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robsamui
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Posts posted by robsamui
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MEDIA?
LITERACY?
What twirp wrote this!
How many Thai people actually READ (assuming that they are able to) the stories that go with the front page newspaper headlines with the uncensored decapitated bodies and blood-smeared carnage that appears every day? No - they just gawp at the pictures.
If a person is "literate" - meaning they are able to both express themselves in their own language and to understand a narrative - then it doesn't matter whether it's in words, pictures or moving pictures.
As very few of the Thai nation are educated in their school to be literate then it follows that all they can do is to focus their attention on those moments when violence or sex is broadcast on TV. It has (ironically) become the same in America now, although for different reasons.
EDUCATE the young Thai people - don't just teach them what is what according to the national party line. Tell them all about the huge wide world outside. Let them look at the History Channel and the National Geographic. Don't discourage them if they want to ask questions of the teacher. Let them know that although their country is ... "simply amazing" ... it's only one of another 98 countries, all of which have different ideas and philosophies, and allow them to investigate other outlooks.
It might be a start to make education compulsory! (Yeah I know it is supposed to be but when was the last time you heard of a rice farmer getting taken to court for keeping his young sons at home during the harvest?)
"Media education"? What a crock of sh*t. Lets begin with basic education. Teach the Thai children about other countries. General Knowledge. World history. Then maybe then the same Thai university graduates who put band-aids on their face when they get tooth-ache and who think "fresh juice" is what you have from a can that's just been opened and who don't know whether Paris is a country or a city might get to actually follow the plot on a TV story in their own language without only scanning for the juicy bits.
But, then, if the average Thai person ever was to become this savvy then there wouldn't be an audience for the neverending TV shows with pantomime TV characters and with whistles, bells, drumrolls, horns and honks whenever someone cracked a joke, nevermind the soaps that are full of sex (censored) and violence (toned down).
R.
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Media literacy is nice as it is rhetorically promoted. A media that is open, free, objective, critical, and question would be the balance for the so-called clarion of media literacy.
Once again - - WHAT?
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Hi.
It all hinges around what you want and you don't give many clues. Far better if you want a detailed reply to ask some detailed questions.
Lamai is a huge and sprawling area with only one small part of it close to the beach and with beer bars - namely the 'round bars'. The beach and main road section near here has a lot of bungalow resorts but there are hundreds more scattered in the area, 90% of them not on the Inet or accepting CCards. It would take you a week to investigate the area and pick a place to stay. There are only a few 3-4 star resorts here. True to say that, on the whole, prices here are much less than in Chaweng - accom and eating out included.
Chaweng is essentially one long beach road (app 5K) with hardly any spurs off it - other than the Soi Reggae Pub. Accom varies from the several beach hut resorts still existing (in the south part) to 5-star hotels - there are dozens of 3-4-5-star resorts on this strip. You can still find huts (but now for a very minimum of 800-1,000B a night for a shed) and the 2-3-star resorts are asking 1,300-3,000 baht a night.
Again it all depends on what you want and where you go. A cafe latte in Chaweng is 120 baht ar Sta**ucks and 60 baht at the Thai-based Coffee Cor*ner. Chaweng has Pizza Hut, McDonalds, KFC (Tesco), and lots of fast food but you'll find it difficult to find a real Thai restaurant on the Beach Road - with rents of 200,000 baht a month none can afford it.
If you're here for a week, single, male, footloose and fancy free, then head for Chaweng. It's all concentrated in one small area. Chaweng Garden Resort or Montien House (can I say this?? Sorry if not, please edit) are right in the centre and will cost you around 2,000 baht a night for a non-beachside room or bungalow. There are many others in this range. A big plate of English food will come to 300B at one of the several sports bars. You can eat off the street stalls for 100 baht a go.
Drinks vary hugely. The last year has seen 50% of the bars in Soi Green Mango (the 'red light' strip!!) either go out of business or drop their prices competitively. Local beers here are 80 baht, Heineken maybe 100 baht, and the best value is a "bucket" - Thai whiskey and coke with ice - for about 200-250 baht. (A good way to invite passing ladies to sit with you for a while, but don't say it's Sang Som whiskey or they will sneer and go away.)
