penguinchris

I have a BS and an MS from good US universities. I have several years of teaching experience both in science and general topics (I don't hide that I don't have TEFL experience, but I do have experience teaching kids of all ages and am able to engage them so they're interested). I applied to and was offered a job teaching science and math at a private English immersion school in Bangkok a few weeks before the semester started last fall. While I was in the airport in Seoul in between flights (airfare coming out of my own pocket mind you), I got an email from the 25 year old American running the English department saying that he'd decided to give the job to his friend who happened to call up that morning looking for a job. He had no science or math background, but he had a degree, spoke English, and was the guy's friend, so I guess they chose the most qualified guy

So, I was in Bangkok with a 60 day visa. I decided based on what I hear about native English speakers in Thailand that it shouldn't be hard to just knock on a few doors and find a job. Even if it's not teaching science, I would be happy to get the experience.

You know, I truly enjoy teaching, and I like interacting with Thais. I have spent a lot of time with my girlfriend's young relatives and relatives of friends (she's from Chiang Mai) as well as a lot of students from Chiang Mai University (where I did some research for my MS in geology). Young Thai people seem to like me, especially kids. I'm young (24), smart, reasonably good looking, and I dress nicely (as we know these things can matter a lot in Thailand). I won't get into the accent argument, but I come from a region of the US with a very mild accent - most native English speakers don't recognize any accent at all (other than being obviously American rather than British - due to the lack of the British accent, not because of a strong American accent).

So if there's a shortage of teachers, why couldn't I find a job?

I gave up after a month (the semester started) of putting in applications and knocking on doors. I spent a few weeks with my girlfriend then went back to the US.

From what I can tell, even if you do one of the TEFL courses offered in Thailand, you're not guaranteed a job or anything - a couple places offer cut-rate TEFL courses and claim guaranteed job placement, but they don't seem very reputable.

As others have said already, there are obviously big problems with the system in place. That the infamously bad backpacker-type foreign teachers are able to get a job no problem, while people who take it seriously and have a good education and so on either can't find a job or don't want to go through all the hassle that's required, that's pretty bad.

And yes, I am still interested if anyone can help me with a job in Thailand!

I went from BKK to LHR on Jet once, stopover in Delhi as I recall. Can't complain about the airline or the flight - it felt like a typical budget carrier. Not at all like Korean Air or the other nicer Asian carriers, or even Thai Airways, but better than a typical US carrier and perfectly satisfactory for a cheap flight. I thought the food was quite good, considering. Although, they ran out of the chicken meal right before they got to me - I think they were expecting a lot more vegetarians (common in India). The vegetarian dish was quite good though so no actual complaint there.

My complaint is with my fellow passengers. I would have vastly preferred that they were Indian - they were mostly UK students who must have gotten on the last possible connection from Koh Samui or Phuket or someplace like that to BKK - no time to change clothes or take a shower apparently. They all smelled awful and were half naked (it was mostly guys, so no silver lining there) like they were still on the beach. On top of that, they were quite rude not only to me, but also to the stewardesses (who were very nice). There must have been 40 or 50 of them - a huge percentage of the passengers on the flight.

I felt ashamed, actually, that since I was sitting next to some of the students that the stewardess who was passing out customs forms assumed that I was with them and didn't give me a form (being UK citizens they didn't need the customs form, I'm young too but I'm from the US) so I had to get up later to try to find one, which meant interacting with and squeezing past the smelly students (I had the window seat).

I think it's obvious that you expect certain types of people to be more common on the cheapest flights - and Jet often has the cheapest flights for that route - so you take your chances. Otherwise, though, as I said - no complaints with the airline itself, I thought they were pretty good. The airport in Delhi and security there felt strange, indeed - army soldiers with AK-47s all over the place - but other than having a long queue for the security line they were efficient and professional (which is more than you can say for e.g. the TSA in the US), just as in China or Japan or Korea when I've had connecting flights there. It was strange looking out the window during takeoff and landing and seeing a huge slum built up all the way to the edges of the runway, but that's another matter.

