seykota

On 9/17/2023 at 10:47 AM, JimHuaHin said:

Possible, I did it.  Family moved from Hamilton to Ballarat, Victoria, in the early-mid 1960s.  The nearest Catholic school (which had both some primary levels (4-6) and secondary levels) was about 300 metres from home; the next nearest Catholic primary school was about 3-4 kms away.  At the time Grade 4 had only 5 students (for memory), and was run in conjuction with Grade 5.  Just before I finished Grade 5, parents of the students were informed that Grade 6 would not be offered at the school in the following year - parents had the choice of sending thier children to the other Catholic school (3-4 kms away), or thier children would be put up into Form 1; all parents, including my own, decided on the latter course.  Thus, essentially I skipped to 2 levels of primary school, and finished high school just before my 17th birthday.   Started university just after I turned 17, and finished all 3rd year exams and got my results before turning 20.  But at that time, graduation ceremonies at the university were held in April the year after completion, I had to formally graduate when I was just 20.

Yes. See below for my explanation re graduating at 19 yrs

H

On 9/16/2023 at 10:37 AM, AustinRacing said:

Graduated from university at 19? Do tell. 

I taught Economics at universities in Thailand and China. We moved to Beijing when he was 11 and completed Yr 6 at a Bi-lingual school in Khon Kaen. Only the very expensive "international" schools in Beijing teach in English prior to Yr 9, thus as he could not speak Chinese, he studied Yr 9 (he was already a quite big lad for his age). His class went to a private school in Missouri, USA in Yr 10, to complete their US high school certificate. He completed Yr 10 in the USA at 13 yrs, purely due to circumstances.
 

When he returned to Beijing, I gave him the choice: 1. keep studying at his Beijing school or study online with Open Universities Australia  https://www.open.edu.au/ which does not have an age limit. He graduated last year (19 yrs + 1 month) with Bachelor degree in Entertainment Industries plus Minor in Ancient History from Macquarie University , Sydney Australia . He moved to Sydney as an "on-campus student in 2017 .

So there you go.

Thanks,
Actually, that makes sense = TiT

My son is a dual national (Thai Australian) he's 19 years old and has already graduated with a Bachelor Degree from Macquarie University in Sydney.

He registered in Khon Kaen today, however the officer told him that 'volunteering = 6 months' is only available if he graduated from a Thai university. I can only find that a 'university degree' is required, nothing about being restricted to Thailand institutions'.

 I  have already checked this site  https://www.thaicitizenship.com/thai-military-service/
"3) Volunteering after graduating from university

Following graduation, a university graduate is allowed to volunteer to join the armed forces prior to or on conscription day, and as a result only serve 6 months.

Could anyone clarify for us, please?

p.s The officer made it quite obvious to my son that there was another option = a financial gift. However, my son refused the offer.

Many thanks,
Seykota

13 hours ago, hotandsticky said:

Ask the Thais if they are allowed to vote. Ask the Thais if freedom of speech and freedom travel is allowed.

In 2006, I had a tank 'parked' outside my condo in Bangkok (next to Siam Uni) during the curfew. Many students couldn't get to uni due to the curfew time restrictions (no online classes in 2006). Numerous people were shot during the protests. People are in jail for allegedly speaking about a certain families (Thaksin and ,,,,,,,,,). Ask some punters in Issan if they believe their votes really count = certain party wins election leads to coup.

< freedom travel is allowed." = I agree

Yes, things have changed = the coup leader installed himself as prime minister and changed the constitution.

Great.... not

I have been building a model train layout as I needed a hobby. Its 12' * 4' and I run Hornby OO/HO stream locos.

Are there any other model train enthusiasts out there? I am a novice and am always looking for some input from those with more experience.

P.S I'm in Khon Kaen

TAT marketing always makes me wonder about how often the strategy team must change.

