Five reasons why you'll never last here in Thailand

[Thai at Heart]

My kids are bilingual. Reality is I know of several luuk kreung of older work colleagues who are massively struggling to get remotely close to the level of earnings comparable in the west.

One guy is 21 running an internet magazine in a very senior role, 38k, another works for a company in Bangkok, 24k. Ones daughter works in a hotel for 22k and another has given up after 3 years and is in the USA having quadrupled her salary instantly.

International school all in. The jobs just aren't there unless you have the connection. Paying 600k for international school of dubious quality is not value for money in my opinion.

If my kids want to come back to Thailand after they are educated that is up to them.

Sure. In my case I have two teenage daughter which I home school (British IGCSE curriculum). They will go back to the UK at 16 for their A Levels (I can also teach them - I have taught to college level), but that will qualify them to go to a British University as a citizen rather than as an international student (i.e. much greater cost). We have family in the UK (and several; other companies), so they will be able to decide whether to work in the UK or back here in Thailand. If back here, I would think they would aim for an international company rather than a Thai one (of course I have no idea what career they will choose and that will make a difference).

ASEAN in 2015 will probably make a lot of difference here at the corporate level and I think it unlikely wages will remain so stagnant for educated and qualified roles - English will become so much more important! There will also be more foreign companies over here recruiting - and Thai old-school-tie will be meaningless to them for all bar, possibly, fixers. Thai ID card, native English fluency, western qualifications they can trust -- I really think Thailand does not know how much 2015 will impact them!

The western education with the Thai passport and language is worth 10 times more than the international school in Thailand. I went to boarding school in the UK and met up with a Thai kid who was there who is now working for a major bank.

He's an unbearably arrogant bangkok kid who got virtually nowhere in the British system. He brings clients and his daddy is part of Chang beer. He gets paid a fortune because he is known to have been schooled outside for a lifetime not just university.

ASEAN won't make any difference because the Thais won't let it rain on their parade. At the end of it, Thailand will not be the regional centre for businesses because the legal system doesn't allow it.

Singapore wins and if you want to go work down there, Thai high school and university is pointless.

Thailand have signed up to ASEAN, and like the EU there are free trade agreements and companies will be able to come here from other ASEAN companies (as will workers). I know someone (a farang) that consults with businesses here about it (he says that Thai companies have no idea what the Gov. has signed up for - and they are in no way making the right moves to be ready for it). They will have to follow those rules or fall fail of the penalties. Singaporean companies will very likely come here because of the cheap land and work force, and it has better international connections than most of the other areas that ASEAN brings them. The biggest problem of business in Singapore is the expense of land (it is tiny) and the cost of the work force (and the local laws to protect workers/minimum wage etc there is much more restrictive than here - but ASEAN will change that a little I would think). I really think there will be big changes for Thailand, like it or not - even if they pull out it will affect them.

Agreed Thai qualification is not beneficial. My kids qualifications are all British - IGCSE is marked by Cambridge Exam Board and is no different from kids taking them in the UK. Thai companies would not know if they were educated in the UK or not - both were born in the UK and privately schooled from 2 in the UK until about 5 years ago. They speak fluent English with English accents - and also Thai.

The only thing against them could be contacts (assuming ASEAN makes no difference) - in our case that's OK as we have some, but many look-kreung will not. BTW many Singaporean private schools do the IGCSE examinations.

I think the wally in your story above, the western educated Bangkokian, has the job because he both had the right qualifications and language skills but more so that he had the contacts (which is, as you show, his real benefit to the bank). If he had got the same from Prem, he would likely still have the job.

Aha. .prem. Outstanding place huh?

issue is at the end of the day, where it's the best preparation for university in the UK? International school in Thailand surrounded by rafts of spoilt thais, or UK?

Curriculums maybe the same cultures definitely are not. Beyond that, for example my son is already part of the local rugby team and is in the school team, daughter was on school trip to Stratford already and will be going to the natural history museum in 3 weeks.

It's all round a more rounded educational experience.

Edited September 24, 2013 by Thai at Heart

[wolf5370]

Aha. .prem. Outstanding place huh?

issue is at the end of the day, where it's the best preparation for university in the UK? International school in Thailand surrounded by rafts of spoilt thais, or UK?

Curriculums maybe the same cultures definitely are not.

I chose Prem just because its expensive - and guessed a likely place for you wealthy Bangkokian.

I guess it depends which university - the ivy league types (Oxbridge etc) spoiled rich kids would fit in well (I spent some time at Cambridge Uni - but not Oxford - some colleges you can play spot-the-kid-without-silver-spoon - I have it on good advice that Oxford is even more so!) - but others you would probably be correct. Its a hard decision with plenty of factors to mull over - and I don't blame you for your choices of course, you will have done what was best in your case all things considered. In my case I can afford to home school my kids (not implying you are not of course) and have the qualifications and experience to do so (I accept many will not) - but even so they will spend the 2 years before uni back in the UK (in sixth form college at a grammar school near my family home for AS/A2) and they had nearly a decade of schooling in the UK (albeit with spoiled British kids ). I do worry about their futures - which parent doesn't. I have a fair idea that they may well take a UK jobs after uni anyway.

I spent most of my life owning and running my own businesses (in the UK), so that may be an avenue too - as Thais they can legally do that - and they have had creativity and critical thinking trained into them, so if it is a career choice they want, they have that possibility.

[Darren McKenzie]

Darren - you've the learned behaviour of a dolt and particularly impressed that you've managed a thread of thirty-one replies.

I'm all for topics that elicit meaningful discussion but you appear somewhat odious, and that's putting it mildly.

Why the hostility? Did I touch a raw nerve?

If you dislike what I've written, why not just go away and crawl back under your bridge.

Take your trolling elsewhere.

[Beetlejuice]

What our Darren McKenzie is describing are the feelings of some foreigners who decide to live in a foreign land that has a completely different culture.

He left out reason 6: It is easy to become isolated and become very lonely in Thailand.

All this should be taken into consideration before deciding to move here for the long term.

As the wise man says; one man`s meat, is another man`s poison, the OP`s analysis doesn`t apply to everybody.

Darren McKenzie ... left out reason 6: It is easy to become isolated and become very lonely in Thailand.

This is reason 6.

To survive here, you need to be something of a loner. If you need companionship from other farangs, you won't last. You'll be gone.

If this is true, than all your reason categories are contradictions.

Let me get this right: you’re saying that after a period of time, all farangs will tire of the Thai culture, dislike the Thai attitudes and will find Thailand boring and mundane. And now you are saying that farangs still won’t last in Thailand if they befriend their peers here, meaning other expats. So it appears according to you, there’s not much hope for them, which brings me back to my reason 6, will end up living in isolation and alone, especially if they follow your line of reasoning.

Strange, because I’ve managed to stay the course here since 1982. How have I managed it, I wonder? What I said still stands, one man’s meat is another man’s poison, Thailand is either for you or it isn’t, the same as living anywhere else.

It appears to me that you have become disenchanted with Thailand, but you`re certainly not commenting on my behalf and probably what you say doesn`t pertain for many other expats also.

[cdnvic]

Take your trolling elsewhere.

I think it's time you took your own advice.