get a refund of 19.2k from your life insurance which you rolled over to your LTF and you would then get another 5.76k refund for the previous yrs contribution to LTF, so now you contribute 24.96 k in yr 3...

... yr 4 = 26.68k to LTF

--yr 5 = 27.21 to LTF

--- yr 6 = 8.16k (no more insurance premium but stuill have one more yr on the LTF contribution)

who knows if SET average growth will remain same as last 5 yrs, but lets say they remain at 10% (as current prospectus of Bangkok's LTF for 75% stock 25% Bonds).... at the end of yr 12 that would be around 250k more....

And regardless of the growth rate... it is all good as the only money that was invested was made on contributions from your tax refunds generated by your insurance...

You could even add the yearly 5k and 7k payouts from your insurance to your LTF for further tax benefit and further growth...

If done in this way, you have just used what is relatively safe investment to its fullest to maximize tax benefits to generate a sure 3.86% return with a possible 6-7% return as long as no stock market crash. But even if the market crashes, you still have your 3.86 plus what ever your LTF is worth...

You kinda of have right ... but not quite all of it...

Yes, the premium for 100 k of life insurance for 12 yrs is 64k per yr, but only for 4 yrs (no premiums for yr 5 -12)

At the end of yr 1-6, you would get 5k

At the end of yrs 7-12, you would get 7k

At the end of yr 12, you would get 258 k

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So total premiums are: 256k

Total return: 330k

Which is not so good.... around 2.5% APR

========================================

But if you are working in Thailand and are in the 20% tax bracket, you can deduct these premiums from your taxes....

So 64 * 0.2 = 12.8 k * 4 yr = 51.2 k

So...

So total premiums are: 256k

Total return: 381.2 k

* this is not so bad (better than a CD or B/E)... around 3.86 % APR

=======================================

But if you are working in Thailand and are in the 30% tax bracket, you can deduct these premiums from your taxes....

So 64 * 0.3 = 19.2 k * 4 yr = 76.8k

So...

So total premiums are: 256k

Total return: 406 k

* this is a bit better ... around 4.5% APR

=======================================

But if you are working in Thailand and are in the 37% tax bracket, you can deduct these premiums from your taxes....

So 64 * 0.37 = 23.68 k * 4 yr = 94.72 k

So...

So total premiums are: 256k

Total return: 424.72 k

* this is a bit better still... around 4.97% APR

Interesting, I never knew that. I always call to Citibank Visa and they will send me vouchers for the Fastrack. It costs me 1,000 "Points" each, i.e. totally free.

For the Citi M Visa - Platinum Select, the website also advises that if you buy the plane ticket through their Travel Service they will give you a 'Free Fast Track Voucher' and a Free Limo ride from your home to the airport.

Have you ever contacted Cit Bank's travel service to see what the rates are like? If the ticket prices are competitive, or even just slightly over market rates it may be worth it.

I haven't had to leave the country yet since I got this Card, but I will surely contact them to check their ticket prices next time I have to head overseas. The other bonus is that they give you two free vouchers per year for the Louis Tavern Lounge located in Concourse A & F (3rd Floor) as well.

I was able to find the below article on this topic from a year ago... I would advise starting by contacting the 3 name Universities to see if they have had programs approved as of yet.

Quote:

.... So far, Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Medicine and Mahidol University's Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital are ready to open the international medical school.

Meanwhile the Medical Council of Thailand will review Srinakharinwirot University's proposal to offer an English medical program ...

News Article on this Topic

I also see that there is a sections on Mahidol Unioversity's Faculty of Medicine website that talks about "Information for International Students" and I am guessing most international students would not be Thai Speakers...

Mahidol University

And on the scholarship application, it states a requirement for English proficiency, but does not mention anything about Thai proficiency, so one may assume that classes are in English???

Sccholarship Application for Foreign Students

It would be interesting to know if this is an across the board change for all teachers both Thai and Foreign or if some are being singled out.

As another poster has mentioned, it is often required for teachers to have a certain number of 'office hours' in addition to their teaching hours.

Is it possible that this may be a policy change by the university to ensure that all professors are present and keeping a reasonable number of office hours?