The past 2 or 3 years they have been ranting about "Quality tourists not quantity" and then they move on to creating a target of doubling the gross tourist arrival numbers. Also their definition of "Quality tourists" revolves around short term (1 - 2 week) punters that stay in 5 star hotels in Hua Hin, Phuket etc. On the other hand other government departments are attempting to have policies that encourage (many) tourists to visit non- tourist destinations, for example Issan

So which is it?

We may be relocating to Khon Kaen from Bangkok for work purposes and I am looking for a school for our six year old son. He attends Lertlah School in Bangkok and we are very happy with the school but work is work.

I would appreciate information from anyone who has children at Mataneedol School.

Regards

seykota

My son attends Lertlah School in Bang Kae, the English Program is excellent (in my opinion) and the academic curriculum is overseen by the Education department of Manitoba (Canada).

"So, you have a contract that clearly states you work until 4pm, you've been getting away with slipping away earlier but now the school are going to enforce this clearly stated condition that you agreed to when you accepted the job by changing the method of checking arrival and departure times to a less easily manipulated system and you accuse them of having an ethical/moral problem - I suggest you look in a mirror."

I agree with Loaded. I use the finger scanner without any problems as I signed a contract that stated my teaching hours and my working hours i.e. 16 hours teaching during my work week, Monday - Friday 8:30 - 16:30. I work at a university, therefore there are no 'homeroom' duties for the Thai lecturers and we have similar 'extra' duties. These include projects and research, if you need to leave the university to undertake these activities a note is not required, though if you require a van and driver, a written request is required 5 days in advance.

Finger scanning is more time efficient than manually checking signatures.

As Aussiestyle1983 wrote

"Plenty of organisations use finger scanning and I think its a good idea. If you don't like the job, go elsewhere. Is there anything stopping you from scanning your finger, teaching, going away, and then comming back later to sign off? Anyone can forge a log book or whatever, a finger scan is a good idea from an employers perspective."

Native English teachers are asked to take the TOEIC test at the same time as the students as a way to 'bump up' the uni's students average score. Seriously.

Hello,

I am a graduate of a university in the US and am interested in several English-taught MBA programs based in Thailand. I am curious about the admissions standards of the universities... Since many universities don't require the GMAT (ie. Webster, ABAC, DPU), I was wondering what the basis of admission is and how easy/hard these programs are to get into.

Thanks.

I am studying an I-MBA at Siam University (International = English based), the requirement, assuming a native speaker with a Bachelor degree from a US university (they check with the US Uni for authenticity), is an interview with the Dean of the IMBA department. The Dean at Siam Uni is Ajarn Vichit, a former Governor of the Bank of Thailand and President of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, and he is very pleasant chap. If you wish to know any more about the program you are welcome to contact me.

seykota

My wife gets 40K (though she has a PhD from Australia), and the english teacher gets by with 25K (though they are often much less qualified that the Thai ajarns anyway). Having said that I don't bother to work in her college when I can get more than double that in an English Program.

My pay equates to around 50k per month(averaged over the 12 month contract) as all teaching hours scheduled over 16 hours per week are paid as overtime as are all hours scheduled during Summer term (12 hours per week), also there are opportunities for extra courses like TOEIC, amongst others. The university provides support when we undertake further study and for us to present papers at international conferences.

It is an individual choice issue when choosing between employment at a school or a university as the situation can be quite different. That said some lecturers, Thai and foreign, choose to watch movies and play computer games between classes while others find more productive ways to use this time. Personally, my preference is to undertake extra study and projects that improve my resume and provide a few 'Brownie Points" with my department's head and the university's President.

I have moved to Thailand on a permanent basis (married with kids), therefore there are benefits for me to put in the extra effort, whereas those that may only be here for a few years have less to gain.

The popular website for farang teachers has an article regarding a shortage of teaching positions being offered, I am wondering if there are less people needing these positions. The university department that I work in advertised recently and only received 3 applications; a Master degree was stipulated though people rarely let that stop them applying. A university position has a lot in its favour, for example no need for a teaching license, no culture course, no kids.......

