George FmplesdaCosteedback

13 hours ago, MrPatrickThai said:

Someone has a chip on their shoulder about something. 

I never said I hadn't experienced the same as the OP,  in fact I have many times. 

I have no idea what you're trying to say, apart from there are different transliteration systems.

You've chosen to argue with the wrong person regarding the Thai language and translation/transliteration of. I guess we all get hurt egos on different matters.

 

Well, I'm fine thanks, I hope it didn't hurt too much for you.

I think you need a bit more time here to understand the culture and people.

Best wishes for the future.

10 hours ago, oldhippy said:

Don't despair.

Brexit will fix all that.

Soon the UK will be back to milk & honey & ruling the waves.

And Rees-Mogg, Boris, David will be the new Monty Python. I am particularly looking forward to their version of the Upperclass Twit of the Year sketch.

 

I love Python, thanks for that.

However leaving the EU is essential for the future of the UK.

Nobody in the UK that voted Leave had any expectations that it would be easy.

I have studied the progress from the very start of the UK's reluctance to join in the 60s, the attempts to join and being refused, to the day we joined without a vote under Ted Heath and Wilson having a referendum.

Back then we thought we had joined a free trade agreement. I voted "stay".

Things have changed.

Supporting an expansionist, bureaucratic, hugely wasteful and semi democratic ideal of European domination isn't what we signed up for.

Only Germany and the UK are net contributors.

I expect the US, China, India etc will be very happy to make a trade deal making a bigger opportunity for export than the "Single Market" of the EU.

Don't forget, the EU are not happy (oh dear, where's the money going to come from) so will make leaving as difficult as possible. The German business leaders know they don't want tax on imports as they sell more to the UK than vice versa. (Check the latest on the political situation in Germany.)

Belgium can still sell us chocolates, but how many with 30% tax on top?

I have lots more to say, but I think you might have got my drift.

G

PS. Please don't confuse "peace in Europe" with the EU, it has been secured by Nato and the UN.

On 11/19/2017 at 7:07 PM, ukrules said:

You should renew it one way or another. In the UK this is easy as it's all done via the post, I guess it must be different down under.

 

If you don't renew it and do nothing for a few years and then at some point you return to Australia you will revert to being a learner driver again won't you ?

 

To renew in the UK I think you need a UK address.

But it is simple enough to do online.

10 minutes ago, Yahooka said:

No need to speculate about the cause of death anymore, the relatives has published the autopsy report which says the cause of the poor guys death was coronary hart disease.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Oh deer!

It is bad for "happy time" tourists, but lots of tourist places stop alcohol sales for elections and religious days. The internet can tell you when and where if you are booking a holiday.

I have no problem with a few Buddhist days being no sale, but this crazy old law resurrected in the Toxin time administration of restricted hours is a pain in the butt day to day just from the shopping point of view.

Laws and the enforcement of them here is a joke.

But in a nation with a population of irresponsible adolescent mentality it is hardly surprising.

They know, but they couldn't care less, poll result of not.

On 11/19/2017 at 2:50 PM, PAIBKK said:

At least someone in Iran can buy a new Mercedes ...

New Benz for ฿250k, even ฿2m will hardly get a good specification A-class in Thailand.

I wonder what the import tax is in Iran?

Just a publicity stunt done without thought as usual. Makes Thailand look like cheapskates.

No time for Iran, they should look after their own every day.

On 11/18/2017 at 1:52 PM, rooster59 said:

His local Tha Pla girlfriend had popped out for a few hours to sell stuff at the local market.

 

When she returned home rigor mortis had already set in.

I think someone is telling pork pies.

It will be interesting what the autopsy says...

Staff in the Tesco Local across the road from my Condo couldn't be nicer.

Always friendly and have a laugh.

If I am paying the AIS bill and someone behind in the queue starts to grumble, they quickly say I speak Thai to avoid any unpleasantness occurring.

I would have put her on shelf stacking duty for a month, but that would be like a reward as they only seem to get deliveries twice a week and run out of beer far too often...

17 hours ago, MrPatrickThai said:

No you weren't, you were talking about dialects and mentioned, "farang" as spelled with a "l", which is totally incorrect.

 

I, on the other hand am not talking about tones.

 

You said "kee nok" but don't even know what the difference between that and "kee ngok" is. 

This is ,......erm transliteration. 

I refer you to the topic of the thread:

If you are fluent in Thai have you never experienced the scenario outlined in the OP's post?