I realize that I do not work in a University, but 40 hrs a week does not seem excessive to me... Working in the 'non-teaching world', I can end up putting in around +60hr a week at the office.

In answer to your other question about whether or not your degree would mean anything back in the USA, this should not be a problem depending upon the University you attend.

Many students graduating from Thai Universities are accepted to Masters programs in the USA.

I was originally planning on heading back to the US for work after graduation and had made the below plan before coming over here, but I ended up finding a job over hear and never ended up making it back...

I was planning to include a report from an independent organization like the one below along with my resume to show that the degree that I had earned is equal to a US Bachelors degree.

Foreign Degree Evaluation Report

I had also planned to include World Rankings, so that the employer could see the US Universities that are ranked on either side, in order to better evaluate the University I attended in Thailand. I would also have been sure to include something in my cover letter to explain how the international experience gained would be an asset to the company and make me better qualified for the specific position that I was applying for.

Ranking University

219 University of Notre Dame 223 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 227 Indiana University 228 Mahidol University 230 University of Massachusetts 233 Wake Forest University 235 University of Miami 239 Tulane University

I was just in Chiang Mai this weekend and I bought 1 week of internet service

It was either 50 thb for 2 hours or 150 thb for 1 week, so I bought the 1 week, even though I was only going to be in Chiang Mai for 3 days.

The below user name and password for "WOW Hotspot" should be good until this Friday 6 May 2011. As I have already paid for the service for 1 week, if any travelers are in Chiang Mai maybe you can make use of this ...

Username: wow7dh1678

password: 50348

Some Universities in Thailand will accept Transfer credits and others will not.

I transferred over here from a University in the States and at the time Madidol University International College advised that they would accept transfer Credits and both Chula and Thamasat advised that they would not.

In order to get the transfer of credits approved, I needed to provide transcripts and course descriptions of all classes. If I remember correctly, in order to transfer, you needed at least a 3.0 in the class and the University also needed to have a similar class.

For example... I took 3 years of Spanish, but the University did not have a Spanish language program, so no credits for these classes.

Another example .... I needed use 2 classes from US to qualify for one class at the Thai University. I took 2 English Classes in the US, but in Thailand they advised that the English 2 Class had a Public speaking element, but the US class did not, so they did not want to give me credit for English 2. I had also taken a communications class in the US that had a public speaking portion of the course, so they agreed to give me credit for English 2 based upon the combination of both of the classes I took in the US.

Although this may have changed as this was about 7 yrs ago... best information I can give you is to check with the University you are interested in attending.

Married for 5 years now and she stills dotes on me and I still dote on her...

No Thai oe ASEAN / Taiwan FTA yet... and both HKG and Taiwan are excluded from the ASEAN / China FTA

I often joke that I will make my money in Thailand and then retire in the US....

I am actually only half kidding, as this may be a real option.

If I make my money in THB and continue to invest in the SET and trends continue, it is very possible that by the time I retire (30 years from now) it really may be...

No confirmation at all (unless you get audited). Send by certified mail.

I used to have my excess withholding credited as a next-year's estimated tax payment. But, since the IRS doesn't confirm receipt of tax form, I never knew if that credit would "bounce" with next year's filing, or not.

Now, however, I guess the "accepted" when you Efile is sufficient evidence that they've received your filing.... (which, of course, doesn't do you any good.... )

That's what I thought...

It is also one of the main reasons I really wanted to EFILE... As I will not be paying any taxes or receiving any refund, it would have been nice to have some confirmation from someone that my taxes were received.

I think that the below clause to be even more interesting... it appears that even if you did renounce your citizenship, they could still come after you not paying your taxes...

TAX & MILITARY OBLIGATIONS /NO ESCAPE FROM PROSECUTION Also, persons who wish to renounce U.S. citizenship should also be aware that the fact that a person has renounced U.S. citizenship may have no effect whatsoever on his or her U.S. tax or military service obligations (contact the Internal Revenue Service or U.S. Selective Service for more information). In addition, the act of renouncing U.S. citizenship will not allow persons to avoid possible prosecution for crimes which they may have committed in the United States, or escape the repayment of financial obligations previously incurred in the United States or incurred as United States citizens abroad.

http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_776.html