Zooheekock

There's a whole list of words in the Peace Corps Dictionary, which I'm painfully slowly annotating, as I mentioned in the archived thread Does anyone know the Thai Norther dialect. The link to what I have done so far is still at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/richard.wordingham/lanna/peace_corps_dictionary.pdf , as given in that thread. Replace '.pdf' by '.odt' for the LibreOffice master. You will need your own font for the tua mueang if you use the LibreOffice master.

That looks very interesting. Thanks for that but which font are you using? The document says gr3Lannawww but Google says that there's no such thing.

Last month, whilst in Chiang Mai, I picked up a book called ไวยากรณ์ภาษาไทยถิ่นเหนือ by สรบุศย์ รุ่งโรจน์สุวรรณ in DK. I haven't done more than have a quick flick through but it looks interesting. Also this https://www.scribd.com/doc/45760470/%E0%B8%A0%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A9%E0%B8%B2%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%B7%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%A5-%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%B2-%E0%B9%81%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%9A%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B5%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%8A%E0%B8%B8%E0%B8%94%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%B7-%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%90%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%99-%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B5%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%94-%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%99%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%87 (a scan of a book called ภาษาเมืองล้านนาแบบเรียนชุดพืนฐานเรียนด้วยตนเอง) may be interesting to some.

I do not doubt that many Thai degrees from the many smaller provincial Universities are only on par with A levels, but not all are, that is for sure.

Certainly, there are decent quality graduates coming out of the best universities here but at the bottom end, i.e. at Rajabhats and the like (graduates from which constitute a significant proportion of the total), I think A level standard might be overdoing it for many. Weak O level might be closer to the level of many.

What made countries like Singapore and China progress is breaking loose from old communistic economic models

More likely it was just being Chinese. China was only briefly not the (or one of the) world's dominant economic power(s); we are now just returning to the long-term equilibrium and if anyone has delusions about transforming Thailand into China or Singpore, they are going to be sorely disappointed.

When Australia introduced hate speech laws. Thats OK.

When the Junta want to introduce hate speech laws. Bad Junta.

When Australia introduced bans on public drinking. Thats OK.

When the Junta want to introduce laws on public drinking. Bad Junta.

Seems some are so upset the Junta are doing a good job they are blinded by hate.

The hate speech is almost certainly not equivalent, since there is very little hate speech in Thailand which is based on race or sexuality. Here, it involves politics so moves to ban hate speech may be a (only slightly) underhand way of closing down the democratic space even further. Much like the (absolutely terrible) proposals for the EC to have a role overseeing electoral proposals to prevent 'populist' policies, this sounds like it could be just more oppressive, reactionary, anti-democratic moves by the establishment.

Girls? No. Women, yes.

Hate speech will most likely turn out to be things which 'good people' don't say. Like corruption, populism, etc., etc., it will be defined by what they do.

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Reform, my ass. More a purge to get their own cronies in key positions. Corruption just change hands.

Typical post from a non believer/pessimist.

Praise the Lord! For my eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord...

Meanwhile, back of planet Earth, Junta darling and current head of the police has unexplained assets of a quarter of a billion baht. The Thai army: Putting the form in reform.

I admire and respect the OP's sentiments

Yes. It seems like fair comment on the lives and attitudes of an awful lot of white immigrants in Thailand.

I didn't realise this forum was meant to be for criticising other people's competence or otherwise in English grammar. Too many people on here have an unpleasant superiority complex.

Indeed. I do it only when those who complain are themselves guilty of making the most egregious mistakes. If someone is posting on a forum and gets mixed up between their and there or thinks that the plural of Thai is Thai's, well, it really doesn't matter.

The fact that he begs for people to stop conflict so that they can progress to democracy show how little he understands.

Democracy is all about conflict at the ballot box and at the debating stand. It is about conflict of ideas under the law.

He think that if he chases unity of ideas this will make for smooth democracy. History would suggest that this unity of thought and stifling of opinion is pursuit of unity is completely flawed as an idea.

