JaiRawnNitNoi

I've lived in Thailand for some 5 years and have never toured the major temples. Well, I think I went to Wat Pra Kaew or something but I remember some tourist charge which disgusted me.

I have lived in BKK for only one year, so I yield to your experience. But I am curious how you could manage to live in Thailand for that long without wandering into a temple occasionally. In my limited experience, temples don't charge admission. Period. In fact, if a farang (or anyone) is destitute, you can go there for a free meal and shelter. That is one of the many services that the Sangha provide to the people.

I paid the tab to visit Wat Pra Kaew a few times, and it is specatucular. Admission to the wat is free, you are paying to access the palace grounds.

With all that said, Wat PuKao Tong (Golden Temple) is nice (superb view of the city) and definitely FREE. Although it wouldn't hurt to slip a few baht into the donation box.

I spent six months practicing at Absolute Yoga, located at Amarin Plaza (BTS Chit Lom). You can google that name for details. Great yoga studio, steam room (co-ed). Only yoga there, all types, no weights, etc. But this is a real yoga studio.

I highly recommend it, but now live to far away to practice there.

Not sure about the details here. I have only been in Bangkok about a year, but had a chance to see them a few months ago at a hotel disco on Soi 11. Very small venue, about 200 baht cover charge (include drink). Very fun show, all the locals seemed to know every song. Just a few hundred people.

I have a feeling there will be no cover charge, small venue and no problem for you to see these guys. But I do think it is worth while.

For me personally, it all comes down to being a guest in the country. When I stay in Thailand, I feel very much like the way I feel when I am a guest in someone's home. I recognize that I don't fully understand the situation, and try not to cause offence. As I get more comfortable in the country, I feel a ltitle more relaxed and can loosen up a bit as I would in a good friend's home. But I try not to get loaded in public and keep my voice down, but still manage to enjoy myself.

I doubt that it can change much about how the Thais I meet feel about farang in general, but I try not to make things worse for others.

Your nightlife entertainer will probably have a room there.

Interesting, so they can afford 19,000 Baht + a month can they?

My reference was to the Klong Toey which is a short walk from HBTP. I am not knocking Klong Toey, food is good there. And many apartments with rooms about 3-4 K baht per month. It is no secret that many working girls live there. Which reminds me of a line from one of my favorite Rolling Stones songs; "I hear the click-click of your heels on the stairs, I know you ain't no scared-eyed honey".

I have a good friend there still, and have visited many times. But as I understand it, there is a lot of Yaba available and I don't wander around late at night or into sub-sois with nobody around.

ECC offers very low priced classes for some students. I believe that it is almost free (a few hundred baht for 30-40 hours). The catch is that the teachers are rookies doing TEFL or TESOL teacher training. Contact them for details.

It seems like a really good deal for some students, a chance to converse with a native speaker. Admittedly the teachers are very green, so the quality of the instruction is not great.

I studied the first two modules at Piammitr and would highly recommend it. However, the books (which i have) are not particularly useful for self-study. You could do far better by picking up Teach Yourself Thai (Smyth) or Thai for Beginners (Becker). The value of the Piammitr experience is in the guided conversation with the Thai instructor. For example the books at Piammitr (entry level) all use a phonetic transliterated Thai which will confuse both you and your Thai partner. Don't bother, get a good basic Thai book and get to work.

I stayed at the House by the Pond for one month last year. The rooftop pool is nice. Then moved to the apartment building next door to it for half the price. The area is not bad, a 10-15 minute walk to BTS phrom pong (20 baht motosai) or a very short walk to MRT Queen Sirikit (10 baht). The walk between MRT and HBTP is sketchy late at night because of the proximity to Klong Toey slums. Your nightlife entertainer will probably have a room there.

You could do a lot worse for a short term stay in the Sukhumvit area.

I am not sure why (or if) the OP is only considering University level Thai language courses. It seems that many of the traditional modular Thai courses (Unity, Union, Piammitr) would readily move him from Beginner to Advanced in 6-8 months. As for ED visa, I can assure you all that any of those schools can provide a one year ED visa. The requirement is for 90 day reporting, not an extension of visa. No cost for that. Alternatively, you can simply exit the country on holiday for a few days.

