Interview with Tom - Thailand life vs. England life

I have known Tom for 3 months. When I was recruiting copy writers for my business, Tom was the only one that waited until I was interested in him to tell me he was still at uni. He knew that if I saw how good he was first, it would give him a greater chance of landing work with me. When he told me, I was impressed - that’s exactly the route I would have taken.

It’s a great pleasure to have met Tom, on a work and personal level. Tom studied in England, so I thought it would be great to interview him about life in Thailand vs. life in England (from a Thai perspective).

Q1. How did it come about that you were going to study at school in England?

I did a series of tests and won a full scholarship to do GCSE’s & A-levels in London having beaten hundreds of other candidates.

Q2. You say you won a scholarship, how did you enroll for that? Who organized it? Did they help with financing it?

This college in London (http://www.ctc.ac.uk/) annually gives free scholarships to exceptionally academically able students in the developing world and they have a representative permanently living and working in Thailand. I’m not sure about now but back then he organised the exams and interviewed the 5 finalists before deciding to whom the scholarship should be awarded.

Q3. Tell me about your experience of arriving in England, how old was you? Where did you stay?

If my memory serves correctly, I was only 15-16 when I arrived in England. As with most foreign students, I’d had an arrangement made with a host family as it was only my first time in the UK and I was too young to live on my own at the time.

Q4. What were your first thoughts on London?

Awash with posh people, English gentlemen and the likes. Obviously, I was wrong

Q5. What were your thoughts about London once you had been there a few years

Generally it’s not too bad but to be brutally honest, I never enjoyed the shitty food, crap weather, some miserable people and ,unfortunately, racist bigots.

Q6. What food did and didn’t like?

I loved fish and chips and English roast chicken but didn’t find pasta particularly appetising.

Q7. We have both previously discussed London being one of the most dangerous cities in the world, especially growing up in a school there. What did you make of it all?

Well, to be fair there’s quite a few no-go areas in London but I reckon this is also true of other major cities in the world where you’ve just got to be particularly vigilant, though I feel a lot safer in Bangkok and never have to worry about getting stabbed or even shot!

Q8. How did you feel when you arrived back in Bangkok? Why did you come back to Bangkok?

After A-levels, I decided to take a gap year to work and travel and Bangkok did perfectly fit the bill. I still remember a massive heatwave hitting my face when I arrived back in Bangkok.

Q9. Once you had returned back to Thailand, Did you have any language/culture problems with being away from Thailand so long?

Not really but I never knew there would be so many new Thai slang terms invented while I had been away. I also hated to guts Thai TV which had now been invaded by millions of Chinese, Japanese, Korean series/dramas/soaps.

Q10. What are your thoughts on the English vs. Thai education systems?

The Thai system is merely focused on teaching you to do well in the exams. I’ve seen several students with brilliant grades but they can’t do bugger all in real life. This might sound harsh, but quite frankly I’ve got absolutely no respect for the Thai education system. Obviously, the English system is a street ahead of its Thai counterpart. That’s probably why you see many top Thai CEO’s and politicians all had a spell or two in England.

Q11. I have to ask, what are your thoughts on English girls vs. Thai girls?

Some English girls are seriously hot and many of them also have a very good sense of humor. Unfortunately though, they are not in the same league as Thai girls, but again I’m probably being biased.

If you have any questions for Tom, post away in them comments. I’m sure Tom won’t mind answering any questions you have of your own