Tod Daniels

FWIW: Alla Bout is going to give a 'press conference' today at 2:00PM. It'll be at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailands main place on the top floor of the Maneeya Center Building near Chitlom Station;

Here's the FCCT blurb about it;

Alla Bout Speaks Out on Viktor Bout's Sudden ExtraditionPress Conference; 2:00 pm Monday, November 22

(This is not an FCCT-sponsored event. It is a paid function and responsibility for program content is solely that of the event organizer)

Alla Bout, the wife of Russian alleged arms dealer Viktor Bout, will hold a press conference to discuss his sudden extradition to the United States to face terrorism charges lasts week by Thai cabinet order, information she has been given on the matter by Thai and Russian authorities, her position regarding the U.S. charges and the extradition, and upcoming plans as the legal process against her husband moves now to New York.

And I have NO affiliation with FCCT!! I just thought it might be something people might wanna go listen to; seeing as the threads about "ol' Vik" are runnin' hot 'n heavy on T/V right about now.

I think it'll be quite interesting to hear her 'take' on things.

Oh, and BTW, it's free too!

Actually I hafta totally revise the earlier post I made about the program locking up .

I just came back from the local internet shop. First they had to FIND a keyboard with thai characters on it as all they had out were ones with KOREAN and engrish . After he found one, I spent about 90 minutes using the program. It worked flawlessly, not a single hiccup.

Obviously my ancient (3+ y/o) Acer desktop has more than a few issues with it and appears to be the source of the problem(s).

I honestly hafta say that’s really one slick thai typing tutor program!! My hats off to the person who developed it, :jap: especially as it's a free resource!

I think I worked thru about 34 or so of the lessons. It's a great brusher-upper for people who can type already and a super good one for people just learning.

Again, if anyone thinks my earlier post was at all negative, (and I didn't mean for it to be in the least ), believe me ALL the negativity is now directed towards my home p/c.

There's a new, web-based Thai typing program available at http://thai-notes.com/typing/typing.shtml

WOW!! That looks like a great program!

It'd probably be even better, IF I could get it to work without locking up my browser mid lesson!

I was able to get thru a couple lessons, then it locks the browser. Dunno why.

I sent feedback to the site, and maybe will get an answer about what I'm doing wrong.

Still from appearances it's a great improvement over the program I used when I taught myself to type thai a few years ago.

Hopefully I get it sorted out, because it sure looks like a great resource to learn to type-thai-by-touch; which as I said in an earlier post, is definitely a tough row to hoe. .

FWIW: I made a special trip down to Rachaprasong today (really I needed to go to MBK to fix my mobile phone )!

Be that as it may; I stopped a while there and thought they were pretty peaceful (compared to when the soldiers went in and ran 'em out with bullets!).

I talked to many of the ‘thais-on-the-street” meaning thais wearing either ‘red’ or ‘black’ t-shirts. Were there a LOT of ‘em, hel_l yes! They were 'thick as ticks on a dogs back' but of course that is an American idiom, so no one understands it. !

For the most part they seemed like they didn’t have a clue why they were there (at Rachaprasong).

Many of them told me ‘in thai’, “They told me to come so I came…”

You figure it out for yourself. .. .

While this may be incidental, as my cats came here nearly 5+ years ago;

I brought my TWO cats from the US, which had previously lived with me in Mexico, Dominican Republic, Brazil and Peru (but just for 6 months), and then they went back to the US before comin' here.

FWIW: I was able to import them, (with the proper documentation) to Thailand, and actually went out on the tarmac with the people who collect 'live animals' and get them OFF the plane they came in on! There was NO quarantine, no nothing. The thai vet on duty just checked the papers, stamped them and I was able to put them in a taxi to my apartment.

Sadly now (mostly for me) they have both died already. NOT because of Thailand, but because they were already OLD cats. And yes, I had them cremated and have their ashes (bones) in small wooden boxes on the top of my television. After all, I had them with me in 5 countries!

Importing cats to this country is NOT fraught with peril, contrary to what some people might say. ..

As an aside: when my cats flew here from the US, they had to spend a night in Amsterdam Holland, as the 'in air' time was too long from the US. Sheesh, I've never even been there, yet my cats have. I hope they had a good time too!!

But really (as in note to the MODZ) this thread is far better served in the "Plants, Pets & Vets in Thailand" section of the forum and NOT on the visa for thailand one, (because that forum has TONZ of stuff about importing animals into the 'kingdom') but that is just my take on things.. ..