I am currently on my second one-year mulitple entry ED visa. When the first expired, my school simply requested a new visa for me. I did not even have to go to Immigration to finalize the visa.

I am in Bangkok, and as a previous poster indicated, many large stores sell several types of electronic dictionaries. I have had a look at several of the available models and am still trying to decide which model (if any) is right for me. Like any electronic purchase, you start looking at the basic model, then get interested in the new, faster, prettier versions. They all seem designed for Thai people trying to learn English, so many models have English grammar lessons, etc. Also, many of the "speaking dictionaries" seem to only speak English.

I am always a little frustrated looking over the models, as the Thai salespeople have limited English, and my Thai is rudimentary. Also, I find that when I show interest in one of the older versions, I almost invariably hear "Mei Mee" indicating that it is sold out, no longer produced. Why they insist on displaying obsolete stock is beyond me, but TIT.

Here are links to the web sites of the models that I routinely see in Bangkok:

http://www.cyberdict.com/index_th.php

http://www.easydictthai.com/

http://www.talkingdict.com/en/products/index.asp

The CyberDict 11 makes me hot, but at 15,000 baht it should. It is has a great feature which allows the user to expand the font size on the words to make for easier reading. This is really useful for me to see tone marks and the strokes that distinguish some of the Thai letters. I find that I can easily read low resolution English text, but it is really hard for me to distinguish some of the Thai characters unless a bright screen and good resolution.

• Built-in the 3 Most Powerful Dictionaries (The Nation's Most Entries by Prof. Dr. Wit, Oxford - River Books, Oxford Advanced Learner's)
  
• 4.1" TFT Wide Color LCD
  
• 11 Languages Dictionary and 11 Languages Travel Dialogs With Human Voice
  
• Chinese - Thai Dictionary by Prof. Pei Xiaorui, Beijing University
  
• Thai - Chinese Dictionary by Inventec Besta, Taiwan (Downloadable)
  
• Comprehensive Chinese - English Dictionary by Dailian Science & Engineering University Press
  
• Japanese - Thai Dictionary by Santaro, Honorary Translator
  
• Voxware Human Voice (100% English Headwords)
  
• English, Chinese, Korean Phonetic Symbols and Japanese 50 Phonemes
  
• Power Conversation - English & Chinese Video Learning (over 550 Titles)
  
• Business Letters - Over 145 Topics
  
• VDO, MP3, Flash Player, FM Radio, Digital Recorder
  

Case closed. Another farang suicide....

I used to stay at the Mercure on Soi 22 and liked it a lot. Rates are much better if you book on the internet. The Bourbon Street recommendation sounds very good though as it is MUCH more convenient to skytrain (BTS Prom Phong). Lots of choices in that area. I lived on a sub-soi right off Soi 22 for about eight months, and the ambience gets old in a hurry. It is just a skanky strip of massage parlors and beer bars.

Luumak, I took two modules at Piammitr in May - June of this year. I did not continue due to travel and work considerations. As you know, modules are only available M-F either afternoon or morning. Sessions are three hours per day.

I was favorably impressed with the experience at the school. Facilities are good, teachers are experienced, lots of students which in my mind indicates a strong program. I had no complaints. I don't think you would have a much better experience at Unity or Union or some of the other schools that use essentially the same syllabus.

I have also worked with private tutor and still attend AUA on weekends, but I think Piammitr is good value option.

I enjoyed reading this thread so far. As an American who made the same move about one year ago, let me offer a couple comments on my recent experience. First, I am much older (50 yo) than the OP, the benefit is that I have already accrued enough of a stash to take care of my old age (if I am lucky enough to live to 80-90 or so). That is an important consideration for a young man, he should be thinking not just about a living wage for today, but able to sock away significant assets for the future when he cannot work. I keep careful track of where my money goes, and living in Bangkok, it can go fast. I don't make huge efforts to pinch pennies, but I find that after the first few high expense startup months, my monthly run rate is about 50-60 K baht. I eat out every meal, have a nice small apartment, and enjoy a night out. I know some farang say they can live on 20K in Bangkok, I think I could, but I sure wouldn't want to....

