markg

I'll bet you half a large bottle of Chang that DM has been stripped of absolutely everything of value/use.

Lets face it.......if you were amongst the last workers in an airport that was gonna be shut down/knocked down........you'd end up like a gang of gypsies and strip the lot.

Well i would anyway !

Heres another couple of links that i have trawled......

http://www.universityofphoenix.com

Though i'm led to believe they are kinda expensive AND you may have to "pretend" you're living in the states.

The University of phoenix is to the best of my knowledge a degree mill and I wouldn't recommend getting a degree from there as any institute worth it's salt wouldn't recognise it.

Oh. I am sorry if i have posted misleading links.

I have looked at their website and i cant access some of the links on it as its got Java script enabled. However, it does have links to studying either online or on campus and it does seem to have proper subjects.

Are you sure its a degree mill ?

What do you take a degree mill to be? I understood it, (and i may be wrong) that its somewhere where you buy your degree without actually studying. Or have i got that wrong?

Casundra - can you access their website and let us know if it really is a dodgy set up?

Another interesting online course from the UK Open University is their MA in Education.

Info here:

http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?Q01F01

There are also associated diplomas...

The MA might be of interest to people like myself who already hold a degree/post-grad qualification in a non-English subject, such as science etc.

This MA also includes a 'TEFL-like' module.

Simon

Simon - excellent post - outlines exactly what people need to know.

More like this please!

Heres another couple of links that i have trawled......

http://www.universityofphoenix.com

www.aiuonline.edu

Though i'm led to believe they are kinda expensive AND you may have to "pretend" you're living in the states.

DO card is 590 a month for a pretty good speed.. How thats looked on as expensive I dont know.. I used to pay 7500 + bandwidth charges back in the days before ADSL to IPStar..

TOT / TT&T all much of a muchness really.. The only standout better package is the CAT ADSL system but IIRC its 2600 baht per month and thats a lot more then DO.

If your only prepared to pay 500 ish baht just sign up for whatever ADSL your current line company offers and live with it..

Thanks LivinLOS.

I thought the Dee-Ohh card was 16K to buy the card and then 500 a month?

Anyway, whilst it seems to get rave reports from K. Woody of the Phuket Gazette, i have no need for its mobile capabilities and i dont want to suffer the 16k !

good advice though about signing up for whatever. I've just signed on the dotted line for TTandT's service.

The reason i asked about reliability is that some friends of mine living in Land and House, Chalong, had the standard TOT package and it seemed to be down more than it was up. The TOT didnt seem overly bothered about fixing it either. I am assuming that is because they are a governmnet organisation (and i use the last word jokingly of course).

My neighbour has the TTandT and he reports that outages are very rare - only for essential maintenance. Which in my view is fair enough.

The interim government have decreed that this ball of fire was discovered by educated Farang people with telescopes.

With immediate effect, all foreigners will have to declare ownership, or not, of a telescope.

This can be done only at the immigration office in Bangkok in person, and with a notarized copy of the foreigners passport and an opticians report.

No. Wait a minute.

Not at immigration in Bangkok.

It will have to be done at the foreigners home Embassy or Consulate.

No, hang on............

At the foreigners seat of parlaiment.

In person.

Immediately.

You have been warned.

It's coming.............

I have read the Broadband in NaiHard thread but wanted some more info.

Reliability and price are more important to me than downright speed.

I have a TOT phone line already at home.

I think I would be happy with 256kbs though 512 would be nicer. Anything faster is unnecessary.

I live in Chalong.

A friend suggested TTnT.

Anyone know their prices or if they are better/more reliable than TOT. (The nai harn thread mentioned TOT being poor - but didnt mention any other options except the Dee Oh card and Ipstar - both toooooo expensive for me)

Are there any other players worth looking at?

I dont want to spend much more than 500 baht a month to be honest

Thanks

To me, the word curriculum is a little scary. How about a general outline of what you want to cover in the first 8 weeks, so you don't miss anything important, or repeat too much? By the way, you need to repeat or review periodically (I think the Brit term is revise which means change to Americans).