I think the Japanese uniform the rest of the world is familiar with is highly stylized and over-sexualized compared to reality. Yes, I've seen plenty of pictures of real Japanese girls in real uniforms, and Japanese movies where they wear real uniforms (not porn...) and sure they're sexy. But the only thing sexy about the uniform itself is the pleated skirt - otherwise the tight-fitting Thai uniforms beat it hands-down. It's just that the girls are really cute which alters our perception of what they're wearing.

Most of the Japanese uniform photos shown here, and in the link to the second poll, are not realistic. Only a few of the Thai uniforms linked to are unrealistic, and frankly the real Thai uniforms are cuter than the fake ones.

I spent a lot of time at Chiang Mai University. There are amazingly attractive girls there, and they know how to wear their uniforms. Actually, I find the pale purple shirts they wear there much cuter than the white ones that are in all of the pictures (from Bangkok mostly). They sell uniform clothing in the bookstore there, and also in the student co-op store. But the real big business is in the market down the street from the main entrance, which is always packed with students. There are shops there with uniform-spec clothing, but in much sexier cuts.

I'm young (24) and was at CMU as a visiting science student, so I feel perfectly comfortable commenting on this (and felt perfectly comfortable mingling with the students at that market), by the way

My girlfriend (22) lives in Chiang Mai, but didn't go to university. She dresses about average for a young Thai girl - cute, not conservative exactly but not like a bar girl. I think most of the university girls (whom you find along Nimmanhamen in and out of uniform) dress much less conservatively than they would if they hadn't gone to university. Of course, once they get a job - which will be a much better job than if they hadn't gone to university - that will change. Just an observation, though.

BTW in response to dgotrek, I know a katoey who is a student at Chiang Mai University, and she wears the female uniform (not so tight-fitting though). Of course, she is very convincing (I didn't realize it until I was told) - the less convincing ones I could imagine deciding not to wear the female uniform.

Fantastic, must have been amazing for a foreigner to visit back then - not that it isn't now, but a lot of things have changed

I too thought this must be a joke at first. It's pretty funny, and so true. I normally feel little reason to go to mall-type restaurants in Thailand, but have been to both PIzza Company and Pizza Hut on one occasion each. Pizza Hut was ok - not wildly different from the US version if you don't get anything crazy (though I don't go to Pizza Hut in the US either, I have been in the past). Pizza Company really was horrible, though, and well worth making an example of I think

I suppose some people must like it, but none of the Thais I know do, and certainly no foreigners do. I've seen much, much worse Thai pizza, of course - buffet places sometimes have it, and it's atrocious.

My ultimate point is this - I know why my girlfriend (Thai) has an aversion to all things pizza, and it's not because she doesn't like pizza - at least, I'm pretty sure she would like it, based on the other things that she does like. She actually just doesn't like the abomination that is Thai-style pizza, and refuses to give the real thing a try because of her experience with Thai pizza

Disgusting foreigners taking jobs away from Thais !

How come in this job they don't need work permits, I thought every farang needed a work permit, even to dig weeds in their own garden?

I have always been curious about this as well. Does anyone know how these foreigners apparently have no trouble staying in Thailand, when it's a huge, sometimes expensive pain in the ass for European or American farangs to do the same? Are they just there illegally and don't care if they're deported? And why do they come in the first place... surely it's not cheap to get to Thailand from wherever they're from, they're obviously poor, and they *remain* poor in Thailand and have to put up with discrimination and so on. I guess it must be *really* bad wherever they're from.*

I'm just ignorant regarding this kind of thing, I guess - while in my mind I can come up with situations where it makes sense for these people to be in Thailand, I'm not sure what the reality is. I also don't quite understand e.g. all the foreign tailors - if the tailors were Thai the whole tailor shop scene would make perfect sense to me, but as it is they're mostly Indian and I don't really get it (didn't stop me from having a suit made, just curious why they bother to come to Thailand).

