puchooay

I was thinking more on the lines of how many contact hours, renumeration, class sizes, extra curricular work, demands from heads of department and directors, vicinity to home, holidays and sickness entitlements, visa and extentions and work permits. In 20 years of teaching I only had multi media for 2 years. I still had a white board and markers. I used them often to explain further what was on the projector. I'm a clear headed teacher and always make sure I'm heads up as to a school's requirements and I still prefer whiteboards to projectors. The use of whiteboards and certainly who buys pens would not even come into conversation when I'm negotiating a contract.

There are obviously more things to think about when choosing a job than paying a few baht for a marker pen a few times a month.

I my experience they all last about the. Same length of time. It's the heat that gets them. To prolong the life of whiteboard markers, try putting them in the fridge when not using them.

Regardless of which degree the OP uses he will still only be teaching with a licence waiver. Thus, only being able to teach for six years. My advice would be to use the Masters to get a university job teaching BSc Biology. That then negates the need for a teaching licence

You've already mentioned that you had been working under the radar for many years. That you were teaching kids from immigration. Then you say that immigration had been asking the local questions about you. It's clear that you had made no secret as to what you were doing. You then say that you set up a company and got a work permit. The funds needed for such suggests that you were earning a lot of money. The phrase "shuttered the business" also does. You were, therefore, in clear view of many people even if your classroom was not. Then again, what were immigration taking photos of if it was not your classroom? All of this is a lot different to a guy sitting in his own room, on a computer, teaching online.

That's quite funny. You make it sound like we are all hiding out to cross the border illegally or something similar. Truth be told, immigration are not really interested in any farang who is earning a few quid teaching online. Especially when most of the teaching is 4pm to 9pm in the week or mornings and afternoons at the weekend, their time off. You were in full view, it appears during office hours, earning Thai baht from Thai people. There is no question that is illegal if you don't have a work permit. You were grassed up as you were doing it in full view. Could have been anyone but likely a lady in the village who was jealous of your wife having a husband that earns good money. That is the first place I would look, someone who holds a grudge. Had you been in a quite room, doors closed, no one would have known.

You appear to have been teaching face to face, in a room visible from the road passing your house. Of course people are going to know. The OP is asking about online teaching. He will likely be teaching students from other countries, in the confines of his own home behind closed doors. Immigration will not be able to rake videos or photos. They would not find out about it and, as previously stated, do not have a law with which to prosecute digital nomads. It's a different kettle of fish.

I guess you don't really know and are just assuming. As you can see from my previous post, even MPs were saying that there us no rule to cover online work. That the rules for teaching in bricks and mortar schools in Thailand cannot be applied to online teaching.

Does anyone know how many people teach online from their homes in Thailand? The simple answer is NO. Nobody does. Why? Because online teaching goes on behind closed doors. Unless you are going to go out and make an announcement, no body needs to know. This is not like the scaremonger posts about people being deported for teaching at schools or in high street shopfronts. Those laws are quite clear. Not long before the pandemic struck, the topic of online teaching was in news and on social media quite a lot. The usual tone was "Yes, it is illegal" and " No, it is not illegal". Even the Thai government were in a quandary. I remember one politician even saying that there were no laws to cover online work and no punishment could be handed out. There was then the story of the probability that the government would create a digital nomad visa to facilitate such work. Then it went quiet. The general consensus being, carry on with what you are doing, keep yourself to yourself and things will be fine. I taught online for 4 years, gave up recently because of the new laws in China. I taught in the comfort of my own room in our house, door closed, not making any noise and not upsetting anyone. Nobody outside of my family had a clue what I was doing. If they asked, I was talking to friends and family in other parts of the world. Not that the average villager in our village would care less if I was teaching kids in China. In a nutshell, carry on teaching online if you can keep it to yourself. I think in the not too distant future the government will come up with a visa for digital nomads. There will likely be Thai tax implications attached. If or when the government realises how much extra income they can generate from this they will implement it.

The Karaoke guy is breaking the law. Are you saying it's OK for people to break the law? That we should let them get on with it? What happens is my wife complains that someone is breaking the law? Does she need to leave Thailand too?

Posts like this make me laugh. As do the ones about fighting back with loud music or animals, dumps or the like to create bad smells. This guy has turned up and built a shack. His only expence seems to be the speaker system, which he probably already had in his home. It has been mentioned many times here that he likely has no money or business sense and is just chancing his arm at trying to make a few baht. Now, all of a sudden, he has the intelligence to hatch some kind of scheme to send someone running from their part built home on a large plot of land to scare them away. He also, all of a sudden, has the money to buy said land. As for fighting back with loud music. He won't care. It has already been deduced that they appear to not be able to hear it themselves enough to realise that it is too loud. Why do you think he suddenly is going to get p**sed off with someone else doing it? As for creating a bad smell. These guys are farmers. They have lived their lives around bad smells. They take care of pigs, buffaloes, chickens and the like. They are around bad smells most of their life. They are immune to it. Just like any farmer in the world is. You see these places appear from time to time. They are there for a p**s up. Cheap places out of the public eye, out of the wive's and girlfriend's eye. Could transform into a place with a few young ladies that won't mind popping out for a bit of short time. The only hope the OP has is if the guy becomes bored with it. I doubt he is even thinking about the financial implications. Many villagers have been doing next to nothing during the pandemic. Some have been doing bare minimum most of their lives. They have learnt how to be poor and not care about it. Drinking cheap alcohol and listening to loud music is a way of switching off. The only way to get this sorted is to talk. Try to talk to the offender first. If that does not work arrange to talk with him with the village head present. If that does not work then move up the ladder to local Tessaban. If that fails, they will issue him with a written warning if he is in the wrong, then go to the police.

Over 20 years. There are laws with regards to noise by neighbours. Just take a trip to your local Tessaban. They will explain to you.

It's hardly selfish, is it? It's all part of village life. Surely you knew that before you moved. Funerals, weddings, ordinations, morning radio and the village head relaying messages on the load speaker is only selfish to you. To the locals it is part of everyday life. At the end of the day it is your wife that needs to make a stand. You said that her father used to be village head. Well, that's a good place to start. He will have contacts in the right places to get this sorted out legally. To have been head man means he would have lived in the village for years and years. He'll have a lot of friends. Fighting fire with fire likely won't work. To try to drown out his noise with yours is not going to work. He won't care much about it. Here is you complaining about noise and how selfish it is and now you want to trump it? i doubt your wife would agree to it. I very much doubt he is trying to buy your land for a knock down price and I doubt he did it for you to buy his land. Sounds like it was just coincidence that he set up where he did. It sounds to me that the guy just has a small tin hut with speakers. Setting up next door with cost price beer and food won't work either. Sounds like the sort of place that serves Lao Khao rather than beer. Can't wait for him to go out of business as he likely won't. If he owns the land then he has no rent. Only needs to pay electricity. He does not need to make profit per se and can continue making just enough to pay the bills. As word gets around you'll get guys from other villages turning up as it sounds like a good hideout from the prying eyes of their wives. I don't see much point in paying the police to help. Once you do they will turn up every week for a payment. There are laws on your side here. Your wife needs to use those laws to try to get this sorted.

Not sure on the situation now, I understand Tesco have pulled out or are pulling out of Thailand, but for some time Tesco seem to have decided that they will not locate near to their rivals in the main towns of each province but rather outside. Offering their services to those in smaller districts. Smaller store but, as stand alone supermarkets, a bigger customer base. Nang Rong, Prakhonchai, Satuk all have Tesco Lotus. If you travel around, Issan at least, you will see similar Tesco stores in smallewr district away from the main town of the provinces.