Ask your boss, and ask your employees informally, what subjects should be covered. Don't ask, "What don't you know?" but "What do you want to study?"

Fair point PB. Curriculum is a bit over-bearing. I really mean a general outline. But you get the drift.

I've tried "winging" it with privates before - and for me it didnt work.

Do a student centred outline and you can both see what you're aiming for.

Prince of Songkhla (Phuket) have a few interesting courses, but I don't mind living in Bangkok again if I need to.

.

Erm Dupont, please could you post what the interesting courses are from Prince of SOngkhla in this thread.

That way, the mods can splice them all together into a really informative thread for people.

If a school refuses to tell you the credentials or refuses to let you communicate directly with the teachers, it's a bad sign.

REASONABLE amounts of parental visiting should be allowed. Remember that strangers in the classroom can be disruptive, especially if it's a never-ending ebb-and-flow.

I'm always delighted when parents are involved with their children- unfortunately it is (rather predictably) always the parents of the best-behaved, smartest children who come, rather than the parents of the children who need the most attention or help.

Absolutely couldnt agree more with all of the above.

To the OP - please make sure you treat all of your childs teachers in the same vein and dont just single out foreign teachers.

It would also be nice if you observed your child on a regular basis and not just to check up on the teacher.

education should be a partnership between parents/teachers/student.

Something i see all too little of here in the LOS.

Heres some more


www.londonexternal.ac.uk
http://prospectus.leedsmet.ac.uk/main/deta...mp;attendance=3


Mods. I will be honest, i trawled these links from another forum. If you think that is ungentlemanly then please delete this.
I'm just trying to help though
Mark.

You may not have the right - but of course the school should openly show you them if you ask.

If they dont - then you could assume they have something to hide.

However - how you gonna check up anyway. Teacher Bill Smith has a degree from Harvard. You google Harvard. It exists. They aint gonna tell YOU if Bill Smith studied there......

The most sensible suggestion is this - ask to sit in on ALL your kids classes and you assess the teacher yourself. Thai and Foreign. That is the best you can do mate.

Or teach them yourself at home.

Grammar in Use - Raymond Murphy

You might be surprised at your own level of English. Lots of stuff in there that we dont use because we speak slang so much.

Just go to any decent bookshop and buy an English book. It will give you ideas. Then you flesh them out.

The problem with this type of casual teaching is that you wont bother to write yourself even a fag packet curriculum. And after 8 weeks, you will have run out of ideas as you will have jumped about from one subject to another.

The only way to do this properly is to have a good, step by step curriculum.

Thats my advice to you.

If you dont follow it, you and the student will have given up after 2 months.

In my experience anyway.

My point was that no one's arguing with the need to vet teachers- both Thai and foreign - but the trouble is in the details and the timing.

Aint that the truth.

Here's 2 scenarios.

1. The British guy above, wanted in connection with the rape of a child. Lets suppose he walks free from court. A standard UK police check would show he is clean. The CRB check would probably have a couple of red flags on it.

Would you employ him on his standard police check? Would you employ him if you saw his CRB check?

2. A journeyman TEFLer does 3 years at the chalkface at a number of schools in the LOS. He is suspected of kiddie fiddling, no charges are leveled, he does a runner to a different school. Same thing happens but this time charges are filed and a warrant issued. He escapes to Vietnam. Where he does the same. This time he escapes to the Philippines. After 9 years of kiddie fiddling and nearly getting caught - he returns back to Farangland.

Where he gets a job in a school in the UK on the strength of his clean police record and CRB check.

Any check is better than no check. But no check is 100% watertight.

Monitoring teachers regularly in my view, is probably more reliable than a piece of paper with a smudged rubber stamp on it.

Can I transfer my points between the British O.U. and Ramkamhaeng university?