If you reckon 2,000 baht (or less) for your room, another 500 baht max for food each day and another 700-1,000 baht on drinks for a crawl round the bars (including tips and a couple of drinks for the girls) - that should do you. On the other hand if you are looking to budget for entertaining a person of the female persuasion (or other) in your room after hours then reckon on a 300-500 barfine and another 1,000-3,000 donation for services rendered. The further away from the Soi Green Mango you wander, the lower the price of everything becomes. (Except for Soi Reggae Pub where it's anyone's guess.)
Better to rent a chap motorbike for a week (around 1,000B) than to keep taking taxis at 200 baht per 200 yards.
Answer you question?
Good luck
R
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I am embarrassed for the Thais. They are the butt of a million jokes, and they all stem from real events.
I have three cats. Whenever they're embarrassed about something they immediately sit down and begin furiously licking their as*es - really busy.
They are Thai cats . . .
R
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I used to be disgusted.....Now I'm just amused.
TIT
But since their wings have got rusted,
you know, the angels wanna wear my red shoes.
But when they told me 'bout their side of the bargain,
that's when I knew that I could not refuse.
And I won't get any older, now the angels wanna wear my red shoes.
Please send me some of what you're on . . .
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and they want to build a nuclear power station here.......
:cheesy: :cheesy: :cheesy: :cheesy: -
When someone who is semi-literate states that he's tutoring his children then it makes me squirm. If he was an electrician would you want him fixing your wiring? I would never be critical of usual run-of-the-mill mistakes - even yours, although people who are too bone idle to bother with spellcheckers say a lot about themselves.
R
While I personally have a good vocabulary and diction, and I am fairly well spoken and capable of composing texts at levels varying from highly technical, to formal, to casual and sloppy (depending on the mood, context, circumstance, etc.) i am by my own admission borderline illiterate when it comes to spelling etc. and typo's.
I am not the type of person that can "teach" - I am simply not cut from that type of cloth, however if my personality was amenable to it then my level of English is more than adequate to tutor a Thai youth. I work with very well educated Thai's (250 of them) for a global company - some of these guys have PhD’s .... some of the admin girls have masters degrees in English and have studied as far afield as Texas...... they cannot get through one sentence without knowing when to use "is" instead of "are", much less distinguishing between when it is appropriate to use plural (Thais) or possessive (Thai's) form. I do know the difference, and when putting together a client report or a formal document or if I were writing a menu I would know the difference between "French fries" and "French fried" ...... but here on Thai visa, unless I was really trying to bolster a point home to some idiot where I would not surrender the ammunition of bad grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. then really its not something I worry too much about. sure I make the effort, subconsciously - I don't go out of my way to exclude apostrophes and what-not but respectfully, I honestly thought you were nit-picking by pulling a guy for plural versus possessive forms, in a thread where we are all basically just having a rant about having to endure the crap that the Thai populous calls entertainment.
BTW - Respectfully, and retrospectively, I withdraw the word "loon" from my earlier comment. I was having 'one of those days' if you know what I mean.
OK - points taken, fair enough, and we'd better make this the last one as it's now getting off-topic!
You may like to take a peek at this . . .
http://walkinthewords.blogspot.com/2009/05/grocers-apostrophe.html
R
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time will tell if it's the rent or the landlord that is unrealistic. everyone loves to complain about chaweng, "it's too busy, it's too commercialized" etc.
i suppose if all any prospective tenant can dream up is a near identical copy of his neighbors business in chaweng (tailor, lady bar, tourist trinkets) then it's probably neither the rent nor the landlord that is unrealistic, it's the new tenants expectations.
Don't the landlord and the rent go together? Are people still paying this ridiculous "thing" called "key money"? There should be a collapse and the vulturea should have to lower their asking prices but there just seems to be so many people out their who just can't wait to lose their cash.
<deleted>, in Bangrak theres stil new bars springing up!!!!!!! Unbelievable. So where are all these extra tourists going to come from? Governments across europe are imposing austerity measures. The economic situation is dire and yet for some reason people thing that europeans and Brits will come flooding here when the euro and pound is getting hammered by an unrealistically hih Thai baht. Thailand has become a very expensive family holiday.
Maybe after the forthcoming elections the place will be crawling with bar-crawling Thai taxi drivers who are running their new credit cards up to the max . . .
R
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This is a man who is banned from taking part in Thai politics. He is a fugitive, wanted by the (Thai) law. His Thai passport has been revoked. And yet he is able to address the Thai nation again and again by video links, telephone and the internet without a legal finger being lifted against him.