Come on, it never happened to you really... And nobody ignored you and talked to your Thai companion?

Rigid transliteration in books is a nonsense, have a look at the road signs here.

If you have a "qualification" in linguistics then you should appreciate Thai to English transliteration (or vice versa) is not accurate in all circumstances and conversations. The same goes for the DVD courses with "audio pronunciation", it is impossible to cover all the alternatives.

For myself, I find every day a learning day.

When you teach me something worthwhile I might respond and I look forward to that as I dare say many other posters will, Professor Pat.

I close my case and wish you well.

(You gave 123 a "like" to post #219 and 222 so you must understand what I am trying to explain.)

PS. Sorry you didn't find the Monty Python sketch funny, maybe you should get "qualification" in humour next.

21 hours ago, oldhippy said:

Or maybe: the British people accepting their hiso loso divided society? Just like the Thais do?

That division, and the acceptance of it  were the first things that struck me when I visited the UK 45 years ago.

Have things changed yet?

 

Not much it seems.

It has been going on for a very, very long time, since well before Magna Carta (sorry I need to check dates)  from the royalty to the rich and intimately is just a shift of power.

Like you say 'same same' as Thailand but a long time before, 900+ years or so.

Yep, the "elite" still want to ignore the majority of the people to feather their own nests.

We have MPs ignoring their own constituents, the people that voted them in right now.

Hay ho. Such is democracy.

You get a vote in a democracy, but the problem is who are you able to vote for and under what system.

Chinese seem to be doing well these days?

5 hours ago, oldhippy said:

So the European joie de vivre is missing in the UK?

 

This song is from long before EU and muslims ruined the UK way of life.....

 

Wilson, Heath and Callahan?

On 16/11/2017 at 3:39 PM, Grouse said:

 

This takes a swipe at tabloid BS

There is indeed too much bad reporting and unresearched commentary that is made worse by bad and sensationalist headlines. Online there is also the "click-bait" headline problem that are usually even more misleading.

It is across the whole spectrum though, not just climate "news".

(The Telegraph isn't tabloid yet is it?)

17 hours ago, MrPatrickThai said:

farang kee ngokงก and 

farang kee nok นก

 

mean two TOTALLY different things. If you can't/don't know the difference, that's your problem, it has nothing to do with accent or dialect as you suggest,.

Many illiterate foreigners can't tell the difference and wrongly assume they are being called kee nok, which, unless they live on Khao san road, they are not.

 

I have a qualification in Linguistics, FYI. 

I was talking about transliteration.

I am fully aware of the pitfalls of understanding a tonal language, but you completely miss the point (see post 218).

Not worth continuing if you don't pay attention, "qualification" or otherwise.

21 hours ago, MrPatrickThai said:

 

O, don't go, you're post make me laugh. I think you mean "kee ngok" btw. Big difference between "kee ngok" and "kee nok"

 

Farang is with a 'r'.

 

I guess you're getting out as you're out of your depth here.

 

"nobody should rely on "movie or TV subtitles" as a reliable translation" of course, well said.

 

Okey-dokey, have a laugh:

Enunciation and spelling frenetically is something you have obviously not studied. In the UK for instance, "scone" is pronounced quite differently depending on where you live, however neither are wrong.

Speaking to a Cockney or Glaswegian, an Alabama, Texan or Seattle born and raised person is not straight forward in English if you have not noticed and mistakenly suggest is the case.

What you find in the language courses is not what you encounter and the translation dictionaries use frenetically helpful (well sometimes) suggestions.

Try telling a Thai they have pronounced their own language incorrectly.

I put "Kii Nok" in as an example.

Maybe you have the wrong book. You asked for a laugh!

Can you swim?

22 hours ago, talahtnut said:

Take a butchers at the UK: Rolls Royce, Bentley, Land Rover, MG, Etc. Etc. Foreign owned The only British vehicle left is the London Taxi. Electric power, water companies, Muslim Mayor of London, Luton is 80% muslim as several other places like Bradford, Chinese nuclear power station to be built, Gordon Brown flogged the gold abroad, Governor of Bank of England is American, even the bloody queen is foreign.

I just wish we could flog our government.

I enjoyed that thanks.

I know what you mean, but check the details:

Mark Carney is Canadian.

London Taxis are owned by the Chinese too.

Although the owners are foreign, the UK now produces more cars than ever before.

Who do you suggest we sell the government to, never mind the opposition? Corbyn might be a cheap replacement for Kim Jong-un...

All European monarchy has been a mishmash for hundreds of years.

