Zooheekock

" European concepts of race and the mechanism of the census has masked non-Thai ethnicities to create the impression that the vast majority of the population was safely and clearly of one race "

What do you think the implication of the modifier 'European' is in that sentence?

I'm starting to feel that perhaps your wife married down a little too far.

Quote

You're not seeing the whole picture. 

I'm just responding to your posts. You made it sound as if you have a fairly high degree of fluency but not understanding มานี้ in the context of seeing someone call your dog makes it sound more like you're firmly in the beginner camp. However, if you want to use karaoke, go ahead. Unless you already have an interest in Thai music, it's not something which I would particularly recommended as a language-learning strategy but that's your decision.

^ I misunderstood your post. If you're at the level of not understanding มานี้ when you hear it, then my suggestions are going to completely wrong - you won't understand a single thing. Maybe think about getting a teacher. Have a look at italki.com - at 300+ baht per hour, it's not expensive.

6 minutes ago, connda said:

Having a hard time finding Lakorn with Thai subs.  Everything has english subs.  What I'm trying to do is pair my more advanced Thai reading skills with my weak Thai listening skills.  The Thai karaoke is just about perfect.  But if I could find Lakorn with Thai subs, that would be great too.

If you can understand the Thai subs, just listen without. It's a slog and you'll have to re-listen over and over again but you'll get there.

It sounds like your knowledge of vocabulary and grammar is sufficient and it's just a matter of getting your ear used to the language, in which case, the only thing to do is a lot of listening. If you live in the countryside, is it talking to locals which causes a problem or is your listening weak across the board? If it's the latter, then just find some material you enjoy and listen the hell out of it. When I'm gardening, I listen to a few Thai podcasts -  Witcast, Omnivore, Nerd Loyalty and โปรดใช้วิจารณญาณในการฟัง (Witcast is often very good, the others are so-so) and political discussions which I download from youtube. In the past, I used to listen to the news on VOA (just because it's also available as a podcast, which makes it easier to sort out) and NHK (which has transcripts). ThaiPBS also has a daily show (downloadable) where they read serializations of novels, which is OK. On the other hand, if you have a problem with the locals but no problems dealing with standard pronunciation then I would suggest paying someone to make some recordings for you.
 

Quote

I need to find some karaoke type music with the Thai written at the bottom. 

That might help but it's unlikely to be the most useful or efficient method.

27 minutes ago, MaeJoMTB said:

Makes more money that you, wealthy family, high-so, educated, white skinned ........... etc.

Most of that, yes.

27 minutes ago, MaeJoMTB said:

Makes me ashamed to admit mine is a dirt poor, dark skinned, Laos speaking unemployed rice farmer, who left school aged 12.

People overwhelmingly marry within the same social class. It's interesting but not completely shocking that this holds inter-culturally as well as intra-culturally.

1 hour ago, scottiejohn said:

So why are you reading and posting on this forum/site/topic?

The answer to that question is a massive 200-odd words back from the sentence you quoted. Clearly, reading that much text is an absolutely insurmountable hurdle so it's completely reasonable to ask....I had a question about passports and I made a few posts whilst waiting for an answer. This is just following up responses to those.

1 hour ago, scottiejohn said:

There is little point in making vague un-attributable references to sites you cannot mention on THIS forum and then try and compare them/whatever.

I've typed its name out in full. If you're illiterate, that's unfortunate but you can hardly blame me for your inadequacies. Besides, if you don't recognize the site from my description, then it doesn't really matter because you're not going to know what it was like a few years ago.

1 hour ago, scottiejohn said:

The above is just typical of the many pointless comments and posts which drive people away from what should be informative and positive forums/sites

You're right. I should put my efforts into making petty, irritating, nit-picking posts which criticize others but offer exactly nothing of substance or value.

1 hour ago, scottiejohn said:

I am not a MOD

Not yet, perhaps, but the internship looks like it's a howling success so next time an opening arises, your CV is sure to be top of the pile.
 

There's nothing mysterious about tones - for almost everybody, it's just a matter of practice and putting in the hours.

Unfortunately, a great many people (certainly the overwhelming majority of British people) have terrible experiences at school learning a modern foreign language. After several years of 'study', most British schoolchildren struggle to express the simplest of ideas in French (or German, or whatever) and because of this become convinced that they're just somebody who can't learn languages. This is entirely understandable - especially when they are likely to know somebody who sailed through those classes without apparently breaking a sweat - but equally, entirely wrong. The fact is that, whilst some people do learn languages quicker than others, it's something which is well within the reach of almost all of us.

Obviously some people will have genuine reasons for not being able to learn Thai. If you have hearing problems or are dyslexic or have any one of dozens of other conditions, nobody is going to expect you to make strides self-studying a foreign language. However, for the vast majority of immigrants who live in Thailand permanently and who have done nothing more than learn a handful of words, that's not the case.

Are you actually tone deaf? That means that you're unable to distinguish musical notes. Some people are but it's pretty rare. If you are genuinely tone deaf, then, yes, you will  have problems learning Thai but almost everyone who says this just hasn't put in the work. Learning a new language is a tedious process and learning Thai is more tedious than learning most languages but (to a rough approximation), it's something anyone can do.