Actually now that I took the time to read thru the entire magazine;

OFF TOPIC:

I found the articles about Leopards and Hyenas, as well as the one about a girl with lesbian feelings, and even the one about breasts, and what constitutes pretty breasts versus ugly ones of far more interest than the thai woman scorned; foreign bashing one referenced in this post.

BACK ON TOPIC

I’d concentrate on damage control at your place of employment with your boss, and staff (seeing as, from the videos on their website, it does look like a pretty nice place to work! )

The quicker this gets swept aside and becomes ‘old news’ the better off you’ll be for it. I don’t think you’re likely to find any satisfactory resolution to this via legal channels. Then again, <deleted> do I know .

However, I concur with the poster known as “jazzbo”; even a brief perusal of your posting history just here on T/V could be interpreted as lending credence to an opposing party’s perceived grievance. (Darn the internet for making that stuff so easily to find! ).

Even a semi-intelligent thai lawyer could pick your posts to pieces and quote you outta context, giving quite a different spin than you originally intended when you posted .

Factor in ANY legal proceedings are gonna be carried out totally in thai, the oh-so many ambiguous ways that engrish can be translated into thai often carrying a totally dissimilar meaning than the original english context, and I think you’re tryin’ to paddle upstream pursuing this.

Good Luck though, let us know how it pans out.

Well in all honesty; you're gonna be kinda screwed tryin' to get any name to actually end like it does in english with an 'r' sound. Not a single word in thai can end with that sound, and even the thai character for 'r' (ร) morphs into a 'n' sound when it ends a word. I think the closest you'd get is using a silencing character on the final r like this ร์.

Actually just for fun I went to thai-language dot com and looked at their list of common foreign names in thai. This is what they had for Trevor; เทรเวอร์ (thaehn^M wuuhr^M), they even used that silencer the garan over the final 'r' so thais don't automatically change it to an 'n' sound.

I dunno and other more learned posters must weigh in. Possibly by using the consonant clusters ดร or ตร which are kinda like 'dr', or a 'dtr' sounds along with some vowel might word, but again far more cunning linguists than I must weigh in on this.

A quick Google.th search of the thai spelling เทรเวอร์ turned up TONZ of hits, so it’s a good bet, that’s as close as it gets here.

If that doesn't play well for you; do like every single thai in this country does and pick a 'nickname'.

Oh, and here's the link to the way thai-language spells it;

http://www.thai-language.com/id/153530

Good luck.

Most of the bigger hospitals in the greater Bangkok area (Bumrungrad, Samitivej, St Louis, BNH, to name a few) all have offices which deal with immigrations on a patients behalf to secure extensions of stay based on medical reasons, so a trip to immigrations in person isn't usually necessary if you're staying in one of them. In fact Bumrungrad has so many extension applications each week that an immigration official visits THEM instead of the hospital running the paperwork out to Changwattana!

As has been posted, nothing can be done about the second entry on the actual visa as the expiration date is cut in stone. A medical extension of stay would stop any potential overstay fines though, until he is 'fit for travel' again.

Just to lighten this thread up a little bit. ..

Here are some memorable quotes from the movie "Lord of War".

Spoken by Nicolas Cage playing 'Yuri Orlov;

"I sell to leftists, and rightists. I sell to pacifists, but they're not the most regular customers.

"I sell guns to every army but the Salvation Army."

"Back then, I didn't sell to Osama Bin Laden. Not because of moral reasons, but because he was always bouncing checks"

"The primary market was Africa, Eleven major conflicts involving twenty three countries in less than a decade. A gunrunner's wet dream. At the time the West couldn't care less, they had a white war in what was left of Yugoslavia."

And the best quote!

"The reason I'll be released is the same reason you think I'll be convicted. I do rub shoulders with some of the most vile, sadistic men calling themselves leaders today. But some of these men are the enemies of your enemies. And while the biggest arms dealer in the world is your boss; the President of the United States, who ships more merchandise in a day than I do in a year, sometimes it's embarrassing to have his fingerprints on the guns. Sometimes he needs a freelancer like me to supply forces he can't be seen supplying. So, you call me evil, but unfortunately for you, I'm a necessary evil.

Granted that was a fiction movie and quite possibly a great deal of creative license was taken in the dialog. But I think that last quote possibly carries at least a little truth in it.

