gerryBScot

You are a most fortunate fellow to appreciate the likelihood of a premature death if you carry on. The majority carry on and fulfil the prophecy. Proceed and prosper. Good luck.

Hi Middle East this alcohol thing is about you, not your wife, your boss, your kids, your friends. Sure many people might be affected by your drinking but what's important is what you think. As a practising alcoholic I was generally pretty uninterested in what other people thought about my drinking. This in time enabled me to progressively dismantle my life, getting rid of most people who cared for me, losing my job, massive debt, serious health problems - a downward spiral, a bit like being in an elevator in free fall that appeared to be speeding up as I plummeted, out of control, seemingly helpless and hopeless. I stepped off it a few years ago by quitting drinking and seeking help and support. This has worked for me. I am reasonably happy with my life as it unfolds today. I don't drink. My wife has never seen me drunk, likewise my two kids, born since stepping off the elevator. So what do you think about your drinking and what do you think about the quality of your life?

Yeah you'll go crazy if you get caught up in what others are doing and I've been there too. I really focus on the class I am teaching. I aim to do my best on a class by class basis. Works a treat. No stress. Yeah I have to work hard at times to manage the students - hell, they are G5 & 6 and they spend most of their time at school chained to a desk. No surprised most of them are like dogs that have been locked up for 24 hours. So I try to get them out the classroom or up and about and doing stuff. Tough job being a foreign teacher in Thailand!

Thanks for the responses. The angles people take on this sort of situation are always interesting and amusing and often ill-informed. She isn't Thai, though in fact her national origins are unimportant. She's a colleague of my wife. Yup, she's asked for help and as opposed to simply saying 'yes' or 'no', it seems we should do more and try to point her towards a solution. Hence the appeal here for some advice about the bigger picture and consequences; the best I can do is guess.

In this context it is really good to know there is the possibility of getting her loans 'mediated' in the sense of being converted into a more manageable repayment schedule.

Right now her health situation is the single biggest situation and that will obviously determine what she does. Once more thanks for the input.

An acquaintance has come seriously unstuck with debt owing a range of loan sharks and informal money lenders a pile of money. The person has income but it is dwarfed by the level of indebtedness which is roughly equivalent to their annual salary.

Presumably these debts are unenforceable beyond illegal means such as threats of and the use of actual violence. Presumably the lenders are operating illegally in that these are commercial loans in that they are charging a monthly vig ( a ridiculous amount) on unpaid balances etc. The acquaintance not surprisingly has become seriously ill.

If repayment is not an option, what can they do?

Investing in land near the sea might be a rather risky venture in any part of the world given the likely rise in sea levels due to climate change ...

As I understand it the waiver goes with the school, not you; it is theirs, they apply for it, they keep it. It allows you to work at that school only. If you leave to take up a new job, your new school has to apply for a new waiver and if that is granted it will be for two years. Five years or so ago such a process was relatively simple, but I am not sure it is today. Others may shed light on this.

If you survey jobs on the well known recruitment sites the most usual starting salary outside of BKK for a NES graduate is in the region of 30,000: that would be in a private or a government school; many schools however prefer to use agents these days is they can get a kickback and it also means not needing to pay for holidays, absence, etc. On top of that you may get an additional rent and living allowance in the region of 3,000 to 6,000.

With a teaching qualification you may indeed be able to earn more but in all likelihood that would be in an international school; at the lower tier you might earn as little as 50,000 plus allowances all the way upwards to sublime money in the top tier schools.

The whole culture, outside the top tier international schools, appears to be one of rigorous cost cutting in terms of payments to teachers with total disregard for quality. Something about paying peanuts and monkeys...

Considering the sheet volume of troll posting on this site you fellas sure are worried about getting the NGO. As soon as they bother to tell you anything dollars to donuts it becomes a flamefest.

What are you on or perhaps not on?! FYI I am talking quite amicably and openly with the OP.

Can you please say a little about your NGO - what it does, where its from, who funds it and who your target groups are. I might be able to assist but would not be prepared to do so for, say, an evangelical Christian motivated concern or of that ilk.

Whatever happens to you as you get caught up in the randomness of the bureaucracy, don't get down hearted if you encounter rejection at this juncture. There are many possibilities ahead. For instance you might get a non-B only for the Teachers Council to reject you for licensing.

If you like teaching from your limited exposure to it, you are young enough to return to the UK and return to study full time for certification and then work for formal registration and Qualified Teacher Status, 'QTS'. I do not believe your criminal convictions represent an all time bar on you being a teacher.