He is Thailand's most wanted criminal! Block his broadcasts. Jam his networks. Cut the electricity to the buildings where he is openly flaunting the law and breaking it. HELL - even I can buy a mobile phone signal jammer via the internet.
The Thai government is either utterly useless and full of hot air or there is a very solid undercurrent of support for Taksin. If not, why would so many Thai politicians and government ministers allow him to cause them all to lose face in such a big way?
R
Not to mention his national access via the network of 7,000 illegal radio stations broadcasting to local communities throughout Thailand.
http://www.telegraph...o-stations.html
R
Not a good idea to block him would not look good........
It would appear the government is simply ignoring him.........probably a smart idea
Pity there are those not quite soo smart who insist on keeping him in the limelight on internet forums.........
Ah . . . I get it! Thailand's most-wanted criminal but taking steps to uphold the law would not look good. Better to ignore him and hope he goes away. I get it now
R
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This is a man who is banned from taking part in Thai politics. He is a fugitive, wanted by the (Thai) law. His Thai passport has been revoked. And yet he is able to address the Thai nation again and again by video links, telephone and the internet without a legal finger being lifted against him.
He is Thailand's most wanted criminal! Block his broadcasts. Jam his networks. Cut the electricity to the buildings where he is openly flaunting the law and breaking it. HELL - even I can buy a mobile phone signal jammer via the internet.
The Thai government is either utterly useless and full of hot air or there is a very solid undercurrent of support for Taksin. If not, why would so many Thai politicians and government ministers allow him to cause them all to lose face in such a big way?
R
Not to mention his national access via the network of 7,000 illegal radio stations broadcasting to local communities throughout Thailand.
R
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This is a man who is banned from taking part in Thai politics. He is a fugitive, wanted by the (Thai) law. His Thai passport has been revoked. And yet he is able to address the Thai nation again and again by video links, telephone and the internet without a legal finger being lifted against him.
He is Thailand's most wanted criminal! Block his broadcasts. Jam his networks. Cut the electricity to the buildings where he is openly flaunting the law and breaking it. HELL - even I can buy a mobile phone signal jammer via the internet.
The Thai government is either utterly useless and full of hot air or there is a very solid undercurrent of support for Taksin. If not, why would so many Thai politicians and government ministers allow him to cause them all to lose face in such a big way?
R
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I am married to an educated thai, educated because her degrees are way ahead than what an average thai would have the ambition to acheieve. However, i am extremely concerned on how to provide a good moral environment for my children as they grow up. The neighbourhood where i live, has about 8-9 houses (of about 40) dedicated to be known as "mia-noi" houses. The kids in the locality are a bunch of robotic humanoids... and any kid in the age range of 15-19 is a complete nuisance to man-kind.
Plus - the thai soap opera's ! Frankly - i cant seem to find one thai show which is worth the time for kids. I often tutor my sis-in-laws kids (eng+maths)... and often treat them to animal planet / discovery / CN.. and they seem to have developed a somewhat dis-taste for thai TV !
Long story cut short - thai's are a mother load of creative skills... and its time the folks running the parliament did something about their education system. At the end of the day - Education improves society.
Well if you are tutoring them in English I hope you lean how to distinguish between the plural form (Thais) and the possessive form (Thai's), and that the word is a proper noun that requires capitalisation (Thais not thai's).
R
So you finally found something to make a point about.....
Don't you just hate nitpicking pedantic loon's that sift through forums like TV searching for gramaitcal errors etc.
When someone who is semi-literate states that he's tutoring his children then it makes me squirm. If he was an electrician would you want him fixing your wiring? I would never be critical of usual run-of-the-mill mistakes - even yours, although people who are too bone idle to bother with spellcheckers say a lot about themselves.
R
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why should they learn english? this is Thailand for god's sake. How hard is it for a tourist to have the name of their hotel or wherever written down in thai for the taxi driver?
I think that ideology and principles cloud the reality of the situation. Reality, not ideology is what matters. Over simplifying the issue by reducing it to writing the name of a hotel on a piece of paper does not address in full the problem.
Thai is a very difficult tonal language rooted to a large degree in Sanskrit. The reason names and places comprise sometimes 60 or more characters. All of the characters have nothing to do with any other language, not even Khmer, which is the closest language on the planet. Any country in the world that wants to be competitive and attracts more tourists will promote English as a second language. This is the first time after the fall of the Roman Empire that the world has a common language to do business and exchange ideas and culture. Tourism is a business that enables visitors to experience a culture. If Thailand wants to continue enjoying a 10% of the GDP from tourism, it had better promote learning English by Thais. Otherwise they risk to gradually fall into the same isolationism that kept China backwards for many years: that is a distinct possibility. If Thais want their country to remain a popular destination in the world, English is a must have.
