Quote:
Originally Posted by aceflor
How did you decide for Thailand ?
|
I was a university prof in Japan for many years, and would spend vacations traveling all over Asia and the Western Pacific. I had a LOT of vacation time, and would always spend a month or so in Thailand every year, first diving in southern Thailand, then trekking in the jungles of Northern Thailand. When I finished at the university, we decided to move there. I ran a photo safari/commercial photography business there for 10 years. Love the people, the place, and the food, but finally got really, really tired of dealing with governmental bureaucracy and corruption relating to a foreigner trying to run a business there, so we moved back to Japan.
Now that my wife is finishing her work here, we can return to Thailand on retirement visas, and not have to deal with the bureaucracy of trying to run a business in a foreign country. We can have the people, place, and food, and not need to hassle with paying 'tea money' to every cop who decided to walk past my studio...
Quote:
|
Met a woman yesterday on the beach with a story..............I told her she needs to speak spanish, or an integration will never take place. Time will tell I guess.
|
Being an ex-pat most of my adult life, I'd say time already told... She will NEVER fit in unless she learns the language. I know too damn many expats who insist that the locals speak English to them, and then wonder why they don't 'know' any locals. Of course, many are quite content to live within their little local ex-pat circles, eating at KFC or McD's, or looking for the best place in town that serves a traditional English Breakfast, but then, why do that in a foreign country? "If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home."
Quote:
|
So anyway, when are you guys moving, and when and how did you decide ?
|
We decided about a week ago, because my wife finally had enough of the stupidity of the Japanese Education board's refusal to change to meet the needs of today's students.
There is no 'punishment' in Japanese schools. No 'being kept after school,' no 'write your name 1000 times on the blackboard,' no detention, so suspension, nothing. If a child misbehaves, all they need to do is apologize and all is forgiven. If little Yoshi takes his slingshot and breaks every window in the school, all he has to do is apologize and that's the end of the story. His parents don't even have to pay for the new windows... That's the way it's always been... before Japanese kids learned about Western ways....
Now, Little Hannko (in 7th grade) want's a new Louis Vuiton bag, so she joins a 'telephone club' list. Men pay for a list of girls names and numbers, calls her up, takes her to a love hotel, pays her $300-$400, and now she has money for her new bag. In Japan, for under-aged girls, this is not prostitution. No... this is called 'Enjo Kosai,' Compensated Dating... The govt doesn't want to stigmatize the young girls by calling them prostitutes...
Three weeks ago some parents complained because their kid stabbed a teacher with a pair of scissors.... Do you see something wrong with that sentence?
And of course, as there is no punishment for students, this same kid bashed another student over the head last week with a chair. So now both sets of parents are suing the school and the teacher for not teaching the kld good behavior. And still no one is disciplining the kid... Fortunately, my wife wasn't the teacher. But she has decided that she's had enough, and will end work at the end of this school sememster in July.
I'll probably go in August, and spend a few weeks or months finding just the right place for us to live. I know the area quite well, have lots of friends, both Thai and foreign who will keep an eye out for exactly what we want, and we won't need to rush into anything. Last time we moved there, we were living in a fancy hotel for two months before we found something, and it turned out not to be quite what we really, really wanted. We don't want to make that mistake again. This time, going alone, I'll stay in a cheap backpacker guest house and not feel rushed. And my wife has a lot of stuff that she wants to clear up before she leaves Japan, so she probably won't come until the new year.
At least... that's the way things look today. Who know what tomorrow will bring?
But now, I need a cup of tea... maybe some unbranded Keemun... and about an hour of guitar playing... Good Sunday afternoon stuff!
Stitchawl