Groongthep

There are lots of places in California that do old fashioned Mexican food and I would guess Texas and Arizona as well.

Ulysses, I think you've been in Thailand so long that you've lost track of the fact that nowadays there are large populations of Mexican immigrants living throughout the United States and not just in the border states. Within the past 15 years there has been an enormous migration of (mostly illegal) Mexican immigrants into the US and they have dispersed from coast to coast. Regardless of ones position on illegal immigration a plus side of this migration has been that there are now authentic Mexican restaurants all over the country. I'm talking about Mexican restaurants run by people who just left Mexico recently and have brought their food traditions along with them. A few clicks away at the US Census site shows that there are now around 774,000 Latinos (overwhelmingly Mexican) in Chicago. That is more than the entire population of the city of San Francisco. There are also significant populations of Mexicans (from Mexico not Mexican Americans) in small and medium sized cities and towns just about everywhere in the country. It can easily be argued that the food and cooking traditions of these newcomers is even more authentic than the Mexican food one finds in the border states where Mexican Americans have lived for many generations and whose food and cooking styles have evolved into the "California Mexican" and "Tex-Mex" styles of food. Next time you're back in the US take a drive through the Midwest and you'll find a Mexican neighborhood and Mexican restaurants in just about every town you pass through. You'll be amazed at how good the Mexican food is and it is neither California style or Tex-Mex.

To me, one of the main advantages of Buddhism over plain atheism is you learn how not to react to idiots and you lose the desire to give anyone a verbal bashing.

Catch the skytrain to Saphan Taksin station, get off and walk down the stairs to the adjacent river pier...at the pier catch the free shuttle boat to JW Marriot Hotel.

Don't confuse the Marriot Resort Hotel at 257 Charoennarkorn Road with the JW Marriot Hotel which is on Sukhumvit Road.

I think there is an interesting phenomenon happening in Thailand right now that I have never seen before anywhere else in the world and I believe it is confusing many casual observers as to what is really going on. To the average western observer the PAD demonstrators appear to be very similar to liberal protest groups which are seen around the world protesting different events such as the Iraq War, the WTO, the G-7, or in support of issues such as environmental causes, AIDS relief, and efforts to stop the atrocities in Darfur. They sing folk songs, talk about unity and often look like the hippies of generations past. I think because of their appearance many outsiders have come to believe that the PAD is a righteous group demanding democracy and are advocates for the poor and lower classes. What they are looking at however is deceiving. The PAD is essentially an elitist group which not only does not give a dam_n about the poor in Isaan but supports an elitist and royalist system of government harkening back to the Nation, Religion, and Monarchy days of General Sarit. Their leader Sondhi has more or less publicly said his main objective is revenge against Taksin. He uses Taksin's corruption as an excuse but I believe his main objective is to neutralize the threat Taksin and now the PPP have made to the old order of things where the military, the permanent bureaucracy and the traditional elite ran the show. They don't want democracy. Sondhi has said that he believes the rural poor are too stupid to govern themselves and implies that only the middle and upper classes have the ability and even the right to run the country. Yes, it is true that TRT and now the PPP are corrupt but so were just about every other government before them and Sondhi and the PAD have put forth no platform or proposals to deal with corruption if their faction was to take power. It is all about power and has nothing to do with "a common interest shared by most Thais - clean, transparent politics" as another poster has said. The PAD has disguised a group of right wing lackeys dressed up in the clothing of progressives in an attempt to influence the press, as well as domestic and international opinion in their favor. By the responses of some on this forum I think they have succeeded in pulling the wool over the eyes of more than just a few.

I suggest taking it up with the current PM as he was the one in charge when the BTS was ordered.

Huh?

I think sarcasm is used quite often among Thais. It's just that it is used only among people who are fairly close or intimate with one another such as good friends and siblings. To use it with someone you have not known long could easily be misinterpreteted as being rude and we all know how important it is in Thai culture to try to avoid causing others from losing face thus causing you to lose face as well.

I have an example: Years ago a former Thai girlfriend of mine and I were joking around together as couples often do. I don't know what I was thinking at the time but, I let go with a string of Thai words which are considered very impolite, intending for the words to be taken in humor as I often speak this way in English to my farang friends and intimates in jest and good humor. I said these Thai words with a smile on my face which usually implies to a farang that one is just kidding around and it elicits a laugh. Well, needless to say what I got from my girlfriend was not a laugh but a very stern and condecending "Poot baeb nee bawy mai?" (พูดแบบนี้บ่อยไหม?) or "Do you speak like this often?". I quickly apologized and she knew that I was shamed and embarrassed over my obvious lack of knowledge when these words were appropriate and when they weren't.

Several days later we were watching television together and she saw something on the Thai News broadcast that really made her angry. I can't remember exactly what it was but after seeing it she let go with a string of English obscenities that would make a sailor blush. I was rather shocked and looked over at her and said to her (in Thai) in a sarcastic manner "Poot baeb nee bawy mai?". She immediately picked up on the irony and sarcastic nature of my comment and we both got a real good laugh out of it. So to paraphrase, I think that Thais both use and understand sarcasm but just not as freely or in the same situations as farang might.

