sean in udon

...secondly I have seen Thailand free so called hospital my lady mum went to one when see was seriously ill and they have her wrong drugs and wrong diagnosis which nearly killed , so me and her sister paid to for her to go to a proper hospital, you my friend are on another planet the uk health care is free and is top notch ....

Having experienced a Thai hospital, albeit for a minor issue, I was very impressed with the treatment I received and the excellent English the diagnosing doctor spoke.

My personal experience of NHS hospitals has, fortunately, been very good. But to say UK health care is top notch, you my friend are on another planet.

Perhaps having a chat with leosuntime would be beneficial for both of you.

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I will learn phython, html and write a few website designs that ive had in my mind for a few years, one similar to redit but much much better!! and another that is a dating website with a really special algorithm that im quite proud of!!!a

Jesus wept

mrtoad, don't be so cynical!

If I had the skill set to program and create algorithms, I wouldn't waste time and energy creating google, ebay, Amazon, Facebook, etc.

I can see the Dragons' Den millionaires climbing over each other to try and get his dating website and special algorithm.

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This is why i can NOT understand how a farang can spend his whole life and end up with no savings, no plan for inflation etc, and not marketable human captial! We are living in the greatest age of human history everything and anything is at your fingertips.

Be assured, this isn't a 'talent' restricted to farangs. Every nation on the planet has people in exactly the same situation. Have you tried talking to old people of the same ethnicity as yourself about why they have no savings, no plan for inflation, etc?

I do enjoy talking to old farang but i hate you people so much at the same time, i know you people will abuse me again, just remember you started it, so ill make sure ill piss on your graves.

Perhaps your next book could be your interpretation of 'how to win friends and influence people'.

You seem to have a lot of pent up energy inside ( or is it just anger?). You need to focus and use it positively or in 30 years time, you may find you've become what you currently despise.

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I often read stories of homeless farang begging on the streets, I just wonder what some of you older people did all your lives to not have any savings or have some kind of skills that you can sell into the market place.

It would appear that you would like the homeless farangs to explain how they ended up homeless and begging in Thailand. Might be a better idea to find them and ask then directly.

If I was a homeless, begging farang, I doubt answering your questions on TV would be a high priority in my daily struggle to survive.

The older people here, will have enough, or more than enough, to live on.

Think you're barking up the wrong tree.

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Depending how you feel about anything else that maybe living in the pool, chuck some chlorine in. Will kill all plant life and algae in there. Then the larvae have no food.

Put enough chlorine in there and it'll kill all the larvae as well.

Have no idea about the price of chlorine, so don't know how cost effective it would be.

Or put some fish in there.

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i live in Thailand and get stuff from 7/11 every day but I have never seen a bum gun before, sounds gay

I use a bum gun every day and I'm not gay. The whole family here use a bum gun - but not all at the same time.

I do have gay friends who use bum guns.

Sexual preference/age/gender seems to make no difference regarding bum gun usage.

I don't use public toilet bum guns. Not sure where they've been.

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its just pure crap ,devoid of any nutrition and full of chemicals to make it taste better that would probably

be illegal in western countries

Do you know about pot noodles?

A plastic pot full of chemicals and a noodle like substance. Just add hot water. Mmmm, delicious.

And a massive seller in the UK.

Not now, but every once in a while when I was in the UK, I used to enjoy a chicken and mushroom pot noodle.

The irony being, there's no chicken in it and doesn't need to be, as it's chicken flavoured.

Who ever thought up pot noodles was a genius.

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The current situation in Thailand is 'unpredictable and volatile'?

As opposed to the oasis of calm that existed before the coup.

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wilcopops, that means you're not Mr. Clements. I'm disappointed

I don't get drunk

I'm shocked.
How about me and thailiketoo get drunk and you berate us?


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His English is better than a lot of native Brits.

In what way ?....I keep hearing these sorts of comments, what benchmark are you using ?

I am still waiting for some to define what constitutes "good English".....please don't say its because they know where to put an apostrophe...

The correct use of apostrophes is an excellent benchmark for assessing an individual's (individuals? individuals'?) understanding of punctuation. An important part of written English. I'm a little disappointed you feel apostrophes are trivial.

As for Yasin's spoken English, first thing that springs to mind is 'bought' and 'brought'. At 15 he knew the difference between these 2 words and their correct use. Having worked in retail for over 20 years, there's a good percentage of native English speakers who are completely unaware that 'bought' even exists.

His accent is minimal. Native Turks, who spoke English, would say how easy my English was to understand relative say to a Brummy or Jordy. No, or minimal accent, makes a huge difference. I believe Yasin could speak anywhere in the UK and English speakers would understand him perfectly.

At my school I was in the A group (about 120), which meant we were taking GCEs. The B group (about 180) took CSEs. I don't know what the C group (about 30) did.

