merck

Thanks withnail, meadish_sweetball and Barabbas.

Sometimes I come across the question tag REU MAI หรือไม่, which seems quite similar to หรือเปล่า.

Some examples:

ไม่แน่ใจว่าหลังการเลือกตั้งบ้านเมืองจะวุ่นวายหรือไม่ ไม่แน่ใจว่าจะเกิดอะไรขึ้น

"It is very uncertain whether our country will become chaotic after the election; we are uncertain as to what might occur."

http://www.thai-language.com/id/149374

From a written English test for Thais; my translation in brackets:

homely เป็นคำวิเศษณ์ใช่หรือไม่ [is the word 'homely' an adverb?]

เราใช้คำ informations และ luggages (รูปพหูพจน์) ได้หรือไม่ [Are the plural forms 'informations' and luggages' correct]?

สำนวน of course not ใช้ในการเขียนหรือไม่ [is the expression 'of course not' used in writing? (as opposed to just colloquially in speech)].

เมื่อกล่าวถึงบางสิ่งว่า ostentatious เราแสดงน้ำเสียงเห็นชอบสิ่งนั้นหรือไม่ [When we talk about something being ostentatious, does it imply approval or not?]

Can หรือไม่ and หรือเปล่า be used interchangeably, or is there a difference? Perhaps in formality, written /colloquial usage etc.

eg

I've heard คุณเป็นคนไทยรึป่าว. Can you also say คุณเป็นคนไทยรึไม่?

Or ชอบรึป่าว ชอบหรือไม่

Is there a difference between the two forms? I'm trying to get a feeling for when หรือไม่ is used.

Thanks in advance.

a quick but interesting exercise:

pitbull

The fact that it's so hard to tell the various staffs, pitbulls etc apart on that website shows how similar they are.

Lots of hits on Google for Staffordshire Bull Terrier attacks:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7878393.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3018062.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/3351321.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/northam...ire/6765321.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/774366.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2280565.stm

etc

After having owned a fair few breeds of dogs over the years (back home in Oz) I bought a Pit Bull, as after the bad publicity that surround the dog I was interested to try one for myself. The dog was kept on my farm with a number of other breeds & treated well, exactly the same as the others. I have never had a problem with a dog killing livestock or anything before.

Approximately the 18 month period after having no problems with the dog whatsoever it went on a killing spree one morning & killed 2 other dogs, a goat, a sheep & some chickens, all in a matter of minutes. As I approached the dog, calling it in it charged me, at which time I got into my cruiser & sat there as the dog went wild at the side of the vehicle. I ended its day with a 243 round to the head.

I never was there for the start of that killing spree, I have absolutely no idea what set the dog off & I nearly quite possible became one of its victims at the end. I don't need a dog like that, I can't see that anyone does, yes the breed has a bad reputation, a very bad reputation & its not hard to see why. The only good Pit Bull is a dead Pit Bull.

A salutary tale about pitbulls. As for you writing you tried out the breed, well I guess that applies to any dog owner, since anyone who owns a dog for the first time or a breed they haven't owned before is effectively 'trying it out'. So not quite sure why you were taken to task for it. Thanks for posting.

Big deal. Banks are busineses, not public services.

Some of them seem quite happy to be bailed out by public money when they go bust though.

if this thread deteriorates to an 'anti pit bull' and 'killer dog' thread i will close it.

we all hear these stories in all the countries we live in; this thread is not about killer dogs, it is about someone who obviously knows what they are interested in and wants this particular breed and nienke and others are on board here to help with advice and suggestions for socializing, training and choosing a stable puppy from any breed anywhere in the world be it pit bull, ABT, rottie, bangkeow thai dogs, shitzus dachshunds or mixed breed rescues..

bina

israel

Bina,

According to post 4 in this thread, staffs and pibulls are illegal in Thailand. So it would be a good idea to close the thread since trying to bring these breeds into Thailand is illegal.

See this thread and please keep these awful breeds (staffs and pitbulls) out of Thailand.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Woman-Mauled...er-t254926.html

Banning the pit bull in the UK seems to have made the "staffie" (Staffordshire Terrier) the breed of choice for the aspiring chav.

A couple of years back I was considering buying a property close to London's green belt where a brownfield site was being restored as parkland. As we walked away from one area under restoration we were astonished to meet over six people separately walking towards the cordoned off area with "staffies". I strongly suspected that there were arranged fights scheduled.

It's not the dog's fault they are living bling, but banning one breed just moves the problem down the chain.

I can't bear those dogs either (staffs). The staffs look very similar to the pitbull and I would imagine it could do similar damage. In the UK, whenever you see a staff being walked by its owner, there's invariably an air of menace about the dog. And it's owner, for that matter. Why anyone should be allowed to walk around in public with a dangerous animal off the leash, which if it attacked you, would be almost impossible to pull off and may even kill you, beggars belief. At the very least, there should be laws making it compulsory for them to be muzzled in public. Ideally the pitbull breed and the like should be put into a mincer and eradicated.

... หาก and ถ้า are interchangeble if หาก and ถ้า are used to talk about something that may possibly happens or be true. ...

I take it you're not a native English speaker. That should be 'happen' not 'happens'.

Any more questions let me know.

'heng' very well put it ....." like all the language it can be and perhaps has evolved a bit. At one time was reltively neutral but over time has moved towards the negative side..".

Agree !

Heng was referring to farang not farang khee nok.

...

Is it correct that many of these "tourist police" are ex-cons and have criminal records from their own countries?