I have noticed that there have been fewer positions advertised therefore I assume there must be fewer people interested in teaching in Thailand. Korea's exchange rate has made that a less attractive alternative ..........

I am trying to get information about applying for a pension contributions refund RE: the Australian-Korean Pensions Agreement. Has anyone had any experience yet. I have tried the Oz Embassy in Seoul site, which refers you to the Centrelink site, unfortunately I lost the trail there. It does mention the agreement and the process for applying for an Age Pension but nothing about applying for the refund. I have been back in Thailand for 18 months and would prefer not to have to make a special trip to Korea to lodge my application.

Can anyone tell me where I can have my Krups espresso machine repaired? It is not a commercial machine, just a small domestic one but produces an excellent cup of coffee (I should say "it used to"). I think the pump needs to be replaced, though I am not certain this is the problem.

Any suggestions will be gratefully accepted. My plunger is OK but I really miss the Krups!

Thanks

Hi Guy & Team,

Thanks for your explanation, it does provide some answers for me.

Another question, if you have time, is Asiarooms.com classified as an on-line agent or an Internet consolidator? I did not know about companies paying for the guarantee of a room allocation; I assume Asiarooms is a consolidator???

Again thankyou

I am curious if anyone has actually contacted a hotel and asked them to match an online agent's room rate, I have read that this is a very difficult task due to numerous provisions included in the hotel's "guarantees".

I am unsure why hotels do not offer the best rate on their own websites; in fact the best rate is rarely offered on a hotel's own site and the price difference can be quite substantial between their site and online agents (3rd parties). Megasearch sites like kayak.com make it a relatively simple task to find the cheapest rates available thus if most hotels offered the cheapest rate (without the guarantee requirement) the online agents would be in some difficulties.

I am sure I must be missing something????

Unfortunately a virus slipped past my virus software (avast!) on Wednesday, rather the 'virus alert' was activated and I moved it to the "chest' as advised by the software. However it appears the virus still managed to damage my system. When I click 'start' to shutdown, there is no longer the 'shutdown' button only the 'log off' button, so I must push the power button to turn the laptop off. Also my 'system restore' function has been deactivated and I cannot reactivate it.

I assume there are other areas damaged but I have not found them yet. Is there anyway to fix these functions? I am rather concerned this is a 'sleeper virus' and I have more unpleasant surprises ahead of me, though I am regularly scanning and cannot find anything.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I know I can save all my files and software then wipe my drives and reinstall XP but I am hoping there are other options.

Thanks

Pete

Not sure about not being available in Bangkok.

This was Maxnet's reply to my inquiry about availability:

ชื่อเรื่อง: RE: WiFi unlimited package information

Headers: Show All Headers

Hello Peter

We don't have English version on our website right now. Our coverage

area are not much in public area , it's located on some Hotel , Apartment ,

Condominium. What is your location to using wifi ? Package 590B/30Day

available there.

Best Regards,

Maxnet WiFi

Unfortunately, the relevant Maxnet page is in Thai and I cannot understand what coverage it includes eg. areas of Bangkok. Is it just at hotspots around the Silom/Sukumvit areas or a broader coverage?

We rent our condo thus do not want to install a landline.

Thanks

My 4 year old son attends a Montessori pre-school that has several Montessori trained teachers (as I understand) however the main language is Thai, which is fine with us as his first language is English and he needs to improve his Thai. They do have English lessons but it is not the focus; we are very happy with the standard of the teaching and the school in general. The pre-school is in the Bang Kae area of Bangkok.

seykota

Take it to a PC repair shop.

Thanks, Reimar but I think dotcom may have the answer for someone who has minimal pc know how like Me.

seykota

Hi Reimar,

It is "One Long Beep, Two Short Beeps = Video Problem"

Unfortunately, I do not know what I can do to correct a video problem, can you suggest some actions for me to try?

Thanks