Funny how Russia in the international press immediately softened their fire and brimstone rhetoric once Vic hit US soil. Other than crying ‘foul’ in the media here, they’re pretty quite in “real press”.

Who really knows how this dog & pony show will eventually play out?

Any way you spin it, whether you’re pro-US, or a US-basher (like so many posers, errr posters on T/V, it can’t be bad to get someone like Victor Bout ‘off the proverbial streets’ can it?

Well, I'm actually not studying in a language school. I am studying full time, 7:30 - 16:30 except for weekends. It just takes to much time away.

Well in light of your comment; I retract nearly all my post!! I stand humbly erected err corrected .

Studying thai with that kinda schedule is certainly not something I'd ever opt for . Christ! That's a frickin' full time job! Most foreigners I know who wash outta thai language school do so because the 4 hours a week is just too much for them, lol..

I still think you could hoof it (via various modes of transport) to Vientiane and snap up a double entry tourist visa either ding it yourself or by using one of the services previously mentioned.

It's far safer than 'pushing the envelope' wondering whether the school will or won't report you to immigrations for stopping your studies.

Again, FWIW: I'm sincerely sorry about the lengthy and obviously off topic post I made.

I certainly give you credit for even undertaking that kinda time intensive study program.

<SNIP> no ,,,,,, its a type O VISA <SNIP>

I hate to disagree. .. But the above info could be (and in all likelihood) IS erroneous. However my experience is ONLY in Metro-Bangkok..

FWIW: a visa which is type ED is considered by the thai 'powers that be' to be the same as a type 'O' = (OTHER reason for being here kinda visa), meaning it has the same 'status'.

I have taken MANY people who were on a '90 day extension of stay' based on education and gotten them a thai driver's license. It's out on soi 103/1 (or something like that ). FWIW: It's a ways past the On Nut Sky Train Station on the North side of Sukhumvit, and the sign is ONLY in thai.

Now it's been a month or more since I went there, but last time I had 5 people in tow and they all got a thai d/l. Some even got both a car and a moto-cy license at the same time, based on the endorsements from their country's licenses..

It is a painless IF somewhat time consuming procedure . Providing they hold a valid license from what ever country they come from it's quite easy really and NO driving or written testing is involved at all. You just do 4 cheesy tests; depth perception, color blindness, reaction time, and peripheral vision.

So far got them for people from; China, Singapore, Korea, Japan, US, UK, Ireland, India and an Auzzie too! I’ve never had a single problem getting one yet. The caveat is; IF you have the correct paperwork, it's a walk in the park.

The first time you go they ONLY give a one year 'temporary' license but that is all they ever issue to anyone, even first time thais! Then you go back AFTER that year's finished to renew your license for another 5 years.

The good news is the 'new' thai driver's license is written in english AND thai so it works in other countries AND it looks like a "real driver's license too" as opposed to the 'old style' license which looks like you had it made at MBK or KhaoSan Road. ..

To the O/P: Go to my profile page and send me an email or a message via the forum. .. I'll clue you in. ..

Not to “piss on your parade”, but there are many (as in MANY!) private thai language schools which will routinely report you to thai immigrations when you stop studying with them. True some may not, but most will. .. That could, (as in may, or probably will) cause you some grief in the long run here. ..

Actually I don’t have the slightest idea why any foreigner here in "the glorious Land 'O Thais' would stop studying the thai language for ANY reason! After all the Ministry of Education's minimum requirement is only 4 hours a week. &lt;deleted&gt;, you can’t spare 4 hours a week here to study thai and get an extension of stay for another 90 days? Are you really and truly that frickin’ busy?

I routinely sit outside my apartment with my thai friends and eavesdrop on the foreigners who pass by whilst speaking to their thai 'significant others’. Where I live they, (as in foreigners) pass by in; flocks, herds, droves, gaggles, murders, (insert your classifier for groups of animals!).

Frankly, it is a stomach-churning mix of thai-engrish, or engrish-thai blended into how ever they happen to accent their engrish; American, Irish, German, UK, Scotch, Auzzie, Kiwi, Eastern Block, (insert your screwed-up engrish accent here). Eavesdropping in this fashion is normally the ONLY time I am totally ashamed to be a foreigner living here . UGH. .. It makes me not like foreigners who give up studying the thai language because they ALL have the same excuses; ‘I’m too old’, ‘I’m tone deaf’, 'My g/f, wife speaks emgrish enough', ‘I don’t have time’, blah-blah-blah, "same ol' song and dance" over and over.