How about a similar university in Nakhon Sawan?

Could I do a degree with hounours in English at Ram uni?

A friend of mine studied the Thai language on a government course with recognised exams. Where can I do the same?

Ijustwannateach - thank you, we understand you also have to work full time. Delays are not a problem.

The way i see it, I think it could be run along the lines of a forum, answering questions like the ones above. Within that forum would also be areas/threads for people studying here to discuss their actual courses.

An important source of information would also be a sticky with lots of links to courses/course providers both here and in other countries.

I'll start the ball rolling,

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...=102325&hl= (How do i get a BA here?)

which has a couple of links to proper online universities who dont mind you living in LOS and doing their course

http://www.ultraversity.net/

http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home.html

Does this help you?

Mark

Hello

I have asked the Mods a couple of times to be honest if we can have a thread or sticky about this topic.

I think there should be enough demand - people can live here cheaply whilst studying an online course.

heck - we have a Farming In Thailand forum.........and we're probably not supposed to actually be farmers are we?!

I say thread or sticky it.

Please.

So this guy can handle passport applications ??

That could be very handy as my brother needs a new passport and wants a second passport also.. Have to say I am surprised !!

I'm not sure LivinLos. I asked him on the phone and i m pretty sure he said he couldnt handle passport applications. However - the good news is, BKK office are very efficient. They turned my renewal around in 28 days. They even answered emails when i queried where it was!

Good luck

If anyone does contact mr Cooke - could they post what services he does actually provide.

Yes indeedy Undercover, you are quite right, that is the Allegro Vanden Plas on the far left of the photo - and thanks for posting that. It needs to be viewed in its full and glorious resolution to get the full benefit.

Look at that Vanden Plas - It has the earnest look of a 14 year old boy who's mum made him wear a trilby to church.

"Yeah well, right, me mum made me wear it........"

Funny thing is, in middle class suburbia where i grew up, quite a few blue rinse types actually did sit in the back whilst hubby drove this piece of crap, wearing string backed leatherette driving gloves and a hat, no doubt.

These things should be shot on sight.

Keen eyed posters will notice the elegant vinyl roof of the allegro - and also the epic Allegro estate car,(4th from left) which bore a remarkable resemblance to a hearse. Some people quipped that the only way they would be seen in one was if it actually was a hearse!

A nasty car indeed.

Austin Alegro (All Agro)

I remember when I was young my mum and dad had owned an allegro for a couple of days. I remember on Monday getting picked up from school in our usual Viva, on Tuesday we were thrilled to see a new car - the allegro (I was 6) and by Thursday we were getting picked up in a Datsun. We thought our parents were so rich all those new cars in one week!

Only years later we found that the Allegro was so shit that the dealer had no choice but take it back!

Ha ha it reminds me of the day my dad bought a run around. He told me he was buying a second car for a runaround and as i was 17 and had just passed my test, i was kinda looking forwards to it being mostly mine.

He unfortunately bought not just the Allegro. But the Allegro Vanden Plas. A much superior model to the standard Allegro, boasting a large Rolls Royce type radiator grill, sumptious leather seats, lots of real walnut veneer, and airline style tables in the back of the seats so the rear passengers could sip Pims whilst the chaufeur drove them. I was aghast and never drove it.

Furthermore, the winds friction co-efficient was better on the allegro in reverse. It's boot was more streamlined than the bonnet! What a pile of <deleted>.

so anyway........................................

can someone let me have the contact details anyway as I really can't be bothered having to go to bangkok so its worth a try

Yes - on the understanding that you buy us a pint and also post ALL the services that the geezer provides.

Ok?

Its Alan Cooke. Tel 0818934200. He is in Phuket.

He came to the hospital to visit my sick friend which was nice of him. Couldnt do much more than offer moral support and suggest a few hotels and cheaper hospitals - which i guess a tourist would have found usefull.

