retsdon

.... Even one new word a day. After 10

years of schooling. They would know 2,000 -2,500 words. More then enough to get by !

10 new words a day is the stahdard goal for our proper language students....

"Under the "train-the-trainer" program, a group of 500 Thai teachers who teach English in government schools nationwide will take part in an intensive six-week training course taught by English specialists from the British Council."

Fundamentally,it's the right idea. The problem is that 6 weeks is nowhere near long enough.

An utterly revolting sentence - to take away the rest of someone's life for simple possession of a line of coke. What sort of cretinous barbarian would ever think of doing such a thing to someone?

As for the 'It's the law!'brigade - think, why don't you? They used to burn heretics at the stake. It was the law. And no doubt 400 years ago there was a quotient of nodding donkeys going,'He's only himself to blame for going up in flames....he shouldn't have translated that Bible...he knew the risks..."

So he loses a shit load of money, advises people not to retire here, then re-marries!

For purely practical reasons, try bringing up kids as a lone parent!. He probably has no problems either with getting his new wife entry clearance to the UK where he will no doubt settle and his kids get a free education.....?

So he loses a shit load of money, advises people not to retire here, then re-marries!

For purely practical reasons, try bringing up kids as a lone parent!. He probably has no problems either with getting his new wife entry clearance to the UK where he will no doubt settle and his kids get a free education.....?

If can prove an income of £22000 a year or £65,000 in cash Sets he'll be fine. Otherwise. ...

Revisit these boards after 6 months away and it's the same crap both above and below the line. Six months ago, it was the same. And so on and so on back eight years or more and nothing has developed politically at all. It's like a hamster on a wheel nightmare, destined to run forever...

It seems Thai nationals teaching English - often try to 'construct' the English language to students, while speaking mostly Thai in their classes.

It would be like someone teaching a class of students to tango. She would draw diagrams of the many positions and poses by the dancers. She might even play some tango music - but wouldn't put on the music and have the students pair off and dance. Thai nationals teach English like it's a series of mathematical formulas. Language is more of a dance, ....a flow.

Thailand needs to open its policy and allow native English speakers to teach in Thailand. If I were PM, I'd welcome all enthusiastic backpackers who wanted to assist in that endeavor. If any were shown to be (or had prior evidence of being) sexual predators or inept as teachers, then they'd be dropped from the program. The vast majority of backpackers willing to teach would prove to be of great assistance.

Who are the greatest teachers (of language or any other topic) for each individual growing up? Parents. How many parents are certified as teachers? Few. Yet we all learned lots from them while growing up, didn't we?

Certification programs are mostly bunk. If an individual has teaching skills (as most people do), that person won't need a paid-for curriculum to bring it out. I meet hundreds of backpackers each year, most of whom are native English speakers or otherwise fluent. I'd venture to say that any of those hundreds would be fine English teachers if they chose to be. No offense to Thais, but the farang would be head and shoulders more adept than most Thais with teaching degrees. On the other side of the coin; I speak Thai badly, but probably better than most Thai English teachers speak English. Would Thais want me teaching Thai language in a farang land?

Backpackers teaching sans curriculum or syllabus? That's what half the kids get already. And a fat lot of good it does them.

What kind of development is it talking about? No link to the source .

You can't blame the students. If you want to know what's wrong with Thai education, just look at this absurd test.

Do Thai people look to the future ? Buy now ..cant pay in the future

Thai people look at the future as far as what they gonna have for their next meal. Everything beyond that is taboo.

It is not only a Thai condition

Country with highest house hold debt as % of GDP Source: The Economist

#1 Ireland

#2 UK

#3 Canada

#4 South Korea

#5 Malaysia

#6 US

#7 Thailand

#8 Japan

#9 Singapore

#10 HK

What was the debt acquired for is the question. The UK is high, but 90 percent of UK household debt is owed on property, which historically is an appreciating asset. Seventy percent plus of Thai loans are for vehicles or other unspecified things - almost certainly consumer goods - i.e. Items which will eventually depreciate to zero. In 20 years the Brit will own a house that's likely to be worth as much or more as he's paid in total ...including the interest. Your Thai borrower will own nothing. He'll be as poor as the day he made the first payment. His payments will have been nothing but a straightforward transfer of his wealth to a bank and multi-national corporation. It's mirrors and beads to the redskins stuff.

to all you morons who like thai bashing you are a guest in their country try to understand the thai mentality and live by the rules and last but not least do not try and impose your self on them.

All fine and good if I didn't have to share the road with them

And by the way, what rules are you talking about ?