After all, where are we? Gimme a minute and lemme check. .. ... Yep, still checkin'. .. Oh yeah, that’s right; we are in THAILAND where they speak Thai as their FIRST language! It is my observation that as a foreigner, you can NEVER, EVER know too much Thai, no matter what you might think to the contrary.

Then again; these are my observations ONLY and you mileage may indeed vary.. Mostly depending on:

A.) where you live in thailand,

B.) if you have a significant thai other

and lastly

C.) who you mostly talk to here.

There are more than enough posts on the T/V forum about how a person secures a double entry tourist visa at the thai consulate in Lao. I suggest you read some, maybe even try the search function too.

But FWIW: Yes I concur wholeheartedly; the website thaivisarun dot com does offer an “all in” kinda service to Lao for a double entry tourist visa. I have used them myself several times in the past, as well as having sent many, many people to them too.

Tried to buy the mag at the local 7/11 this morning, but it was sold out. Went to a bigger thai magazine shop near my soi, also sold out. Finally found a single copy at B2S. I perused it over coffee, and found it well worth the 20 baht price tag even for that single article.

FWIW: Any foreigner with high-basic or low-intermediate thai reading skills won't have very much difficulty getting thru it. It's definitely written more ภาษาพูด (colloquially), than something you’d read in the real newspapers here. Then again it's a gossip rag about thai superstars, much like Dara Daily, or Siam Dara.

The O/P and the poster know as “GarryP” are totally correct in their assertions; the person referred to in the story is most definitely not painted in the most glowing light and accolades (if any) are few and far between . The author signs it "Person who was deceived/tricked" as well as saying she's from พังงา (Phangnga). She did say she's gonna go to post it on her Face Book page too, so I'd check there as well.

It would also appear by going to Google thailand and typing in the thai title of the article that there 6 or 7 comments on the mag’s website about the article. One even took time to comment, only to say they didn't read the article, . One was a warning about foreigners written in engrish by a thai female , and one even asked "I read the story, just how was he terribly bad to you?" .

I think it's definitely up to you and your thai lawyers to see what possibly could be gained by pursuing it. Then again how much good money are you gonna throw after bad to be compensated in any way?

I seem to remember a few years ago when a female reporter for an english language newspaper wrote a totally factual article about Thaksin Shinawatra’s government; she was promptly sacked, and then nearly litigated to death by thaksin's legal team to the tune of millions of baht in libel charges. In the end she was totally vindicated, all the suits were thrown out, and I think even won her old job back or something like that, but it took several years to plod its way thru the thai legal system.

Now if you lose your brand new job over this, or are financially impinged upon in another way, maybe you'd have a better case. In all honesty, I hope your new boss takes this story with a grain of salt, and it doesn’t affect you . The mags that haven’t sold get pulled off the shelves on the 20th to make way for the new edition, and as I mentioned earlier, I had to go to three different shops to find even a copy.

Dunno, but you're certainly in quite the quandary, my posting pal. Good Luck.

wanke_rs . <SNIP>: Rot mot tee neye. Pom ow pie. Toleye? <SNIPPED TOO!!>

And NO, not every bus here in Bangkok has a frickin' engrish translated sign written on it. Especially the ones that say; "This bus is FREE because of the tax thais' paid". (Can you read that one?) Then there are the busses which go MANY places, but their destination(s) are listed on the side of the bus or windows in THAI ONLY.

It also goes without saying (but I'll say it now) that everyone on the forum can't read your crap engrish spelling for thai words without any toning (you goofball, how about writing in thai?) WOW who'da thunk it on the THAI language forum, the mind wobbles. ...

Do you think everyone has the same accent as you do for engrish words? I could name 15 or 20 words that are the same exact words yet sound dissimalar given the various engrish accents out there in the whole wide world. Still you had the balls to preface your post with 'wanke_rs'? Really: &lt;deleted&gt;?

BACK ON TOPIC: the phrase; อยากไปสายหมด (yaak^L bpaiM saai^R moht^L) or translated into very rough engrish "(I) want to go to the end of the line" will work in most instances. But I think "Softwater" posted a better phrase. .. Please note the personal pronoun "I" is left OUT when you are speaking to someone about yourself or something you want, (they already know who you're talkin' about) no need to say it EVER!

