Bday Prang

And normally there is nothing like a topic like this to bring out the virtue signalling woke But your battle cry appears to have landed on deaf ears,They must all be busy taking offence somewhere else, Somewhere more worthy perhaps? You would probably be better off joining them , if you haven't already, afterall , virtue signalling is a group participation activity, It won't be much fun for you on your own

in english ?

I doubt much would happen in the UK. where it's quite normal for a political party to promise the electorate many things secure an election victory and then having secured victory they then break every promise they make. Its really not that different to the scenario Bob mentions in the OP.

I had a dream the other week, I dreamt I had returned to Thailand from the UK and accidently brought somebody else's debit card rather than my own, luckily it belonged to a trusted friend and was for a UK account that he rarely used. The simplest way we could think of to get me instant access to much needed cash was for him to tell me the PIN code and for me to use the card for ATM with drawls in Thailand as if it was my own, whilst funding the account appropriately from my own UK account via internet banking. All was going well until an ATM at a 7/11 swallowed my card , at which point I woke up!

I didn't think about facebook, etc. probably because I never use any of those platforms, My mrs, who's default setting amongst friends and family is generally set to Khmer only ever posts in Thai, as do all her khmer speaking mates, probably because they all have non khmer speaking friends who would have no idea what they were saying, Unlike Issan Lao t here is no similarity at all between Thai and Khmer The Khmer speakers also had Thai imposed on them, my mrs tells me that they would get their knuckles rapped if they were heard speaking it at school. I guess it makes sense that everybody in a country the size of Thailand should have a common language, but in my view Its almost bit sad when a language dies out. I guess somebody agrees, because these days it seems to be be almost quite fashionable to speak Khmer in southern issan, some schools even advertising that they teach it, but I'm not sure if they teach the Thai or Cambodian version There are a few road signs and other notices written in Khmer script around Surin , but they are for the benefit of the many Cambodian nationals who come and go on a daily basis often to visit the hospitals or supermarkets. We have been to Cambodia many times, my mrs can make her self understood in "Real" khmer and gets the jist of what they are saying but only just, but I think her shyness is a serious hinderance, fortunately for me many speak good english and many seem to understand Thai The khmer script to me appears unreadable.

I've noticed sometimes the site can have problems loading up, Its working for me at the moment

When would you need to write "issan Lao" ? the only possible reason I could think of was for writing the lyrics for a Morlam song or maybe writing the script for the slap stick comedy show that normally accompanies the live performance of such. Surely , as you say, it would be a transliteration, and there is no official dictionary so the spelling would be somewhat arbitrary at best, similar to Isan , Issan , Isarn, Esarn if you get my drift. I live in a village in Surin province only small but with three distinct sectors divided by language There's the Issan Lao speakers, The Khmer speakers and Suaii speakers. I don't think the Suai language has ever been written, None of the Khmer speakers can read or write Cambodian and as the Surin Khmer "language" differs significantly to that spoken in Cambodia I doubt the Khmer alphabet would be much use to them even if they could. The Khmer spoken here differs from province to province, and can differ from village to village The only examples of transliterated written Thai Khmer I have ever seen is on Kantreum and Jarieng music videos The same goes for written issan lao. I only ever saw it on Morlam videos as far as I can remember The number in the village speaking Khmer seems to be dying out slowly, For my Inlaws at 80 years old it is there normal day to day language although they both speak and read / write Thai It's strange seeing them watch the news in Thai and then talking about it in Khmer My mrs and her siblings nearly always speak Khmer with their parents and seem to speak either with each other swapping and changing at will, sometimes mid sentence I often hear one asking something in Thai and the other replying in Khmer. They are all capable of speaking Issan Lao to the neighbours when req'd None of the next generation in the family speak Khmer to any degree but I do hear them use the occasional Khmer words They seem to use Issan Lao a lot more, possibly as its closer to "Thai" than Khmer Unfortunately when I'm there they need to speak Thai to me if they want to have any chance of being understood, My Khmer is pretty much non existent and since I left KhonKaen around 20 years ago I have pretty much forgotten the little issan lao I ever knew

Attitude comes into it as well, the older people get the more they end up almost fighting the language, "why do they say it like that" "why do they say things the wrong way round" sort of thing

Meanwhile back in the UK We may end up with the political party that we vote for BUT, there is no obligation for that party to follow their pre election manifesto, they can and will, just do what they want . Same Same but different?