Of course, in Europe and the US we have the same thing going on, lots of poor people trying to immigrate. They usually are stuck with terrible jobs, or going into the same rackets they get into in Thailand. So it's not like I can't imagine at all why they do it. It still seems rather strange to me in Thailand's case, though, because there seems to be an endless supply of poor Thais who are doing all the low-paying jobs.

* As I typed that I realized the irony of me saying this - I'm currently trying to get a teaching job in Thailand, and while it's something I really want to do anyway, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that part of what motivates me to do it is that there aren't any jobs in the US for recent graduates. That's a little different than trying to go to Thailand so I can sell drugs or be a scam artist, of course.

I realize this thread is a few months old but I came across it searching for something else, and I thought I'd comment in case anyone else is searching for information about this hotel since I've stayed there.

I stayed there for about a month in January. Perfectly nice place, air conditioning and cable TV worked great, and the free wi-fi was very, very fast compared to most places I've used wi-fi in Chiang Mai.

As far as being "guest friendly", they seem to be. I didn't bring any "guests" but my girlfriend (who is Thai) ended up basically living with me in the hotel for much of the time and this didn't raise any eyebrows. I'm a medium-large white guy and my girlfriend is tiny so I'm sure they assumed she was a "guest" rather than a real girlfriend.

For 300 baht a night it's a no-brainer. Location isn't exactly central but definitely within walking distance of anything downtown. Don't bother trying to book online (I tried through hostels.com) - send them an email to set up a reservation. Like most places in Thailand they don't have a complicated reservation system and especially now aren't particularly busy.

If you're staying for a month or more, though, it's now obvious to me that finding a place with a monthly rate is better. In fact I am back in Chiang Mai now for a few months staying at a decent place with air-con for 2,500 baht a month and I'm sure you can find places for cheaper if you look around. It may be worth it to you to pay more for a hotel like the New Mitrapap, of course, for the free wi-fi and cable TV (even if you're on vacation these things are nice to have).

LA consulate web site has been updated - http://www.thai-la.net/visa/visa-tourist-us.htm - I'm heading there tomorrow to get my visa and I'll report back here if they give me any problems

I really don't understand all the arguing here... the free visa period was supposed to start April 1st. The last one was from June 25, 2009 to March 4, 2010 (not sure what the previous ones were if any). It has nothing to do with the red shirt rallies - it had been planned previously.

Delaying the announcement by two weeks was obviously done because of what's been happening. Now that it's gotten much worse than they might have expected, they don't really have a choice but to announce it now - those of us who are in need of visas in the next couple of months have been sitting on our hands waiting for this announcement.

Look - 1000 baht isn't much for a typical foreigner, true. But for example, I'm getting a two-entry tourist visa from the Los Angeles consulate. They cost $35 per entry. That's $70, which I would much rather give to local shop owners and so on in Thailand than to the government bureaucracy. That extra $70 is going to go from me right into the economy in either Chiang Mai or Mae Hong Son... so what is the problem? Combined from all the tourists who are getting free visas, it'll add up, and it may very well encourage people to go that might not have otherwise. You're underestimating the power of getting something for free, even to someone willing to pay thousands for the rest of the trip, and nobody likes paying government administrative fees.

Forgot to mention - "I don't know" is definitely not a valid response to a question from a Thai girl I didn't really understand that but the previous posts about it make it obvious.

"What? Why you don't know?" - heard that all the time. Any time I say I don't know, I still get a laugh from her. Didn't understand until now. I'm not going to lie to her to avoid saying I don't know, but maybe I'll have to get more creative with my answers

Very interesting thread. This has been one of the things that has been bothering me about my relationship with my girlfriend, who I met in January. I understood somehow that this was to be expected (I may have read something about it somewhere) but that didn't prepare me for how it would actually work out.

