wasabi

OP is long gone! But this is still an interesting thread. I've tried my luck at the stock market and wiped out my account a few times. I have 90% of my money in mutual funds and they always seem to outperform any trading attempts I make. I would love to win at trading, stocks or currencies but I haven't figured out a good system yet. I'd be interested in hearing other people's ideas for successful trading.

I'm glad they're leaving Thailand the day I arrive.

I agree with what everyone has said here. There are situations, such as on the phone vs face to face when you know the person understands you but either consciously or unconsciously refuses to understand you. I do think most times it's a power play, and sometimes it's a result of shock.

It is an interesting paradox. Is there anything that Youtube would ban? Yes they would ban porn or killing. I think everyone can agree these things are "offensive" Yet to Thai people those things pale in comparison to defaming the king, it's many multiples more offensive than the items youtube would ban do to the mores and taboos of the USA. So on one hand it does seem hypocritical that youtube bans some types of videos seen as offensive but not other types. Then the original purpose for free speech arises. if you start to censor some things, eventually you censor everything. Because everyone will find something offensive. Basically youtube must decide who they are willing to offend. In the age of the internet, trying to censor does seem to create the opposite of the intended effect. Yet could the Thai gov't legally have ignored something so offensive? What if you tube were playing a beheading video, surely a senator would demand it be removed. If he/she sat by and did nothing their constituents would quickly cry out. So in this sense Thailand is acting no different than we would.

Now does Thailand have any legal recourse to tell us what's offensive? I have no idea but instinctually it seems no. Perhaps someone in the USA is offended by a Thai website, I doubt they can sue Thailand and force them to remove it.

I don't consider myself a particularly saintly individual or man of redeemable value. However I have fancied the idea of teaching English or another subject at an orphanage. The only orphanage I know of is in Pattaya. Hmm, refer to first sentence.

I think you mean หรือ you forgot the vowel. It depends on the context it can mean or, but placed at the end of the sentence I think it's the same as ไหม

It seems to me that คือ can always be glossed as 'i.e.'.

hi richard,

if 'glossed' means 'interpreted as' or 'substituted with' then i'd argue that คือ will not always be able to be glossed as 'i.e.'. for example, เขาคือใคร won't work.

that said, i think that as a general guide, the parallels with 'i.e.' are useful. like 'i.e.', คือ will generally be used after something, some person or some state of affairs has been hinted at or described, then there will be a คือ word like นั้นคือ or คือว่า and then the thing, person or state of affairs will be named.

so,

เรามีเรื่องจะต้องรบกวนเธอ คือว่า ขาดคนทำอาหาร

i have a problem i need to bother you with. namely, we're short of a cook.

เธอหันไปมองคนที่มีค่าที่สุดในชีวิด นั้นคือ ลูกชายวัยห้าขวบ

she turned to look at the most valuable person in her life, her five year old son.

all the best.

I have yet to master the difference between คือ and เป็น I can use these correctly in contexts I've heard before but when a new use of to be pops up I'm usually not sure which to use, though เป็น seems to be the more common one.

บางที and อาจจะ seem to have the same meaning, only need to be placed in different parts of the sentence, how about คงจะ?

Sounds like you had a real bone to pick.

I think any level of learning Thai offers benefits, but fluency would open you up to exponentially more possibilities than all levels below it. There are situations where my limited Thai has helped, ordering from a vendor, explaining directions to a cab driver who didn't know English, but in many others the fact I am not fluent has made it seem like I'm trying to show off, or am using my Thai like some kind of cute parlor trick. For me personally I hope to reach fluency. It's like the plane tries to take off but quickly crashes whenever I try to speak Thai with someone. If I manage to speak correctly they excitedly rattle off something in Thai that I can't follow whereupon I have to ask them to slow down or speak in English if possible. It's a real downer. Sensing many Thai's excitement when they detect I know marginal Thai I think it would be even more fun if I was fluent. Also just because one is fluent in Thai doesn't mean you'd have to speak in Thai every time. There are times when Thai's or fellow foreigners wish to see us as dumb tourists and it can be advantageous to surreptitiously meet their expectation. Imagine the eavesdropping entertain value when amongst Thai speakers who assume you can't follow! Having the ability to turn it on and speak fluently when appropriate could only be a benefit.

If this is indeed real, I wonder if the pirated DVD's are next? That is a huge market in Thailand. Even though software makers may be losing billions by pirated software in Asia I still find it hard to sympathize with these raids, it just seems illegal copies of software is an inherent part of the modern Thailand I know and love. Honor among thieves.

.``The baht is generally strong because we've seen quite a big drop in imports,'' said Alistair Thompson, who helps manage $18 billion of Asia-Pacific stocks and global emerging markets at First State Investments in Singapore. `.

