Time To Call A Spade A Spade

[Jingthing]

If the Thais were to truly address me as how I view myself then my annual extension would say Non-Sexual Chocolate Pimp Daddy Lurv Machine Playa Walrus Mackadocious Orgasmotron ormwords to that effect

Triple next to that. Or three snaps, whatever your flavor.

[mca]

If the Thais were to truly address me as how I view myself then my annual extension would say Non-Sexual Chocolate Pimp Daddy Lurv Machine Playa Walrus Mackadocious Orgasmotron ormwords to that effect

Triple next to that. Or three snaps, whatever your flavor.

JT. Camper than a row of tents

[exeter]

I think I will be called a superstar, but not like the ones seen nightly on TV, They think they are superstars. they are Wannabe's Now that I have arrived, thats my train on the left, now they know the true meaning of Superstar.

I am also not an ex pat, I am a fully blown Patriot and always will be, even though I dont see too many ex pats around here, if I did it would be harder to be a superstar!

[rixalex]

Expatriate sounds dignified. I picture a Graham Greene character being chauffeured around town by a tiny polite assistant who smiles often and being chatted up by educated well dressed women at sophisticated tea parties.

The word migrant or immigrant implies that one has some kind of solid legal footing in the country. Immigrants have left their home country to build a better life in a new country for future generations,

I agree and certainly I consider myself an expat in Thailand, just like I have been an expat in several other countries and may likely continue to do so if sent someplace else. I guess I could be considered a migrant worker as well though expatriate is the common term for skilled professionals working in another country.

An immigrant to me is as you say somebody that has no intention of returning to home country or keeping any legal connection to it. They have moved to the new country to start a new life and have established a permanent residence and are at least working towards the legal part of that.

When I retire in few years, I will likely do so in Thailand, but will do so on yearly retirement extensions and continue to maintain my financial and emotional ties to my home country. That still makes me an expat, not an immigrant.

obviously something that is probably not happening in Thailand considering the business regulations placed upon farang and the constant fear of standing in an immigration queue and being told, despite personal investments made in Thailand, to go home.

The best word to describe farang in Thailand? It is probably farang.

This just sounds the bitter rant of somebody that cannot qualify for any sort of stable visa status and has failed in a business venture and is indulging in projection bias to place the blame on Thais.

There are way too many people that have successfully started business, many that have got PR and some that even got Thai citizenship for your tirade to have any validity.

TH

The gist of all this seems to be that foreigners in Thailand who are being paid in a Western currency and employed by an International company consider themselves a better class of foreigner than the likes of the English teachers on the paltry Thai salaries and don't like it when this "riff raff" uses the term expat to describe themselves, because they feel it is their term and the term that helps distinguish them.

Edited January 5, 2012 by rixalex

[nong38]

Forkhandles are only available at Loykrathong time or did I not hear you right, Try the local municipality road wroks ( correct speeling) department but do tell them its for a shovel which will now we known as a spade, Thailand forks no have!

[F1fanatic]

Expatriate sounds dignified. I picture a Graham Greene character being chauffeured around town by a tiny polite assistant who smiles often and being chatted up by educated well dressed women at sophisticated tea parties.

The word migrant or immigrant implies that one has some kind of solid legal footing in the country. Immigrants have left their home country to build a better life in a new country for future generations,

I agree and certainly I consider myself an expat in Thailand, just like I have been an expat in several other countries and may likely continue to do so if sent someplace else. I guess I could be considered a migrant worker as well though expatriate is the common term for skilled professionals working in another country.

An immigrant to me is as you say somebody that has no intention of returning to home country or keeping any legal connection to it. They have moved to the new country to start a new life and have established a permanent residence and are at least working towards the legal part of that.

When I retire in few years, I will likely do so in Thailand, but will do so on yearly retirement extensions and continue to maintain my financial and emotional ties to my home country. That still makes me an expat, not an immigrant.

obviously something that is probably not happening in Thailand considering the business regulations placed upon farang and the constant fear of standing in an immigration queue and being told, despite personal investments made in Thailand, to go home.

The best word to describe farang in Thailand? It is probably farang.