Well said!
I wonder for how much longer - for how many more generations - proud and outmoded Thai nationalism will keep their country ignorant? And then there's the problem of education in general. If you keep in mind that the majority of people born in England are unable to use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation then it's likely to be another 50 years before Thais are effectively and systematically taught English by competent school teachers.
R
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Most casual visitors don't really know they're getting ripped off by tuktuks and are willing to pay cause it's still not that expensive. I don't see why people go to other countries and demand they speak English. However, illegal tour operators that outright just take your money and lack of restrooms are valid points that should require action.
You would be advised to actually read the report:
which stated (and I (paraphrase) that tourists interviewed observed that Thailand's tourism would be improved if the Thai nation had better English skills".
Nobody demanded that the Thais should speak English!
Which is a trusim and something that holds Thai people perpetually apart from the rest of the world.
R
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I can't comment on the Chawang shop but their shop in Lamai Tesco mall has been fine with everything I have got from there.The manager speaks good English and the one problem / niggle I had was sorted without any fuss. I think the trouble they have is getting sales staff that actually know what they are talking about where computer and components are concerned.
Not to necesarily just to quote this... but there is a problem at the store....(again,!) it has been pretty good since the manager took over after the first one was canned} .....
A week or so ago I went in with a friend to get a 1tb harddive, and we expected to pay the price on the ticket.... but as it was being pulled from the counter and rang in nearly 400 baht was added....... we walked out... and went to the other shop... and got a 1.5 tb for about same price....
The manager was not there.... at the first place....I was in Phantip Plaza, poking around,
this morning and just happened to check the price of the store we all know which one and their price is what was marked on Samui... so certainly a problem.... that is just too much to add on.... the price at Phantip is what was on the sticker, in Samui....The first store in question, lost an 80,000.00 baht sale on a new Imac my friend was going to purchase.... .rather silly as we had been in a day or two before to price out the Mac....and it was the same staff member....
The manager there is aware of when negitive posts are made here, about the store.... so we'll see what happens... perhaps prices as marked!???
I hugely doubt it. Standard Thai attitude = shrug . . . what do I care.
R
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I am married to an educated thai, educated because her degrees are way ahead than what an average thai would have the ambition to acheieve. However, i am extremely concerned on how to provide a good moral environment for my children as they grow up. The neighbourhood where i live, has about 8-9 houses (of about 40) dedicated to be known as "mia-noi" houses. The kids in the locality are a bunch of robotic humanoids... and any kid in the age range of 15-19 is a complete nuisance to man-kind.
Plus - the thai soap opera's ! Frankly - i cant seem to find one thai show which is worth the time for kids. I often tutor my sis-in-laws kids (eng+maths)... and often treat them to animal planet / discovery / CN.. and they seem to have developed a somewhat dis-taste for thai TV !
Long story cut short - thai's are a mother load of creative skills... and its time the folks running the parliament did something about their education system. At the end of the day - Education improves society.
Well if you are tutoring them in English I hope you lean how to distinguish between the plural form (Thais) and the possessive form (Thai's), and that the word is a proper noun that requires capitalisation (Thais not thai's).
R
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Great to see Thais starting to get interested in this issue. These soap operas are disgraceful and a great damage to Thai culture and the dominant mind-set
erm . . .yes . . .but . . .the Thais aren't interested in the issue because of "damage to Thai culture and the dominant mind-set" - they're concerned because of inappropriate morals that might be passed as the norm to children viewing.
(And the wise and perceptive conclusion they came to? That it's up to the parents to guide their children. I would never have thought of that.)
R
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That shop even charged my (Thai) girlfriend 100 baht to download Skype onto her laptop for her whilst I was away in the UK. I was furious. Bunch of croooks IMO.
I'm sorry but if your GF is incapable of down loading and installing Skype and they do it for her for 100 baht then just where is the problem ?
You expect them to do this for nothing ?
They are a business not a charity nless you hadn't noticed the princely sum of ONE HUNDRED BAHT?
could the reason have been racist discriminating double pricing because a Farang boyfriend exists? Can this be a record? 14,000 ungrammatical posts with multiple smilies in only 4.5 years?