I got the following post from another message board where they were discussing the phenomenon of farang police volunteers. It was posted by a farang journalist (Andrew Drummond, I seem to recall) based in Thailand:

"I sent a Thai reporter to interview some Pattaya tourist police once, just as an excercise mind you.

She got some interesting stuff varied from walter mitty's (one Brit had a card saying he did diplomatic security which clearly did not check out) to others who all had an angle.

One had convictions abroad for kidnap and pimping (beat up one of his girls).

Another had a complaint against him at the British Embassy for using as stun gun against a farang during a police interview.

Another ran a business advising arrested foreigners on how much they needed to pay to have charges dropped (of which he took a cut).

And of course there are the local paper boys whom I presume are in it because they can be there when the news happened, Pattaya Mail, Pattaya City News, Pattaya People, all have members in the volunteer police..."

...

@teacup @bkkjames @samuibeachcomber

I am 27 yro and from American culture. My g/f, whom I have known almost a year and been dating for about 7 months, is 22 and Thai from a middle class family, Thai Uni educated, her parent's are teachers and brother a doctor. Because of cultural differences and me coming from a Westernized country to a third world country - it is only a fair question to pose. My g/f is not money hungry or untrustworthy and neither is her family.

As for the other threads that you speak of... I did not start this thread based upon other threads or other people's opinions, views, preconceptions, or ideals. Please view each thread as unique onto itself when originating from different forum members.

Thank you for all who have responded thus far. I will be purchasing a copy of "Thailand Fever" in the future. Continued discuss is welcomed and appreciated.

Peace,

Zen.

Hey I never said .....your gf is "money hungry or untrustworthy bla bla...", those were bkkjames words---or at least implying those who are w/ farangs.

And as usual he always try to be a "hero" in most threads

Anyway would love to dally abit more w/ you here, but it's almost 2 am here in "your country",--got the inspection to do tomorrow

So ZZZZZZ now for me

night dear, as usual, you contributed nothing to this thread

Like any of your posts ever do? lol

I was thinking of buying an Xbox 360 games console (with 60 GB hard disk) , but I don't really know anything about them.

In the UK, someone at the computer fair is a selling a chipped one + 1 game and various cables for £240. Is that a good price? Argos seem to be doing a non-chipped Xbox 360 + accessory pack + 1 game for £166.

Would I be better off getting a non-chipped one? Anything else to look out for? I read somewhere that Xbox live (whatever that is) will only work on a non-chipped console.

The last games console I owned was a Playstation I 10 years ago, so I'm a bit out of the loop.

Thanks in advance for any advice/info.

It's good but the paid version requires on-line validation to activate it which is a bit of a pain. If ever the server was down, or development stopped you wouldn't be able to activate it. Normally I don't buy software like this. Hopefully the author will change this.

Your mistaken with ฝรั่งขี้งก.

If you go to the OP's 1st post, he writes 'farang kii nok' not 'farang kii ngok', so not sure where you got the 'ngok' from.

BTW ฝรั่งขี้งก would be a stingy farang.

I've heard Thais call other Thais ฝรั่งขี้นก .

See this earlier thread where rikker and meadish gave a nice explanation:

ฝรั่งขี้นก "farang khii nok" is a fixed phrase--the ขี้นก part doesn't detach. It comes from the name of a variety of guava with red flesh inside. Originally referred to Thais who acted like Westerners (because they were the same on the outside different on the inside). Then came to mean Thais with bad manners, like a Westerner (i.e. breaking Thai decorum, much like a farang who didn't know proper Thai manners). Now it has come to mean a farang with bad manners, or a farang who frequents whorehouses, or Eurotrash farangs, etc.

So, nowadays, it's mainly used in a derogatory fashion to farangs. The OP is farang, not Thai, so not quite sure why you bring up the older 'Thai acting with (bad) farang manners' definition?

Standing at the urinal in bamrungrad hospital with a shirt and tie on(expensive ones too, well ironed), a couple of Thais came in and either side of me one said "farang kee nok".

I asked him to repeat himself and of course was shocked and denied saying it. If it wasn't for the fact that my wife was giving birth, I would have made a bigger scene about it.

Presumably you weren't too happy about being called a farang khee nok here too, because it's derogatory.

FARANG KHEE NOK ฝรั่งขี้นก when used like this is a racist term from Thais to whites. While not necessarily exactly equivalent to the 'N' word for black people, it carries the same amount of disrespect and I've seen it used this way before by Thais to farangs. If I were you, I would not associate with the family if they're calling you this and explain quite clearly to the wife why.

never heard that but i know for sure they get silicon implants down there. my friend gave me a flash of his once, pretty horrific!

And yet women still think pumping their breasts up with silicone makes them look better

Natural and perky is best

...

Not sure where all the cattiness came from in some of the female replies in this thread. Seemed a reasonable question to ask. Maybe because the first reply was somewhat negative, others followed suit...

IMO there isb't any one party benefiting more than the any other party, or 'allowing' the situation to happen. It's a stalemate between various powers. There is no deus ex machina solution for this one.

It is by its very nature a stalemate anticipating and positioning for the checkmate.

Have you ever played chess before? A stalement is deemed as a draw. Checkmate, where one player wins, has nothing to do with a stalemate.

I don't really think that anything too major will happen, but if it does, Thais can be quite rational in the long run, but when they get angry they often snap.

I'm afraid that if this does escalate and enough Thais fly off the handle after all these years of repressing ther feelings it could turn into one ugly mess.

Looks like you covered all your bases there in that prediction

mangkorn

you may think you're witty but you invariably come across with a superior and unhelpful attitude here.

Loi Gratong dancers in London:

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