Scottish Thailander

Whilst we're on the subject, where are dental schools? I think CMU has one.

I think Ramkhamhaeng University has one.

ST.

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I don't have any idea about tuition at dentists' schools, but I do know that the lower-end public unis can be about 10-20K a term- up to several hundred thou a year for the better private programs- would guess an average dentist school tuition would be somewhere in the middle.

Thanks for that. We have friends whose daughter is studying at high school here in Australia, as a fee-paying overseas student, and she wants to study dentristy. The annual fees are of the order of AUD 56000 - which is a lot of THB. So maybe she would be far better off going back to LOS to study.

Only personal experience to go on (and that of the Thai mrs and family) but I have found that Thai dentists prefer to extract teeth to doing any work. When they can do the work it is usually only the very simple stuff. Mention a root canal or something we take as given a dentist could do and they all panic, say they can't do it and send you to a dental hospital or another dentist who has trained abroad.

If she wants good training therefore, I suggest she bites the bullet ( ) and finds the money to continue there.

Hope that is of some help.

ST

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... maybe I should have typed "try to catch FISHES with both hands"

'Try to catch a fish in each hand'

Thanks Richard W. I had originally thought of that translation but it lacks the ambiguity of the original literal translation (catch fish, hands two), and the ambiguity, and what I hoped was, a sense of humour in my second translation,(partly about many so-called know-it-alls who would argue "fishes" is wrong when in fact it is/has been often used in English, quite correctly).

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What's wrong with 'yeah'?

Have you looked at the what we are doscussing? Is 'yeah' a word?

I must admit that I also use "yeah", definately more than I use "doscussing"! Is that when tramps swear?

The AUA reading and writing books, if they are still available, have chapters on how to develop your handwriting as well.

Meadish,

Do you (or anyone else) have the AUA audio set that goes with the set of old books that I can "borrow" to check it out. It is not available at AUA anymore and the USA university that bought the rights to it wants a fortune on thir web site for the cd set. I want to see how good it is.

ST

You can access the whole course via:

http://202.29.13.94/courseware/

It has a creative common license and it's an excellent course!

Thanks a lot!

I don't think I'm overstating the case (?) when I say this is the BEST beginners material I have ever seen. This is going to be my first recommendation to anyone who asks me how to start learning Thai. It's got it all. Thai script, activities, animations, sound (with excellent quality and crystal clear pronunciation). A truly superb resource. If it wasn't free, you'd buy it!

So you like this then SW? I know it's self study vs' classroom study, but how does it compare to the Walen method? DON'T answer that......I think I can guess your answer.

ST.

... the Thai wording is ambiguous so you could read it either way....

Softwater,

So is the English (ambiguous, that is)..... When I said, in my first post...

"try to catch fish with both hands" = an impossible task. often used about a man chasing two women at the same time who will therefore end up with neither

... maybe I should have typed "try to catch FISHES with both hands"

Ps. Does it say anything about how we think about, what we see in, others behaviour when you compare my example which cited men's , and yours which cited women's?

ST

จับปลาสองมือ อธิบายเป็นภาษาอังกฤษอย่างไร

"try to catch fish with both hands" = an impossible task. often used about a man chasing two women at the same time who will therefore end up with neither

ST

Thanks for the suggestions guys Being able to play it back slower on iPod sounds great - do I have to move it to a new folder to change it to a audio book, or just change the extension?

Depending what format you have the files in now you can just rename the extension (I think .m4a to .m4b was just a simple rename), or (if the rename doesn't work - as your files are not compatable) look for a free file converter on the web. After renaming/converting you then have to add them again to your library so that the new status gets updated.

Good luck, and happy slow listening.

ST

Highly recommended: changkhui.com, the ช่างคุย podcast station.

It has at least a dozen different Thai-language podcasts on a variety of topics.

Here's their page with RSS feeds for each program: http://www.changkhui.com/Thai_iTunes_and_RSS.html

Thanks Rikker, I finally looked this one up on iTunes today - pretty cool... they really do have a lot of different topics to subscribe to... I'm glad I have 16 gb iPhone LoL...

I wonder if anyone knows a program I can use to slow down the playback with good sound quality? I am using VCL media player, but the sound really sounds like crap when I slow it down, but maybe it's always going to be like that.

Save them as "audiobook" format (with Apples own iPod audiobook file type suffix ".m4b", NOT ".m4a") before you dowload to your iPod and then the iPod lets you choose the playback speed from a small number of presets (From memory, I think the presets are something like v.slow, slow, normal, fast, v.fast; but only used this function a couple of times).

ST.

Does anyone know of a decent Taekwondo school in Bangkok that isn't geared completely towards children?

Seems like all the grandmasters that were in or from Thailand moved to the US and opened schools there. LoL

If I can't find this... is it possible to study Muay Thai on a casual basis without having to be at a live-in school?

Don't know if it's for kids only or not but there is a TKD school in Esplanade Ratchada.

Muay Thai.....Yes, easy, lots all over the place. If you can speak a little Thai even easier and cheaper.

