Rionoir

From what I understand about Wallen you don't actually learn to "read" so much as just memorizing what words look like. I'm sure their cheerleader PR department will post otherwise, but it's must more efficient to actually learn the alphabet and rules etc. than it is to memorize every word in the language.

#1 sounds similar to what I did at chula... we did 5 weeks of phonetics in order to concentrate on speaking and hearing the tones accurately before reading and writing. I liked it a lot, but you have to be dedicated enough to study a LOT to keep up with an intensive class... it's at least another 4 hours a day sometimes. (depending how intense it is)

Most courses do not start with the alphabet first... you should familiarize yourself with the tones for a while first.

They finally admitted on the news the other day that H1N1 is not as dangerous as all the hype... in fact, they even said it's proven less dangerous than the normal flu. I don't think WHO needs to know.

If democrats want to do this, they need to get some politicians in office that actually care about the environment and not just about ways to raise taxes in the name of the environment.

They did.........but the Republicans and the conservative Supreme Court stole the election from Al Gore.

By the way, a point that the skeptics keep ignoring.........we are already being taxed big time--directly and indirectly--because of our allegiance to BIG OIL.

Al Gore *giggle* Wow, still holding onto that even though Obama is in office? Welcome to 2009...

And please explain your point... all I heard was blah blah blah BIG OIL... LoL... That seems to be your answers to the worlds problems, just say bad things about BIG OIL, BIG OIL, BIG OIL... but really, I don't see what being taxed on oil has to do with being a skeptic... *chuckle*

So what is this "natural resource" that hybrid cars are using, and more importantly, how is this bad? Should we ban the making of jewelry because platinum is rare? For raw manufacturing materials, it is simple supply and demand. If this material is rare, it is going to be expensive, and the harder it is to find it, the more expensive it will be until it prices the car out of the market. Using a rare raw material is not environmentally unsound in and of itself. It is only when the processing, use, or disposal adversely effects the environment that we need to re-look at it from a green point of view. Merely using a rare material is not "un-green."

So you think windmills are ugly. So what? You drove through Wisconsin once and your eyes were offended. Sorry, that has no impact on whether they are environmentally sound or not. And to throw away a valuable resource because you personally think they are ugly is really, really shortsighted. And I supposed you think all those refining plants in Texas, Louisiana, and California are rather pretty (and smell so nice)?

Your numbers a pure speculation. I have written that even if man's impact is only 1%, that many of the steps to combat global warming are beneficial in other ways. I never wrote that man's impact is only 1%. What if it is 50%? Still saying that we can't affect it? My point is that many of these steps are vital if global warming is as its proponents warn, and theya re still beneficial if the anti-global warming crowd is correct. Think of it as an insurance policy which also invests and pays dividends. If you don't die, you get the money when you retire.

I will agree that some proposed policies may not be the best ideas from many standpoints. But isn't it better to get good policies adopted instead? People say we shouldn't do anything because China won't. If your doctor tells you you have emphysema and you really need to quit smoking, are you going to refuse because your spouse still smokes?

1. I'm just saying, those cars use up a rare mineral... clearly that isn't going to be very sustainable if it's a RARE mineral.

2. I didn't "drive thru" wisconsin... I live in Wisconsin, and that dam_n wind farm isn't that far from me, and it's off a major freeway. If you want that ugly eyesore in your area so you can feel good about yourself, please, help yourself. Part of the environment is its natural beauty... ruining that doesn't seem like a good alternative energy source to me when there are other ways. Nuclear power for example... oh yes, I said the N word... come on, bring on the 2 or 3 anecdotal responses you can copy and paste to that word. The fact is it is the most intelligent power option available to us.

3. Everyone's numbers are pure speculation... but the fact that global warming and cooling is natural isn't speculation. And no, I will never agree with you that just because maybe humans are causing an unknown percentage of the problem that we should do all these foolish things that may or may not do anything to help just because it makes some people feel better about themselves.

