Moving to Thailand

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I am right now in Peru, teaching Tefl. Talking about prejudice and judgement. How do you now me so well, and how sure are you that I would have bought my certificate? I taught for the ELC and they check out every little bit on you. OK?
But I will not go in deeper into this.

Maybe just read the Tefl pages yourself to find out what reputed Tefl teachers an foreign principals think.
No, I have not been in jail. I am referring to an Australian teacher who lived in Thailand and taught and wrote a book about Thailand which was internationally awarded. He was recently arrested when homebound for his country at BKK airport for lese majesty. No personal attacks by him on the king, but yes on the corrupt politicians.

I get invited to teach in Thailand by reputed schools, I wonder how often yo have been in Thailand and for how long? I as an artist and teacher of TEFL, have mixed with different people, as well with the poor working class, as with the upper (teaching private one to one) class as with intellectuals and artists. I know what I am talking about.

There was one reporter who left the country after 15 years of living in Chiang Mai, and had to admit that leaving the country he wasn't leaving one friend behind.

I know how Thais feel about blacks and how they turn their nose up for a darker skin colour (including Cambodians). Thais are in love with themselves and hardly have any good word for their neighbouring countries.

Last edited by Loborojo on 22 Sep 2008, 12:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

Loborojo, it is embarrassing to even think that you teach English when it is amply clear that you have trouble stringing a sentence together. Some people have trouble with spelling, which is forgivable because these days we have computers and it does not matter anymore, but it is very obvious from how you write that you do not have a grasp of idiomatic English. As far as I can tell, you are just one of those people described by Maugham many years ago who trade on the color of their skin. Money can always be made by the exotic freaks of the vulgar circus. It is an affront to decency to have individuals like yourself, who struggle with simple composition, teach others how to read and write. You are conning the people who pay you.

You are an artist and you know what you are talking about huh? So you are the enlightened one out to bring light to this perverse and corrupt world. Your views on things are always right and your judgment of others is binding. When you say that people are racist, they are racist and of course it implies that you are not. Otherwise it would be the pot calling the kettle black and we all know that you are incapable of any hypocrisy. You have mixed widely in Thai society huh? Should I take that to mean that you have spent a significant amount of your time pretending with some prostitute and her dealer boyfriend that paying for sex and sourcing for drugs from the same group of people means that you are a family unit of some sort?

It is people like you Loborojo who make it such an ugly place. Ain't no one is saying that the Thais are perfect "bro", but it ain't for the likes of you to pass judgment on them.

how?



yeah, recently making it legal to own and chew gum is a GREAT start.....NOT

When that place is called an Illiberal Democracy (for good reason!) and you can get caned for all sorts of things that their society deems 'wrong' and other f****d up s**t, I'd know to STAY FAR AWAY FROM SINGAPORE.




typoes do not mean bad english

As an add-on regarding Lese Majeste, the King wanted the law abolished. Also, Thailand has never been invaded or colonized by foreign powers so how has foreign powers picked the Thai politicans?

Take a holiday there Zeno, even just do a package tour.

I would wonder about the health system, I imagine Singapore's is better, also I don't know about welfare or age pension, I mean should you need it, does it exist there?

Certainly it's a good idea to move where you're money will buy you more. I believe the opium is good.

I have been to Thailand many times but moving there is something of a fantasy for the moment. There are a lot of things you would have to put up with if you choose to move to a place like Chiang Mai and live on the cheap, but the trade-off would be the freedom to do as you like with your time. It is certainly something that needs to be approached with a clear and open mind. People actually do go to Thailand for medical treatment simply because it costs much less than say in the States or Europe and quality is apparently decent enough. The Thais do not get welfare or pensions so there is absolutely none of that for non-citizens. And yes, I have heard from fellow backpackers that the opium/heroin or most other drug you might like is cheap and good. But the marijuana I have been told is not as potent as the special strains that are grown up north in Canada and then exported to the United States. I would not know, I do not even drink coffee.

It is just a thought. People here sometimes talk about starting an Aspie commune. I think the only commune I would care to join would have only one member; hence this idea of a hermitage in a place like Chiang Mai. There are of course complications. It is not cheap without a reason!