Not enough information in the question to advise you.

Lots of TV posters can and do help with questions like this, but you need to be more specific.

The horrific, tragic and constant loss of life on the roads here is ignored by all authority.

Until someone learns the meaning of responsibility it will continue.

15 hours ago, PerkinsCuthbert said:

Statistically, I don't think that's true. While in the countryside working class people may be thinner due to harder physical labour and a comparative lack of access to processed food and drink, there's no doubt the inexorable spread of the likes of CP Group and their over-sugared, over-sodiumed, over-preserved but tasty and innovative products will continue to enslave the unwary and the uneducated, just as similar companies have done to people in the West. It's a worldwide problem now, driven by huge budgets and skilful marketing and lobbying, and it is leading to the deliberate and scientific addiction of whole populations.

It's particularly sad in Thailand, a country with such a wealth of traditionally cheap, nutritious and generally healthy food that is fast being supplemented and even replaced by garbage.

Unfortunately, I think we ain't seen nothing yet.

Yep, I think you got it dead right unfortunately.

Losing the street food in Bangkok will not help the situation.

Your point about "addiction" I particularly like, as how many times do you see fat people eating as they walk down the street? It is very rarely fruit or healthy stuff either.

The trim waistlines are disappearing fast.

I like something to cuddle, but not 100Kg of blubber.

Maybe the "body image" push by western feminists and the PC brigade is not helping too.

4 hours ago, talahtnut said:

I believe it is rare for a woman to date a poor man. When I spoke to women in the Uk they would first ask what I did for a living, then what car I had. When I said I was a door to door cucumber salesman and drove a three wheeler, they invariable lost interest. Yes, amazing, but true. Many women secretly regard themselves as prisoners in the marriage..until she serves the divorce papers.  Women can not love a man. 

Things are no different here, if not worse?

This has descended into a Thai language contest;

First I suggest respectfully nobody should rely on "movie or TV subtitles" as a reliable translation. That is not a realistic proposition.

Staff in shops, bars and restaurants can be local foreign nationals, or just "up-country" people that understand and speak with other dialects.

The term "Farang" (with an "L" also if you care to look it up) comes from the word for French, originally meaning "white westerner", not foreigner or alien.

There are many "descriptive" words that differentiate between the visitors and tourists Thai nationals encounter, to say nothing of those immigrants that have been part of the population in general for a very long time.

Anyway, last on this from me.

Have fun Kii Nok.

Checking maintenance of vehicles is extremely important and I hope it is done without impunity or bribery now.

However drivers remain the weak link as "the loose nut behind the wheel" is most often the cause.

Training and driver competency is being neglected in favour of the usual "blame something else" Thai usual excuse..

12 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

This is what gets me.

 

Sitting in some Pattaya bar beer listening to some newbie farang rabbiting on to his new found love expecting her to understand his every word as he pontificates about the state of the world, and her nodding as though she does.

 

As Monty Python sang 

 

Great, but Neil Innis was in the Bonzos, mates with Python boys and did contribute. Intro and Outro or my favourite (good song for Thailand):

10 hours ago, Gillyflower said:

J.C.  You Brits are getting as bad as the French!!  The only thing they know how to do very well is to whinge, whinge and whinge again.  And I know!  I live with them!  But I still prefer to live in Europe than Thailand.

 

I wouldn't want to live in LOS.  After 4 months I'm delighted to get back home for various reasons.  The two reasons I choose  Thailand, is for the warmth and it's cheap..  If I had money there are a lot of places I would choose for the winter.

 

I think another reason (not mentioned above and very understandably so) is that quite a few men have left rather 'sticky' (a nice way of putting it) situations in their home country.

The French "whine" too don't forget...

Education if you have kids is also a reason, but boarding schools that cost no more than Thai International Schools can be found in the UK.

Nothing "sticky" about me leaving, just a logical decision.

Weather, cost of utilities and many other things already mentioned.

A hero indeed, maybe one in several million as this is the only story about Thai bravery in WWII I have ever heard, and I have looked (not far enough it would seem). Time he got some recognition.

The UK didn't dish out The George Cross for nothing back then, but civil servants and ex-MPs get Knighthoods and Peerages just for doing their well paid jobs these days.

Lord Prescott of Two Jags...

4 hours ago, MrPatrickThai said:

And you haven't learned 0-9??

Where did I say that?

I don't have a Thai keyboard and TV is conducted in English...

First thing I did learn as a tourist in the 80s was the numbers...