kiakaha

"visas" and "permit of stay extensions" are not the same thing people. It aint that hard to get the terminology correct.

and coincidentally ( or maybe that's the subtle joke ? ) happy birthday in thai is สุขสันต์วันเกิด (sook sun wun gert)

My wife has thai ethnicity(her thai parents immigrated to New Zealand in the 1970's), but she is born/raised/educated in NZL, just,like me, is 100% Kiwi and can speak thai about as well as Tiger Woods .

I can empathise with you on some bizzare situations that can occur here in Thailand.

Just laugh it off, cos after all, thats all it is, laughable.

From a legal perspective in respect of the proper noun that is used formally in thai law, official documents(banking etc...) you will read the word ชาวต่างประเทศ used most often. This means foreigner which is also a synonym for alien.

Ok kiakaha is a fortune teller but i don't have that skill of predicting the future.

So someone grabs you from behind and sticks a knife to your throat could you predict that?

you SO completely did not get/understand my point.

Good luck with your violence, weak mindedness and lack of self control.

Do your own thing OP the shadow-scared brigade are just up in arms at someone defending themselves.

who's smarter : the guy who wins the bar fight or the guy who predicts the fight coming, leaves before it starts and is happily drinking at another bar within minutes ?

my mind works on the premise of predicting outcomes, what is my "end game" and what are the possible courses of action that can get me there.

in thailand, your mind is a far more effective weapon than your fist.

Tailors were grabbing the OP's arm (nothing new, thats what they do, earth to mars).... the OP chose to "knock one out"...did you ponder any other courses of action ?

Have other poeple had the same experience? and if so what is the best way to react?

1) walk down the other side of the rd.

2) cap, shades and earphones

Its hard to tell, as i dont speak the lingo.

Anyway, I think the g/f has some sort of speech impediment - keeps saying Kwai all the time.

dudmeuster, next time when your g/f saying....kwai, listen carefully. When the Thais using the word 'kwai' referring to somene, it is usually in the derogatary terms, sorry have to say right out.

I'll give some examples, these are commonly used in everyday life by the Thais:

"Daam-muan-kwai" = As dark (skin) as the buffalo. You know most Thais worship light skin.

"Keekiet-muan-kwai" = As lazy as the buffalo.

" Ngo-muan-kwai" = As stupid idiot like the buffalo.

Word of warning, better not say "Ngo-muan-kwai" to any Thai male, he might send you on the trip to a hospital. Most Thais feel very offended especially with this expression . Well, I guess it the same we call someone 'A Pig' in the US.

G54 got about right, as he put it ...."that's why she is my ex..." , me thinks G54 must be have a deep root of Thai language culture. HE certainly can take care himself.

If the guy cant read & speak thai to a decent level how could he possibly determine whether his gf/wife is saying ไกว , ไขว่ , ไขว้ or ควาย These words on their own all mean something different and also put into phrases/contexts can mean many different things (actually the word for "buffalo" is one of the easiest because it is one of the consonant rhymes you learn when reciting the thai alphabet)

Regarding "Ngo"..I presume you mean โง่ , i reckon this consonant (ง) has to be the hardest/most unnatural to come to grips with , amateur speakers usually fall back to a ( ห ) sound, which can make for some interesting spoken faux pas So best to leave the "Ngo" phrases alone until you've mastered the oral gymnastics to pronounce it.

trying to source barbed wire - will need a few kilometers of it.

in the dogbox with the wife ?

I know this web thing is tricky, you'll get there. you can search for stuff and find it, really cool eh

plug ? what chemicals are you on , the guy wanted to watch scottish rugby, i suggested a place i've seen often (soi 22 is the shortcut i take from rama 4 up to sukh, and after 13 years here, i pretty much have a permanent mental snapshot of that entire soi's shopfronts)

but hey, there i go, using my brain again, gets you in trouble here. screw being helpful anymore.

Your a little touchy don't ya think? I have a friend who makes maps, let me know if you'd like me to hook you up with a decent price, you could even post it in this thread, that would be helpful for everyone..

Touchy...hmm..well try thinking before you type inane, baseless posts in response to someone who's simply trying to help out.

I have a friend too, his name is Google Maps...haha....the repeat irony is giving me stomach knots

what do they mean by farang ? ... caucasians (correctly) or foreigners (incorrectly) ? my wife can drink, she is from new zealand but ethnically asian, she'd win hands down

I guess most of the Thais I've encountered use the term incorrectly.

and I'm sure the thais you encounter(the literate ones anyone) could tell you what ชาวต่างประเทศ means

I found it by entering "twenty two bar bangkok". It's from the page http://www.bangkokeyes.com/2006nov01.html

Velly good... Well, its still a shameless plug. I've driven down there 100's of times and have not once noticed it Times must be hard I guess.