Rule 123: As a guest you shall have Bhuddist ceremonies imposed on you, not limited to, but including: Wai-ing statues, crawling on your knees and prostrating yourself before the glory of the monkood (Please refer to Addendum iii if you are confused about the ''For monarchy, for people, for religions'' slogan: There are no plurals in Thai so it should have said ''....for the religion'' - The true Thai religion being Bhuddism.

Rule 187: If you don't like any rules shut the <deleted!> up or go the <deleted!> back to your country of birth.

'Rule 187: If you don't like any rules shut the <deleted!> up or go the <deleted!> back to your country of birth.'

Good rule. I wish that's how it was back where I'm from.

I had some bizarre Thai road rage today. Upon doing a U turn i came out in front of a motorbike who took umbridge at the fact I had slowed their path down. Rather than simply slow down a little until i picked up speed, the motorcyclist overtook me before cutting across me with an inch to spare as a gesture, flicking me the bird as he went.

I was driving he Toyota Hilux, he was driving a scooter. He was seemingly oblivious to the fact any collision would kill him and barely dent my car. I suspect it was a face thing.

So you just pulled out in front of a motorcyclist, forcing him to slow down because you couldn't be bothered to wait for a proper gap? And you're surprised he's upset?

And your justification is that you drive a Hilux? You will have no objections then when a 12 wheel articulated truck pulls a U-turn in front of your Hilux so if you don't jam on your brakes your Hilux under the trailer?

Sauce for the goose....

I can't understand the mentality of someone, who comes out in front of a motorbike, causing him to brake, and he thinks the M/C rider is bizarre.

I think the Hilux driver has got his nationality mixed up, was he not the Thai?

It's got worse over the last few years. Ten or fifteen years ago most Thais had, at some point in their lives, ridden a motorcycle themselves. Consequently they were both more aware of, and respectful towards, their fellow road users on two wheels. But nowadays, it's not uncommon at all to have some arrogant idiot calculatedly pull out in front of you, presumably on the basis that because you're riding a bike you must be poor or of low social status and it's your place to give way to them regardless of the legal rules of the road.

But obviously this attitude is not confined to freshly affluent Thais in their as yet to be paid for new status symbols - as evidenced as our friend in the Hilux. it just goes to prove that arrogance and stupidity are no respecters of national or ethnic boundaries.

I wonder if the jump in Chinese tourism is driving higher quality tourists out? The Chinese must presumably be pushing out other tourists, as they bulk book rooms which they share between several people. So the hotels might be ok. But then other tourists are put off by the rooms being harder to find at the right price, while the quality of their stay worsens because of the crowds and noise etc. So Thailand as a whole gaining only a marginal rise in revenue despite the big jump in numbers.

'I wonder if the jump in Chines tourism is driving higher quality tourists out?

It's inevitable one would think.

It's impossible to have any sympathy for someone who sites a motor racing track called Bonanza inside a national park.

That said, we'll see how far this investigation of Nor Sor Kor misuse goes. The abuse is so widespread that in some provinces the whole land office department would be in prison along with a significant portion of the population. Can't see it happening.

They could both be right. It's quite possible that the proposed new constitution to be introduced later this year or early next year is so biased in favor of the 1% that it's flat out rejected by the majority of the population. Or 'the situation' might not have changed. What's planned and what actually occurs frequemtly turn out differently.

German politicians have higher morals, ethics and integrity than Thai politicians.

They weren't born that way. It's because the German electorate holds its politicians to a higher standard, and will punish them severely for falling below that standard. Any party that fielded candidates like Suthep or Chalerm would be unelectable, no matter how appealing its policies were. But for some reason the Thai electorate seems to accept whatever rubbish is thrown at them - by all sides.

The most annoying aspect of the Establishment and anti-democracy wing of The Thai power struggle is the way that it manages to conflate totally separate issues. It did it with the two coups. Anyone who believed in democracy as a form of government was forced willy-nilly to defend the Shins, because corrupt, incompetent and dishonest as they were, they were the only game in town offering people the opportunity to choose their own government.

It's the same story now. Of course, any normal person is anti-corruption, and any normal person would want to see corrupt officials prosecuted. But that's not the issue. The far larger issue is that the people who are supposedly doing this good work appointed themselves to run the country at gunpoint, have disenfranchised the entire population, view themselves as accountable to nobody, and have suspended the rule of law. And we're supposed to applaud because they are going task a few selected officials with lining their own pockets.