Guess I gotta go try to find the mag .

It’s not often I run into famous, or infamous people here. .. Mostly it’s just the nefarious kind. ..

Is the name of mag really คู่สร้าง-คู่สม as in the one from the link another poster provided?

If it is, and in fact is just written without a heading or author; it could very well still be active in one of their many columns the site has online.

A quick perusal of them leads me to believe that’s where most of the “dirt gets slung”.

It’s definitely a question for a competent thai lawyer, and not I think a topic for a general poll of the illustrious posers <sic> I mean posters on T/V.

Lemme check. ..

Hmmm, still checkin’. …

Okay, I guess I haven’t done all that much ‘for thailand’.

In fact, other than living here for goin’ on 6 years and learning to speak, read, and to a lesser extent write the thai language, I guess I haven’t done much at all .

Then again, those were some pretty tough things to figure out . However they certainly contribute more to my ease of living here than directly benefiting any particular thai, the ‘community’ or thailand as a whole.

FWIW: I do patronize my local thai street sellers. I also help teach both the adults and their kids on my soi engrish (in turn; they teach me thai), so it’s more a language exchange program. I also employ the odd thai now and again for things I don’t wanna do.

Like I said, I haven’t really done all that much here but kill time waiting to die.

<SNIP> A friend of mine had his dog (Golden Retriever) bitten by a cobra in his own garden and the dog died within 20 min.

Not to piss on anyone’s parade but a Golden Retriever can’t in any way, shape, or form be compared with even the dumbest thai soi dog as far as what is what here, especially in terms of venomous snakes. It’s like comparing apples to oranges.

BACK ON TOPIC

All the pix posted by the O/P are just internet rips.

Possibly a real picture of the dead snake in question, (even sans head ); could actually shed more light on the oft times tricky subject of identifying snakes in thailand. Then again, possibly not. ..

While the penchant for queue jumping is not just limited to a thai only phenomena; I will say I've noticed it far more in S/E Asian countries than I ever observed in the US.

It would also appear the asian definition of 'personal space' doesn't correlate with say my american definition of the same term. In the US anyone within arm's reach has most definitely invaded my personal space; whilst here there seems to be no guidelines and people can crowd to their hearts content. Maybe it's because they're smaller and there's a different set of rules for diminutive people, I dunno really.

I routinely crowd the person ahead of me in lines at 7/11 or grocery stores, to the point I'm almost touching them in an effort to stop the errant thai from cutting in the line. The worst offenders are those pesky "I'm just buying a top up card for my phone" ones. They drive me up a proverbial wall.

I would suggest some "survival thai" in cases where thai people cut in front of you. A very high use phrase is: อย่าแซงคิวซิ. It is pronounced like this; yaa^L saaeng^M khiu^M si^H". This translates nearly word for word as "Don't jump the queue!" The first word is 'don't', the second word is 'overtake' or 'pass by', the third word is the engrish word 'queue' and the last is an ending particle which conveys an imperative quality to what you just said rather than the statement being just a polite request. Almost like adding an exclamation point in written engrish.

You don't even hafta say this phrase particularly loud or in a particularly aggressive tone; just look directly at the offending thai and say it clearly (possibly after some in-home practice with your thai significant other to get the toning correct! ).

More times than not, that phrase is more than enough to get the offending party to move, if not to the end of the queue, at least behind you. In cases where they just go behind me; last time I checked I'm not the frickin' queue police . I feel it's every person for them self. If the person behind me is sheep-like and won't say anything, well it's just not my job to police proper queuing etiquette here.

Now if you can't carry on more than a two-word-tourist thai conversation, please be advised you hafta "know your audience" when saying that phrase. To the normal run-'o-the-mill thai queue jumper at 7/11, grocery stores, department stores, movie lines, etc you're fine saying it 99.99% of the time.

However, it is my experience very close to midnite, when a drunken thai guy staggers up to the counter at 7/11 with a hand basket nearly overflowing with big Beer Leos because he's tryin' to buy alcohol before the cut off time, you're better off just letting him jump the queue. There is a high degree of probability he is ONLY the 'designated buyer', and a group of equally drunk thai guys are sitting outside the door. Using the phrase I mentioned earlier is possibly not in your best interest health/longevity-wise, especially given the thai penchant of fighting in 'packs'.