I mean... I got from her all the standard questions others have mentioned here. Am I married (no), do I have a girlfriend back home (no), do I have kids (no), etc. I understand the need to ask those questions to foreigners... it's no secret what the majority of foreign men who put themselves in a position of meeting Thai girls are there for. I rarely get any further questions, as seems typical based on the other responses here, and questions I ask her usually are left unanswered.

Anyway, here's where it's different and where I may be able to provide some generational insight. I think I'm relatively young compared to most foreigners who have serious relationships with Thai girls - I'm 23, and she's 21. She doesn't see me as a source of financial support or anything like that - I made sure she understood that I'm a grad student and I don't have any money (I make the equivalent of 50,000 baht a month as a teaching assistant, but that barely covers living expenses in California and I have no other source of income). She has never asked me for money or to pay for anything... she even offered to pay for meals sometimes, though I didn't let her, and in several cases insisted that she pay for other small things (and she's not rich either).

So, then, what does she see in me and what about me is she interested in? Hard to say for sure, since she doesn't ask questions and doesn't give full answers to my questions

I have a feeling, comparing my experience to others I've read about here and elsewhere, that younger Thais are moving away what's been considered typical - finding a guy who has decent money and can take care of them - to caring more about emotional attachment and falling in love and so on. Her real interest in me is, I think, a genuine emotional one rather than a practical one... though very much "in the moment", surely, since she isn't particularly interested in my past or anything like that.

By the way, she's not a well-educated urban girl. That's not to say she's stupid or uneducated - obviously not - she's a student (though she has never answered what exactly she studies), but she's from rural Mae Hong Son and certainly exhibits many of the traits I would expect rural girls to have vs. urban girls based on what others have written here and elsewhere. I met her in Chiang Mai where she was staying with her sister (who is learning english - the sister is married to a foreigner) for the dry season. If you're wondering, I was there for a month doing geologic research for my master's thesis (I realize going someplace like Thailand to "do research" is something of a joke, but it's true ). I'm going back after I graduate in June and will be staying for several months (until my visa - and my money - runs out ) Currently, I video chat with her every couple of days. I always try to get a few questions in, but I'm not pushy about it, and she often doesn't end up actually answering, as I said (there is a fairly significant language barrier, of course, which doesn't help).

Dont know if this have been linked before:

http://www.france24.com/en/20100411-exclus...-thailand-crack

France24 had a camera close to the grenade that killed soldiers and also subsequent fireing of live ammunition at protesters. I fail to see the soldiers fireing as in immediate danger. It could be explained if it where during the evacuation of wounded, but that looked like pure hatred and retribution - and the reason why you dont send military with live ammunition toward mass demonstration in the first place. Even if some of them are armed, the majority is not.

Just playing devil's advocate here, but how could the reporter possibly know that they weren't plastic bullets (awaits comments from resident TV ballistic experts)

I'll bite. At least one of the soldiers was using a TAR- 21, an Israeli made rifle which the Thai army ordered 30,000 of recently.

Plastic bullets can work for any rifle they are gauged for including a TAR-21.

Absolutely... and most of the photos that have circulated show only the bullet casings, not the actual bullets, as if that proves anything... the casing looks the same whether it's a real or plastic/rubber bullet. I won't claim to have looked at everything, but, I have not seen any photo showing real bullets, just bullet casings and expanded foam/rubber/plastic/whatever-they-are rounds. It'd be pretty difficult to actually come across a bullet, though, to be fair.

There are the bullet holes the red shirts have been pointing out to prove that real bullets were used... but in some of the videos I've seen there are red shirts holding real weapons, including one with an AK-47. So either side could have potentially shot the real bullets that caused the bullet holes, and based on the fact that at least one of the killed soldiers was shot in the head with a real bullet, it's obvious there are real bullets coming not from the army (which doesn't preclude their use on the army's side, of course). I would not be surprised at all if it turns out there are radicals/terrorists that have disguised themselves within the red shirts and have been doing all of the killing with real bullets, as the official investigation is saying.