My company wanted me to work remotely from Thailand, which would have been the sweet situation, but I was too burned out and wanted a change. I studied Thai and relaxed for about six months, then easily got a job teaching English at an international school. The only downside is that my salary of 40K doesn't cover my current expenses. No problem for me now, but long term not a good situation. I am currently working on upgrading my teaching credentials and will be looking at significant salary increases next school year (50-60K). I could make that now, if I wanted to do a lot of private lessons, but I don't. I really enjoy teaching (some people don't), I like and respect the kids I work with, and some days they really make everything worth while.

Some days, I wish that I had made the move when I was 30, other days I am glad that I have big savings in the bank from my work in Farang land. The OP seems like a thoughtful guy, and I think he will do OK. Like another poster said, "Don't burn bridges back home".

I am very interested in this thread and hope some users chime in with thier impressions of some of the available units. I read and write thai at the beginner level, have good paper dictionaries, but would like something very portable for travel and everyday use. I see some very simple units for only about 1100 baht. But the resolution is so coarse on those that I have a hard time reading the characters (i will be needing bifocals soon I guess).

There seem to be three main vendors, with varying designs and integrated dictionaries. I look forward to seeing some comments, hopefully on some of the more upscale high resolution units.

I have enjoyed reading this thread. I worked with a tutor (1:1) and over 40 hours (20 two hour sessions) we had essentially covered all the consonant and vowel sounds and tone rules. From that point on it was a matter of applicaton with the help of native speaker and my tutor. But 200 hours or so sounds reasonable to reach a modest level of early competence. I don't claim that level of skill for myself, I think it really will be years of practice for me to really internalize the tone rules, but I can roughly sound out most words.

I have been thinking about something for a while and want to raise it here, although I don't mean to hijack this thread. I believe in the power of "sight reading", fluent readers simply recognize words and pronounce them in thier minds and understand thier meaning. I teach English and there are many "key word lists" available for use in flash cards, etc. I routinely teach a "200 word list" that is essentially a robust vocabulary for a Primary 2 reader and it is very, very powerful when the kids get it as it represents something like 60% of the vocabulary in many primary level texts. They are inevitably a bit biased (my list uses "America" as the only country!) but I think you get my point.

So my question (as a novice Thai language reader) is: "Is there a word list available for the 200 words used most commonly in Thai writing?". I would appreciate any links or guidance on this. My intent would be to make flash cards to start to enhance recognition and build a basic vocabulary of Thai words.

http://www.bkkpages.com/education/language...ools/learn-thai

Have a look at this link, and search some of the previous related threads on this forum. I currently attend a well-known school quite near Asoke station. There are many good choices. You should also consider whether you want private or group lessons, structured or natural approach, etc. It depends on your goals, time and money available, etc. The Visa is no big deal, quite easy to get an ED visa using any of these options.

You might post a follow up with more detail about goals and resources and you will get some recommendations. Many of us have attended one or more schools in the BKK area, so you will get some real world advice. But what works for us, many not be best for you.

Don't know why I brought that example up (เคย), I'm getting a headache trying to explain it. Maybe some of the forums more experienced Thai language speakers might like to give explaining เคย a shot.

I am no expert, but I've got a nice library! Kuey (เคย) roughly translates as "ever' or "used to"and is placed before the verb in the sentence.

phom mai kuey hen pukao (I have never seen a mountain)

phom kuey apnaam laeo (I have already bathed)

Hi Rongx,

I too am relatively new to the board. As a new learner, let me echo Meadish's comment to pick up a copy of Thai - An Essential Grammar (ISBN 0-415-22614-7). Then get down to the bookstore and pick up one of the instructional CD-book Thai sets (e.g. Smith or Becker's) and get to work. Then get over to the basement of Golden Mile plaza for some of the most authentic Thai cuisine in town. Of course, if you are a bit naughty (ทะลื่ง) you can head over to Orchard Towers in the evening and chat up some native Thai speakers. The self study will at least give you enough grounding in the language that you can come to the experts on this forum (I am definitely not one of them) and begin to ask questions. We are all interested in the language or we wouldn't be here. No question is too basic, but some are so broad that there is no way to address them in e-mail format.

Good luck (โฉคดี)

PS. You might want to try to enable the Thai character set on your PC as you get more interested in the language. It will really clarify communications on this board.