In 'time sensitive' situations dealing with drunken thais making alcohol purchases, I always say; เชิญก่อนไม่รีบ; cheern^M gaawn^L mai^F reep^F and then motion them to go ahead. It translates as; "Go ahead, I'm not in a hurry."

FWIW: I've met some really interesting thai people with that tactic, and more times than not am invited to sit 'n share a beer with them too.

Again, your mileage may vary.

Am I the only one who thinks the rampant anti-american sediment <sic> err sentiment runs very deep indeed here with the illustrious posers <sic> err posters on the T/V Forum? Being an american, I ‘resemble’ <sic> err resent those type of mindless remarks.

Actually, ol’ Vic woulda been in the US a long time ago if we (the US) hadn’t shot ourselves in the foot the first go round by ‘encouraging’ the thai prosecutors to file additional charges of money laundering, etc.

The last time we were so afraid he’d be released and we couldn’t snap him up, whisk him to the US. Sadly it is the US and the urging of the thai prosecutors which developed into this logistical and legal snafu.

As an aside; I too was wondering about that jet we sent here which was parked out at Don Muang waiting to extradite him. I never did hear if it left, if the crew got ‘long-stay visas’ or what happened.

In response to a query from a fellow student here, I would like to change my earlier translation and say that I find the tone of ตายให้ตาย to be more like "Bring it on!" than a calm "So be it." It contains more bravado than fatalism. That is my sense, anyway.

Quite strange this exact phrase came up now.

In fact just the other nite outside my apartment gate a group of thai guys had a few too many and suddenly an altercation erupted between two of them. Plastic glasses went flying; chairs were knocked over, as the two people at odds with one another did the obligatory posturing, circling, feinting kicks, etc.

I heard that phrase ตายให้ตาย (dtaai^M hai^F dtaai^M) yelled out by both parties, until their friends calmed 'em back down. Strange as it may seem, everyone got back to the task at hand; drinking as if nothing had even happened. I even noticed later that the two guys who had the earlier dispute rode off on the same motocy.

In this context at least; it was most definitely said in much more a "Bring it on M/F!" tone of voice, than with the "So be it." type of meaning.

ANY language in the entire world which remains static, doesn't evolve due to the demands placed on it by the users of said language is doomed to eventually die a slow lingering death.

I can’t be the only person whose mind wobbled at the comment by Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwankhiri, when he said; "Sometimes we don't even know if the word is Thai or English." The thai language probably has more loan words from Sanskrit, Pali, Khmer, Lao, Chinese, English, and a myraid of other dialects thrown in than a person could shake a stick at.

Even a quick perusal of the thai dictionary will show nearly every single word to do with the internet or I/T is an english loan word. They just have the thai spelling and pronunciation rules used. I for one have never heard of a computer being called by its officially endorsed RID word of คณิตกรณ์ (kha^H nit^H gaawnM); instead everyone I’ve heard has always said คอมพิวเตอร์ (khaawm^M phiu^M dtuuhr^M).

The myopic views people in 'high places' have on the thai language just shows how out of touch they are with your average 'run-of-the-mill' thai youth of today . It rings of the drive back in the early 40's when the nationalist government of Plaek Pibulsonggram in their effort to 'modernize' the world’s take on thailand mandated that greetings in all government offices would heretofore be สวัสดี (sa^L wat^L dee^M) instead of the 3 or four greeting phrases which were in use like; "Have you eaten yet?", What's going on?", and even, "Have you showered yet?". This is how that phrase became to be in usage today.

I even seem to remember reading some press release about one government official who was extremely distraught thai people were answering their mobile phones with the english phrase "hello" ฮัลโล (han^M loh^M) (albeit spoken with an obviously thai accent).

Obviously thai language changes from the powers that be carry a LOT more weight than the ones done by the people actually using the language on a day to day basis .

Languages need to be looked at as 'living entities', not something that must be preserved in its original form since it began being used. In fact a person would be very hard pressed indeed to even begin reading something written in english only a couple hundred years old given its near constant evolution..

I am reading a book written in thai which teaches english to thais. This one is called "Let's Put Idioms and Phrasal Verbs into Use" or "เอา Idioms และ Phrasal Verbs มาใช้กันเถอะ".

I have found once you can read thai even at a low level, these types of books (teaching english to thais) can be a wealth of information.