As a side note - the video on france24 is interesting, but the reporting is really irresponsible (obvious from the responses it's gotten here), and is representative of a lot of the irresponsible reporting done by foreigners that I've seen. Clearly, nothing they said was fact-checked - they don't know if the soldiers are using real bullets or not, and they make serious accusations based off of not knowing! Further, they say that after the grenade blast seen in the video, seven (!) soldiers were killed. They don't say injured - they say killed. That's certainly something we would have heard about elsewhere and obviously not true. I don't mean to belittle the injuries suffered by the soldiers - unfortunately I suspect some of the soldiers there were critically injured as it was a direct, close-range blast. But there's a rather important distinction between being injured (no matter how badly) and being dead.

Los Angeles consulate hasn't updated their website either. I emailed them some questions a couple of weeks ago, and the guy who replied was very nice and answered fully and clearly my other questions, but when I asked if the visas would be free after the first, and his answer basically amounted to "I can't comment on that right now" - he said to check the website as the latest information will be posted will be posted there. Meanwhile, it doesn't appear that the site has actually been updated since the *beginning* of the last free visa period.

If there's no word in the next few days, I'll contact the guy at the consulate to see if he knows anything. I'm not leaving for Thailand until early July so I've got some time, but I don't want to sit around on my hands worrying about getting my visa, and I know that if I go ahead and pay for it then the very next day the free visas will be announced

I'm a US citizen, age 23.

Basically, I'm trying to figure out a visa situation that will let me stay in Thailand for maybe six months to a year. If I decide to stay longer than that, then I by necessity will have to have found a decent job in Thailand as I won't be able to afford it So, I can worry about work permits and so on at that point.

I have been in communication with a guy at Chiang Mai University about a part-time job doing english-language editing. If I get that job, then I presume I can get a "B" visa which will give me a year… correct?

Now, the reason I'm asking here is that I'm not sure they'll offer me the job. In the case that they don't, my current thinking is to get the 3-month tourist visa, and to try to line up some work while there.

However, I will be arriving on a one-way ticket. I know in a recent thread someone asked if they actually care that you have a return flight for a tourist visa, and apparently they don't… but how does one work this? The two times I've been to Thailand previously (both for the full 30 days that are allowed without a visa) I just wrote the flight number for my return flight on the arrival card… can I just leave that blank without raising suspicion?

I'm OK with multiple trips to consulates and so on, I just want to make sure I'm planning this out properly.

Executive summary of my plan:

a) Get the job and be all set with the B visa (which I guess involves 'consulate runs' every three months?), or,

Arrive with a 3-month tourist visa (which involves one border/consulate run after two months?)

------- 1) Try to line up some work...

------- 2) Then, get a B visa or work permit and be all set for a little while longer

Does this sound reasonable? Am I approaching this the right way? Is there perhaps an easier way?

(if it matters, my reason for wanting to live in Thailand for a while is so that I can take a much-needed break from what I'm currently doing - I'm a grad student and will finish my MSc in May - and, naturally, to develop my relationship with a girl (a Thai student) I met in Chiang Mai…)

Some further (broken english ) correspondence makes me think that I was actually understood the first time (with "boom boom" )

I wasn't actually that worried, but I *was* pretty embarrassed when I said it

I still can't find it on the phone... it is an older Nokia as you suspected but the punctuation menu (from *, which I did get to previously) only has English punctuation, even when inputting Thai text. Perhaps the overall phone language needs to be set to Thai to get access to Thai "punctuation"?

I will have to play with it some more in case it comes up again... I had a similar problem finding a character previously but I was doing it just for fun that time, and ended up sending a mangled Thai "hello" along with the same in english, so obviously it wasn't a pressing matter

Anyway, thanks so much for the clarification and for easing my mind... and if I figure out how to get to it on the phone I will post how in case anyone else has the same problem (it's a pretty common phone, so who knows).

