Q1. Where did you move to and when?

I moved back home to Brighton in England because of a family emergency in June 2012.

Q2. How long did you work in Thailand?

About 2 years

Q3. What was your main reason for moving?

Actually it was to save money and then move to Japan. I was offered a job that paid 52k a month for just 17.5 hours a week.

Q4. What are the advantages of working where you are now compared to Thailand?

Very little. In Brighton I can't find work so I have to teach private students. The economic situation here gets worse by the day. I'm poor even though I don't pay any rent. I'm due some inheritance soon with which I'll be able to study Japanese full time in Japan for a year. Can't wait to leave.

Q5. What do you miss about life in Thailand?

I was rich and had copious amounts of free time. I worked out nearly every day in California Wow, I (somewhat oddly) studied Japanese a lot, I went out to lovely places with my friends and over 2 years had two of the prettiest, funniest most lovely girlfriends I ever had. And that's even after living in Japan for 5 years.The photos on my Facebook profile speak for themselves. I just feel sorry for my friends in the UK stuck in the 9-5 routine.
Also, the usual: lovely food, weather, people, islands etc. And the super cheap taxis.

Q6. Would you advise a new teacher to seek work in Thailand or where you are now?

Going because you want to sleep with go-go girls is the kind of sad thing middle-aged men with no friends do. And you wouldn't be able to afford it much on 30k a month anyway. You'd be better off somewhere that pays well, probably South Korea. Even Cambodia would put you in a better position. If you can find a job that pays 40k+ it makes a big difference.

Q7. Any plans to return to Thailand one day?

Yes. Once I get a few years experience as a japanese - English financial translator I plan on working freelance in Bangkok. First world income, developing world prices. I love they way Thais are so laid back. I was in Tokyo last April and everyone looked so miserable and stressed that I was actually shocked.

Q8. Anything else you'd like to add?

I'd just like to take issue with a few points made by other people. I've read a few posts where people have complained that jobs don't pay well, things are expensive and all the girls are rotten prostitutes, the students were lazy and the schools themselves run by cowboys.

Maybe I was very lucky but that wasn't my experience at all. I was earning 1,000 GBP a month and my minimum living expenses were 200 GBP a months. (160 pounds a month for a nice clean apartment + swimming pool and gym). I was able to save nearly 800 GBP a month and paid very little tax. My students were some of the brightest and most motivated I've ever taught. Phd students, MA students, you name it. I was basically teaching TOEFL. The school was well run, very fair and very friendly, although there was no training ever.

The girls I met tended to be a bit hi-so/posh (but half westernized). They were modest, intelligent, friendly, beautiful and hot! There's always been a glut of rich, well educated, beautiful women in Thailand because their peers tend to marry women from a lower social level.

I think men who go to Thailand and shack up with an uneducated bar girl kind of get what they deserve. These girls are living very difficult lives in extreme poverty. Their whole existence is different to yours. And even if you see them as an equal, a fellow human being on earth, they never will. You'll just be cash and a visa and hope for her and her family. Is that really too difficult to figure out? Best avoided. If you can't find a good job don't go unless you are prepared to work in a mickey-mouse school.

As for going on a one man crusade to change Thai society by arguing with your school directors and getting angry with your students because they're lazy, I've never hear anything so silly. When in Rome do as the Romans do. They ask you to pass the students, pass them. It's no skin off your nose. It's not your country. If you don't like it leave, or even better, don't go in the first place. They didn't ask you to go there and enlighten them with your superior western ways.

Some people aren't built for travel, but it's surprising how many of them go to Thailand and complain about it on this site. Mai pen rai dude, don't go to Thailand if you're the kind of person who tends to get their knickers in a twist.