They help a person improve their thai reading comprehension skills; seeing as most english sentences have the thai equivalent right under it. More importantly to me, this sort of book actually gives you the understanding about how something in common english like idioms or a verb phrase would be spoken in thai. MANY things due to cultural, regional and socio-economic reasons just can’t be translated word for word and have a thai understand what you’re on about.

As an example, in the chapter I just finished reading; it went over the following phrases.

1. make light of - มองเห็นว่าไม่สำคัญ, ทำเป็นมองข้าม

2. take a stand on - ตัดสินใจอย่างแน่วแน่, มีจุดยืนที่แน่วแน่

3. take advantage of - เอาเปรียบ, ตักตวงผลประโยชน์

4. take charge of - ควบคุม, รับผิดชอบ, ดูแล

5. keep an eye on - จับตาดู เฝ้าดู

6. find fault with - วิพากษ์วิจารณ์, หาข้อผิดพลาด, จับผิด

7. take exception to - ไม่เห็นด้วย, ไม่ชอบ

8. lost track of - ไม่สามารถค้นพบ, หาไม่พบ, ไม่รู้เวลา, ลืมเวลา

9. make sense of – เข้าใจ

Now you can see, some are quite easy, and a person would be able to sort ‘em out. Then again some are not so easy. In this book they explain when each of the suggested phrases are to be used, like with people, places, people's actions, what situations, etc. Pretty darned useful especially as it’s explained in thai with thai sentence examples too. It also tells whether the phrase can be used either in a positive way or with a negative connotation when they can be interchanged in that fashion

Granted, some of this book's vocab was over my head, (ตักตวงผลประโยชน์, วิพากษ์วิจารณ์ both of which I was clueless about before I looked 'em up). But lookin' up words/phrases either online, or in a dictionary is part and parcel of learning thai .

This company has quite a few books out in print. They seem to range in price from about 160 to 220baht a book.

Some of the titles are;

"English Thru Life Experiences"

"English Thru Life Perspectives"

"Religious Beliefs"

"Express Feelings"

"English for Job Interviews"

"English Thru Music"

"English Thru Film"

Two volumes of "More that 1000 Words to beat TOEIC, TOEFL"

Three volumes of "Everyday English Expressions"

If your interested; go to Google Thailand and put in เศรษฐวิทย์. You can see some of their books available on the top one or two hits. They're also at at most bookstores which sell thai language books. Next time you're in a bookstore (except Asia Boox, which doesn't sell books written in thai ), peruse the 'english for thais' section, you might find it of interest too.

I find it troublesome that there isn't always a lot of hi-basic or low-intermediate stuff written in thai to learn from. By that, I mean books which actually add measurably to a persons vocab or understanding of how the thai language goes together.

Although be forewarned , get ready to have MANY thais throw sidelong glances your way in regards as to why an obvious foreigner would be reading books on learning the english language which are written in thai .

Still it’s a good ice breaker, conversation starter.

Actually your reporting history IS in stored the computers out there . Alas it is only stored in the p/cs inside the reporting room at Changwattana .

When I was out there last week with another fistful of passports from various acquaintances doing their 90 day reporting, I asked one of the staff who knows me quite well, if I could see the p/c screen (more to be nosy than anything else ). She graciously let me go behind their counter and watch as she entered the data. It's actually a pretty slick program and as soon as she entered a passport number in ALL your info as far passport number, sex, age, country of origin, reporting history, visa type, and when your current permission of stay expires popped up on the screen. However she told me that at least for now their p/c's are NOT linked to any other p/c's anywhere for 90 day reporting at other immigration offices in the country . Evidently, it's not all that important to anyone other than you and the 90 day reporting office you happen to go to.

I saw that sign about getting a police report for lost receipts too. Police reports for lost things are usually just a simple form and last time I got one, free as well, so losing your slip shouldn't be overly costly; as long as you know when you need to report next . It would appear the burden of proof of when you need to report is on yourself, and NOT immigrations, so I concur hang on to the receipt.

They DO still enforce the late reporting fine which is usually 2000baht (over a week late). I have personally witnessed if you raise a ruckus about being late, they can still charge you the posted maximum fine of 5000baht .

And at least at Changwattana it is still +/- 7 days either side of the date stamped on the receipt. If your day falls on a Saturday/Sunday, just go out there the next day theyre open. In my many, many trips out there I can't ever recall them stamping anything in passport for just a 90 day reporting.