Absolutely. He's even quoted in the OP as saying that "the main principle of economic recovery is the people should have the same opinion". This complete obsession with thought control and his utterly bizarre conviction that his/the junta's views are the only right and proper views which anyone can have is a recipe for disaster. As you say, he has not the faintest understanding of what democracy is and, it seems, now has some completely insane views on economics.

"Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said he has instructed all government facilities to be accessible to the handicapped and those who require supporting equipment."

Obviously the streets aren't considered to be a government facility. Once you depart from the bus or leave the building, you are on your own.

BlockedSidewalk-449x304.jpg

Swampy has fantastic disabled services but once you walkout the airport doors you are pretty much screwed.

Yes, exactly. Having wheelchair access to all government offices would be great but it's not much use if you have to negotiate hundreds of 6-inch-high curbs, blocked walkways, aggressive dogs, and Himalayan paving stones on the way there. I really hope the government do this but you can't help but worry that it is motivated more by a desire to be seen to do the right thing than actually to do the right thing. Does anyone think that Prayuth and his advisers have been sitting in meetings with civic groups representing people with mobility problems, carefully considering their advice and challenging their own preconceptions about mobility access? It's a bit hard to imagine. Sadly, I suspect that this will added to the ever-growing list of Friday night talk which goes nowhere.

Biggest load of garbage I have seen in a while, well at least today, maybe if they learnt how to use full stops and comma's it would help

Indeed. Now, how many sentences are there in the section I quoted above? And how many full stops? And, by the way, you don't use apostrophes to form plurals. Should of lerned his grammer, innit. Better luck next time, eh.

University rankings and list making have become a lucrative industry. Mostly, it has very little meaning in substance. The case of China's "rise" is a good example. Chinese "scholars" are notorious for plagiarizing their work in some of the most basic cut and paste jobs imaginable. Large portions of their publications are in phony peer reviewed, online "open source" journals whose designation as "scholarly" contrasts with the fees they charge their authors in order to publish in them. The fact is that people who teach in universities know who is good and who is not, whose work is valuable and whose is not. Lists and rankings are for the rubes.

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21586845-flawed-system-judging-research-leading-academic-fraud-looks-good-paper

I don't know about Chinese universities through personal experience but I'm sure that there's a great deal of truth in what you say and you're right that rankings can be a bit of a waste of time. However, I see a lot of papers from Thai academics (of a sort) as well as dissertations and they are regularly of just diabolically awful quality. These go into exactly the journals which you describe - publications which exist solely for a kind of academic vanity publishing - so it's not as if the same complaints can't be made against Thailand.

Well, I'm sure once the good General has finished writing the script for his soap opera, he'll put on his hard hat and hi-vis jacket and do some site inspections himself.

Just try to focus on the topic, if you're capable.

Rather than making a bunch of posts criticizing other posts, you mean? Okey doke.

A positive step forward to help the handicapped and all you can come with is an inane, anti-Prayuth comment.

Oh! I see that was you first post. Congratulations. What did you get banned for last time? Excessive use of the word 'inane' or tediously repetitive insertions of stupid little pictures at the end of each post?

This is a hoax about solar storms forcing the grid to be shut down worldwide in December. It's rubbish, though perhaps Prayuth has fallen for it. That would certainly be anything but unbelievable.

unbelievable

I think that is the operative word.

this is another big step in the right direction for government.

Another? Even a stopped-clock tells the right time twice a day so let's wait until Prayet hits a hattrick before giving him his gold star and promotion to tomorrow's milk monitor.

In Thai, they're called โทงเทงฝรั่ง thong-thayng-farang.

Perhaps next year it might win the much-coveted 'Best Destination under Martial Law' category.

If there was an easy way to learn I'd do it. But I work full-time and value my weekends and holidays. Plus in 10 years of living here I've never found having only very basic Thai a handicap.

If you had devoted half an hour a day for those ten years, you'd be at a decent level by now. And whilst it's true that you can live perfectly comfortably in most of Thailand knowing only the barest minimum of the language, knowing more than the barest minimum also opens up new possibilities.