stonybonytony

Hi,

I have a crate on Koh Phangan. I am not there, I need someone to pick it up, get it fumigated and DHL it to the UK, for which I am happy to pay a reasonable fee. Anyone interested, please PM.

Ta

Tony.

I did the test for Chula at the beginning of this year. It was a little intimidating, as they use the same test for everyone, whether its basic 2 or advanced 3 you hope to get into (I was aiming for basic 2 or 3). There were half a dozen of us, and the others taking it were way ahead of me. Most of the test was reading and writing while they interviewed each of us. As far as I can remember the tests were similar to the ones you will meet when you do the course - a list of words your should then write a sentence in thai using each one. A list of words and a paragraph, insert the words into the blank spaces in the paragraph. Read a paragraph and answer questions on it.

The Thai I knew up til then was mostly what I have learned talking with waiters, fishermen and shopkeepers so I didn't recognise a lot of the words. I wasn't even sure what some of the paragraphs were about let alone know the answers to the questions!

The interview was similar, the chap asking me questions using a lot of vocabluary that I didn't have - what personal characteristics did I possess sticks in my mind, as no one had ever asked me that in Thai and I didn't have any appropriate vocabulary to answer it. My friends usually talk about food and women and neither came up...

So by the end of the test I felt very stupid. I had spent a lot of my time there staring at a sheet of paper not being able to write anything appropriate! But it's not a pass/fail test, it's just their way of assessing your level so they place you appropriately. As I could read and write already I was thinking I might scrape into basic 3, but I'm glad I ended up in 2 as there was a lot of ground work I hadn't covered in my haphazard learning up til then, and the course moves very quickly and covers a lot of ground, and I think I would have struggled in 3.

I loved the course and I hope you do too. Good luck.

If you want the opposite of Had Rin, bottlebeach1resort is quiet and beautiful, has swimming pool and air con. But is closed during the monsoon season, opens 19th Dec so only of use if you are coming late December.

I'll have a go. I'm not sure I've quite got it nailed though...

ขากลับมาบ้าน ผมเห็นอุบัติเหตุรถชน ผู้หญิงในรถ หน้าตาเสียโฉมขนาดนั้น ไม่ตายก็ประหลาดไปเลย

I was going home. I saw the car crash. [There was] a woman in the car. Her face was disfigured. (lost - looks - as much as that) She wasn't dead which was surprising.

Am I close?

Although google translate (and thai2english.com) are useful, they tend to miss the context (although the OP doesn't give much context either).

For instance Google Translate says Love All should be รักทั้งหมด which is of course technically correct but I think รักทุกคน (love all people) might be more appropriate?

Be kind is translated as โอบเอื้อ but isn't this more 'to be kind' rather than an instruction '[you should] be kind [to others]' I'm not immediately sure how to stress that this is an imperative statement without making it much more wordy - คุณต้องเป็นโอบเอื้อ (you should be kind) perhaps.

I'm very much a beginner so I wouldn't take either of my translations as necessarily correct rose27782 but it might help if you provided a bit more information as you what you intend to do with these sentences and what you mean by them.

Ah, I think Sa lah wun might be Saravane, the Southernmost province of Laos?

I've not heard the word Sah la wun สาละวัน before, but my dictionary says it means "Laos". Is the full title of the song Sah la wun song sarn jai สาละวันสงสารใจ? I think this is "feel sympathy/pity for Laos"

Loog thung/Luk Thung ลูกทุ่ง literally means 'child of the fields', music that comes originally from the rural areas (Isan mainly?). Often about a young person who has to go to the city to find work and misses their boy/girlfriend back home.

I've received many things, including bank cards, by dhl/ups/fed ex on koh phangan, and never had any problem with any of them. I have no preference they all seem equally good.

www.bottlebeach1resort.com

Though that is just my clearly biased response - you'll find rooms that fit your description on almost every beach on Koh Phangan.

Actually, I've just googled it again and this time I got 235,000 hits so I must have done something wrong last time.

I was taught to use it in the same way as ตายละ, if you stick it on the end of an exclamation, it suggests that you are being sarcastic. I have no idea what it literally means and cannot find ซะ in a dictionary. But this page http://www.thaisubtitle.com/manage/view_su...5&start=251 uses it in that way, translating ตลกซะไม่มี as 'it's a f**king joke'.

Googling ซะไม่มี only brings up 107 hits, so if it is really used to indicate sarcasm it seems it's either exclusively spoken or very rare/obselete. Another phrase I don't think I'll be using in my day to day vocab.

Overall I think my teachers are good, I interpret not wanting to discuss the use of พ่อ แม่ in a non sarcastic way to mean 'i have a class of mixed ability students who have to get through an exam in a week's time and I don't want to spend the next 20 minutes discussing Thai social culture and the appropriate use of family words with non family when it's not going to be in the test, we'll cover this next term when we're meant to'.

And yes I feel much happier using "คุณลุง" or "คุณป้า" with anyone who is obviously older than me, though again I tend to use it with friends of friends rather than complete strangers. As the most common reaction I get when speaking Thai is Thai people laughing it's hard for me to gauge when I am speaking appropriately. It's never clear whether they are laughing because a farang speaking Thai is unexpected, or because I'm doing it badly.

