Old Curmudgeon

Thanks, @John Drake. Instead of asking for "evidence" I should have asked, "How did you come to trust Yahoo News?" I wouldn't. It is my guess (guess only, with no hard evidence) that Yahoo and similar "mainstream news" providers are likely to be part of the hoax, if it is a hoax. And "hoax" is my starting point for this "story".

Actual evidence? Or social media echo chamber?

Was it just another hoax??? The Healthcare CEO's Murder is Another Fake. Lots of evidence at that link points to "hoax".

Thank you, @Thailand for your reply. I appreciate it. But I must ask: Did you ever actually buy DMSO there? Or see it on display? Or was your suggestion just a "shot in the dark?" Asking because when I tried to order, get this response: Also searched for DMSO. Unless I've made a mistake about this result, I am still looking for DMSO in Chiang Mai.

DMSO: Dimethylsulfoxide. Where to by "off the shelf" in Chiang Mai or nearby? Searched this forum: previous threads about 10+ years old. Bought in the past at Union Science on Suthep Road. But now "pre-order" and wait "sorry, not sure". So looking for a source likely to have DMSO in stock. 1 L. / 1 Kg. Liquid (not gel) Pharma Grade or similar. C.O.A. nice, but not essential. (so easy to fake anyway) For something like this I won't trust Laz/Shopee/AliExpress. So looking for local, CM shop that is likely to have in stock. Thank you.

Well, here we are on Page 2 of this thread. That means the value of this topic will start to evaporate. On any forum, with any serious or thoughtful topic, meaningful posts start to taper off on page 2. And by page 3 and beyond it just becomes a gaggle of monkey chatter. Not worth the effort. So I'm going to disengage here. (I'm the original poster.) I'll stop "following" this thread and won't get any more notices of new posts. If anyone wants further discussion with me about this, well, you know what to do.

Maybe I'd get better response if I posted in the forum section here for learning Thai language. But I think working together in person is the best way to approach this. Responses from expats all over Thailand would make it difficult to work by long-distance. That's why I focused on Chiang Mai.

@GammaGlobulin is 100% correct about that. It is my own idea to do this. As far as I know, it's never been tried before. But I've been doing this for about two years. Results have been good, not earth-shaking, but pretty good. So I posted here hoping to find a few others who were interested in helping each other.

Certainly. I already wrote a bit about Kaizen method above. Apparently not clear enough. It means, "continuous improvement". Everything and everywhere. A conscious attempt to make any process better, and better, and better. Kaizen method never ends, is never finished. Learning a language (or learning anything really) is a process. Hence, the commonality with process engineering. I've been applying Kaizen + Lean to my learning of Thai language. Results have been pretty good. Not stunning, but far better than results from any of several Thai language schools that I've attended. But I want better results, and faster, so I posted here to find others of like mind hoping we could help together. And there I will end my explanation of Kaizen. I did not post here to promote that. I'm only looking for other language learners who are already familiar with the Kaizen method.

Good points, all. Thanks @BangkokReady for your followup post.

Thank you, @John Drake for that analysis. Very helpful to understand the trend over time. Makes perfect sense.

So ... then ... If anyone seeing this is studying Thai at an Intermediate level, AND has experience with LEAN process improvement, I invite you to contact me by direct message.

Nope.

I've been wondering who would be the first to mention ANKI. Or to suggest flash cards. Now that's been mentioned, I hope we can return to the thread topic.

You may be surprised, but I will make the case for "Thailand Campus". Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA campus has become infested with Cultural Marxism, in all its variants. Thailand is mostly free of that, although some is seeping in. So if there is any advantage to Thailand being a "hub" for higher education, it could be that it is largely free from the afflictions dragging down Western universities.

+1 on that. And in addition, anything any government (not just Thailand) touches, eventually turns to dust. And in Thailand often leaves behind unpaid bills.

Your question about word count is reasonable, but it leads in the wrong direction. Words you already know don't matter in this process. Instead, the focus is on the words you don't know, but want / need to know. And on the process for learning them. For example: Right now I am struggling to learn / memorize / become fluent with words like these: แกล้ง ไกล่เกลี่ย พลัน ครัน ตระหนัก ระยะเวลา What method would you suggest to learn such words to a level of fluency approaching that of a college-educated native speaker? This small group will attempt to develop an efficient process for doing exactly that. Nothing like this is ever taught in Thai language schools. It can not be, because Thai culture is opposed to any concept of process improvement. If you've been here even just a short time, you've heard, "This is the way we do it." And / or, "Don't think too much." Then conversation stops there. And thinking stops there. The purpose of my little group is to expand the thinking. Thai people can't do that, because it is beyond the horizons of their psycho-epistemology. So this group is open only to foreigners who've been raised in a different culture. Japanese are intimately familiar with the concept of "Kaizen" = continuous improvement. It is a wide spread concept in their culture. I would be thrilled to find any Japanese interested in this little group.

I am NOT trying to promote, sell, or evangalize LEAN. LEAN is a method of process engineering / industrial engineering sometimes used in factories or offices. I have been using it to improve my methods of learning Thai language. This thread is to invite others to join me in doing that. In all of Northern Thailand, I'll guess there might be 4-5 other expats who have any experience with LEAN methods. 1 or 2 of those might be actively learning Thai language. It is those few that I am hoping to find on forums like this one and at Reddit, Facebook, and other social media. Learning LEAN takes a lot of time -- similar to learning a musical instrument. This group will not try to teach it. To join this group requires previous experience. Real experience applying LEAN concepts, not just reading a book or watching a video.

Good thinking. Thank you @Patong2021 for that analysis. The "unintended consequence" of a shortage of low price housing and of medical care did not occur to me, but I must agree with you about that.

It can't be that I am the only expat in the Chiang Mai area who wants to improve fluency in Thai language. But so far on this topic, not even one interested inquiry. Not one. Seemed to me like a valuable opportunity to team up with other expats nearby who are interested in learning the language to a higher level. And doing so by using an efficient and "Lean" process. But, on this thread so far, only "snarky" or un-informed replies. No serious inquiries in direct messages at all. Oh, well, I'm continuing alone, as best I can. The "Lean" method is working for me, albeit slowly and in fits and starts. And the worst part: my Thai private teachers really don't like the concept of improving the learning process. I wish they did, but that's not "how we do it in Thailand".

So, @Patong2021, are you suggesting that China might actually become the education "hub" that Thai politicians are dreaming of??

It actually would have been an interesting idea ... 20+ years ago. But now campus universities in the West are in decline, being replaced by on-line education: far more efficient and much lower cost for the students. Whenever I read the words "hub" and "Thailand" in the same paragraph of some government pronouncement, I wonder what is behind that. Does someone have a newly empty industrial estate they are desperate to sell as a university campus? Are university academic positions in Thailand so full/crowded that they need to arrange more jobs somehow? Is there some prestige/face to be gained by having a big name university put up a sign in Thailand? Or is there something else going on here behind the scenes? Thoughts, please. And that begs the question of what might be next? Probably a hub of artificial intelligence -- if it hasn't been thought of already. The problem is artificial intelligence requires a lot of human intelligence to make it work. Is Thailand a hub with an abundance of that?