jackmuu

It has also been written that people who are good at languages are not as good with numbers and vice versa.

Thai is by far the the language I am most fluent in, second only to English and it was so easy to learn but I attribute that to being in Thailand and using it daily (not through choice). I am sure it would be much harder to learn from overseas, but no more than vietnamese, tagalog, mandarin etc.

The Marriot Mayfai has better transportation options because you can choose skytrain or underground, both are close and also marriot is close to Silom area which has nightlife and the night bazaar.

Emporium suites has nice rooms but I have never been in the rooms at the Marriot.

Congrats to the posters ... only one 'phobic poster so far!

http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/G/.../gayometer.html

Should let some of the silom fairies' try this

well I AM gay ... but far from being a silom faerie .... can I guess you scored far over 26%?

Keep guessing Mary

http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/G/.../gayometer.html

Should let some of the silom fairies' try this

QUOTE

There are also several different kinds of total immersion, eg Silent Way, Direct Method, Notional-Functional, etc, so it's helpful to be more specific.

These are teaching methodologies. Since I never went to classes, how did I learn?

Not by total immersion, unless you have your own definition of the term.

So going to live in a place where aeveryone speaks that language is not immersion?

Depends who you associate with

I for one am fed up with hearing this talk, I was insulted by a motorcycle taxi driver once who thought he was safe by speaking in Issan dialect, he was wrong and was so rude I did get into a chat with him. He started puffing his chest out and his mate got involved so I beat them both. I am not proud of the fact and due to loss of face with them I was advised by Thai friends to move.If it hadn't been for the intervention of some very persuasive Thai Navy friends it might not have had a happy ending.

Moral of the story, they are a cowardly lot who will always use strength in numbers to come back at you when they lose face from being caught out trying to be clever. Don't get involved physicaly with them, they don't have the honour to deal with you man on man.

Ignore them and treat their stupid comments with the contemp they deserve. It is just ignorance. Manners are in short supply here. Once we come to terms with that it gets easier. My Thai teacher told me years ago that the majority have such a poor upbringing and education they can't be expected to realise they are being rude, she gets comments from uneducated types as well and just ignores it.

Thanks!

Back to the OP. Indian touts really wind me up. The way they extend a hand and say "hello my friend" makes me mad.

People say ignore them.

Shoving their hand into your face or a picture of chad tacky indian suits.

Hello man, hello my friend, I am not selling anything, just have a look.

Pricks, as if you are walking around on holiday with the wife, in your beachwear and some dick molests you outside his shop and all of a sudden you realise, by jove, of course, I knew I wanted to buy something today and it slipped my mind, of course i will buy one of your crappy suits.

Utter nonsense.

They invade your private space.

Where I come from, if a man and wife are walking along in conversation it is considered rude to butt in and try and sell something.

Ill mannered hawkers.

I certainly wouldn't want my kids educated here, maybe to grow up here for a few year but when the time for serious study comes it will be back to civilisation.

Thailand is ok for fun, but for raising kids I would put it low on the list, that's why most affluent thai send their kids to study overseas. Who want's a kid to start work in Thailand, in an environment where youth is taken over experience, where you are encouraged not to question superiors and bow and scrape to authority.

My kids will not suffer that indignity. Drones indeed, how can you relax in your older years knowing that you didn't give your kids the tools to survive?

They are as annoying as the ones in Pattaya and the thais' who try and sell you sex movies in silom area or panthip.

Just annoying people. Doesn't matter if they are indian, thai,queer or straight, black or white.

What taxi rip off's at the airport? I have used normal taxi's with no problem but normaly if coming back from a long journey there are signs everywhere advertising the price of a limo and that's what I pay. Where are these rip offs'?

It is extraordinary that many of the posts are stating that they have never felt unwelcome in Thailand.........that should tell you something about their ability to judge things.

For the past seven years the visa rules taking place before their eyes have been stating "you are not welcome." The same is true for the business rules.

Or maybe some are welcomed more than others.

What is not welcoming about the visa rules? The fact that they don't want people living here illegaly. not paying tax and doing monthly border runs?

What is not welcoming when I apply for a non immigrant O visa and get it back in the post 2 days later, no questions asked?

I think possibly the people that Thailand doesn't want to welcome are the same types of people that aren't really welcome anywhere.

I have never felt any anti farang sentiment, anywhere.

Maybe it is an indivdual thing.

It is not just a Thai thing. I work all over the world with people of all nationalities and we are in a job where although English is the main comms language it is not spoken or understood that well by some. There are so many accents flying around it can get quite difficult for some people. Sometimes I find it better to cut out joining words and slow down to make myself understood. Many, many times I have been told that I am very easy to undertstand.

Having said that, my wiife and I only spoke Thai together until very recently and since I have started teaching her English, I am trying to get away from bad habits. I especialy hate the Asian expresiion 'same same".

Domino's pizza, pizza in Thailand sucks.

I have never used qantas because they are always much more expensive than many other airlines.

I have a flight from Melbourne to Bangkok on Monday with Jetstar, cost $300 AUD including taxes.

Who really wants to eat the shitty airline food anyway?

I used to fly london bangkok every month and sometimes more often for 5 years, as i paid for my own ticket i always shopped around for the cheapest direct flight, never once did i fly with Quantas/BA, always at least 150 quid more than Thai/Eva ,booked through west east travel in london, even now there prices cant be bettered, and no i dont work for them ! .Iwould have liked to be a bit patriotic and fly with BA/Quantas ,but money talks, and from what im reading here i havent missed much !