Probation officers and tutors from your criminology course should be able to couch for your rehabilitation. Doing this will take time but may also take you past the threshold of your convictions being 'spent', if they ever can be in relation to education and working with young people. You should investigate this particular point.

If you have a certificate and QTS then you have a ticket to go and a whole range of well paid jobs teaching in international schools is open to you and the fact that you have been allowed to train and work in your home country after conviction should be ample proof of your rehabilitation.

Just some food for thought.

I think every teacher needs to keep their personal and work lives quite separate. The golden rule should be that what you do outside school should not affect what you do at school. I would agree with the first reply - it's your private life, keep it that way. If your interest in lady boys gets into the school community it is self-evident that it will impact on how you are perceived by your colleagues and the school's management and if students become aware then it could affect your ability to teach effectively.

LOL I've seen the same question in books. It's mind-bogglingly awful and no, Lost in Isaan is not on the chronic. Confirms your worst fears about the education system.

Surely it is an advantage to expose learners to the many varieties of English? It would be irresponsible not to....

This is what they'll encounter in the real world.

Why are people talking as if there is one Scottish accent - the natives of Glasgow and Edinburgh live less than 50 miles from each other yet speak with starkly different and immediately recognisable accents. Somebody mentioned a yarn about an Aberdonian piper - Aberdonians don't speak English like that, to be honest I find all that 'phit like quinie?' a bit hard to understand myself. Yet about 100 miles east in the fine city of Inverness, the capital of the Scottish Highlands, the folk are reputed to speak the purest form of English.

Your accent has nothing whatsoever to do with your ability to teach, likewise your academic credentials.

Man why am I even bothering. I am on holiday. I have a three week break. And Scotland v South Africa in the Rugby World Cup from Newcastle is on live - I'm going to get a life!

Whatever happens, do NOT ask other countries for advice.

You are completely correct here. What is likely to happen is they will model any new curriculum on the latest English or American editions. What's actually needed is something that addresses Thailand's educational needs. Something that is bold enough to assess the current situation and its many adequacies and chart a way forward.

I would like all the nonsense about vocabulary that is in the current curriculum to be removed. In our school this is translated into vocabulary learning being the most important aspect of language learning as the little darlings get their daily dose of words - written on the board, copied into vocabulary books, presented to teacher for checking and quickly forgotten. In fact never learned, never practised, never used in any context.

If I were you especially given your age I would go home, study for a PGCE, get Qualified Teacher Status or equivalent, and then put yourself on the job market - with your existing qualifications plus PGCE/QTS you would be able to apply for top teaching jobs all over the world including Thailand. Might take three years in total but what the hell, at your age that is nothing. The 35,000 THB a month sector is good for about two years max and then you will probably want to get out - it really can be could destroying unless you've got a reason like a relationship or something.

these bulbuls on the road to extirpation in Thailand thanks to human action and inaction and they are now under threat in adjacent countries too. There's no will to enforce protection laws. There's a lunatic a few doors away from me - he's got a hawk eagle tied to his drying frame. An absolute stunner of a bird which most certainly wasn't intended to be kept this way. Sometimes we get owls in the soil and they'll kill it once they realise it is defenceless and can't use flight to get away. Before he had a falconet which got trapped on a TV aerial and he called out the fire brigade who happily rescued it and gave it back to him. So say good bye to Red-whiskered Bulbul as a wild bird.

Well thanks for all the 'informative' replies! Hilarious.

I am massively against 'touts' (being an Irishman myself), I have despised them for as long as I can remember.

However, lets just say there is a lengthy backstory to this post of mine I am quite sure if any of you had been affected by this person in the way I have - you would be following down the same path. I am also quite sure if you had met him, within 5 minutes you would be on this forum encouraging me to follow through with it.

I see no need or desire to please any of you, or your instant conclusions which are based on zero information on the situation. I shall call you all "The Contradictory Brigade'. Its awesome seeing some of you have so little to do but contradict and denigrate someone you know nothing about and about a situation which you are only seeing the consequences of - not the whole story. So, I applaud you're rational attempts to convince me against the decision. It's been wonderful reading them.

I think the problem with your posts is that beyond not having a degree and smoking weed you haven't said much about how this guy is unsuitable as a teacher. I mean not having a degree and smoking blow hardly feature on the Richter scale of bad character. Tell us more, what is he doing?

You will not need a ticket out to get the visa.

If you have a valid visa a return or onward ticket is not required for entry. You should not need to show funds either.