There already exists on Thai statue books more than enough laws to investigate and prosecute corrupt officials. The reason why why these laws have never been properly enforced is a complex one, and has as much to do with social mores and cultural habit as anything else. For Thailand to succeed in stamping out systemic corruption, the impetus will need to come from within the society itself, and it will require a whole shift in the national psyche away from the kreng jai, say nothing, don't criticize your betters mindset which, ironically, is what this military government is hell bent on perpetuating in spades.

100 token officials? It makes for good headlines and fools the uncritical. A successful red herring.

If I may refer to your first paragraph, isn't that exactly why we need reforms, so that the only choice is not a pack of criminals?

Isn't a short period where those reforms are carried out, justifiable? Would it hurt so much to admit that the corrupt are being prosecuted in that time?

"If I may refer to your first paragraph, isn't that exactly why we need reforms, so that the only choice is not a pack of criminals?"

Why was the only choice a pack of criminals? The ironically named Democrat party refused flat out to participate in the democratic process not once, but twice. The solution to the Shins was to have them voted out through the ballot box - something that was perfectly feasible to achieve. They were making such a mess of the economy that ANY professional campaign manager worth the name would have given their eye teeth for that kind of material on which to base an imaginative and aggressive election campaign. Certainly the Democrats had the funds available to mount one. But they were too lazy and too stupid to do so, preferring to try and ride back into power again on the coattails of the military.

Well, it looks like that might be a long time coming. There is nothing to suggest that the military has any intention at all of restoring a democratic government chosen by the population at large. At some point they might allow people to vote for some token, pre-vetted representatives as a form of window dressing, but even these will be a minority in a legislature dominated by appointees. Democracy is dead in Thailand for the foreseeable future, and the Democrats as a genuine political party have committed hari kiri. It's easy to blame the Shins. But the Shins simply are what they are. The burden of guilt lies with the 'democratic' opposition who refused to fulfill their duty.

"Isn't a short period where those reforms are carried out, justifiable?"

What reforms? You mean reforms that in perpetuity stuff the legislature with hand-picked appointees?

"Would it hurt so much to admit that the corrupt are being prosecuted in that time?"

When the IRA, who gain their legitimacy through the barrel of a gun, hold its own courts and tries people for crimes like drug dealing or car theft, is it a valid and legal process?

Sonkran = a blanket license for ill-mannered drunks to bully people. I lost any tolerance I ever had for it a long time ago. Having a huge bucket of water thrown at the front wheel of my motorcycle while travelling at 120kph on a freeway by an idiot who sprint/staggered across two lanes to chuck it was the final straw. It's a miracle both of us weren't killed.

The most annoying aspect of the Establishment and anti-democracy wing of The Thai power struggle is the way that it manages to conflate totally separate issues. It did it with the two coups. Anyone who believed in democracy as a form of government was forced willy-nilly to defend the Shins, because corrupt, incompetent and dishonest as they were, they were the only game in town offering people the opportunity to choose their own government.

It's the same story now. Of course, any normal person is anti-corruption, and any normal person would want to see corrupt officials prosecuted. But that's not the issue. The far larger issue is that the people who are supposedly doing this good work appointed themselves to run the country at gunpoint, have disenfranchised the entire population, view themselves as accountable to nobody, and have suspended the rule of law. And we're supposed to applaud because they are going task a few selected officials with lining their own pockets.

There already exists on Thai statue books more than enough laws to investigate and prosecute corrupt officials. The reason why why these laws have never been properly enforced is a complex one, and has as much to do with social mores and cultural habit as anything else. For Thailand to succeed in stamping out systemic corruption, the impetus will need to come from within the society itself, and it will require a whole shift in the national psyche away from the kreng jai, say nothing, don't criticize your betters mindset which, ironically, is what this military government is hell bent on perpetuating in spades.

100 token officials? It makes for good headlines and fools the uncritical. A successful red herring.

It's a charade. There 'news stories' are a charade. It's like a parallel universe. If I wasn't inexorably linked to Thailand....

People get the government they deserve. Thailand is a poster child for the cliche.

Is this being done under Article 44?

It would be interesting if anyone could find a sector breakdown of this debt. For example, the UK has a very high debt to GDP ratio, but almost ninety percent of thzt debt is owed on property, which in theory at least is an appreciating asset. When property is taken out of the equation, the average household debt in the UK is just over 6,000 per household - not a huge number of you take vehicles, etc, into account.

You have to think that's not the case in Thailand. Most of the Thai people I know that are in hoc are lying out for distinctly DEpreciating assets like new model cars or electronic goods. In essence, they'll never own the nominal equity value of their debt, ever. Everything they are paying is a straight out wealth transfer from debtor to creditor.

But that's just an anecdotal impression. Like I say, it would be interesting if anyone could find the sector breakdown in Thailand.