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There are many companies/individuals already using the FSI site info to produce and sell "FSI" packages to people unaware that this (these) site(s) exist. If you are putting in all the effort to improve it for the benefit of all then I think it would be a shame to allow others to abuse your intent and use the new work for their own commercial advantage/profit. Have you thought how you would prevent this? Or would you be happy to allow it?

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Moved to Teaching in Thailand Forum, where even teachers have to show some respect.

PeaceBlondie

Loved it. Your wit keeps me .........

Keep it up.

Try skipping the front page...worked for me.

Thanks. How do i do that? I tried adding /thai to the address but got a 'no such page' error.

Rikker beat me to it.

About the two sites hosting FSI courses:

www.fsi-language-courses.com was the first. The guy who started it "disappeared" (no one can contact him), so it's no longer updated, and materials newly digitized by site users can't be added.

www.fsi-language-courses.org was started to mirror the old site, but also to add new materials digitized since the old one disappeared. This should be considered the "main" site now, since it contains many new additions not on the original one. It was started by users from the old site, I believe.

Some idiot has decided to take down the second of these two links with a hack. Can only hope the gov'ts new focus on internet crime catches the children repsonsible and sends them on a behavioural modification course involving a size 10 kick up the backside. Pathetic.

Agreed. Pathetic.

Try skipping the front page...worked for me.

I've been mulling this over through the morning. .....

i. using colloquial spelling where necessary is an accurate and faithful rendition of the original FSI phonetic text (and the intent of the original authors), which itself is faithful to real spoken Thai.

ii. since you can't learn to read/write Thai from FSI (there's no pedagogy for learning reading), the Thai script's function is mostly reading practice for those that have already acquired the basic elements of Thai writing. Therefore, I think Rikker's point that colloquial spelling could be harmful, if true, is probably not an issue. You would need to have already learned the basics to use the Thai text in FSI.

.........

OK, I've convinced myself. Anyone else?

SW,

I may be an exception as I want to keep an academic slant to my acquisition of Thai (as well as be aware and use colloquial in everyday street use, of course), but here is my tuppence worth anyway:-

I agree with you in (i) above but again, the original was always (as far as I can see) intended to be only a spoken tutorial and writing would be covered seperately. If people are to (later) read out fomal documents they will likely want to (depending on the audience) read it out as if it was written colloquially, therefore, I would agree with Desi's suggestion...

ไหม (มั้ย)

Put the colloquial Thai in parentheses with a note somewhere explaining the reason.

... that way they see the formal 'written' form and the colloquial 'spoken' form side by side which I think would be beneficial.

As for point (ii)...

... There may be better ways, but one use of the two scripts together would be for those that, like me, and apparently (the latter part) you,

there's a lot of people like me who would use a resource like this ... to practice and perfect pronunciation.

... who would use a resource like this to learn (by comparison/wrote, I take your point on the 'no pedagogy') and practice 'correctly toned' reading and vocab, and to practice and perfect pronunciation.

As I said, maybe a minority (and I understand minorities can not always be catered for), but, there are so few well transcribed scripts with good audio to practice with that I think it would be a shame to miss the opportunity to include both versions in this project.

Selfish? Maybe!

You guys will be doing the legwork so the ultimate decision is obviously yours. Whatever the outcome, I appreciate all the work you guys will be doing on this. Thanks.

Have you tried Smyth's 'Teach Yourself Thai'? This is the one that cracked tone for me. I'd failed to really get my head round it from a couple of previous attempts with other materials, but after putting in some concentrated study (not more than a couple of weeks) with Smyth, I never even think of the rule anymore; I just 'see' the tone automatically when I read the word.

Will give it a try, thanks.

a decision would need to be made about whether to try to reproduce something that looked identical to the original FSI text with the Thai added to the phonetic (thus doubling the download size, but providing everything needed in one complete text) or producing a stand-alone text that supplemented the original (thus keeping the thai script version separate for those that aren't interested in it or for those who are ONLY interested in it, but losing the benefit of a complete learning resource in one package).

Any thoughts on any of this?

From my experience of going through many different schools teaching Reading, they have all failed to teach me to apply the correct tone by recognition of the consonant class and application of the appropriate rule(s) (I can work it out slowly but not at reading speed), therefore, my vote would be for the Thai text alongside the transcript (even though I actually only really want/need the transcript's tone marker) to help me read the word aloud with the correct tone(s). I assume there may be many others with the same tone recognition problems, and of course those learning alone would also benefit from seeing both together. As you said, it would provide "the benefit of a complete learning resource in one package".

If you get the 3 (or more) volunteers an complete this then I am sure many people would be extremely thankful; I definately would.

Good luck.

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I'm all for this boy getting to go compete with his paper plane, and for him getting Thai citizenship if he was born in Thailand.

Next.......

Has anyone considered the "other" (if I can say this with the disputed nationality issue) Thai boy who will, I assume be a little upset too if Mong now gets to turn up and replace him in representing Thailand. I assume each country is only allowed ONE representative.

