My attitude toward events and life in Thailand can run opposed to those who predict doom and gloom or wear rose colored glasses. Perhaps I have been desensitized and become excessively blasé over the years. That said, one does need to take a good long look at things, before choosing to become an Expat. Of course I can only speak to my personal experience in Thailand. For some the risks are mitigated by the fact that an organization, corporation, government or God is paying the bills. Being hired from overseas, on a good expat package leaves you with little financial risk. If you are trying to make it entirely on your own, you are in for a very steep learning curve, however. You had best be very, very good at something, that there is a market for, and have massive people skills. You will need contacts and help from the right people. Pretty much everything I have done in Thailand was handed to me by people who liked me or needed me. I certainly didn’t go around knocking on doors and asking for things. One skilled friend of mine did put out feelers early on, but it took a year or two, before people locally, started to take him seriously and offer him assignments. His skill and patience won out in the end but that is hardly the norm.
Young, single, unencumbered, polite and highly skilled or perhaps old and retired with adequate money, are workable scenarios. If you marry into the wrong Thai social class you had best be retired with money as it will make things more difficult with the people you will need to socialize and associate with in the working world. Children, or perhaps a western wife, will add a whole new set of challenges, that I thankfully have not had any experience with. Education, healthcare and a myriad of western expectations will likely not be filled in exactly the way one might wish for. As a youthful adventurer, teaching can help to pay some bills and open doors to learning about real people in your country of choice. Even as a retiree, a little teaching can provide great social rewards and recognition among the locals. Of course you won’t be held in as high esteem, by many of your expat compatriots.
Like me, some become lifelong expats and manage to somehow survive and sometimes even thrive. For others it is just an interlude that enriches their lives with vivid memories and vital life experiences. Now we get to the poor souls who should never leave their native lands. The bigoted and intolerant are better off being unhappy at home and not inflicting themselves on another nation of people. Those who are week willed, lacking in self-discipline, or posses an addictive personality could easily find themselves on a very slippery slope toward a nightmare scenario. Without a social safety net and no one looking out for ones best interests, many a life has been waisted in the notorious bars and nightlife of Bangkok and Pattaya. Families have been shattered and fortunes lost as people have fled the safe predictability of life at home and sought out adventure or love in a far off land.
There are of course risks in life regardless of where one resides. Those risks are not the same for everyone, however. While some fear for their safety, security or comfort, others have no greater fear, than living a normal and predictable life within the confines of what is expected. There is no right or wrong about it. With no sure things, sometimes you just have to go for it. If it doesn’t workout, have faith in your own ability to persevere. Much easier done without debts or responsibilities, of course.
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6 comments:
VF I find my self nodding in agreement with all you have written here.
I too have spent some time in the last year helping the locals with their studies at the adult community school on a Sunday. A worthwhile and fulfilling experience albeit at times frustrating.
Very wise words indeed. As an expat myself who shares your rational views on life but who has just had a bizarre irrrational experience which I'm trying to rationalise as a Chemical imbalance, and which could threaten my continued life as an expat.
'The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry'.
I can't help thinking that there must have been times during your 30 years as an expat when you let your guard down and things went awry ;-)
Nice post - agree there is no right or wrong about it, and some can succeed and others wont.
Been quite a few years since I've ventured over there, and when I do I'll probably just be a tourist, mainly to get away from my local winters.
Exploratory!
You wrote: "You had best be very, very good at something, that there is a market for, and have massive people skills."
Good for just about anything in life but, as you say, particularly vital in Thailand and Asia. I would like to expand on that by saying, the people skills, I think, can be learned but the learner must have some native sympathy. In other words, if there's no fertile ground, no seeds will grow.
I say this because I'm reminded about how corporations teach staff to handle customers. It frequently comes across as synthetic and no amount of teaching will make some employees sound sincere.
Which leads me round to your further comment that, "Now we get to the poor souls who should never leave their native lands." I can recall thinking something like that about myself, but I have learned from the Thais to just chill out, to coin a phrase ;-)
Nicely done, VF.
Rick
The expats of the last 5 to 15 years are vastly different to the expat of old, such as yourself. Gone were the days of embracing and adapting to exciting new cultures and experiencing a life in harmony with the locals and the environment and in came the expat where the excepted 'norm' was to change their new found home so that it resembled their previous homeland abroad with as little of the indigenous culture visible as possible.
What so many of the ‘new’ expats seem to forget, or choose not to remember, is that for the most part they were not wealthy or successful back in their homelands and far from being “Young, single, unencumbered, polite and highly skilled or perhaps old and retired with adequate money”. In fact the majority of them were low income earners who had managed to get 'lucky' with the increase in asset wealth brought about by the "boom" times of the past 10 or so years, added to the ease of available credit and combined with extremely favourable exchange rates and suddenly there was a steady influx of “Baht Billionaires”.
The problem being that when boom, or should I dare say 'boom boom', turns to bust the “life savings” that were in fact cash advances from credit cards and loans dried up, the meagre pension that once provided some semblance of a cash flow to keep the creditors at bay soon amounted to less than the interest payments and the next thing you know is that living in paradise abroad is not as easy a lifestyle as living off government subsidies and a pension back home.
With a bit of luck the new 'era' of financial accountability and management will see far less of the "Baht Billionaires" creating their little slice of 'home' where it is not really wanted, but tolerated, due to the kindness of the host country.
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