Plus, some people are naturally good at languages, and automatically assume everyone else isn't trying....

I was terrible at languages at school. French was easily my worst subject. I now work as a translator. It's just a matter of putting in the hours.

My foreign mother lived 25 years (from the young age of around 19) in my home country, and was still immediately identifiable as a foreigner - whereas other people in similar circumstances had an aptitude for languages and sounded 'native'.

If you start learning a foreign language at 19, it's extremely unlikely that you will acquire native-like pronunciation. That, however, does not mean you cannot achieve total fluency. Having a foreign accent is entirely compatible with achieving near-native/C2 level ability.

No. Up to the period around the death of DD, the other place attracted a fairly diverse and interesting crowd. There were (at least moderately) well-informed, lively arguments about Thai politics, which I enjoyed, and a large range of other threads on Thai/SE Asian-related life which were well worth reading and participating in. There were of course, a large number of idiots there but the forum had a clear direction and character and sensible, adult (i.e. light) moderation which made participation generally worthwhile. Unfortunately, almost all of the good posters have left or been pushed out, and it's now not even a shadow of what it was only a few years ago. As for Thaivisa, it's always been somewhere to steer clear of, unless you need to know where to get colour photocopies in Lopburi, in which case, it's an unequalled resource.

3 hours ago, Justfine said:

Which forums are better?

Now, none. Which is just to say that they're all equally dire and equally bereft of anything attractive, though that obviously wasn't the case in the past, when the ประตูไม้สัก was by far the most interesting. Other than when I need to hunt out some particular bit of information, I no longer post on any (this 24-hour foray into Thaivisa was prompted by a query about passports.)

Of course they were swear words. But the fact that I included a '<deleted>' in my post doesn't mean that I 'cannot talk to people without being abusive'. That's a ludicrously stupid thing to say, though, as I said, it's par for the course on this forum and it's one of the things which many many people (including obviously enough me) find unbearable about Thaivisa. The forum still has some utility as a place to get information (my reason for logging in yesterday) but as far as anything beyond that goes, the place rapidly becomes about as appealing as infection with rabies.

No, it's not more like that. Though your inability to read and understand a remarkably simple post is of course germane to the (implicit) topic of why people who don't post on Thaivisa have such a low opinion of the forum.

It just depends what kind of restrictions one can easily tolerate. I like to be able to tell <deleted> idiots that they are <deleted> idiots and I resent being preached to by pious imbeciles (one reason why I very rarely post here is that whenever I do, I always seem to end up getting a ban of some kind). On the other hand, those who prefer a more Sunday school atmosphere, will find Thaivisa more to their liking. Such is life. You pays yer money....

Edit: See. I can't even use standard English without incurring the wrath of the auto-moderator. Sigh.

^ You asked about the opinions of TV - go to one of the other forums and there is pretty much total unanimity of opinion on this. But if it doesn't bother you, good for you. You've obviously found a natural home.

52 minutes ago, sanemax said:

What is the general consensus on other forums about TV ?

That it's a terrible forum which nobody in their right mind would post on. Also, moderation.

46 minutes ago, Ruffian Dick said:

Get onto one of the other Thai expat sites and see what kind of reputation TV has earned. Just might account for that exodus.

That reputation has been there for almost as long as Thaivisa has been around - when that place which can't be mentioned first opened in 2006 (?), Thaivisa's reputation was already established.

4 minutes ago, Just Weird said:

Why are you under the impression that I plan on utilizing a Pattaya whore's services?

I'm not, though I was (foolishly) under the impression that readers of this forum (i) understood the meaning of the word 'if' and (ii) were able to recognize a throw away joke when they encountered it. Clearly I was mistaken on both counts.

Jesus wept. There's a video. Or are you using the braille-only version of this website?

7 minutes ago, Just Weird said:

My point was that apart from one and a bit you cannot see any of them! 

You need better glasses and/or better attention. Though if you're planning on spending your time with one of those women, probably best to stick with what you've got at the moment.

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Many of us expats do have a learning difficulty. It's called age related hearing loss and prevents one learning a tonal language.

Perhaps you are young and like all young people don't understand that age does change things. Anyway, everyone gets old and gains hearing and vision defects.

If you have hearing loss then obviously you will have difficulty learning any foreign language, not just a tonal one; the range of frequencies over which Thai speech ranges is perfectly normal so it's not as if the loss of hearing at higher frequencies which older people typically experience is going to be bad for learners of Thai but of no consequence for learners of French.

And it's just not true that older people can't learn foreign languages. If you're 70, not suffering from some kind of disability or condition which is obviously going to cause problems, and you put the effort in, you can learn Thai.

If you live in Thailand, learn to speak Thai. Unless you have some kind of learning difficulty, it's really not very difficult. All the whinging about how you bought a lovely Meissen figurine last time you were in Bratislava whilst speaking only Vedic Sanskrit is entirely pointless and only serves to underline how stupid, lazy and self-indulgent so many of the white immigrants in Thailand are.