Guest Posted October 8, 2003 Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 Says wcv56: Fly Do nothing, be nothing, want nothing. I think we call it an ameba. whatever. only that you might find out one day that life has passed you by while you were running after money. money comes by itself if you don't think too much about it. i prefer to spend my energy on a lot more fullfilling things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 8, 2003 Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 >> a degree gives you nothing else than a limited theoretical expertise in your chosen profession. >> Anyone with a degree to second Fly? I'm engineer, with a couple of PhD. And this time I have to agree with Fly. University degrees didn't provide me any real experience on my profession, was when I started to do real work when I really got it. The University degree help me to find my first job but after that I had to learn much more things that the ones that were taught to me at the University or while doing my two PhD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 8, 2003 Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 only that you might find out one day that life has passed you by while you were running after money. money comes by itself if you don't think too much about it. i prefer to spend my energy on a lot more fullfilling things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted October 8, 2003 Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 <<You work hard everyday and sacrifice so your offspring can have a better future and you find out that everyone at the school bought there degree just so they can get a one year visa to stay in Thailand so they can screw around?>> Personally I think guys who buy a fake degree to land a teaching job in LOS simply to fund shagging bg's/tg's etc and not putting their heart and soul into it reprehensible. Teaching correctly is a big responsibility not to be taken lightly. <<Should I pity the guy who comes and steals my TV?>> This is an inappropriate comparison imo because the TV set is legally your property. The potential teaching job isn't. Some guy with a fake degree is competing for a teaching post in a deviant way and its down to the school to have the wit to spot a fake degree (LOS is the land of fake and most Thais I would imagine can ID fake gold, designer shirts etc why not some naff little KSR degree :. Like I said before they will be spotted and kicked out, not like theres a union to fight your corner for unfair dismissal??). Although as fly pointed out there are good teachers in LOS without a bonafide degree. <<almost anyone with the drive and brains can go to university. Costs are cheap enough (except for the US) and there is government support to help people get there>> Maybe, maybe not. Lots of people cant function is a uni environment. Also its not in societys interest for all to go to uni as there are many mundane unskilled jobs that need doing that are crucial. Would you like your garbage to just pile up and rot and spread disease or your research labs to get vandalized by the anti vivisection brigade if there was no security. Everyone deserves respect no matter what. Most people find their niche and remain content or as content as one can be without a full frontal lobotomy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted October 8, 2003 Report Share Posted October 8, 2003 <<Thank God I have never made that decission. I am working now in 10th different country and will probably work in 5-6 more over next 20 years>> Whats wrong with working in Australia :: ::--You obviously have skills to carry you around the globe. If I had the choice of living in a cosy Queensland beach house with a good job or the upheavel of being a global hobo I'd choose the former Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiery Jack Posted October 11, 2003 Report Share Posted October 11, 2003 Never used one myself, but I would imagine that successfully securing a decent professional position in Asia on the back of a Khao San faked diploma/degree certificate would be just about an even odds bet. Mickey Mouse fly-by-night Language schools often don't give a toss whom they employ and can be easily duped , but any worthy employer may well check credentials before hiring. I base this on personal experience. I've served on appointments committees at both private and government institutions in Asia a handful of times and successful applicants' certificates were never verified, not once (and neither were references checked: I was surprised at this ). It was just assumed that applicants would not lie. In fact, one of the candidates hired was discovered, a few years down the line, to have lied about having a Ph.D. (he was still 'studying' for it but had claimed it had already been awarded on his resume, producing 'as evidence' :: some dodgy xeroxed letter in German that nobody could understand and nobody checked for authenticity. He wasn't fired, because he was good at the job.). However, from the other end of the pier, I applied for a job in Asia and found, through a friend of a friend who worked in my former university's academic records section, that the employer had indeed contacted them to confirm the authenticity of my degree certificate (though the certificate was written in Latin , so that is perhaps why they needed confirmation?). Reference letters were not checked back to referees, though, so I could easily have written them myself. (And, yes, I was offered the job, but the salary was shite so I passed. ) Worth a lash? Up to you, I suppose. jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted October 11, 2003 Report Share Posted October 11, 2003 There was a fellow who applied at my uni a few years ago, asking to move over from an international section of the same uni. But the faculty got a call from his current employer advising them "to check his credentials carefully". When the guy heard that, he withdrew his application. Hmmm. One problem is that Thai employers -- even top name universities -- just demand degrees, minimum BA with an MA preferred. They don't seemed all that concerned about what field the degree is actually in! Admittedly, my degrees are not in English. But I was trained in ESL and have 20 plus years experience in teaching English. I even spent 5 years in a faculty of education teaching Thais how to teach English to secondary school students. Yet the uni has hired other people with degrees in fields like law, biology and social work -- and with no ESL experience at all. Does having a BS in botany mean they know how to teach an English class? These are high level classes too, not "Is this a book?" basics. With the low salaries generally paid to teachers, Thai schools and universities have had to drop their standards and requirements simply to get warm bodies in front of the classroom. But is that doing the students any good? And is it fair to them? A native English speaker without any degrees or training could possibly handle basic level language classes, with a bit of guidance. But certainly not the higher level classes that universities require of major and minor students. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiery Jack Posted October 11, 2003 Report Share Posted October 11, 2003 Good points Flasher. Says Flashermac: ...One problem is that Thai employers -- even top name universities -- just demand degrees, minimum BA with an MA preferred. They don't seemed all that concerned about what field the degree is actually in!... Or where the degree is from. A few years ago, Polytechnics in the UK were allowed to upgrade their title to 'University' (UK Polytechnic/University name changes) and this has led to confusion in the UK and nice new opportunities for deception. Oxford now has not only Oxford University, but also Oxford Brookes University (formerly Oxford Polytechnic :, and it's easy for the con-merchant on the move to omit the Brookes bit when it might gain him kudos to do so: "Where did you go to university?" "Oxford. ;)" "Wow! Oxford University! Let me light your cigarette and offer you a job..." We had a sly applicant whose resume claimed he'd 'done research undergraduate work at the University of Surrey', a very highly respected UK institution. Turned out he'd been kicked out of Roehampton Institute (in London, a worthy establishment, but hardly the University of Surrey! : which now pompously calls itself 'University of Surrey Roehampton'. Gotta be on your toes... :: jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted October 11, 2003 Report Share Posted October 11, 2003 <<"Wow! Oxford University! Let me light your cigarette and offer you a job..." >> People ask me where I was educated I can say hand on heart at Cambridge--I just fail to tell them at a comprehensive secondary school and not Peterhouse, Darwin or Christ College --I dont tell them either I used to throw stones (as a kid!) at the rowers training for the boatrace on the River Cam when I used to go fishing on it ::--those bastards scared the fish away! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elef Posted October 11, 2003 Report Share Posted October 11, 2003 Hi Phil, I've a danish friend also educated from Cambridge. He never mentions however it was a 3 weeks english class one summer in his youth! :: I just use my 2 real university diplomas on the english version of my business card. In some countries it's important to show you're an academic, for example Germany and Italy. But I don't think the university education makes anybody superior in any way. Actually those who can make a good income in a field normally demanding higher education without having it are really superior. elef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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