R
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That shop even charged my (Thai) girlfriend 100 baht to download Skype onto her laptop for her whilst I was away in the UK. I was furious. Bunch of croooks IMO.
I'm sorry but if your GF is incapable of down loading and installing Skype and they do it for her for 100 baht then just where is the problem ?
You expect them to do this for nothing ?
They are a business not a charity nless you hadn't noticed erm, yessss, point taken. The example of all the other things that were included for free at the 'Makro' shop was after I'd spent 16,000B on bits . .
R
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That shop even charged my (Thai) girlfriend 100 baht to download Skype onto her laptop for her whilst I was away in the UK. I was furious. Bunch of croooks IMO.
Sounds reasonable to me? 10min-15min IT help for 2 quid?
Not if you then consider that the 'Oposite Makro' shop will take your motherboard, mount the cpu that you've selected and set the correct motherboard jumper settings and the cooler fan, ditto with the RAM chips, the hard drive and the graphics card, fit them all into the case you've chosen and install whatever software you want - AT NO CHARGE . . .
R
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I really don't know why people bother at all with the "yellow fruit" shop.
Three or four months ago I was forced to buy a new desktop computer. After shopping in all of the Samui outlets I ended up building one myself from bits and I used exclusively the one opposite Makro (no names . . .)
The reason being that, at the "yellow fruit" shop:
1) Absolutely none of the staff is the least interested: they cluster together behind the counter and try to ignore customers as much as they can.
2) On three different occasions with different staff, asking to look at something that involved them reaching/stretching/moving in some way resulted in loud sighs, TUTS and pulled faces.
3) Technical enquiries were met either with blank faces or a response that was utter rubbish.
All three points above are entirely the opposite at the 'opposite Makro' shop - the staff know what they're doing, group round to offer advice and are knowledgable enthusiasts rather than uneducated bored shop assistants.
4) The prices are considerably higher than the 'opposite Makro' shop.
5) The range of items in stock is far less.
6) The 'opposite Makro' shop has an online catalogue with full product illustrations and descriptions. Anything not available in-store will be ordered and arrive in 3 days.
7) Having chosen your components the shop will then mount and assemble everything together in the case and test it for you at no extra charge - pick-up in 24 hours.
Yellow fruit versus Makro - no contest!
Rob
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Sounds like they're bent. Who would have thought it?
Not only that but cowards too?
R
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No law to punish the person who violates the rights of others, but laws to punish anyone who makes the information public. Insanity.
As I started reading the article there was the usual <deleted> response, but I would have read it, muttered something about religion and nutters, and moved on. But when I read that bit, my jaw hit the floor. The pure hypocrisy and raw idiocy of these people still astounds* me. The fact they (and far too many like them) have influence over anything more important than a sandwich is one of the biggest issues facing this country, and the world today.
With people like this "protecting" human rights, by um, trampling on better people's human rights, Sharia law starts to sound like a picnic. Sadly thinking like this doesn't even come close to the far greater human rights abuses happening here.
I doubt the Computer Crimes act covers nonsense like this anyway, but scary to think there's people out there who think it should. In other countries people like this are called whistle blowers and they deserve our gratitude and respect, not fines and prison terms longer than rapists and murderes.
I'm reminded of one of the great CS Lewis quotes "Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
*astounds will have to do for now, I can't think of a word that implies astounds to the power of 10, and I won't use the required f-word quantifier lest I break the forum laws of this broad smiling land, obviously requiring my torture, and execution by drawing and quartering.
Apart from lack of education, lack of public welfare benefits, and lack of any sort of State provision for the elderly - this is one of the aspects that causes Thailand to be categorised as an "Emerging Nation"!
R
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Thanks for the info - I'll take a look.
But 30,000 is silly money for a Click: they are selling them in Big C new for 33,000B!
OOOOPPPSSS! Sorry - not the Click - it's the Wave - apologies
R
edited due to brain damage
bikes at bigc are second hand with new plastic and changed mileage.
Really? How do you know??
R
:cheesy: 
The manager was not there.... at the first place....
Thai Army Chief Concerned About Possible Chaos Before Poll
in Thailand News
Posted
AHA My Dear Watson! There is only one conclusion! Five bullets fired by an automatic rifle at point blank range and all five missed! I think this bears all the hallmarks of a THAI gunman!