I don't want to pee on your glorious attempt at revisionist history, but you have the wrong country. Look to Europe first. It was the Europeans that started off on the destruction of "red Indians" as you inappropriately call them. BTW they do prefer to be called First Nations or indigenous peoples. Whatever failures the Amerians made on race relations, they have certainly done a better job of addressing the problem than did other nations. If you want to bemoan the plight of native peoples, why not take it up with France that still occupies Tahiti. Better yet, ask the Dutch, English, French, Spanish and Portuguese to bring back the natives to the Carribean. Do you know how the afro carribean people got their? The Europeans brought them in as slaves from Africa after they killed off all the natives. While not excusing the poor record of North Americans to their native peoples, it pales in comparison to recent ethnic cleansings. As I recall it was the Americans that stopped the genocide in Bosnia, a muslim region, while the EU sat on its ass. While Russia invaded Georgia the EU did what it did best and looked the other way. How about the genocide in Darfur, where few nations are speaking out? Thailand certainly hasn't. What about the millions massacred in Burundi and Rwanda. Oh, wait, it never happened, otherwise the murderers never would have found asylum in various EU countries.

As for your critique of American cinema, you might want to consider a course in film history. There are many films that go back to the start of the industry that when taken in the context of the era, are not prejudicial to the first nations. Most of John Wayne's films did not involve confrontations with native peoples as a plot and more often than not, in the movie the Duke treated them with a measure of respect because they were tough and savvy. Hardly the worst stereotype out there.

BTW I am not an American, but deeply resent the mindless bigotry that's frequently puked up in here.

Very well said.

Best I have found so far is at Landmark cafe. On a scale of 1 to 10 with Cantors being a 8 the Landmark puts out a respectable 6 which is about as high as a rueban could hopefully attain in an Asian Buddhist society.

girlx Posted Today, 2008-08-16 20:36:33

the only reuben i have had in bkk was from larry's dive, but it was pretty good.

I've been to Larry's many times but have never ordered the reuben. I can't remember seeing it on the menu. I'll have to give it a try next time I'm in. I have had the reuben at the Landmark and it wasn't bad, but like all the food at the Landmark it was expensive.

its the whole american attitude which i dislike

So your post really isn't about learning Thai at all. I have always hoped that the Learning Thai forum would remain above this sort of comment.

It's going to take a while before I can make up my mind on whether this is a good idea or not. If the average Thai agrees that the old name Siam is indeed more inclusive of all ethnic and minority groups living within Thailand, then I say it's good. Something tells me though that Jingthing is right and a whole lot of people will feel that it's more royalist and exclusive of groups outside of Central Thailand.

Here's a link to the Hollywood trailer Bangkok Dangerous Clip It doesn't appear that it will even vaguely resemble the original.

I'm happy for you that you are not sensitive. But downplaying the issue with instructions (no matter how they logical they seem to you) is not going to make it any less of a problem for those who do have certain preferences.

We will deal with it by purchasing products that suit our likes and dislikes. And that my dear, is the reason for this conversation.

Wow...I guess you really are sensitive. I intended my post to be a constructive comment. The point being that the accent of the narrator is really unrelated to the quality of the learning material contained in the program. Judging from your cynical reply I assume I must have offended you. If so, be assured that was not my intention.

Build a pedestrian overpass over the "corner of death" from Beach Road to Walking Street.

Some courses have a lot of narration, some put the majority of the explanations in their course text. And if it's a course with a lot of narration, in an accent that grates, it annoys and distracts.

I have the same problem with lynda.com. Some of their instructors have medium American accents so they are perfectly fine. But certain accents make me grit my teeth.

I liken it to listening to The Nanny... only with no commercials... ouch...

(I'm American. So no, it's not a prejudice against the country)

I am not aware of a Thai course which has a narrator who sounds anything like the female New Yorker in your Nanny link. Mr. J. Marvin Brown who did the original FSI and AUA books years ago had a slight bit of an American country accent (he was from Utah), but nothing that I thought was distracting. John Moore who did Colloquial Thai has a strong British accent but I find that he too is quite understandable. I haven't subscribed to lynda.com so maybe there is a narrator there who has a voice that sounds like screeching fingernails across a blackboard. I don't know. Maybe it's because I have travelled a great deal in my lifetime and have grown accustomed to hearing people speak English differently than I that has made me less sensitive to different accents and pronunciations. I would of course, be angry if I paid for a course and couldn't understand the narrator, but I doubt if any publisher would chose to use a narrator who speaks English unintelligibly. All this aside, the point is that the learner should be concentrating on the tones and pronunciation of the native Thai speaker on the recordings and not on the narrators accent.

This thread has me completely perplexed. All the thai self study courses I have seen and used, which include most all of the ones mentioned in this thread, use native thai speakers on the recordings. What difference in the world does it make if the narrator is speaking with a British, American, Australian or any other accent. It's the thai speaker you should be listening to not the narrator. Am I missing something here?

Cloudhopper is absolutely correct. You might find government involvement in piracy in Indonesia but not Singapore. My experience has been that Singapore is one of the cleanest and most corruption free places anywhere.

