Dakhar

I don't know what you did....

But it warms my heart to hear you beat the system. (at least partially)

It seems to me the rich always try to keep others down. Sounds to me you had a novel approach to distrubution, and got busted. I bet soon the MFG/vendor will be useing your approach 24 hours from now, if they have not already started by now.

Cheers!

I think what this degreeless self proclaimed expert means by no accent is that he speaks his various languages at a native level. For instance, if a forienger was to speak Mandarin Chinese at a native level, like a native of Taiwan, well yes, he speaks like a native, without a forieng accent. If this individual goes to main land China, he will sure have an accent, the accent of a Taiwanese.

Who needs banks? Get a shovel

Compete against Disney....

There is no competition, a convention center, and Disney are two different animals. That is like saying Lance Armstrong will compete in a drag race!

The target markets in this so called "competition" are different. Weird, no logic, but this is Thailand.

I knew of an "agent" that would tell the property owner that the house was vacant and they were deligently trying to get more renters in....

All the while the property was not vacant, the agent was just pocketing the rent money...

Ah the glories of living in a cash based society. It can sting you back too!

The mother-in-law has a 4x4 Vigo 4 door. I thought is was nice looking?! I also thought the ride was extremely harsh. But it may be because I am not used to 4x4 trucks. Where she lives, you need a 4x4, and that is what I also intend to have, when I make the move.

It is China's turn again.

Also oil is priced witht the USD, this will mean that China's purchasing power will be greater. They can now buy more, use more etc. on a cheaper scale. So whatever slight chance Thialand may of had for a better economy due to China's actions.... will not be realized. There will be more oil consumption, and an increase in the costs of oil, thus having an negative impact.

Good luck to everyone.

I would hope that your stay in Thailand is stress free, you may not even need xanax anymore.

So what is your return on investment?

"""I named him Stiffy and I would put him round my neck when taking a warm shower, he loved it but once he evacuated his bowels down my back."""

So you liked to play with your snake "Stiffy," while in the shower, and he liked it.

You too eh?!

My mother... bless her heart...

She asked me how it was my wife escaped being sold into prostitution...

My mom meant well, and she knows my wife came from an extremely humble background. Living in a trully homeless family, sleeping on the ground etc.

Now, her mother has worked her way up, and is actually pretty wealthy. My wife, married a fellow (me) that is financially fit.

But any how, I thought the question was a little weird, and the only explanation I have is that my wife's family are "Thai to the bone." Just because prositutes are accepted, it doesn't make prositution accpetable. Her family has way too much pride to ever go to that point. "Thai to the bone," they are. In some respects it is anoying, but in some ways, I guess that is what kept my wife away from a life of prostitution.

Now, we are a happy couple, with a beutiful baby boy.... Funny how life can be full of changes.

"""" My wife would disagree with you on that one. She has told me that many Thai's do not like Falangs who know too much about anything, not just the language. You could be talking about car mechanics, farming, breeding dogs, anything really and when you display a superior knowledge to them they back off and do not want to know any more.

I have seen this once or twice but know it does not apply to most.""""

I have seen that too. I was sitting in a training meeting with some Thai, Americans and Chinese. The spoken language at the metting was English. The Thais would deny any translation assistance, and did not learn squat in the meeting because they were too busy trying to act as though they had a command of the English language, when is was obvious they had no clue. They were offered a translator, but denied it. The translator was Thai, she had recieved a B.A. in English in Thailand, lived in America for 5 years, and had recieved a M.S. in America. She was flown in from America specifically to translate for that meeting!

The Chinese would ask for translation assistance when needed, but the Thais... they would get offended if anyone would try to help them. Weird....

The meeting was a complete failure, waste of time and money.

In my humble opinion, going native is one of the ways to really appreciate Thialand.

I love Thai, food, so going native to me is not like I have to sacrifice something.

Now I must say I crave some things that are not easily found. My mother-in-law thinks I am nuts when I frown upon dishes such as ant eggs and other strange things.