"transactions via mobile banking" so that would imply its just the app

Well that is one of life's mysteries, Similar to "why do we rarely see dead rats or pigeons" or "what do immigration do with all the copies we give them" In this case she probably just got carried away on her mobile phone and lost track of time, or was it time to "gin khao" and she didn't tell you she was going to lunch

That's good to know, Its years since I called the UK. I'm sure it was a lot more expensive than that

Isn't that only for those who use the "app" ? or is it now for everybody

I don't think a random unconnected photo enhances a story anymore than a video enhances a song

Slightly off topic but whilst on the subject of banks , I attempted to send some money over from my UK account to my BBL account on monday. something I've done dozens of times with out any dramas but which I never really relish doing just because of the potential for something to go wrong All went well until I pressed the confirm button, then the screen on my laptop seemed to freeze, I instinctively knew something was wrong, and sure enough a few seconds later a banner flashed up saying "transaction unsuccessful please contact your bank" I then tried to view my statement online, just to be sure, but another message flashed up telling me that internet access to the account had now been locked. I then received about 4 text messages one after the other telling me that they were carrying out checks and would contact me within the hour, and then a few minutes later a text asking me to call the anti fraud hotline. About an hour later when I had finally edged my way along the queue an anti fraud woman asked me some security questions, quite a lot actually, and ostensibly tried to engage me in conversation. Whilst "chatting" to her I tried to ask what the problem was but she was pretty evasive, mumbling something about suspicious activity, sending money abroad, she asked if i'd sent money to Thailand before, I told her she had just asked me when I last sent money to Thailand as one of the security questions, she ignored me and asked why I did so ! I just told her I was married and had the normal responsibilities and she hummed and haad in agreement, but all the time I could hear her typing away in the back ground as if she was typing down everything I said When I asked her about that she denied it and claimed she was just filling in some details on a form After 10-15 minutes she lifted the block and all was sorted but I still think there was something strange about the whole experience, luckily I'm in the UK at present , had I been in Thailand the phone call would have bankrupted me, although she did say that I might have been able to claim it back from the bank.

i don't think it matters when you actually do it , but its a lot easier if you have your old passport as well as your new one when you eventually do. Personally I don't like dealing with people like bank employees , I put them in the same group as the "uniformed people"a little authority goes to their head, and they will make up imaginary rules to suit themselves, or just out of spite. I have never been able to master the art of grovelling to those who feel they are superior in the way that Thais have, so I try to keep my banking activities limited to the ATM whenever possible

Well in my misinformed and totally unqualified opinion correct vocal delivery and enunciation are all part of fluency when it comes to speaking , but, maybe all these hi level Thai speakers are concentrating on the wrong aspects of those rather complex details That would go some way to explaining why a seventy year old with no teeth having consumed a bottle of lao Khao or a 6 tear old kid in the midst of a screaming tantrum is still more clearly understood than the best non native speaker There may be something in what you say about voice box development but i think on the whole I think its brain development that is the biggest hindrance as it becomes more difficult to think in a foreign language as ones thought processes get more deeply ingrained. Either way youth is a huge advantage When I think back to how they tried to teach us french at at school and the way they try to teach kids english here I think that traditional teaching methods certainly need to be looked at. Nobody learnt to speak their mother tongue from a book , or from sitting in a class room in front of a supposedly highly qualified Dr of linguistics, endlessly conjugating verbs. They learn the essentials from their mothers, and are pretty much sorted to a level a foreigner will never reach, by the time they start school at 4 or 5 years of age. They make a big fuss about language teachers needing a degree or whatever, I reckon they would be better off just employing mothers

Nah, it was a brave attempt but the dementia was too far advanced for that

You've bought a tank? nice one

And all whilst refusing to return to the office, Well done ! But , what level of scrutiny do these applications actually receive (at a rate of one every six seconds), whilst working from home , which actually really just means whilst watching porn at the same time

You don't get it at all, the concerns about immigration have little to do with "colour" and everything to do with the uncontrolled invasion of unidentified military age males who are all followers of the religion of peace that we are currently are experiencing. Thai females are not military age muslim men, and historically, have never instigated a terrorist attack in the UK. So, no debate needed at all is there. Or, do you still not get it?

Ok then , what makes a drugs bust "major" and why ?

What on earth are you talking about, Road Safety and appeasing Thaksin are the responsibilities of different government departments. Do you not understand that the two issues are completely separate matters, and in no way mutually exclusive.

No shortage of reports about the new hospitality initiative https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/labour-accused-of-putting-illegal-migrants-ahead-of-britons-in-housing-queue/ar-AA1okxfM Personally I don't think its anything new, its been going on for years. I think the "government appointed contractors" are struggling to find suitable accommodation. Nothing but the best is now acceptable for our guests following complaints about standards by people who appear to have left a life of luxury behind them to get to the UK. or rather complaints made on their behalf by the lawyers we provide for them

Starmer always has an expression on his face that implies he's just poked his finger through the toilet paper