As Yasin's English Language skills are at least as good as mine, and using the numbers I've just quoted, that would put him in the top 36%.

I appreciate this is hardly scientific, but I think gives you a rough idea of my benchmark.

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I'd say that is a totally arbitrary benchmark. I know of many people who have problems with apostrophes most commonly as possessives with irregular plurals and compound nouns - in fact I'd be willing to bet that almost all posters - including yourself - on this thread would use them incorrectly from time to time (not that that says much!)

Punctuation was one of my strong points, back in the day.

The school I went to was a comprehensive, but a couple of years before I started there was a grammar school. Most of the teachers who taught me were the former grammar school teachers.

My English Language teacher, Mr. Clements was a strict disciplinarian and a stickler for detail. We were only allowed to have a pen and our exercise book on the table with us. He hated ball point pens and introduced the majority of us to fountain pens. If your pen ran dry, you had to put your hand up to get permission to get a refill from your bag.

But if you said 'Sir. My pen has run out' he would stop the class, walk to the door, open it and say 'well you had better run after it then'. Although he was a pain in the a**e at times, he was an excellent teacher and I am grateful for his part in my education. Mr. Clements was also extremely fiery. If you said something he considered stupid, he would instantly enter the red zone.....OH MY GOD...disciplinarian, stickler for detail, fiery. wilcopops, you are Mr. Clements! Hello sir. I was in your class from 1975 to 1978

Much as I would enjoy getting into a proper debate with you, I'm too old and tired to bother. And it's much more fun reading your diatribes, rather than getting personally involved. Now if thailiketoo would like to fight my corner for me, I'd be more than happy.

Alternatively, how about the three of us get together, get drunk and howl at the moon - my favourite option.

Hugs and kisses to you wilcopops.

Is this Mr. Yasin. He seems OK to me although I don't detect a British accent.

As an aside, I have enjoyed your little tête-à-tête with wilcopops

Enjoyed it a lot

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As an additional thought, I can have a normal 'full speed' conversation with Yasin, exactly as I would with a Brit. And not just general conversation. Want to talk computers with him, no problem. House construction, politics, banking, etc. He's just like a well educated Brit, but in a Turkish body

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His English is better than a lot of native Brits.

In what way ?....I keep hearing these sorts of comments, what benchmark are you using ?

I am still waiting for some to define what constitutes "good English".....please don't say its because they know where to put an apostrophe...

The correct use of apostrophes is an excellent benchmark for assessing an individual's (individuals? individuals'?) understanding of punctuation. An important part of written English. I'm a little disappointed you feel apostrophes are trivial.

As for Yasin's spoken English, first thing that springs to mind is 'bought' and 'brought'. At 15 he knew the difference between these 2 words and their correct use. Having worked in retail for over 20 years, there's a good percentage of native English speakers who are completely unaware that 'bought' even exists.

His accent is minimal. Native Turks, who spoke English, would say how easy my English was to understand relative say to a Brummy or Jordy. No, or minimal accent, makes a huge difference. I believe Yasin could speak anywhere in the UK and English speakers would understand him perfectly.

At my school I was in the A group (about 120), which meant we were taking GCEs. The B group (about 180) took CSEs. I don't know what the C group (about 30) did.

As Yasin's English Language skills are at least as good as mine, and using the numbers I've just quoted, that would put him in the top 36%.

I appreciate this is hardly scientific, but I think gives you a rough idea of my benchmark.

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How can you judge of the quality of English instruction? You use an apostrophe when forming a simple plural such as "teachers."

A non-native speaker can be a pretty good teacher of a language. Non-native speakers often have a really good perspective on what it takes to learn a second language.

While I agree with your second statement, the first has me confused.

The plural of teacher is teachers.

For showing possession, an apostrophe would be appropriate.

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To teach a language, does 1 need to be a native ?

I think its a good start to be native at least! As just yesterday I was speaking to a friend of a friend that is Chinese's and he is a qualified Chinese teacher here in Bangkok, and he was joking to me that there are French and Spanish English Teacher here in Thailand with heavy accents. He taught it was hilarious!

Don't shot the messengers here please.....

Many moons ago, I spent a year in Turkey. I gave English lessons in exchange for Turkish lessons to a 15 year old schoolboy. His understanding of the English language, use of punctuation, vocabulary, etc were all excellent.

If he sat an English language exam in the UK, I'd be very surprised if he didn't get an A.

Since leaving school, he's added Russian to his language skills.

His job? He's a private tutor for all 3 languages.

I would have no hesitation recommending him as an English teacher. His English is better than a lot of native Brits.

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Legalizing weed would be another income earner for them. Tax it and sell it. Or gambling. It's happening anyway, why not make it legal and tax it?

As a newbie to Thailand, the ban on gambling puzzles me. Apart from the potential massive tax revenues that could be milked from the Thai populace, stick casinos in Pattaya, Phuket and Bangkok. Girls and gambling! Watch the tourists roll in.