It is still the same, my family is coming out in Nov and I put them onto west east and they got it 100 quid or so cheaper than anywhere else.

seen nuthin, but reliable khaki source says the jury is still out on another counter you know what.

Not going out to play tomorrow

The worst airlines are without doubt the yank airlines, united, delta, northwest etc. Utter garbage.

Won't even include african airlines, they don't even rate as airlines

correct

Your quite correct. I do indeed have one of those things and find it quite useful.

jackmuu

I like the 6 months here and 6 months there idea. That is pretty much what we did the last 6 years. A big reason for that was to spend time with my aging parents while we still have a chance. At least my wife had a chance to get to know them before thinks started to get difficult. My mother has Alzheimer's and we just got my parents moved to a retirement home where they can get the help they need. We talk daily and sent pictures but she doesn't remember all that much. Once they are gone I'm not sure why I would want to go back.

My parent's and a handfull of friends are the only reason I have to go back. But like everything else, I miss UK when I am over here and miss Thailand when I am in the UK. Sadly there is no paradise. I travel all over the world constantly and have yet to find somewhere that 'has it all'.

If anyone finds it, clue us in.

I HAVE found it, and I live here...............but I am not telling where it is...........you'll only come and spoil it!

I like Bangkok, and a like all the facilities etc. but sometimes hanker for a quieter life. If you aren't tied to bangkok, where is a nice quiet place to live but within grasp of civilisation if and when needed?

Thai is:

1) The most difficult language I've tried to learn... and

2) The most fun.

I am a native English speaker who also speaks Spanish and French, and though they are now quite rusty I have been quite capable in spoken Hindi/Urdu and Oriya. I am very comfortable with the Devanagiri character set and some of its derivatives (Oriya and Bengali, particularly). Once upon a time I could even fumble my way through market Dioula/Bambara from West Africa.

With the Devanagiri background, I jumped right into reading/writing the Thai character set because I thought its relationship with Sanskrit/Pali would help. It probably did, but not much, and mostly on an ex post facto basis, in that I can now see the connections between words like "samut", sea, and the Sanskrit/Hindi "samudra", which means the same thing. "Samut" in Thai is character for character identical to "samudra" in Hindi, it is just pronounced differently.

Coming to Thai with, say. 5.5 previous languages, I feel that in the 1.5 years I've been here I speak capably (meaning correctly and with more or less correct tones) MUCH LESS Thai than any other language after the same time and effort. Some of that is, I suppose, because I'm easing into decrepitude (59), and some of it is because of the tones, but some of it may just be that the language is difficult.

And therein lies part of the fun. While there are some fairly consistent grammatical patterns--the placement of "mai dai" before or after the verb, for example--the language and its speakers just LOVE to play with meaning and nuance.

A recent example: I was ordering coffee from some young and sassy women that work at the office coffee shop. They asked if I wanted milk with it, and I replied no, black coffee. Giggling, they said, "ooee, du meun khun S. mai chawb nom, law". Getting the joke, I replied "Phom mai chawb nom nai gafae, khrap...". They howled and the whole place turned around to see what had happened. Very fun.

My point is, however: I don't think Thai is an easy language to learn to speak well. It's grammar is very fluid, the tones are a big challenge if you are coming from a non-tonal background, and the writing system is as illogical as...say...English. But what a hoot!

I think if you have an aptitude for languages in general Thai is quite easy to learn to an acceptable standard, certainly easier than english.

I didn't show mine, only my marriage certificate.

correct

Your quite correct. I do indeed have one of those things and find it quite useful.

jackmuu

I like the 6 months here and 6 months there idea. That is pretty much what we did the last 6 years. A big reason for that was to spend time with my aging parents while we still have a chance. At least my wife had a chance to get to know them before thinks started to get difficult. My mother has Alzheimer's and we just got my parents moved to a retirement home where they can get the help they need. We talk daily and sent pictures but she doesn't remember all that much. Once they are gone I'm not sure why I would want to go back.

My parent's and a handfull of friends are the only reason I have to go back. But like everything else, I miss UK when I am over here and miss Thailand when I am in the UK. Sadly there is no paradise. I travel all over the world constantly and have yet to find somewhere that 'has it all'.

If anyone finds it, clue us in.

Hello Mat, maybe I forgot to mention that the embassy are issuing visitors visas at a percentage rate of 2.3% which is far to low a % for me to even attempt as I give money back guarantee.

To obtain a visitors visa she would have to show the following.

* Evidence of her quality employment such as a bank or government dept.

* 12 months bank statements showing her salary going in at the end of each month.

* Evidence of contact with you such as e-mails- tel bills, - money receipts sent.

* Evidence of her house / land ownership.

* Evidence of her education standards.

*

The chances are very...very low indeed.

With fiancée visa the requirements are less and the chances are 100%.

Is this at all true?? And could anybody recommend a visa agent I could use or should I apply without the use of an agent??

Many thanks

cfrmatt

Sounds like <deleted> to me mate. A friend recently went for a visa and got it no problem. So you have to be a govt. employee or work in a bank to get a visitor visa? Yeah, right.

The visa website tells you what you need to provide and it doesn't even mention her financial records, only those of the sponsor. Forget the agent dude, they are a rip off.

The current view is to stay in Thailand. I can work fro anywhere and my wife wants to stay here.

The one thing at the back of my mind is if we have a kid. I know a couple of europeans who have gone back home with family for a couple of years just so that the children become bilingual and get a better education. I could actually teach my child more than any school around here - rather depends if they get infected with the 'lazy bug'.

rych