FatBoyEric

Hi everyone,

Ok, so i've been living in Thailand for 2 years now and i'm seriously thinking about starting a business (opening a 'juice bar and more'). I'm pretty clueless concerning the whole process and obviously have a lot to learn before i can do this. If anyone of you would be kind enough to give me a few clues, that would be a start. I guess the first step is finding a place to rent (or buy?). Then i'm guessing that you have to create a company and buy some license...are foreigners allowed to own businesses ? I have a thai partner that i trust 100%. My budget is limited (under 1 million bhat). Is it realistic to want to start a business with that kind of money? Also would that qualify me for getting a business visa? Any advice appreciated.

Thanks

talk to the nice ppl. at SunbeltAsia.

Here are the English language links http://www.dbd.go.th/index_en3.phtml

And the important one http://www.dbd.go.th/corpsearch_test/main.phtml

You could always find out what the Thai English teachers are teachin' them at your place & mirror that.

We have an Indian teacher, teaching Maths to students on the EP programme at our place. He's on 43k but has been at the school for 4 years now. Nice enough bloke but I'm ######ed if I can understand half what he says.

Is there an Internet facility whereby I can check registered company names in Thailand? If not how can I check what's already been taken?

Thanks!

Type of Cash Purchases Currency Card Withdrawal Conversion Fee

HSBC Premier Sterling Debit Card

Free from any HSBC cash machine worldwide. If cash is withdrawn from any other cash machine a charge of 1.5% will be incurred (min. £1.50)

That would seem to cleap up my confusion over why some ppl. are charged & some aren't. Question is though, is the rate of exchange better if the card is used at an HSBC machine?

I had difficulty trying to access 'The Sun' newspaper website last night. i assume they don't want us to read the Man. City football reports from last weekend.

How are teacher training videos going to help students??

Update. Indeed they are teacher training videos, and they aren't going to help the students. After I mentioned this to the school, they took the disks back & gave me a different pack. 'Practise Your Pronunciation', a two disk pack of what appears to be audio files. Then came the order to install these on all student computers. Despite copyright infringements, ripping audio tracks will be much easier.

See if you can get the work-order from your superiors on paper so that in the eventuality the authorities come knocking on your door you will have something to cover your a*s.

They'd bust my ass for even making such a request. Government schools eh! Thanks anyway!

I spoke to several visa agents in Pattaya at the weekend concerning the application of a Marriage visa. For between 24,500 & 40,000 baht they will guarantee you a visa with no supporting documentation other than passports/id cards/marriage certificates & a few photos of you with your spouse. They do not require evidence of income, evidence of income tax paid or vast amounts of monies in banks. I can only assume from this that they have a 'friend' in the govt. who can 'fix' things. This is Thailand.

More likely a home made rubber stamp

One of the agents showed me two bank account books in foreigners names, he claimed that he'd just deposited 800,000 of his own money in each one to help get retirement visas. Another one showed me photocopies of several passports containing visas that had just been obtained. One was a category 6 non-imm 0 type, What is a category 6?

Thanks for the offer Crossy, I'll give it a go myself first.

How are teacher training videos going to help students??

They aren't teacher training videos. They are a set of classrom shot EL lessons with some bald headed teacher. I spose the kids are expected to use ther

se as supplements to their 50 minutes a week with a real teacher.

I have a 1mb line from ToT. 1,000 pm.

Please be aware of copyright issues, using these disks in this way may be infringing the usage rules.

I'm sure there are copyright issues but what am I to do. They have asked me to do this, and I guess if I declione they'll be miffed. Perhaps enough to terminate my WP.

Seems like an awful lot of work

I've been given a copy of the British Councils 'Masterclass ELT Teacher Training Videos', which consists of 3 discs. I have been asked to copy the discs onto around 100 student computers so they can improve their English. Of course they'll be eager to switch off their online games & MSN'ing & bore themselves to death by these videos.

Now when I place disc 1 in the slot & fire up a recent version of Win. media player, it works wonderfully well. When I copy the contents of disc 1 into a folder on the h/d, nothing happens ... i don't seem to be able to point the media player at the folder/files.

Any ideas on how I can resolve this one?

I was planning to dump the videos on a server & have the client computers connect & play them via the media player.

I spoke to several visa agents in Pattaya at the weekend concerning the application of a Marriage visa. For between 24,500 & 40,000 baht they will guarantee you a visa with no supporting documentation other than passports/id cards/marriage certificates & a few photos of you with your spouse. They do not require evidence of income, evidence of income tax paid or vast amounts of monies in banks. I can only assume from this that they have a 'friend' in the govt. who can 'fix' things. This is Thailand.

Is your hunsband Thai?

That would really rather depend on your condo management company, as they usually set the fees for sevice charges. I pay about 1k in service chargesper month on a two bedroom condo in Bangkok.

<br />As a UK Premier customer, I am never charged for any ATM withdrawals. But I neverused my offshore ATM card yet.

I'm a so-called UK Premier account customer & I'm charged everytime I use my ATM card in Thailand. The charge varies depending upon the amount I withdraw.

Do you instead wish the worst for Thai people because you want to remain in Thailand for cheap prices?

I'd be grateful just to have some of the same opportunties that Thai people have, pay the same prices as they do for example rather than the Farang price.

If you believe that Thai people are poor, then whose fault is that? The govt.? Westerners?

Those who h-ve the CELT- cert will tell you it w-s much more difficult th-n course in rocket science or Ph.D. in chemistry.

I've a CELTA & a TEFL. IMO, the TEFL was less of a challenge. I've not taken a course in rocket science or Ph.D. in chemistry, so I can't comment on the relative difficulty between these and an ELT course, but I'd be surprised if the rocket science course was less challenging. I believe the OP merely asked for clarification of the differences between the two qualifications, rather than which one is best.

You're one of the very few persons I've ever heard making this claim. You'd do a service to the forum if you'd give us a lot more detail about your experiences in both training courses, where you studied them, and how you feel they affected your ability to be hired (as well as the reason you studied for both).

CELTA in the UK, TEFL in Thailand. CELTA was more difficult, i.e they didn't help us to pass the course. I don't think anyone really cares in Thailand, as long as you've got one or the other. It's all about showing bits of paper. I did them both because I believed in preparing myself.

Those who h-ve the CELT- cert will tell you it w-s much more difficult th-n course in rocket science or Ph.D. in chemistry.

I've a CELTA & a TEFL. IMO, the TEFL was less of a challenge. I've not taken a course in rocket science or Ph.D. in chemistry, so I can't comment on the relative difficulty between these and an ELT course, but I'd be surprised if the rocket science course was less challenging. I believe the OP merely asked for clarification of the differences between the two qualifications, rather than which one is best.

Celta's are aimed at teaching adults. Tefl's are more generic, all ages catered for.

Imo, the CELTA is more challenging.

Biodegradable plastic bags atre the way forward.

I'm more concerned with the current methods employed in the disposal of 'Pampers', these things are real environment killers, imo.

"Thax fat boy :-D BUT i did try google.... no result"

Here are but 2 ....

http://www.1tosmile.com

http://www.bangkokdentalcenter.com/thailan...erwhitening.htm

Agreed, they aren't what you asked for in the OP.

Well I showed her the responses on this thread & she's confused now. She's also telling me that she saw a daytime TV programme a few weeks ago where the same thing was mentioned. Anyway, I told her to get a printed copy of this apparant new law or stop the hel_l worrying about it. She fears that if she acquires any more land, the govt. will take it from her to penalise her for marrying outside her race. Insane Thailand.