In my many forays to both the old Bangkok Immigrations at Suan Plu and the new one out at Changwattana, I have yet to find a hard fast rule regarding when a verification of income letter from the US embassy becomes (in thai eyes) 'stale' or out of date.

I've had them accept the previous year's letters from acquaintances on numerous occasions in the past. BUT I have also had them reject the old one, request a new letter be issued too. I even had one refused when the letter was about 5 months old (but that guy got pissy with the officer and IMHO it was more a case of her making that guy do some 'hoop jumping', rather than the letter being truly 'stale').

When in doubt I always recommend a new letter, OR at the very least, suggest you call your local immigrations office to see what their take on it is.

Since switching to the "zone" immigrations offices scattered hither and yon across the country I have read reports on this forum of immigration officers taking, shall we say, some very creative license in interpreting the rules depending on the office.

Thankfully Bangkok runs pretty close to the mark. Even out there though, if you make waves, or cop a 'holier-than-thou' attitude you can quite easily be in for some extra 'hoop jumping'.

FWIW: Here's the itinerary of the US Embassy's Consular Outreach Schedule for the rest of this year and most of next too;

US Consular Outreach Schedule;

Tuesday, November 23, 2010 Khon Khaen

Wednesday, December 1, 2010 Pattaya

Friday, December 17, 2010 Phuket

Thursday, January 6, 2011 Khorat

Tuesday, March 1, 2011 Pattaya

Thursday, March 10, 2011 Udon

Wednesday, March 16, 2011 Phuket

Wednesday, June 1, 2011 Pattaya

Thursday, June 9, 2011 Khon Khaen

Thursday, June 16, 2011 Phuket

Thursday, September 1, 2011 Pattaya

Thursday, September 8, 2011 Udorn

Friday, September 16, 2011 Phuket

(Apologies this is a long post. ..)

I just went and dug the 4 previously mentioned AUA books outta my closet. Books 1, 2, 3, and that Small Talk one, all have thai on one page and the karaoke thai on the facing page, so a thai could work you thru the book. That is once you both understood the substitution drills which the books use. I personally didn't find them of particularly high value, but they're cheap enough to be worth having. I'd imagine once you get thru all three you'd certainly have at least a grasp of vocab and thai sentence structure.

I did find their Reading and Writing books good, once you got past the squirrelly handwritten type of thai font they use. It does help you start to recognize what thais look for in different fonts to discern letters and has helped me recognize much more thai written in stylized fonts.

If you can read ANY thai at all I'd also suggest a book called "Everyday Thai For Beginners" by Wiworn Kesavatana-Dohrs. I passed this book over time and again at the Kinokuniya Bookstore just based on the title, until I opened it and looked inside.

The reason I mentioned the "if you can read any thai' is the books have no 'karaoke thai' (thai written with a combination of engrish letters and funky symbols), it's only in thai with the english translation.

It has a pretty good audio C/D, and MANY exercises in each section so you can gauge your understanding. It more a situational based learning type of book.

Here's a list of the sections;

Unit 1: Getting to Know Each Other

Unit 2: Family and Relatives

Unit 3: Everyday Life

Unit 4: Time

Unit 5: Food

Unit 6: Getting Around Town

Unit 7: Running Errands.

Each unit is broken down into manageable lessons with vocab, drills and sample sentences. There are 30 different ‘lessons’ in all. They are set up like this;

Lesson 1: What is This Called?

Grammar; นี่คืออะไร, S + V + O, English loan words, Classroom expressions

Lesson 2: Hellos and Goodbyes

Grammar; อะไร, ไหม, หรือ, ใช่ไหม, ไม่ได้, แล้ว...ก็, มาก, ไม่...เลย

Lesson 3: Where Are You From?

Grammar: กับ, ไหน, นี้/นั้น/โน้น, ที่ไหน, ที่นี่/ที่นั่น/ที่โน่น

It also has TONZ of structural examples. i.e.

possessive = (Noun + ของ + Noun or Pronoun)

more than = (S + V (VP) + มากกว่า + Noun or Pronoun)

the most = (S + V (VP) + มากที่สุด)

As it's written in thai with english translations ANY thai can read the samples along with you without having them first learn to read what ever method of karaoke thai a book uses.

I think it's a great learning aid, well worth the 695 baht price tag. I still refer to it for sentence structure on words I don't use frequently.

Good luck. ..