By the way - there is now accommodation AT bangkok phuket hospital - within their grounds. I believe it is merely adequate and its 1500 a night, but at least you are right there and you dont have to fanny about with taxi's.

Deal?

There has been a British sub-consul on the island for probably 10 years or more.

Yes - that's what he told me. Kinda seems to want to keep it to himself though..............like i said, i might have missed it but i cant find any reference to it on the Embassy website. And i dont know any expats that knew about it. All the people i spoke to were as shocked as me!

I agree with above.

No way can a farang serve beer. How can you possibly demonstrate that a Thai cant do the job?

As F&B manager for a hotel - yes........but then again, serving drinks would probably be outside that remit.

As far as i understand it, If you open (say) a French restaurant, you could argue that YOU (being French) have to do the cooking. You COULD probably argue that you have to take the orders too, esp in a high class place where people need advice on what wine to order with what food etc. But as for actually plonking the plates and drinks on the tables......hmmmm i dont think so.

Same with a straight beer bar - i think you cant do it.

I had to ring the UK Embassy in Bkk yesterday to inform them of something. They rang me back for a chat - all very nice. Then a couple of hours later, another man rang me, asked for me by name and said he was the British representative of the consular office right here in Phuket.

I said, " i didnt know we had offices here in Phuket". He said, well, its on all the websites and appears all over the place in magazines - where have you been boy?

So i have just had a look at the Brit Embassy website and there is no mention.

A quick google search for "British consular services in Phuket" brings nothing back.

I think he did mention to me that his job was unpaid.........and his office was at Island Furniture.

I have his name and phone number.

Did anyone else know that we have this service right here in Phuket? I will try and find out exactly what services they do offer - as i m sure it will/could save many of us a trip to Bkk.

Mark

UK citizens have the most problematic situation, due to the confidentiality issue which is indeed somewhat more strict than the US or Oz. In addition, it is/was the case that the UK passport was required to be sent to Scotland Yard for several months, during which time you were living in Thailand sans passport.

When i got my subject access done last year, i had a photocopy of my passport notarized at a local legal firm, who also included the solicitors credentials etc and tied it all together with a golden ribbon. It was about 500 baht. The cops in England accepted this.

However - as i have mentioned before, i believe that this check is technically not valid for use abroad and we should get the CRB check done. The Thai's probably wont realise this though so i reckon you would get away with the Subject access check.

Good luck

Invacar data here http://pages.zoom.co.uk/elvis/invacar.html

The final incarnation of the Thundersley version had a 600cc Steyr-Puch 4-stroke engine rather than the 150cc Villiers 2-stroke (which really could approach 30 mph).

82 in one of those, scary!!

It also had motorcycle style handlebars instead of a steering wheel.

Werent they banned from motorways though? I seem to remember big blue signs on slip roads saying that invalid cars and horse drawn carriages were banned - presumably because they couldnt maintain the minimum speed limit on the motorway of 30 mph. (And not a lot of people know that)

What a great name for an engine though eh - The Thundersley. Sounds like a great car..........til you see the photos. And why did it only come in that awful shade of pale blue.

We used to break into them as kids, cos there was a spaz chaz graveyard near where i lived. There were hundreds of them. Probably all still there, unless they've been recycled into swimming pools.

A Typo surely - a spaz chaz never did 82mph. You mean 28mph?

My mums first car was an austin 1100. Real heap of <deleted>. She traded it in for a 2CV. Which we drove from northern england to italy.

Twice.

Reliable but no performance.

My worst car EVER was the latest and last incarnarnation of the Ford Escort.

What a total piece of crap.

We traded a very old Peugoet 205 for it. I begged to swap back after a week but they had already scrapped the Peugeot.

This 2 year old escort had the worst suspension of any car ever. It was like driving with flat tyres all the time. U felt every milk bottle top and whisker on the road.

The locks kept breaking.

It didnt handle.

It was slow like you wouldnt believe.

I nver bought another Ford again after that.

Jeez. Crud.