Krillin

Thailand has already won that title.

Well, gee, what changes have taken place during the past few decades in the UK which might suggest a possible cause? Or is the UK the same as it was fifty years ago?

This must be stopped.

That's a...

Asking the real questions.

Sexpats and chilis in every other dish.

Thank you for your rational, calm answer.

I'm realizing that neither of you guys on either side seem to be informed enough to give reasonable answers. None of you actually have teenage children living in Thailand, do you? None of you are high school teachers, are you? Sorry I asked.

Hmm. So, it's not genetic. It's environmental. Anyway, guys, can we please lower the heat in here? The original questions have been left largely untouched.

What's your line of work?

I have a delicate question, and I in no way mean to ruffle anyone's feathers. I do not want to inspire any discussions that devolve into a verbal fist-fight. I have observed that roughly 10%-20% of the local student body cross-dresses and use alternative pronouns when speaking in English. Approximately 40% of the student body openly identify as LGBTQ. Here are my questions: 1.) What percentage of this is due to peer pressure? 2.) What percentage continue to live like this as adults? 3.) Would these people face discrimination from society if they decided that their previous ways of dressing and acting had been "a phase?" 4.) How do Thai parents typically react to their children cross-dressing or identifying as LGBTQ? Thank you for answering and avoiding heated arguments and for respecting the rules of the forum.

@123Stodg Would you please describe exactly how big the age gap here is? And, how are you, physically? Are we talking about a physically healthy, 22-year-old girl in the prime of her life and, theoretically, a mordibly obese, 60-year-old divorced man nearing the end of his? Or, are you a rare genetic lottery winner who's in his fifties but looks like he's in his 30s and who has no health problems at all, no drug addictions, no smoking habits... no grandkids...? Those kinds of factors are important. If it's the former, it really seems difficult to believe that you're anything but an ATM she has to sleep with to get money out of. But if it's the former, it would be a different story.

Within the confines of Thai law, what could a strong foreign man witnessing this sort of beating do? Would he get arrested for trying to interfere? Because, it would be extremely difficult to see that and walk away.

I find the reverse is also true: looking at 20-70 year-olds, it's the middle-aged folks who are the least consumed with righteous indignation. Those in their 20s are just as righteously indignant and dismissive of others' viewpoints as Maher, perhaps more. And that's because it's the people at either end of that age range who are the biggest targets of media propaganda. The media have brainwashed youngins to think that, as he says in the clip, "men can have babies," and that Palestinian militants would approve of the way that young liberals live their lives in the US. (Thanks to those fools, we got Trump Part II and now the nation is screwed. They straight-up convinced the entire nation that those were two of the most important issues facing the country, and so the majority of the country said to them 'No, thank you.' Thank you sooooooooo much, young liberals.) Meanwhile the elderly have been brainwashed by FOX News, News Nation, etc., to think that, for instance, Trump is a competent genius, and that poverty, violence, and drug abuse in the US would somehow lessen if only all of the Hispanics were kicked out of the country or sent to off-shore prisons. Insanity. And both of those extremes have been convinced that they are absolutely right and the other group is absolutely wrong. Pawns, minions, and drones, the lot of them.

This does seem like the sort of thing a colonized people would do. I'm not (re: legal) saying that it is a colonized people, but this is colonized behaviour.

So basically, is it legal or illegal to order Melatonin online and have it shipped to my address here in Thailand without a prescription? Some on here have said that they were able to do this without any problem, and that the Thai doctor friends they knew said it would be okay. However, if I put the question, "is melatonin legal in Thailand" into the Google search box, I get this: Melatonin is not legal in Thailand as a dietary supplement, but it is legal when prescribed by a doctor and dispensed by a pharmacist. It is classified as a drug in Thailand and requires medical supervision. Additionally, melatonin is not allowed to be used as a food ingredient in Thailand, according to the Food Act B.E. 2522. I do not want to spend any time in a Thai jail or explaining myself to any authorities. So, bottom line, once and for all: can I order Melatonin online legally here in Thailand and have it shipped to my Thai street address? Yes, or no? Thank you. I used to use it every night before I came to Thailand, and I really miss it.

Googling it right now, it says it's still illegal without a prescription.

I thought Melatonin was illegal in Thailand.

"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

Honestly, if I had to do it over again, I probably would have chosen China over Thailand. Thailand is utterly broken and seems to have of its own volition declared to the entire world that it now exists only for foreigners to come and abuse it at the cost of its own citizens. There are wonderful citizens here who deserve to live within a country with more self-respect.

I don't understand. How are even rural kids becoming overweight? Buying food takes money, and rural families don't typically have a lot of that.

Woooshhhh.

The articles are supposedly written by native English speakers. And yet, some of the authors seem to firmly believe that every other sentence should begin with or otherwise include conjuncitve adverbs, discourse markers, or sentence adverbs. As a consequence, the sentences, at length, come across as, ultimately, unnatural in the end. Is there a known reason for this? I wonder whether the writers are asked by the editors to incorporate as many of those as possible, or whether the editors later go through each article and add them in. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Just out of curiosity, why did she leave?

One would be hard-pressed to think of a language as difficult for a Western person to learn as Thai. 1) It's a tonal language. 2) There is no universally standardized way of even writing the alphabet in English so that a foreigner can try to pronounce it. 3) Tonal languages use both cerebral hemispheres; non-tonal languages only use one. So it's technically easier for everyone the world over to learn non-tonal languages than tonal languages. 4) Dialectical variations across the kingdom. 5) Thai media probably does not portray Westerners trying to speak Thai as often as it ought. Because of that, the Thai ear is not accustomed to what that particular train-wreck sounds like and so can't easily understand what's being said when they encounter a farang trying to speak it in the wild. 6) Like it or not, Thai is not an international language like Mandarin. There aren't many university courses that offer it. And because of that there isn't as much global effort put into providing Thai instructional materials as there is for other languages. Thai is still very much a niche language on the global stage. 7) Thai learning apps are not as good as the apps for other languages. 8 ) Not only is Thai a tonal language, but its list of vowels and consanants is different from that of many other languages. Those who try to learn Thai must learn how to, effectively, make sounds they've never made before. And all of the effort that that demands is just to learn the language of one single kindgom that, despite its other virtues, still does not amount to much on the global stage in comparison to some of its richer, older neighbords; a kingdom that, wrongly, has an unfortunate international reputation as a throw-away locale for tourists to visit, abuse, and then discard. Learning Thai takes a lot of effort and a lot of time for what amounts to relatively little pay-off. It's unfortunate, but true. I am presently on my third attempt to learn basic Thai. If even after this, nobody can understand what I'm trying to say, I will give up. Many other foreigners would give up after the first go. Perhaps the most difficult pill to swallow -- a pill I don't anticipate being swallowed any time soon -- is that if Thailand really, really wants to become more culturally accessible, there will need to be a nationwide movement away from the Thai language and toward either Mandarin or at least English. Thai will never be a global language, even though the Thai people really ought to be globally respected and listened to.