This just sounds the bitter rant of somebody that cannot qualify for any sort of stable visa status and has failed in a business venture and is indulging in projection bias to place the blame on Thais.

There are way too many people that have successfully started business, many that have got PR and some that even got Thai citizenship for your tirade to have any validity.

TH

The gist of all this seems to be that foreigners in Thailand who are being paid in a Western currency and employed by an International company consider themselves a better class of foreigner than the likes of the English teachers on the paltry Thai salaries and don't like it when this "riff raff" uses the term expat to describe themselves, because they feel it is their term and the term that helps distinguish them.

I'm not sure that's true. All of us living here think of ourselves as 'expats', when in actual fact we are only 'guests'. Albeit, wiith a visa - that could be withdrawn at any time if the government decides to pander to popular opinion and blame the 'farangs' for everything wrong in the country.

[Jingthing]

Huh? The term expat certainly doesn't imply any permanent status.

[F1fanatic]

Huh? The term expat certainly doesn't imply any permanent status.

I agree. I was just pointing out that we all think of ourselves as expats if we hope to stay here.

[Jingthing]

Huh? The term expat certainly doesn't imply any permanent status.

I agree. I was just pointing out that we all think of ourselves as expats if we hope to stay here.

I don't get your point, sorry. We think of ourselves as expats WHEN we are staying here. The moment we may leave, if that happens, we either repatriate or go expat somewhere else.

[StreetCowboy]

Forkhandles are only available at Loykrathong time or did I not hear you right, Try the local municipality road wroks ( correct speeling) department but do tell them its for a shovel which will now we known as a spade, Thailand forks no have!

I had my cat spade.

I tried the municipality works; the fella lined up the selection and said "take your pick".

SC

EDIT: and I said, "No, its for my fork n spade" and that's when he threw me out.

Edited January 5, 2012 by StreetCowboy

[rixalex]

All of us living here think of ourselves as 'expats', when in actual fact we are only 'guests'.

You may be right, in the sense that that is how authorities see us. But i wouldn't personally call myself a guest, no more than if i had a Thai wife who had been living, working and raising a family with me in my home country for over ten years, would i call her a guest. I would find that insulting to her and i wouldn't frankly care if that is how the authorities looked upon her, because they would be wrong!

[farang000999]

Expatriate sounds dignified. I picture a Graham Greene character being chauffeured around town by a tiny polite assistant who smiles often and being chatted up by educated well dressed women at sophisticated tea parties.

The word migrant or immigrant implies that one has some kind of solid legal footing in the country. Immigrants have left their home country to build a better life in a new country for future generations,

I agree and certainly I consider myself an expat in Thailand, just like I have been an expat in several other countries and may likely continue to do so if sent someplace else. I guess I could be considered a migrant worker as well though expatriate is the common term for skilled professionals working in another country.

An immigrant to me is as you say somebody that has no intention of returning to home country or keeping any legal connection to it. They have moved to the new country to start a new life and have established a permanent residence and are at least working towards the legal part of that.

When I retire in few years, I will likely do so in Thailand, but will do so on yearly retirement extensions and continue to maintain my financial and emotional ties to my home country. That still makes me an expat, not an immigrant.

obviously something that is probably not happening in Thailand considering the business regulations placed upon farang and the constant fear of standing in an immigration queue and being told, despite personal investments made in Thailand, to go home.

The best word to describe farang in Thailand? It is probably farang.

This just sounds the bitter rant of somebody that cannot qualify for any sort of stable visa status and has failed in a business venture and is indulging in projection bias to place the blame on Thais.

There are way too many people that have successfully started business, many that have got PR and some that even got Thai citizenship for your tirade to have any validity.

TH

My wife entered the USA on a green card that means she can stay there for the rest of your life without leaving and there are no more hoops to jump through. Do you see the difference?

There was no tirade but it looks like I hit a nerve.

[samran]

Quite an entertaining thread this one watching people perform Olympian levels of verbal gymnastics to avoid being called something they are: immigrants.

After all, that word is much better saved for villifying others in their home country in similar positions on other equally as entertaining threads.