AUA's website says that you must take classes 30 hours + a week to qualify for the Visa

http://www.auathai.com/visa_information.html

Well I guess he has to pull three 10 hour days each week. But TIT, I seriously doubt that there is any significant amount of oversight. Let me give my situation as an example. I used a letter from AUA to get a multiple entry non-imm ED visa issued in US valid until October 2007. I studied at AUA from January through April (>30 hours per week), doing one 90 day run to Laos and a later trip to Burma. Also during much of that time I was doing 2 hours a day private at another school, and in May started a three hour per day class at a third school. I keep records of my reciepts at all schools. But I don't know of any system in place to verify my attendance. I currently attend AUA only 5-10 hours per week.

However, there does seem to be a system whereby a school representative from AUA will take passports (or issue letters) to BKK immigration verifying the student's attendance and obviating the need for the 90 day run. But if the 30 hour rule was real I don't see how other schools (Union, etc.) could help with ED as they typically run 15-20 hours per week. BTW, I have heard of a "15 hour" guidance as well.

Again, I think the OP should have a chat with AUA or another school about his options. But I know an ED is very readily obtained.

Does anyone know of a Thai language course which is not 5 days a week?

I'm in the ludicrous situation of living in LoS for 5 years now, but now unable to obtain a suitable visa for my next year! I'm under 50 and don't work, so that limits my options. Even a visa extension based on marriage is not possible because I don't have tax returns AND my overseas income comes from an offshore source which my UK embassy refuses to provide a verification of income letter!!

I don't think this is too tough a situation (other than a VERY LONG commute to Krung Thep). AUA (Rachadamri Road) will readily provide a letter indicating that you are student, which will get you on a multiple entry non-immigrant ED visa. They have flexible hours roughly from 7AM to 8PM six days a week. It would be fairly easy to get in about 15-20 hours a week over a three day period. And very reasonable cost, about 100 baht per hour. Other schools offer more expensive private sessions. I can provide more information if you like (just google AUA Bangkok for starters).

I will have to buy this book to see if it is worthwhile to continue my writing project! This means a trip into Bangkok in the hot weather.

Has anyone seen this book sold in a Bangkok bookstore and what do they think of it?

I believe that I saw this recently at the Kinokunya bookstore at the Emporium on Sukhumvit Soi 22/24. I was looking for a dictionary and skimmed through it for a few seconds. I didn't see anything too remarkable about it. I do think that it was all transliteration and focused solely on verbal communication. I don't remember seeing any tapes/CDs. Are there audio files associated with the book. If not, it doesn't seem much of an improvement from the Becker books or others. I'll try to stop by this weekend again and have another look.

Don't you think it is a bit simplistic to ask for the grammar rules of a language in an e-mail? If not, could you jot down the rules for

English or your native language and post them here? Sorry if that seems a bit cynical!

But the real answer (for me at least) is Thai: An Essential Grammar by David Smyth. That is the best resource that I have found in English, but he takes 230 pages to discuss it in a very organized presentation. Although, I cannot understand his transliteration scheme. Buy this book, and you will not be disappointed.

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If you are a beginner, avoid AUA Thai language program in Rajadamri (Bangkok).

But, keep in mind, when you reach intermediate level, AUA can be valuable.

I don't disagree with your perspective on AUA. I had some minimal background in Thai language from self-study, but have been full time at AUA for several months now (400 hours of seat time). Like many of the students I have sat for long hours with absolutely no comprehension of what was being discussed in class. Most of the teachers have minimal English, so can't help even if you ask them. I have a fear of logging 1000-1500 hours in that program, and still not being able to form a simple sentence in the language (i.e. could I have two pieces of grilled chicken, some somtam, and sauce?).

The program does not even introduce reading and writing until about 800-1000 hours of listening. That is too long to wait, so I have been working with a tutor 1:1 (not at AUA) on reading-writing and it has been extremely productive. Also, there is no effort to teach simple grammar and sentence structure. Sure kids learn this way, but it takes them 4-6 years of daily exposure. I haven't got that much time ... I plan to start at the beginning with a speech, grammar, tone course soon (Piammitr?), and spend a few hours a day listening at AUA.

Although a few students may really stick with the AUA methodology, I think most end up learning the fundamentals somewhere else, then using AUA as an excellent suplement to build vocabulary and learn the rythms and tones of the language in normal speech.