Pattaya exPat clubs - PEC, PCEC, ATEC

[bkkmfj2648]

Hello,


Yesterday, I attended my first exPat club meeting at the PCEC meeting place, which is held at the Holiday Inn Pattaya's Bay Tower - 4th floor conference rooms.


I liked what I saw and decided to become a member. They even bought my breakfast because I was a newbie.


My question to all of you is that some of the PCEC members mentioned to me that there are more than one ex-Pat group in Pattaya.
Using the Google search function - I only see 3, as follows:


PCEC - Pattaya City Expats Club - http://pcec.club
--> seems to have an American USA focus


PEC - Pattaya Expats Club - http://pattayaexpatsclub.info/wp/
--> seems to have a British focus


ATEC - Association of Thailand Expats Clubs - I could not find any related web page or facebook group
--> seems to be an association where all of the various exPat groups throughout Thailand network


So, my questions to all of you are:


1.) Which exPat group here in Pattaya would you recommend - and why?
2.) Are they worthwhile for networking and knowledge sharing ? even for us gays ?


Thanks,


M.

[latintopxxx]

funny how white people refer to themselves as expat and not immigrant or foreigner

[bkkmfj2648]

Good point that you make. I actually never thought about the definition of the word expat until you brought it to my attention. I am a victim of my former career where we use this word all the time to identify staff that we send abroad to enhance their career - where it is generally thought to be temporary - but often it can become permanent if the staff member enjoys the host country and the employer is satisfied with his/her performance in said country.
It does seem to be elitist as a definition and I definitely fall into the category of "white people".

Consequently, I performed a Google search on these 3 terms; "expat", "immigrant", and "foreigner" and the below relevant BBC article popped up that further explains the differences.

I can see from that BBC article that probably the best term to describe me being retired in Thailand by my personal choice that it is more proper to call myself a foreigner instead of an expat - since my goal and current belief is to NOT return to the countries from which I came from - where the expat description would be more appropriate - as it is supposed to be temporary in nature.

Would you agree ?

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20170119-who-should-be-called-an-expat

[maump]

funny how white people refer to themselves as expat and not immigrant or foreigner

I never really thought about it much, but I think you are right.

when I worked abroad in UAE, we were called expat workers, the poor (and poorly treated) workers were called the same.

I always thought about migrant workers as "seasonal workers" that came across the boarder to work and go home (legal or illegally) and immigrants as people who moved to another country with the idea of becoming citizens.

all would be foreigners unless/until they became citizens in my mind.

I would have called retirees who do not seek citizenship as expats.... the article referenced by bkkmf has not really increased my understanding of the "real" definitions.

[bkkmfj2648]

Thanks maump.

Then perhaps I am an expat foreigner??

The Thais call us "falang", but this definition is based on a temporary timeframe - based on the below definition - as it refers to falang as a caucasion visitor.


What does Falang mean in Thai?
Caucasian visitors
The term 'farang' (often pronounced as 'falang') is a general term used by many Thais when referring to Caucasian visitors. The exact derivation isn't clear with some experts stating that it is a contraction of the Thai word 'farangset' (French) as the French were present in Siam and Indochina in the 17th Century.

[cdnmatt]

That's my understanding as well. "farang" is from when the French were floating around in Thailand, and basically just means nothing more than "foreigner". If you take it more than that, good chance you're reading too much into it.

Then "falang" is just the Issan way of saying it, as pasa Issan replaces all r's with l's. No idea why, but that's just how folks from Issan roll.

[bkkguy]

The Thais call us "falang"

except the Immigration Police who refer to us as "aliens", a term that seems to rankle many falang/expats/foreigners

[Jellybean]

The Thais call us "falang"

except the Immigration Police who refer to us as "aliens", a term that seems to rankle many falang/expats/foreigners

Well, that's hardly surprising, bkkguy. Some of us do look . . . now, how to put it politely . . . ah yes . . . a bit unworldly. ;)

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