Thanks for your help Joe good to know the lie of the hand and what to do in worst case scenarios....

What would my position be applying for a non-O based on marriage but my wife is a filipino resident and working in Thailand these last nine years. We have a Thai wedding certificate, translated and signed by the MFA, as we were married here but we don't have a tabien baan. This is a hypothetical question as I am legitimate on a Non-B but just wondering what to do if, for instance, I got fired. Tis looks promising if we we can overcome the tabiene baan problem.

You do not qualify to get a non-o visa. You must be married to a Thai.

Thanks ubonjoe I was hoping you'd bring your expertise to bear on this matter. What would be my best option if I was ever to get fired but wanted to stay on in Thailand with my wife and try get a job elsewhere. Many thanks

About you only choice would be a tourist visa until you find another job.

Thanks ubonjoe and would I need to re-enter with proof of adequate funds and an onwards ticket

there is a drug (naltrexone i think) that is used for drug addicts to stop them from getting high and has been used in trials for alchoholics with great success . maybe you could see a doctor and ask about this .

Swap one drug for another drug, that does not make any sense at all.

This is very true in my experience. I was prescribed clonezapam by a Thai psychiatrist about six years ago after I had a panic attack that was almost certainly induced by alcohol withdrawal caused by lao daeng.

I used it as a sleeping pill and stayed on it because it would 'knock me out' when I would have otherwise drunk myself to sleep.

She also gave me Zoloft, but I decided to stop taking that after just a few months.

I am probably still an alcoholic by most definitions, but I went through a period last year when I would fall asleep many nights without taking my nightly dose of clonezapam.

The following day I would have no idea why I was feeling so anxious, weird and tunnel visioned. It was terrible, especially when I was teaching, driving or in a shopping mall. I really thought I had diabetes, Alzheimer's or was going crazy. I also suspected it was alcohol withdrawal, so I started day drinking, but that just made matters worse -- no accidents or incidents, fortunately, but just increased anxiety.

A few months ago I was driving my daughter to school in the morning and I was so stressed out and tunnel-visioned that I had to pull over into the (aptly named in this case) breakdown lane. I had driven like that alone before, but I wouldn't do it with my daughter in the car.

I had my head on the steering wheel as she asked what the problem was. Even though I always thought of clonezapam as a sleeping pill,with no other recourse I popped one in the morning. Within ten minutes I not only felt fine, but actually enjoyed driving again.

It was a huge relief to finally learn the source of the problem, which I now know is called 'benzo withdrawal'.

Now I am tapering off very slowly from clonezapam (aka klonipin), but it isn't easy.

I am so disappointed that my doctors never informed me about the dangers of long-term use of benzodiezapene drugs like clonezepam and none ever suggested I try to get off it.

My only point in writing this is to warn other heavy drinkers and/or alcoholics not to go down this dangerous road in an attempt to deal with drinking problems.

To the OP: I truly wish you the best of luck.

Yeah most Thai medical interventions are led by prescribing and it is usually done without the slightest consideration of potential side effects, whether short or long term. My general practitioner, GP, in the UK was the best doctor I ever had and really helped me get well. I doubt I would be alive today without his tender care. He was really a psychologist as he was always about five steps ahead of me! And he understood there was never going to be any point in telling me that alcohol etc were likely to kill me. It's one thing I really miss these days about the old country and this was all courtesy of the much maligned National Health Service....

What would my position be applying for a non-O based on marriage but my wife is a filipino resident and working in Thailand these last nine years. We have a Thai wedding certificate, translated and signed by the MFA, as we were married here but we don't have a tabien baan. This is a hypothetical question as I am legitimate on a Non-B but just wondering what to do if, for instance, I got fired. Tis looks promising if we we can overcome the tabiene baan problem.

You do not qualify to get a non-o visa. You must be married to a Thai.

Thanks ubonjoe I was hoping you'd bring your expertise to bear on this matter. What would be my best option if I was ever to get fired but wanted to stay on in Thailand with my wife and try get a job elsewhere. Many thanks

A "Tabian Baan" is not required but proof of address will be needed.

Like an embassy confirmation presumably from my wife's (philippine) embassy?

What would my position be applying for a non-O based on marriage but my wife is a filipino resident and working in Thailand these last nine years. We have a Thai wedding certificate, translated and signed by the MFA, as we were married here but we don't have a tabien baan. This is a hypothetical question as I am legitimate on a Non-B but just wondering what to do if, for instance, I got fired. Tis looks promising if we we can overcome the tabiene baan problem.