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Nice post. I would have left out the "filthy" and "a**hole" bits.

I've learned that there plenty of alternative words that express a point without generating ill feelings. Some alternatives are as follows. Some are for speech, so one could omit using them.

arrogant

mean-spirited

hateful

rude

self-centered/self-absorbed

condescending

inconsiderate

intolerant

self-promoting (especially at the expense of others)

stingy

greedy

argumentative

hurtful

abrupt, forward, or tactless in speech

Easy Does It

My future posts will, hopefully, make use of your less antagonistic alternatives for a**hole. Sometimes my thoughts come out unfiltered.

My choice of word was not directed at any particular member here as I am unaware of their social graces. I'm sure we've all experienced inconsiderate smoking, driving, parking and many other ...ings.

Having renovated a house where the little old lady died of a smoking related illness I can attest to the 'filthy'.

The living room walls were yellow. I've no idea how many years worth of smoke was in there, but an attempt at cleaning only brought more yellow filth out of the walls and ceiling. The carpet and curtains went to the tip. They reeked.

The options for the walls were strip off the plaster, re plaster and paint or buy a special paint which would seal the smell and the yellow filth inside. I was told the yellow would leech through normal paint and would do nothing to hide the smell.

Went for the special paint and it worked.

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Forget about taxes on tobacco, that won't do squat but remove more baht from the poor man's pocket. What everyone with any sort of power in this country should be doing is figuring out a way to prevent some of the 24000 people killed on Thai roads every year, getting killed. TEACH PEOPLE TO DRIVE!

There might be a couple of smoking related deaths if certain posters on this thread have the mishap of finding themselves in either transam's or neverdie's garden

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There is nooooooooooo way I am going to give up my truck even though the stuff it chucks out the back is anti social...

There is a difference between the antisocial stuff coming out of your truck and the antisocial stuff coming from your cigarettes.

Your truck serves a purpose. It's a tool, that has an unfortunate waste product.

I presume you don't wake up in the morning gasping to jump into your truck and rev the engine?

I've been to many restaurants in my time, but never had some ignorant a**hole start up his truck at the next table and have the fumes blown all over my food.

Imo it's a filthy antisocial habit, but if you want to enjoy it in the comfort of your own home (or garden) I'm happy to live and let live.

Unfortunately for you, governments the world over see smokers as an easy target, so don't be too surprised when the tax goes up & up. Hidden of course, very subtlely behind the subterfuge of 'we're concerned about your health and well being'.

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Been out in the field planting banana trees. I do like working with plants and animals. Very relaxing.

It's getting a bit hot so I've come inside to one of my other little pleasures - air conditioning.

While out in the field, I had a moment of clarity. While we're busy worrying about our futures, what about the poor General?

Best case scenario, he becomes the saviour of the nation and is remembered in Thai history for centuries. Worst case scenario, everything goes pear shaped and he has to do a runner in fear of his life.

Countless scenarios in between these 2 extremes.

Standing up and saying 'as of right now, I'm the man in charge' is a massive undertaking.

I hope things head in the direction of best case scenario, but I wouldn't swap places with the General for all the rice in Thailand.

My world feels even more peachy now

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For most people I don't think lying to them is a problem from an ethical point of view

If one is taking an ethical point of view then lying is totally out of the question. I think you meant that most people are lying scumbags totally devoid of ethics who will say anything that is to their benefit however immoral or illegal.

When I first read this my brain interpreted it as "...most politicians are lying scumbags....".

Only as I continued to read other posts did I notice it was "people".

As I'm aging, the grey matter doesn't seem to work as well as it used to. But today, I like the way my brain is interpreting things.

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Can recommend a taxi lady who has done the Bangkok to Pattaya run for me a few times.

Nice clean car. Think it's a Toyota. Not had a deep, meaningful conversation with her, but her English is pretty good for sorting out dates, times, flight numbers, etc.

She's the only driver I've used repeatedly.

Cost me 1200 each way.

PM me if you want her details.

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Here is an example of how it should be done......

Daughter yells out from upstairs... "SNAAAAAKE"

I yell to son to go grab the snake stick outside......run upstairs and girl is on the bed pointing to where it went, she kept an eye on it so we knew which room it was in.

Son runs up stairs, hands me catchem stick....I move a basket and big green snake runs between my legs....we all scream and do a little dance, as even at that stage I did not know what type it was....she said green and big, so I thought maybe really big pit viper.

It scuttles into my bedroom, boy gets orders to stand on bed and keep an eye out where it goes.....I move the cupboard and there it is, beautiful big golden tree snake, biggest one I have seen.......catch it, very docile and release it across the road into a tree and kids love watching it climb to the top....

Very cool anecdote. Thank you for sharing with us.

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