Attached is a report from the IMO (International Maritime Organization) in London documenting 4,499 (not an exaggeration) acts of piracy at sea in November of 2007 alone. Piracy at Sea

Sorry, I got a little ahead of myself as this is such a hot button item for me. The IMO reported 4,499 acts of piracy in the last 5 years not just in November of 2007. (I read the report closer) That's still a hel_l of a lot of pirate attacks.

One thing that should be emphasized to your cousin is that entry level positions on offshore rigs (starting out as roustabout then moving up to roughneck) is hard back-breaking work. At 40 years old he may want to think twice about taking this route. Most of the guys in these positions are in their 20s and 30s and are in great physical shape. At his age he would be better off getting some training in a skilled field like electrician or mechanic and trying to work his way up the ladder that way. Besides, just as other posters have already said, being 40 and speaking nearly no english will make it very difficult for him to even get his foot in the door. If he still wants to give it a shot then more power to him, but be forewarned; it ain't easy.

Piracy on the high seas has become a very serious problem these days. The worst areas being in and around the Malacca Straight and off the coast of East Africa particularly near Somalia. I have been working in the maritime field for the last 28 years, most of it at sea and can tell you that all oceangoing cargo vessels have their crewmembers stand anti-pirate watches at night in the waters most plagued with piracy. Unfortunately, there is little they can do as modern day pirates are armed with automatic weapons, grenades and RPGs. Attached is a report from the IMO (International Maritime Organization) in London documenting 4,499 (not an exaggeration) acts of piracy at sea in November of 2007 alone. Piracy at Sea

These days we mainly eat food cooked at home as do any of my wife's Thai friends (some however eat at restaurants where they work but separate - and far superior IMO - food is cooked for staff).

I see this all the time at Thai restaurants in the US too. The Thai staff will prepare authentic food for themselves which they eat in the back. The food served to the patrons in front is the dumbed down version. On rare occasions I can talk them into fixing me the same food they eat, but more often than not they'll fix me the same old stuff they serve all the other farang only adding a little more chili. It particularly bothers me when they substitute broccoli for kana (sometimes translated as chinese broccoli even though it looks nothing like broccoli). Kana is available at most all asian supermarkets which are common in the larger cities on the US west coast. It is also simply a smaller variety of the same green leafy vegetable that we call collards or collard greens in the US which is available at almost all regular supermarkets too and is usually even cheaper than broccoli. Unfortunately, most Thai restaurant owners that I have met are reluctant to believe that any non-asian will like it. It's frustrating but not worth making a big fuss over. As Tolley has said the food is often (but not always) good anyway. It's just disappointing to me that it's so hard to find real thai food when you know there are people who are capable of making it for you but who practically refuse to do so.

Hi all,

Just giving this a shot. Myself and a few other TV members are starting a webpage and want to a Thai version we could use a hand. I don't think it would be too much time for the right person. But who knows.

Anyway, it's for a good cause and thought I'd ask on here.

for more information we have a group on face book Green Phangan

Try asking these people if they know of someone who can help you. They're in Berkeley.

Paiboon Publishing, Inc.

1442A Walnut Street #256

Berkeley, California 94709

USA

Tel: 1-510-848-7086, 1-800-837-2979

Fax: 1-510-666-8862, 1-866-800-1840

Email: [email protected]

You should have resisted, because it ain't funny.

Let's give the 52.5kg Thai weightlifter some credit here. She's just won the gold medal for her weight class. They don't give out individual medals for the clean & jerk, but the combined total of the clean & jerk and snatch.

Her result:

Snatch: 95kg

Clean & Jerk: 126kg (new Olympic record)

Total: 221kg (1st place and gold medal)

It would be funny to watch you try to lift that weight. That's not far off 300 lbs.

Geezus..lighten up and get a sense of humor. Perhaps you should have read the OP in this thread, it's not serious and neither was I. There is a whole thread in the General Topics forum congatulating Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon on her gold medal. Thai weightlifter wins gold medal BTW, it would not be funny to watch me try to lift that weight as I'm sure my colon would be hanging out my @$$ if I did.

What is authentic Thai anyway??

Authentic Thai would be Thai food that tastes just the same as it does in Thailand. Regardless of the regional variety.

Heck even my Thai girl thinks that a lot of the Thai food in Sydney is better than you get in Thailand.

I would be interested as to how many other members of the Thai community in Sydney would agree with your girlfriend. I would guess not many.

At the end of the day a lot of the food is delicious and that is what counts.

I agree with you but the the point of my OP was that I wish more Thai restaurants outside of Thailand would prepare the food as they do here rather than changing the recipe to cater to farang tastes. It's not that the bastardized versions are necessarily bad its just that many of us miss the real thing when we are not in Thailand.

Old Shifty Looking Guy.......

Hey! I resemble that remark.

The newswires report that the Thai weightlifter Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon has won the gold medal in the "clean and jerk" competition. I've been waiting to hear the editorial comments on this piece of information. There are certainly lots of venues where this event is practiced regularly here in LOS.

Sorry...couldn't resist it.