One of these days I'll get to check out Thailand. My friend is thai and occasionally heads over there and has invited me a couple times. Others things kept me from going so maybe next time.

Only thing I worry about when visiting is the food situation. I can't eat most thai food.

You have nerve...my mum is English, I had a trilingual education, more than any native speaker can muster. I speak 6 languages...the fact that on this forum I type fast (I use cybercafes with poor keys and do it fast...whatever) and I really don't check my grammar is none of your concern, I am not teaching here.

But you who are you? An expatriate living in a secluded community somewhere in Singapore, dreaming of pristine Thai beaches and occasionally teach a few hours offhand, then rushing back to the beach and get laid?

Don't go too far in this 'cause what you are doing is defamation of my person, plain slander.

Ask any Cambodian what they think of the Thais and look at what Thailand thinks of their tribal people and how they treat them like the scum of the earth.

Have you even bothered to check the Tefl sites and comments of the teachers on there?? Or are those teachers (in your opinion) only there for sex and drugs?

I spent time with the Akhas (a month) and with the Karen (they told me about their persecution), no Thai would even want to spend a day with them.

Now, I have taught Cambodians, Nepalese and Thais and lived in similar conditions (not looking down on them, as you assume) as the locals (I always do, I am a longtime traveler and blend in with the people (in my life I visited 58 countries, I know what different cultures require), I also worked as a tour leader with Thai guides (you should check those out).

Just ask how many teachers from the UK would want to teach in 40 degrees with or without a fan (for minimum 500$ of which you may keep a 100 $ netto to live on), in government school classes with minimum 30 students, who are the least interested in learning English. A country where the school and educational system believes that caning is the best way to instill respect in (in Singapore they know what caning is...don't they? After all they inherited the crime and punishment laws from the British colonizers.) their pupils.

That we receive our lesson plans out of the blue, weeks late, and that Thai teachers (middle aged teachers with an adolescent mentality) backstab each other and even more so foreigners, That all teachers are forced to let students pass, no matter what (either that or you are sacked, because teaching English is not important, having a white monkey entertaining spoiled brats in private schools is more important).

Yes , the students are supposed to have a good time (I was told so many a times both at private and government schools, and you will hear it from other foreign teachers too).
Thailand needs teachers (Thaksin was the only one who openly said that "Thais will never be able to teach English" (if you have one student in 1000 at UNI who can construct an English sentence, you are lucky ( I was told by UNI foreign teachers).

By the way being a native speaker doesn't mean you know your grammar, just ask the teachers in England of how many of the students are failing in their own language (I am traveling with a retired teacher of English, she tells me what a nightmare it was and how it is getting worse with kids using turbo language from the internet.

I have taught at 3 government schools in 2007, 45 students per class from age 9 to 15, 1500 students a week, who had only one hour of English each week. Figure how much they learn and remember.

In all these years I have learned to speak Thai more than any of those students learned English. And yet I have to battle with those with a native English or American, kiwi, (you name it) passport.

In Taiwan I was preferred over an Ozzie with a master degree in English Literature.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to teaching (by the way Tefl is not about teaching grammar, so don't bang with that) and having the love and skills for it.

One is born a teacher and no matter how native you are, if haven't got it, you haven't. Government schools I taught at were begging me to stay on, so did the kids.

Now the government has found a new cash cow to get more money from those abusive (as you call them) teachers, who get so rich on a 25.000 Baht a month, of which you have to fork out on housing, visa runs, (despite school officially hiring you they don't look after you. No medical insurance for teachers.

Thailand has turned a blind eye for so long ot the conditions of teachers) you teacher licence and the occasional (if you are unlucky) run to any embassy to have your tourist visa turned into a non-immigrant visa. All costs from your own pocket.
There are many more drawbacks...but Thailand according to you, is THE paradise where you can live a comfortable life and foreign teachers are leeches .

Thailand could not officially admit they needed teachers, because no foreigner is allowed to work there. The only jobs Thais can't do is teaching English, hence they'd take anyone they could get their hands on, desperate as they were.
So yes, a black market sprang up and provided fake degrees for those who had none (including native speakers), it was all but formality to please government officials of whom the left hand doesn't know what the right hand does.

