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CrunchWrapSupreme

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    Issan & Idaho

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  1. Heh, count me in. I need to convert mine to an asylum application as well.
  2. I reckon he had a bad barstool exchange with an American, and is now venting or trying to redeem himself here. I know because I've been there too many times. OTOH, I've never had a bad time with an Australian. Talked about sports, women, and even after my refusal upon several occasions, have insisted they pay for my drink. ????????
  3. I'm a lowly teacher who's never been left with much cash in the bank. But I've ensured there was always enough credit on my Visa to at least book a flight out. $750 got me to Osaka, then Los Angeles, then Idaho. Oh, then you'll need some Ubers too, to get you home, your new employer, and arranging your new driver's license, if you've been gone awhile like I have. They're now 15 bucks each way around town. Ouch. See the white card in my avatar? If this American lady is really low income, and goes back to a kindly Midwestern state, and hasn't previously abused the welfare system, while waiting for the new job to begin she could get one with about $250 on it to buy food. God Bless 'Murica.
  4. I just went through this, to end my nearly decade long LOS stint. It's definitely not automatic, you must push and babysit them along the way: 1) Coordinate with the employer your official final day of work. Doesn't mean you're actually still working, but it should be a day not more than 7 days before your flight out. 2) Your employer has to take two forms to the labor office: an end of work form with your final day, and power of attorney form, saying the employee who goes to the labor office is acting on behalf of the school/company director. They have to sign both. They get these from the labor office. 3) Now here's the problem. The labor office takes these two forms and uses them to make the form I have pictured. Most importantly, underlined it reads "birab chang" (notice) and "ook chak nang" (out from work), next to which is your name. At the top, blanked area is your employer and passport number. Bottom of the form, covered by the receipts, is the labor office official's signature and stamp. 4) Labor office must finish this form, and you must take it to immigration for your 7 day extension, ON THE SAME DAY. Hahaha. But of course this is Amazing Thailand, and it wouldn't be if everything worked as it should, now would it? 5) Labor office calls to say my form is ready. I pick it up and it says the previous day when they had started it, the 20th. It's now the 21st. They got me on one day overstay. It's the second time it's happened in my LOS teaching career, as well as to several of my colleagues who they got for even more days, while either the school or labor office employees were busy on Facebook or Lazada or whatever. 6) People are complaining about that exit tax being proposed, well hah look at this. 1900 for the 7 day extension, and 500 for the overstay, 2400 baht, that many of us pay to get out. Oh well, back in the States now. No more overstay, no more 90 day reports, no more 40+ degree heat, only waiting for my new job to begin, and practicing for the driving test for my new license. I'll be back someday, but not for work. Cheers all.
  5. They did the same to Thanathorn. Found he was co-owner of a small travel magazine stuffed into the back pockets of airline seats. Ownership was transferred to his mom before he went into politics. They still got him. Dig up any dirt you can. It's dirty. Wage a successful campaign by appealing to the people and the popular vote? Something like democracy? Nah.
  6. After you've used up your waivers, it's time to get the full Thailand teaching license. You'll need this form: https://www.coursehero.com/file/33373923/Form-KS01-1pdf/ Unfortunately this isn't the complete form. It's on the Khurusapha website, www.ksp.or.th, which doesn't seem to be working now. You'll need your last school's assistance in completing this form. You'll need signatures from the school director, and 3-5 other teachers, to all vouch for your performance there. This might be difficult to do from outside of Thailand. It might require a trip back on vacation. And knowing Thailand, you might have to grease a few palms to get them interested in such a bothersome task, heh. But if you got offers from top level intl schools, it might be worth it. Alternatively, you might try the ol' "new passport trick". Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. They might not see your previous waivers using a new passport number. It worked for me to get 5 waivers. ???? But now I'm done teaching and roasting in Thailand, and am currently enjoying a chilly 4 degrees C here in Idaho, with growing teaching opportunities.
  7. One of the worst IOs in Thailand. Me and many others can attest to this. Made me do my landlord docs over and over, even wanting to see his deed. Overcharging for copies. Young lady officers trying to make a name for themselves by pointing at old passport stamps and going "Ah hah, overstay!" Heh. Many schools in this area, many unfortunate farangs taking the jobs. Doesn't matter how high level and prestigious it is, private, intl, they'll still send you to this office. Oh, look at you with your Singapore whatever academy badge and six figure baht salary, you're still dealing with the same BS I am. Haha. Do not live or work in Samut Prakan. If you must, have the bucks to get an agent.