Yes, we have been covering one topic each day (suggesting things, refusing invitations, saying how you feel etc.) and one day this week we covered sarcasm. Overstating things, or using an exaggerated high tone or saying ตายละ or ฃะไม่มี seemed straightforward, but when we were practising I used the คุณแม่ we had been taught and อาจารย์ looked a bit shocked or surprised and the teacher we had had the previous day (they change each day so we hear a wide range of accents I think) had denied that it's usual to use พ่อ and แม่ as respectful titles (I wouldn't use them outside of family of close friends but I would still call my close friend's mother แม่ and I started worrying that this was inappropriate).

sbk, I live very close to you, Had Khuad. But I'm learning Thai in Bangkok at the moment.

Yes, I'm used to using Thai family words with people who aren't really my family, especially พี่ชาย/น้องสาว I assumed it was using แม่ พ่อ คุณแม or คุณพ่อ in obviously inappropriate contexts that indicated that the use was to indicate sarcasm, ie by being so obviously over polite and over deferential it was to make clear that whatever else was said was also false.

But I've never heard anyone using this outside of my class, and it seems that no one else here has either so perhaps I'll just file this away and find another way to be sarcastic.

On the subject of family words, I think พี่บ่าว is ภาษาใต้ for พี่ชาย - is there an equivalent word for น้องสาว I can use when replying?

I have been taught that if I address someone as แม่ พ่อ คุณแม or คุณพ่อ it will indicate to them that whatever I am saying to them is sarcastic. I am not really clear why this is so - if it's just the way it is then I can just remember to use it this way, but I'd appreciate any input from other forum members.

How widespread is this, will everyone understand it? Should I use it only with close friends or is it acceptable to everyone? Is there ever an occasion to use แม่ พ่อ คุณแม คุณพ่อ with people who aren't my parents in a non sarcastic way (would I address a monk as คุณพ่อ?).

Your thoughts much appreciated.

I'm not sure, but depending on the context I think it might be somebody's name?

I am currently studying Basic 2 in the Chula Intensive Thai program. These are my experiences.

There are no prerequisites such as needing a degree, you just have to pay the 25,000 baht and you can do this 10 minutes before the start of the course as I did. If you enter at a level higher than Basic 1, you need to do an assessment first. They use the same assessment for everyone, whether you want to enter at Basic 2 or Advanced 3 and it is therefore very tough and can be a bit daunting as I spent long periods staring at questions I didn't even understand! The test is mostly written, plus a (very fast) dictation and an oral interview.

I am also mostly self taught, so my vocabulary is very biased towards everyday situations and away from the sorts of things they like to discuss in an educational context! For instance, no one has ever said to me 'can you describe your characteristics' before.

But so long as you remember this isn't a test to try and pass (unless you are aiming for Advanced 3 or something) it's just to put you in the right level it's fine. Basic 2 is probably the level below where I am at, so I have spent a lot of time revising things I already kind of know (the first week or so was learning the Thai alphabet, I only really struggled with having to learn their phonetic english alphabet) but even then it's been useful to fill in lots of little gaps in my knowledge. And it is a pretty intensive course, I was quite glad I wasn't learning everything for the first time as they go pretty fast - I'd agree with Rionoir much better to be in a level too low than a level too high.

The classes are small - 9 in mine currently - and the teaching is excellent. Already 90% of the teaching is in Thai, and at the next level up I think they speak 100% Thai with no English allowed.

If time is short and you don't want to do a 5 week course, they might let you pay just to do the exam so you get a certificate.

According to my lawyer, the minimum wage for employing foreigners is 30,000 baht a month, or at least as samuibeachcomber says, tax has to be paid as if you were paying them 30,000 a month.

It made it nearly as far as Koh Tao, a fisherman saw it and I now have it back.

Floated away at high tide (doh) small grey rubber inflatable with oars, from Bottle Beach. It is probably in Cambodia by now, but if it does wash up wherever you are would be extremely grateful if you would let me know.

Does anyone know the English name for this fish (if there is one)?

I used Sopha (the lawyer on the Thong Sala/Ban Thai road, can't remember what her firm is called) and I was disappointed in the service I got, fines for late payment of tax when they hadn't bothered to try and contact me to tell me the tax was due, just waited until I came in on another matter months later. And they failed to do what I wanted to do so the whole thing was a waste of time and money.

I'm now with Crawshaws, who have an office on the front near the seatran pier. There is a lady who works there most of the time, but as far as I can tell she's not a lawyer, just a receptionist and all the real work is done on Samui, so it's not that much different from just using a Samui lawyer - maybe if they had more clients here they'd beef the office up a bit.

I set up paypal to Bangkok Bank for a Thai friend about 6 months ago, and it worked exactly as they said it would - so it is possible presumably whatever the problem is is specific to you. Or it's a bug that's surfaced since then.

There's also the Lomprayah from Mae Nam at 17.30. If you ask at the desk at the airport, they'll arrange for transport to and a ticket for whichever boat is next to leave (well the Hadrin Queen and the Lomprayah, I don't think they bother with the Nathon service).

I don't think there will be a problem finding a taxi. If you come on the Lomprayah you'll be fine as it lands at Thong Sala. If you come into Had Rin, you might need to get a taxi to Thong Sala first and then get one back out to Thong Nai Pan.