[exeter]

There is something I much more interested in than spades and fork handles, Rain guages! Dont see many of them here, theodolites but rain guage rarer than Tiger with tusk!

[Jingthing]

I'll call myself an immigrant the moment I don't need to report to immigration every 90 days. How about that? Until then, which is NEVER, I'll keep with expat, okie dokie?

[StreetCowboy]

There is something I much more interested in than spades and fork handles, Rain guages! Dont see many of them here, theodolites but rain guage rarer than Tiger with tusk!

What gage reins do you want? You can lead a horse to water....

that reminds me of a joke about a camel and two bricks... I'm sure you all remember it as well as I do.

SC

[exeter]

There is something I much more interested in than spades and fork handles, Rain guages! Dont see many of them here, theodolites but rain guage rarer than Tiger with tusk!

What gage reins do you want? You can lead a horse to water....

that reminds me of a joke about a camel and two bricks... I'm sure you all remember it as well as I do.

SC

Thats where Ive seen you before! Town Hall rain guage!

[KeyserSoze01]

An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing. The word comes from the Latin terms ex ("out of") and patria ("country, fatherland").

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expatriate

[mahtin]

To see ourselves as others see us is a most salutary gift. Hardly less important is the capacity to see others as they see themselves.

—Aldous Huxley

[chops]

Difference is, we don't take jobs from the locals. Or do we?

I certainly don't.

[talk2sam]

sexpats maybe

[Hooters]

I think colonist may be appropriate, as most expats what to make the place a warm reflection of their home lands. Jim

Maybe the Daily Mail can come over and do a story about immigrants/foreigners to Thailand who don't bother to learn the language, don't pay enough tax, spend all their time drinking beer and hanging around each other in their own 'ethnic' bars, harrassing the local women, threaten the local culture and don't bother to get proper visa's.

I resemble that remark!

[Ultrarelativistic]

I think colonist may be appropriate, as most expats what to make the place a warm reflection of their home lands. Jim

Maybe the Daily Mail can come over and do a story about immigrants/foreigners to Thailand who don't bother to learn the language, don't pay enough tax, spend all their time drinking beer and hanging around each other in their own 'ethnic' bars, harrassing the local women, threaten the local culture and don't bother to get proper visa's.

I resemble that remark!

Except most expats/farang go for Thai women Thai men are not interested in. So there is no problem there - no conflict - a win-win situation.

[canuckamuck]

I may have emmigrated, but Thailand has yet to let me immigrate, and I doubt they ever will.

Maybe I'm homeless

[loong]

As already posted by others, my visa clearly states Non-immigrant, so I'm definitely not an immigrant.

If I'm a guest, then I'm a paying guest.

Some maybe aliens, with the stuff some people post, I often wonder what planet they are from.

I don't refer to myself as an expat, in fact I hardly ever hear anybody refer to themselves in this way.

I often hear some Khon Farang say that their Thai family think that they are an ATM, not sure what that stands for though

I am an Englishman, mid 50's living with a lady 20 years younger than me, supporting my family. Most important, I am the only father that my Missus's 6 year old daughter has known. She calls me Daddy, Papa, Por. Call me what you like, I really don't care, I'm Daddy to a wonderful little girl and that is all that matters.

[exeter]

As already posted by others, my visa clearly states Non-immigrant, so I'm definitely not an immigrant.

If I'm a guest, then I'm a paying guest.

Some maybe aliens, with the stuff some people post, I often wonder what planet they are from.

I don't refer to myself as an expat, in fact I hardly ever hear anybody refer to themselves in this way.

I often hear some Khon Farang say that their Thai family think that they are an ATM, not sure what that stands for though

I am an Englishman, mid 50's living with a lady 20 years younger than me, supporting my family. Most important, I am the only father that my Missus's 6 year old daughter has known. She calls me Daddy, Papa, Por. Call me what you like, I really don't care, I'm Daddy to a wonderful little girl and that is all that matters.

Never forget you are an Englishman. Now all stand for "Jersusalem" the English national anthem. ( King Gerge V said is was far better than "God Save the King/Queen.