I know this web thing is tricky, you'll get there. you can search for stuff and find it, really cool eh

plug ? what chemicals are you on , the guy wanted to watch scottish rugby, i suggested a place i've seen often (soi 22 is the shortcut i take from rama 4 up to sukh, and after 13 years here, i pretty much have a permanent mental snapshot of that entire soi's shopfronts)

but hey, there i go, using my brain again, gets you in trouble here. screw being helpful anymore.

Again I offer my advice that will increase the net profit without being racist.

Oh, calm down you big poof. Do you also go around all the venues that have ladies nights and claim they are being genderist ?

what do they mean by farang ? ... caucasians (correctly) or foreigners (incorrectly) ? my wife can drink, she is from new zealand but ethnically asian, she'd win hands down

Not sure I would be bragging about that mate

you've obviously never met any kiwi chicks, because if you had you realise I was just pointing out the obvious

what do they mean by farang ? ... caucasians (correctly) or foreigners (incorrectly) ? my wife can drink, she is from new zealand but ethnically asian, she'd win hands down

There is a Scottish bar on Soi 22, not too far from Cowboy. Never been there, but driven past it a million times.

Super convenient that you have a picture then, don't ya think?

Yes, the Google Image search is super convenient ... LOL right back at you.

http://www.bangkokeyes.com/twenty2bar.jpg

googling the instrument , leads to wikipedia page , leads to info about Johnny Olsen , leads to his myspace page , where you could ask him(an award winning virtuoso) where the finest kaen can be bought

I work with thais who over the years have come up with many cutting edge innovations and approaches in high technology..although not formally patented, the "inventions" get swallowed up and built into the larger product. None the less, I have experienced and witnessed first hand the thai "inventive mind" , which is the important thing given that all inventions start off as a thought.

It may be a legal point, that doesn't mean a lot, but they are not technically discriminating against a foriegner as long as they simply comply with the Thai legal requirements for a foriegner to work in Thailand. They can say it's not discrimination, they are just following the Thai labor law.

There are some occupations a foriegner can legally work at in Thailand. If a person was in Thailand not on a Tourist visa (which does not permit work) couldn't he/she work in one of those permitted occupations without a work permit? Let's say a student who was here on a Education visa, who wanted to work at a part time job to earn a few extra Baht, as an example.

I'm not a lawyer, I'm just wondering.

At any rate, the company can always claim it's not discrimination, as long as they are only complying with the Thai labor law.

Any work in Thailand, including volunteer work, requires a Work Permit. On an educational visa you are not allowed to work, WP or not.

the only exception i know of is those foreigners working as diplomats in thailand.

Its always been my plan to retire back in my home country, and i will. I'm only working in thailand because i can bank more dollars (net savings after expenses) than in the west.

Do you think they speak highly of you or as some idiot foreigner?

No, wife and I are both from the same country

There are a few thousand farang permanent residents but certainly not many farang immigrants who have been granted Thai citizenship.

There's a quota on how many foreign nationals of each country are given Thai citizenship each year and the numbers are very low indeed for Western countries (in the dozens I believe).

I'd also suggest that "farang" are the minority percentage of "foreigners" with permanent residency or grants of citizenship

Some poster say we are all guests here, but that is not true. Many Farangs have everything they own here, they live and work here, family, house etc and they do not want to leave. Such a place is called home.

When you've got a stamp in your passport that says NON-IMMIGRANT or TOURIST that's what you are.

Just because you want to be something badly doesn't automatically make it so.

Its worth noting that many foreigners also have an IMMIGRANT Visa (also known as permanent residency)

i have never heard a farang speak like a native thai. not even andrew biggs or any other farang on tv.

i apppreciate the effort they put in, but 20 year expat heros who claim to speak obscure dialects or claim to 'waal isaan' still speak 'mai chat'.

polite thai is essential to learn.

Really, I've heard a lot.

I too have heard foreigners speak like a native thai, indistinguishable accent. I also know countless foreigners who can read and write exceptionally well where many native thais are illiterate or have very poor reading/writing skills.

Heard a lot eh? On the bar stool in Sukhumvit Soi 4 eh? Real good thai being spoken there I bet.

No, I've been working here 13 years and the last time i heard a foreigner speak thai like a native thai speaker was in a lecture to an auditorium of 100+ thais, subject matter being the industry we are employed in. Given that my thai (reading and speaking) is at about มัธยม ๓ level, I have a fairly accurate opinion on what I hear.

I can tell you for nothing, speaking as an adsense recipient, that work-permits for adsense cheques will be near-nonexistant for most folk, unless they head major website building companies.

Most in the adsense seen are independents who aren't keen to dive into the beauracracy of thai law

Exactly, flying under the radar. Bit of a catch 22 then isn't it(breaking the law, but seek protection under the law), file a police report and you pop up on the radar, heck you even walk into the radar monitoring station and declare your presence and vital statistics