More tears to come?

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Wow- finally a positive for Thailand-as posted by the op common sense prevails for a change!

OOOOPS!

Then why is he currently on TV crying his eyes out because the refused him permission and let another "Thai" boy go in his place.

Feel sorry for the lad. Living a lousy existence, offered hope as he excelled, and then "down-trodden again by Thai officialdom.

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I would recommend ภาษาไทย ม๑ where, in the first chapter everything you need to know about the fundementals is covered, with an illustration.

Tgeezer, (or Desi, if you have it)

There seem to be lots of books labelled "ภาษาไทย ม๑" but most are test type books without the instruction parts. Can you name the publisher, or better still, post a picture of the cover for me please?

Thanks,

ST.

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Could someone give me advice. I'm thinking of starting up my own Golf Touring Company. These will be trips to Thailand for 8, 12 & 16 people for 8,10 & 12 days. Staying at Pattaya and playing golf at the surrounding Golf Clubs.

copperkerferd - don't do it. It is really not that easy. Have a look at 1. the TAT licenced golf tour companies here 2. the tour companies that do golf 3. the bars that do golf (17 at last count) and last but not least Pattaya Sports Club.

It takes a long time time to build up clients and to keep them coming.

Is it really that difficult?? This would be bringing Australians accross to Thailand to play golf.

Putting them up in Hotels and transporting them to the Golf Clubs.

Don't forget that foreigners can not set up and operate anything like this alone as anything "tourism" related falls under the "restricted" (to Thais) occupation list. The process of setting up a company US/UK/Aus/etc. style may not be that difficult; it is the red tape rules and reg.'s, and the Thai jealousy and copying that will likely will make it difficult to get up and running, and after that, stay profitable. I would advise doing a lot more thorough research before investing your money in this.

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Ramkhamhaeng offer a weekend course, or if you want to do Masters try King Mongkuts in North Bangkok.

Dhurakibundit is also another one close to you.

Beano,

Are you sure you are not confusing the post-grad Diploma with a BA at Ram. As far as I am aware Ram (for courses taught in English in IIS) only has "full time" undergrad courses. The weekend Teaching diploma is a weekend course but as it is "post-grad" they require proof of a completed degree before you can register on it.

Mark,

You will see that a degree from Ram IS acceptable outside of Thailand, ignore other misinformed posts.

Secondly.....

NOTE that if you do not want to have to jump through additional hoops after completing your bachelor degree then you do not just need any bachelor degree, a BA is not good enough. You need a B.Ed.. According to current rules a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) alone is not guaranteed to satisfy the current Thai regulations (you currently have to spend a further 8 months part-time doing the post-grad diploma mentioned above), but a Bachelor in Education (B.Ed) is and will minimise any problems or additional hoop-jumping for Thai officials in the short and long term future. There are less of these available in the uni's (in English taught programmes) and they are only available in limited "education" related subjects, so, like many others, you may still choose to do a BA and hoop-jump as that currently works (at least till the next-tightening up of the regulations). If I could do it again I think I'd choose a B.Ed. just to be on the safe side. As you are starting out, who knows what hoops will be in place in three or so year's time when you graduate?

ALL,

Yes I know you CAN get a job with a BA or less but officially as far as I am aware a B.Ed. is the officially quoted minimum.

Good luck, and happy course hunting.

I am doing my CV like this:

Profile: bit about me and my situation

Then straight into my employment history with is all in the field of IT.

Then I am listing my qualifications including my degree and TEFL cert.

Is there anything I can add to it to make it more teacher-y or do they expect this type of CV from people with no relevant exerpeince?

Also, should I put a photo in my in the Word document?

Thanks.

HalfSquat

Don't do it that way. As you have not really got any real teaching experience, do a "skills" style CV and then you can easily highlight the skills and experience that you have gained that are teacher/teaching related. Search the web, visit the library, or a good bookshop to see how to format a "skills" style CV.

Good luck.

Hello Friends

I'm back in the states right now and having withdrawals from the hot food. I'm trying to make that simple fiery sauce they give you at all the food courts or small restaurants off the beaten path.

It's just the little red and green phrik khi nu peppers sliced thin in some kind of clearish liquid. It is Soooooo Hot!!! My Wife says the liquid is Soy Sauce but all we have here in USA is Kikoman or La Choy soy sauce..really dark and salty and not so good.

I see lots of recipes for Chili Lime sauce and Chili fish sauce but they not the same..Any Ideas all you hard core Thai food fans?

Maybe you mean Prik Nam Plaa?

4 md Clove Garlic, Finely Chopped

1/4 c Fish Sauce (Naam Plaa)

1 tb Hot Red Chili Or Cayenne Pepper Flakes, Crushed**

1/2 c White Sugar

1 c Warm Water

6 tb Fresh Lime Juice

**To make it authentic, you should use Thai Prik Kii Nuu (Mouse Shit Peppers)

Yield: 1 3/4 Cups Of Sauce

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