This year they are going to force teachers to spend 60.000 Baht to go through a cultural course of understanding Thai culture and would also provide you with a permanent teacher license, because only a year ago you had to have one but as soon you changed jobs, to another school you would lose it. You'd have to reaply for another license and you would lose your non-immigrant status...you were back to square one!

Now, saying that Thais schools are filled with teachers with fake degrees, is a grave insult to all those who have been and are teaching with integrity and total devotion.

Not many can take that anymore, who would put up with that in England? Many are leaving for Vietnam, Korea, China, where teachers are getting the respect they deserve.

I would urge you Zeno to be a little less crass, the way you attack me is without respect, unlike I who lived with the Thais, you haven't lived with me and don't know anything about my life style or what I have gone through.

Last edited by Loborojo on 22 Sep 2008, 12:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

oh yeah, in your dreams

I never criticised the king, that doesn't mean I am pro monarchy. One should not forget how he is worshipped as a god and always has the last word over politcal feuds. But rumours about what will happen when he dies are not so promising.

Apparently the princess hates the foreigners and she would be the first to shut down foreign businesses. The prince was very much a friend of Thaksin who was not on very good terms with the King himself. They also say that the prince is very much involved in narcotics worldwide.

The overthrow of the military in the nineties, who ruled with an iron fist has not been easily forgotten. Just like in China last year, when Thaksin was ousted, the military came in and censorship was at hand.

They even wanted to prohibit spaghetti strap tops for girls, anything that looks too western is seen as cultural pollution. Internet freedom was curtailed, cybercafes raided. One feared a total return to seventies rule.

I have seen Thailand when it was still pristine in 1992, now it is spoiled, high prices, national parks and the last Island like koh Chang are beign invaded by land speculators, illegal logging. Everything is money, money...

To give you an anecdote in 1992 on Koh Samui, I came out of a restaurant and found a coconut on the beach, brought it to the restaurant and asked if they could cut it for me. The owner wanted 10 baht for that (35 dollar cent). That typifies the average Thai mentality.

Thailand has become so xenophobic, if you want business, it is 51% for your Thai partner (you cannot do it alone!) and 49% for you. And there are always ways for the Thai to get it all.

You never win. The Japanese started buying land, so a law was created banning every foreigner from buying land...they were afraid the Japanese would buy it all. So now you can only buy anything above the ground like a floor in a condominium.

By the way, they were never colonised?? The Burmese occupied Thailand for a while , The Cambodian kingdom stretched as far as India for a long time including Siam.

But more recent history when Japan invaded they made a trade off, they would not bomb Thailand if they let them make a railroad into Burma (bridge of river Kwai , remember) and they could bring in forced labour from Malaysia, Indonesia, POWs from other conquered SE Asian countries). It was siad that Thailand had a neutral status.

To avoid being caught for lese of majesty, no one, not even the press writes anything that has to do with the king, even talking about a minor incident that involves him, because they are so afraid they'd put their foot in their mouth.
Two films "The king and I" and the remake cannot be screened there.

The colonels run and own the prostitution bars, hence they will never be shut down.

Do I need to say more?

Yes, one thing...in Asia you never know when you have a true friend, you never know what they think and they have ten ways to say no, but they always say yes.

Last edited by Loborojo on 22 Sep 2008, 12:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

How moving Loborojo, at least some of your sentences were complete. Defamation? DEFAMATION?! Even when you try, it is very evident that you do not have an idiomatic grasp of the English language. Most native speakers of English do not know grammatical rules, they understand the language from how it sounds and the feelings the words or concatenation of words invoke. That is language. Only people who are native speakers and who then go on to train to formally understand the rules of language should ever teach it to anyone. Otherwise it would be like having a math teacher in middle school who cannot understand calculus teach algebra because the chimp can doodle do on the board and painfully arrive at the right algebraic manipulation. He is cheap and so people turn a blind eye but anyone with a conscience would know that it is wrong.