Why does a drop in imports make a currency rise? Logically I assume this means exports are strong but if the currency is rising why would they be strong and if Thai's can buy more with their baht why aren't imports stronger?

This thread is getting long in the tooth so I'll just add a bit. I do feel increasing hostility towards foreigners. I live in the USA but chat online with many Thai's. I have been hearing, prices are higher because farang's came and started paying too much for a rai of land. Or that the media has been portraying Thailand in a bad light and doesn't understand the coup or Thai people. It seems there is a downturn and as usual people look for scapegoats, amongst some Farangs are an easy target. However nothing seems like a true seismic shift and I will continue to vacation in Thailand, but my career aspirations there have been put on hold indefinitely. I think in the region, Vietnam is making the best moves, opening up trade, investing in infrastructure and having a young education populace.

1) buy investment property in America (perfect time real estate now is a buyers market there for a number of reasons)

while I am no hotshot investor my hunch is this is not yet the time to buy, could still be a few years off til prices hit bottom.

This is the way I understand it, but only when it's a single/one item (neung)

So if it was rounds I would need to ask;

Kor beer singha si kuad krap or would Kor beer singha kuad si krap still be ok?

Kor beer singha si kuad krap is ok

Kor beer singha kuad si krap is not ok

You can only do that switch at the end if the amount of items is 1.

not thailand related & this is not a political website

Where is the most friendly town in the Isaan region?

Maybe you just need to try a different part of Thailand? Could you really live in a place where you didn't hear Sawatdee Ka from legions of beautiful women everyday?

I just installed Window Vista which comes with the fancy Aero interface if your computer has sufficient memory and processing power. I have to say it's nice to look it and I was enjoying using it until I installed Lexitron. For some reason every time I opened this program I'd get the following message. "The Color scheme has been changed to Window's Vista Basic" and Windows reverts back to the old style Windows until you close Lexitron. I figured out this is due to Lexitron installing an old version of Java, typically 1.5, you have to delete the Java 1.5 folder and install Java JRE 1.6. There's more info at the link below. That webpage mentions needing to copy the contents of the JRE 1.6 folder into the conflicting applications jre folder but I didn't find that necessary (nor did I even find a jre folder in lexitron's subdirectories. Just delete the old Java and replacing it with the new did the trick. Now Lexitron works with the Aero interface.

http://www.hackszine.com/blog/archive/java/

** I just noticed I spelled off wrong but I can't change the heading .

Works fine for me, I think I'll spend a few hours watching Isaan Karokee vids in your honor

My sample size is small and flawed. But the only people I ever have a problem with in Thailand are drunken Brit farangs.

I am still in the early stages of learning Thai but I have to say since learning to read Thai I have little tolerance for any form of transliteration and when I see it usually ignore it. This is not out of snobbery, it's just very error prone to try to decipher someone's transliteration even if it is consistent. On a side note I find it looks kind of shabby to say you are good at Thai and then spew a paragraph in transliterated Thai no matter how accurate your grammar and word choice is. (This is not a comment directed at the OP or anyone in this thread.)

I thought this thread was going to be about how common English learning was in Thailand and what level of proficiency is commonly achieved. I have met many who can understand everything I say and vice versa, but not many who are free of frequent grammatical errors and could fool me into thinking English was their first language. Though of course the same for Farang's speaking Thai is even more rare.

Agree, Smyth is the way to go. Too many errors in Higbie.

Thanks I think I'll pick up the Smyth book. I do like the Higbie book, but something a little better organized and concise would be appreciated. I have had several Thai friends mention some passages in the Higbie book are wrong, but I still would recommend it as part of an overall reference collection.

I'm not really looking to get rich or live like a king, although it'd be nice, but merely to survive & live comfortably with decent food & accommodation. I'm not real big on drinking or wasting money, but I'd definitely want to join a gym or muay thai camp. I could probably get my hands on about $30+gs if I knew anything about starting a successful small business, but I think I'd be better off with teaching or trying my hand at modelin' & fighting. I'm not real comfortable with the idea of investing alot of money, unless I know I have 100% ownership & no risk of losing it. Earning a degree before going to Thailand simply isn't an option for me. I don't have the time to just chill here another 2-4 years, I only have maybe a couple months to work with, so I have to make the best out of it in the meantime.

Please don't tell me you are going to hang your hat on your good looks and hope that some rich Thai/Chinese chick will come along and take care of you 'loooong time'... because it won't happen.

Actually I think the rich sugar momma route is the most likely to succeed.

I'm short, ugly early 30's but speak passable Thai, and chances for me?