  8. Same here. It's hard to believe about 20 years ago there was once a program called "One Laptop Per Child". The belief was that if we could create cheap laptop computers, give them Internet access, and hand them out to impoverished, disadvantaged kids out in some villages, my God, miracles would happen. With easy, instant access to information, the kids would soon fill their heads with knowledge, complete courses on their own, learn valuable new skills, learn about agriculture and farm machinery to take their reins from their parents, or discover new career paths. Hahaha. The kids now all have powerful computers in their pockets, with the fastest Internet ever, and we all know what happened instead.
  9. Challenge her teachers, if and when they ever show up to class. Biggest prob at the schools I taught at was that the Thai teachers were hardly there. They might write as assignment on the board, or drop off some worksheets, then take off to leave the kids to their own devices in the classroom all day, which is why they develop such behavioral problems. The teachers then hang out in the office, play on FB, browse through online shopping, take off to run errands, or are occupied by silly school chores like planning the decor for some event. Of course the farang teachers aren't allowed to do that, they're some of the only teachers left to provide real classes, which is quite difficult when all the other teachers have given them free time.
  10. Yup. That's why many refer to gold jewelry as "the Thai savings account". People buy gold when they have extra money to spend. It's like putting money in the bank. GIven what banks are prone to do, Thais tend to trust gold more than the banks. They hold onto the gold as long as times are good, and get to show off their prosperity. During Songkran I saw a lot of gold proudly come out. When times are bad or an expense happens to come up, such as a new baby, then they part with the gold. In most cases they take a slight loss, but depending on how the gold market's been and the timing, they might break even or come out slightly ahead. In this case the poor dad got taken, thinking he bought 1000 baht worth of gold, when in fact most of the necklace was simply gold colored.
  11. You should have a good job at an higher end private or international school. Your income needs to be shown on tax receipts, within country income, so money coming in from the outside wouldn't count. Lucky if you are, but I'd say 90% of us lowly teachers in Thailand aren't this. Take what you hear on AN with a grain of salt. I did do one year at a snooty BKK private school and wouldn't go back, no matter how much they paid me. 5 years married, nearly 10 years in the LOS, which I think was enough. I got the highest I could at an Issan govt school, 40k, but then there were social security and tax deductions, so it couldn't hit the reqs, if I really wanted to stay. Then there's the other issues with Thailand, the heat, the cultural diffs, the income ceiling, which allows for decent living but not much more than that. No travel, no building a house, no retirement. Then there's also my wife who needs to make more money. 10 bucks a day out in the village is a total waste of her hospitality experience, as one of my online Japanese businessman students said, "Why the F is she doing that if she can speak English?" So for those reasons, the best thing for us to do was come back to the States. I just got back last week, and will prob be waiting for her a year for her visa to finish processing. Uh-huh. Everyone on AN's making millions of baht and has a wife high in up govt or some multinational, and is going to get full Thai citizenship and will probably be offered a cabinet position by the PM. Haha. But for most of us, the LOS makes for a great stop off along life's journey.
  12. 300 baht/hr minimum. If they balk at this price, tell them $10+/hr is what all the online services are paying, so you could just teach online. In fact I prefer teaching online as it eliminates much of the hassle, waiting for students, no shows, trying to collect payment. With the online services you always get paid on time. With in person students on payday, I frequently got all the lame excuses. Minimum price means basic conversation, basic editing, grammar correction, homework help. More advanced teaching would be for the IELTS exam, university applications, essay writing, business English, for which you should charge more.
  13. Only until they ditch their two typical, very stupid requirements: 1) University degrees 2) Not older than 35 Would the doors be open to many Thais, particular poor Issan ladies, left to work only as roadside stall vendors or market hawkers.
  14. That's exactly my plan. I spent nearly a decade in the LOS. Now at 45 I figured it was time to come home, and just did so last week. The old folks here need help doing the dishes, as you can see. Traded in the Issan farm (with the burnt sugar cane leaves) for the Idaho farm (with the big tractor). Not really my farms, just the scenery I mean heh. But I can make much more money here over the next 20 years, after which I can retire, then go back to Thailand. Also on the way, hopefully later this year, will be my Thai wife. She's looking forward to $20/hr rather than 8 bucks a day.
  15. Let me tell you a story. Out here in the Issan moo ban there's a once beautiful, two story structure with a rooftop balcony, on a nice raised plot of land. I watched it being built, and upon completion saw the farang proudly strutting around it, taking photos. Wife knows all the moo ban gossip, told me the whole story about them. Apparently a nice couple. I asked her, it's all in her name right? She goes oh no, he got a lawyer, knows how to do all "that company stuff". Uh-huh. Months later, the place is smashed up and abandoned. Apparently the relationship fell apart, and he could get nothing out of it but a little revenge before he left. Now years later, there it still sits. So it goes.
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