I got a confused phone call when I sent an SMS to a Thai friend about the fireworks that just went off in Chiang Mai. I sent it in english, because I don't know very much Thai and I don't know the script. Of course, my friend does not know much english, and so couldn't translate "fireworks" and neither could her sister who is slightly better with english. At a loss for how to describe it when the sister called to ask what I meant, I instinctively described it as "boom boom" which I immediately realized was a pretty stupid mistake I quickly corrected myself and said no, that's not what I meant, and I hope she understood that.

Anyway, wanting to try to clear myself, I decided to send an SMS in Thai with the Thai word for fireworks. Google Translate gives me พลุ, which I guess is correct because a search for that comes up with pictures of fireworks. The problem is, I can't figure out how to type that on a cell phone in Thai (numeric keypad only). The พ I can get, but the best I can do for ลุ is ล - same but without the bit at the bottom. It shows up on Google Translate as an extra little symbol there, but on the font here it shows connected - in either case I can't figure out how to get it on the cell phone.

I sent พล to try to cover myself quickly, and I just now (as I'm typing) got a response in broken english and (I think) she understands.

So my questions are as follows - what is the difference between ลุ and ล? If I put พล into Google Translate, it gives me "general", and a search comes up with pictures of what I presume are military generals. However, it seems that she understood. Is the extra mark a tone mark, or something similar, such that while potentially causing confusion พล might be translated by a Thai as "fireworks" given the right context?

Or, did I just translate "fireworks" as "military general" and thoroughly confuse her, and she's just being nice by pretending to understand ?

If they are truly different, then how the heck do I get ลุ into the phone? It doesn't help that it's a low-resolution display and the font is quite different than what I see on Google, but I could find literally nothing like it, and the T9 auto-complete just gave me พล.

Though my pressing mistranslation and "boom boom" problem seems to be resolved, I do want to make sure I was actually understood, as saying "boom boom" to my friend's sister who only knows me as a farang from California (and I think thought I meant boom boom, in the Thai sense, in connection with my friend) is not the impression I want to give off.

Thanks so much for any help!

I rode a 125cc bike to Doi Inthanon, and then also down to Mae Chaem on the other side, in July. I am a fairly big guy (80-90 kg) and I had a small female passenger. I had some trouble climbing the steepest sections, but it was largely because of gearing - it was an automatic bike and it had trouble choosing the right gear. I made it up, but at the steepest bits I was going 6-7 kph - and my friend fell off the back once while we were at that speed

That said, it is far steeper on the other side, the road to Mae Chaem - going up to Doi Inthanon and back from Chiang Mai was no problem.

Another friend had his own bike, a Honda Dream, and had no problem - and he certainly appreciated the manual gearing for the steep sections. Keep in mind that we're from the US and don't have a whole lot of experience riding except around the city in Chiang Mai, and we saw plenty of locals doing the same route on far lower powered bikes that obviously weren't being kept up very well. If you have a little bit of experience, then, there should be no problem.

Well worth it to check out the other side, I think, but it is way more comfortable in a car (I went another time in a car). We did get cold on the bike, but we had light jackets and were fine. It rained quite a bit as well, which is potentially a problem - be careful on the turns! We had cheap ponchos - 15 baht from a Tesco I think - which were fine for protection from the rain.

In Mae Chaem, you can see the area on paved roads, but there is a lot to see off the main roads as well - this turned out to be a major problem (though it made for quite an adventure) with the rain, as dirt roads turn into mud roads pretty quickly. Just to see the area it shouldn't be necessary to go on the dirt roads, of course - I had a specific reason to go off road. I'm doing geology research in the area and needed to see certain sections of the Mae Chaem river you can't get to from the main roads.

I'm back in Chiang Mai now and will be doing some more extensive field research along the Mae Chaem river in the next couple of weeks. This time, when I go out there I will be renting a Suzuki Caribbean 4x4 (or similar) as that should be better for going where I need to go.

By the way - at the Doi Inthanon National Park entrance, if you are going to Mae Chaem tell them so and you won't have to pay to get in. If you are actually going to check out the park, of course, you should pay. It's worth it to stop several places within the park - lots of waterfalls and such.