Respect you Loborojo? That is not going to happen. You are narrow minded and vicious. Even in your defense, you continue to spit at the people who have hosted you all those years. What did you think? You have white skin and so it should be you and not the King who ought to be worshipped? You are even offended by Thailand’s economic progress. Oh, I get it. The lesser people with darker skin ought to just serve the high and mighty lords of higher consciousness and unbearable artistic talent for free because white is right is might. You are a sad muthafucker Loborojo and I am happy for the Thais that you are no longer there but anxious for the Peruvians. Do us all a favor and go back to where ever you come from, crawl under a rock and stay there.

Talking about viciousness...you are one poor sod, go back into your hole and don't forget to use your jacket back to front so your arms won't get too dark when you are riding a motorbike. Me racist, you don't know what you are talking about (what have you done lately to improve your world???) and I sure will not try to give you anything more since you are so prejudiced about 'white people', obviously you are not racist. You definitely got a chip on your shoulder about them.

I will give you some piece of advice 'rebel without a cause'. Some NT idiomatic advice: do a bit of growing up and come back and talk to me when you are about 20 years older...
as I said before, you don't read, (not even the urls I sent you, otherewise you wouldn't spout such crap) you probably have not even a clue what Tefl means (it is about verbal communication and not about grammar). On all of my arguments you have but poor answers.

I would love to see you perform 6 hrs a day, like I did. I didn't need flash cards like my native colleagues did. I sang, drew on the blackboard, got the students interested, while the sweat was running of my butt. And all that for a poor 600 $. Oh, yes, we teachers are really exploiting the poor Thai school system and government, I should feel sooo guilty.

Why don't you come over to Thailand and bring your cane along, you will havea good time teaching (effortless), because we foreigners have to look the other way when Thai teachers cane the pupils...for anything, because they are impotent teachers, like most likely you would be. Now take a hike...those are the last words I spend on you.

Oh, I forgot this...did you mean the that I deny the poor Thais a better economy by copycatting everything the world produces from Vuiton, Chanell, Nike to great artists like Van Gogh, Picasso and the likes'?
And I should take off my hat for that???

Thank you for that information Loborojo. Very interesting.


Personally, I would not mind teaching english or spanish in Thailand or Vietnam or Cambodia (etc etc, insert country in that region here) for a year or two.

Though I am not a teacher I do think it's awesome to do what you've done. Meeting other cultures and perhaps help some in return. Expenses..well, as long as you dont lose more than you make.. even if you end up making very little.. the experience is worth it.

Ok, first of all Singapore probably has a more byzantine system of social rules then Thailand, I am familiar with the culture of the region(though I couldn't live in it).

Everyone's a racist, so get over it, I want to live in South Africa, a far more racist country then Thailand ever was and a far more liberal country.

Insulting the king is a no-no in Thailand, yes, but what about insulting the Prime Minister in Singapore? I mean seriously, one you get in jail for a week, the other you get caned.

As for material prostitution, every country has done that, and now it will prostitute itself to China, just watch..... and besides it supports Burma unconditionally so not moving to Thailand, then of course i know the argument, South Africa supports Zimbabwe, but Burma is far worse then Zimbabwe.

As for being multilingual, so I am, it's not that big of a deal, in this world.

Oh, and can we got a mod to dispel the flame war between Loborojo and Zeno?

Lese of majesty cost you 15 years of jail. A Swiss guy was pardoned last year, after he was taken to court and got so much. He was drunk in Chiang Mai and had can sprayed paint over a street poster with the King's face on it (it was his birthday announcement which was celebrated throughout that year).

Zeno's remarks were very inflammatory.

to Zeno: the charge that not knowing calculus means that you're unable to teach maths to the normal school leaving age pupil, is no longer relevant, as it has been assumed for at least 28 years that it is an unnecessary discipline for the majority of the population. Hence, only students who wish to further studies in maths, actually known and can manipulate calculus.

And again, it is not because someone knows calculus that they can become a math teacher. There are many mathematicians who, while being brillant in their field have not got the first idea of how to help children understand even basic mathematics. and this supplies to most subjects. :twisted

Did you not say that you were going to shut the f**k up Loborojo? Go back to talking about vulvas and stop trying to pretend that your opinion matters.