Slappz

I felt it in Sansai, my house shook about half a second.

Since tone is embedded in every Thai word you will have some serious leaks in your Thai if you don't hammer them early and build the foundation. Though it does depend on how far you would like to take your Thai.

As far as learning them, look up on Youtube "Stu Jay Raj" he has some great in-depth videos on how to form these sounds correctly. You'll want to use a lot of mimicking early on, find a few different Thai people and audio programs and mimic them nonstop until it feels more comfortable. This is a skill and it takes time to build. Start with single words slowly then move on to sentences. Notice their flow in sentences and try to copy that over and over.

if you speak 2 words of thai overhere, people tend to think you speak it fluently and understand everything

that is one thing that keeps me from speaking thai, loooooooooool

MAI PUUT THAI

just scream when it is too hard

"Mai puut thai" won't be well understood - the words are all mixed up as Thai grammar is not the same as English grammar. You wanna say "puut thai mai dai."

The most accurate English translation for a เจ้าชู้ (Jao Chuu) is a "player"

I think playboy and Cassanova are close translations too but they often have a positive connotation in English whereas in Thai the term is more negative. A translation of "aldulterer" is too strong and the term เจ้าชู้ is so widely used these days that it doesn't carry much shock value and often used as a joke or just testing some guy to see how he responds.

Butterfly is same concept, maybe softer that เจ้าชู้

Enough.

I have enough money - pom mee ngern phaw

I don't have enough money - pom mai mee ngern phaw

3,000 baht should be enough - sam pan baht kong phaw

Is it big enough? - Yai phaw mai?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but Sentence 2 looks like mixed up word order. The structure should be "ผมมีเงินไม่พอ"

Coming from a male perspective - I think Western women should make sure they are not in denial that competition is higher in Asia than back home. An attractive male is going to get promptly hit on and asked "Do you have a girlfriend" every day they live in Thailand. If your trying to play a passive flirting game and wait to be approached by these guys which is sometimes standard in the West then you may be missing out on a lot of men. What I'm trying to say is be aggressive and go after what you want, I think you'll find more success with this approach Hope that helps a bit!

From what I read about Chula it was pretty expensive, I bet you get more value for your money and time with a private tutor.

Some red flags that pop out - you've been learning on your own and/or thru your gf? Expect to have many bad habits. Fixing a bad habit can take twice as long as learning from scratch. You gotta break down the habit and build it back up correctly. This happens with many students from some language schools. If you have strong goals in Thai you wanna squash out the mistakes early and often. Most ppl can get away with these fundamental mistakes but not those who want to study at a university level.

Regardless of what you decide you should be studying everyday - no exceptions. Don't bother setting high goals if you can't build a strong work ethic to match it. Good luck!

P.S. Don't rely on your gf as a tutor. Pay someone and take it seriously.

Can someone tell me how this would affect current visas in the old passport?

I've been going to the hillside 4 gym for about 6 months. It's perfectly fine for working out but gets too busy in the evenings, if you go early there will be <10 ppl in there. Also they run some yoga classes (free for members) which are pretty sweet. New pool looks exactly same as the old one, I'm not sure what they changed.

Lobby is desolate. I imagine the rent is way too high for any profitable new business to open up in there.

Don't pretend you have free speech. (including this website)

OP - You make a topic in order to judge other posters on Thaivisa for how they act, think and write and the theme of your post is to not judge others. Is this for real?

His methods (and results) have been heavily criticized. Essentially he makes bold claims and delivers lackluster results. I wouldn't really consider what he is doing as "hacking languages".

Maybe they needed a formal invitation. Lot's of miscommunicaiton with English >> Thai.

How has the quality of play been? Would love to see a intramural league around Chiang Mai.

You forgot to mention to best part, Mcdonalds is now walking distance from the terminal!

Fair enough, we all know there's gonna be bias in any stastics

Servicing all 4 gates around the most would be a start. Heard rumours they wanna widen niman road when that new cinema/mall opens. Considering cm is the 2nd biggest city in Thailand, it is surprising it doesn't have it's own official transport network.

It's not the 2nd biggest in Thailand. 6th per Wikipedia.

Looks promising, though both sites could use more (or should I say better) restaurants. Some competition could do some good in this industry, I don't remember MoW ever adding new restaurants to their list.

I would recommend learning to read on your own. It's not that difficult and your coming into this with a unquie skillset, I'd be worried that formal Thai classes will be redundant in some areas. A personal tutor after some self-study could also do wonders I'm sure.

Also, you mentioned you want to learn topics like politics, etc. that are probably not so common in everyday conversation. Well there's plenty of Thai reading material online, news articles, opinion forums, etc. that can help you learn specific vocab as well as improve your reading with time. You may also start to notice that the diction used in written Thai is more advanced (and proper) than everyday spoken Thai. Good luck!

1. What level are you at?

Levels are hard to measure. What are we measuring it up against? Thais? Foreigners? I agree with one of the posters above that said, the more you learn about Thai, the more your realize just how much there is to learn. I never feel satisfied at the level I am at. I'd say I'm somewhere around 5000 word vocab, can converse in Thai throughout the entire day, am easily understood when I speak, can understand common topics (food, life, etc.) I can watch a Thai movie with subtitles and follow adequately, without subtitles and I have many issues.

2. Can you read and write Thai?

Yes. I learned Thai through a formal setting and reading / writing are my better skills. I often read Thai forums and websites like sanook.com or kapook.com. All my Facebook, Google, etc. are switched to Thai. I chat with Thais every chance I get online and have good flow to the conversations. I have read through some childrens books, many short stories, but never finished a novel yet. I'm thinking of attempting the final Harry Potter book as a New Years Resolution for the beginning of 2013.

3. How long have you been learning for?

3 years. I moved here about 3 years ago and have been studying since I got here.

4. How did you learn?

Studyed 1 year and CMU, 2 years at Pro langauge, and 2 years with a private tutor off and on during that time. I went through Thai books like Thai for Beginners/Thai for Intermediate, etc. I use Gflash+ for new vocabulary which is similar to Anki but free on your ipod. I will add in every word I come across that I couldn't come up with the definition for on the spot. I watch a lot of Youtube Thai videos, started with Thai songs, then shows like Farang Pok Pok, now I'm watching the comedy show เป็นต่อ and Chris Delivery. I watch Thai movies from time to time and some Thai stand-up comedy. I read the news on voathai.com which has articles and sound from the reporter so you can follow along. I will usually read the article, then listen to the reporter read the article while I follow along, then listen a 3rd time with no visual aid.

5. What other languages could you speak before Thai?

English, I learned Spanish for 5 years in school, but it has deteriorated and my Thai ability has quickly surpassed it.

Just wanna say good luck to everyone else out there studying!

Ask your school?

But KL itself is a noisy, ugly city.

Compared to Bangkok, KL is a work of art.

Obv. I can just say ได้ คุณพูดไม่ได้หรอ but Thai's never seem to understand that I am being sarcastic

If you just want to joke around then you'd better try another joke, because it isn't nice to answer like that (for Thai its quite rude to speak w/ stranger ).

Can you explain what about this response is rude? Besides the fact that I never wrote in ครับ at the end. Thanks.