But when she comes to America, she will absolutley not touch American food. It is funny to me, when I am in Thailand, I am expected to be open minded, tolerant etc. But when she comes to America.... OH NOOO not her.

Fortunatley my wife is very open minded, and really does not frown upon American food. So cousine is seldom an issue.

I'm not completely against corporal punishment for extreme disciplinary cases but it is utterly abhorrent as an approach to dealing with learning difficulties.

Bilingualism does not cause learning difficulties (Dakhar has pointed out possible problems with language delay but I'm guessing Thai is the dominant language anyway?) but this is a myth that persists.

The studies you refer to may be those mentioned here:

"Old, poorly designed studies done primarily in the United States claimed to show that bilinguals had lower intelligence than monolinguals. Newer research has revealed several flaws in the studies. The most obvious flaw is that the bilingual children were recent immigrants, with poorer knowledge of English and more stressful life situations than their monolingual counterparts. Newer studies with more careful controls have shown that bilinguals are better at some specific tasks, such as language games, but that otherwise the differences between bilinguals and monolinguals are negligible."

Sorry, but I have a doctorate in speech and hearing sciences, specializing in audiology. I do think I have enough background to speak with little authority on the subject.

A myth, not at all a myth. Secondly if you have a language delay, how can one recieve instruction? This is what leads to the learning delay.

The studies that I draw my knowledge upon are not only based on imigrants but also hearing children born to deaf parents and deaf children born to hearing parents.

But I am not here to spend my time teaching langguage development. You can find that information on your own time.

This too interests me. I grew up off shore fishing off the gulf of Texas, and I may want to get a 24ft off shore sport fishing rig. Ohh that would be awesome. Other than money, what other types of provisions are needed?

Or maybe the car port is designed to protect the owner from rain as they are getting in and out of the car, rather than protect the car from the elements.

It has been well documented that children being raised in an bi-lingual home often times have language delay. Ofcourse language delay can cause learning delay, but if you child is 8 years old, I would guess that phase is over by now.

To say children that grow up in bi-lingual homes eventually end up even more intelegent than other children, I would think is some what misleading. They do eventually catch up to their peers, but they do not have some type of inate genious abilities within them. But at the very least, the are bi-lingual.

"""You might be surprised to find out that an energy representative surveying the rigs in iraq has atleast twice the average salary as an active combat soldier on the same field."""

Nope not surprised, and I would hope so. Soldiers sign on for this type of life. Or do you think soldiering is just a chance to spend your life excersising/training recieving tons of benifits provided by the govt/tax payers, and not have to give back. If that is what soldiering is, sign me up!

I know of a co. manager that was caught running a "cash book." Meaning a book that recorded all cash transactions, that were never taxed. Her fine... 200$

You got to love Thailand.

Why should tax payers in the UK have to foot the bill, and allow some forienger to nick his or her daughter's schollarship funds? Makes no sense to me.

Got oil?

Nope.... then the battle has already been won, before it has been faught.

I am looking for an individual, preferably a farang, that has knowledge in the plastics industry. I need someone that knows about injection molding, etc. I plan on approaching a Thai plastics co. and request that they mfg. some plastic components for me. I may need a spokes person, that is already in Thailand to be a participant.

For those needing the physical/medical check up necessary for Thailand, my advice is to look for doctors that advertize doing these types of check ups. Usually in big cities you can find them. Those doctors seem to have a tendency to be more relaxed about things.

cheaper too

""""The suspect's state-sponsored lawyer Worapong Klansupa said his client was still adamant he was innocent of the murder in Trang, but police had strong evidence against him. It was possible he denied involvement for fear of trouble with relatives in his hometown."""

Ummm, I don't think he is got to worry about the folks in his home town. I don't think he will be going home ever.

In Somkid perverted mind, he was just doing his duty, fighting inflation.

I wonder if he really wants to get the dealth penalty, of if he wants to live, thus he tells everyone he wants to die. Ofcourse the natural knee jerk response would be to do the opposite of what he requests. An enigma the situation is. I say just kill the guy, why waste tax dollars on such scum?