4. Your analogy of my spouse smoking would only be relevant if we were siamese twins that shared a single body.

Think it depends on the bank,i lost mine at homepro in Phuket (red and blue bank logo,Thai military?),and had to wait an hour and a half until the company who stock the machine with cash arrived doing their daily rounds.

They turned up,i showed another card with name,signature on it,and my card was returned.

PST.

I think it depends more on who shows up to change the cash than it does what bank it is... I would bet those guys weren't supposed to return it. What if you stole someone's wallet, tried to guess their ATM, the machine ate your card, then you show a non-picture ID, or maybe the person looks a little like you and the Thai people can't tell the difference... then you can still go use the card as a credit card.

Anyone familiar with these books, and familiar with how up-to-date they are?  The one thing I never learned much of in my Thai course was slang... so I've been studying this book a little bit, but I don't want to use some of these phrases and get laughed at for being 100 years behind the times. hehe  I don't necessarily need to know that all 600 words in this book for pen1s, etc. are accurate.. but the other things.

ALMOST a virgin... giggle... lote dai mai

God I hope a card would be destroyed once it is taken by the machine... What if it ate my machine and they gave the card to someone else who knew I lost my card? I don't know why you are surprised about this.

The first 600 hours!!!! Bwahahahahahahahahahaha...

Wow I knew it was a while, but I didn't know it was that long. Yea you're right, we were reading and writing 100% in Thai script by 600 hours already... I can't imagine still not being allowed to even speak (and encouraged to NOT SPEAK outside of class?) after that long. How ridiculous...

You're right, in normal speech ตลาด is mid-low, since the first syllable [ตะ] loses its tone because it's an unstressed short vowel in an open syllable. But if carefully enunciated, according to tone rules its canonical tones are low-low [ตะ-หฺลาด].

Different books and websites use different systems. Some mark every syllable with their canonical tone, so in general it's a nitpicky point that is only worth bringing up if it's crucial to the discussion.

ตะ by itself is low tone... but I was taught that in a word like ตลาด (I forget what that implied ะ is called) this word SHOULD be mid-low, even when enunciated carefully.  This was in my reading/writing textbook at Chula as a special rule, do you don't read that tone as if it were ตะ

Just passing along what i was taught... I don't care enough to argue about it. LoL

Everyone is not born with the gift of knowing everything about Thailand like some others apparently were...

rionoir

It seems quite an extreme statement. I would like to know more about these คนบ้า

It's nothing serious, I just make up sentences for my MSN headline sometimes to help me remember words/phrases I don't want to forget.  Just supposed to be silly.

I think you would've been better off calling the Tourism Police and letting them talk to the (pretend) "officer", instead of you raising hel_l to a potential criminal with a GUN. Your life should be more valuable than 15 bucks...

Maybe it's the electrical system at your house/apartment? I've bought lots of things over the last couple of years and have had zero problems so far with any of it... PC, laptop, iPhone, dSLR camera, point and shoot camera...

Why is this thread back at the top, she asked the question 6 months ago... =P

"ฉันล้อมรอบไปด้วยคนบ้า"

"ฉัน"เป็นใคร?

Sorry?  Why do u ask?

After taking a 6-week course in reading and writing, and feeling overwhelmed by all the rules to remember while reading, I was relieved to discover that Thais themselves are not thinking through the tone rules when they read. Many of them have only the foggiest idea that these rules even exist. Now I do what they do, which is ignore all the rules and remember the tone based on spelling. Even if I haven't seen the word spelled before, I can usually pick the right tone as there is only one pronunciation that makes sense in that context. If I'm unfamiliar with the word entirely, well, knowing the tone by rule wouldn't help me then anyway, since I'd still have to look it up.

While a lot of what you say is correct... most of my Thai friends also said they FAILED Thai in school. LoL  A lot of Thai cannot spell correctly, and they cannot read the tone from a word they do not know, BECAUSE of their lack of knowledge of the Thai language.  I would not look-up to a Thai who cannot tell you tone rules as a role model for one's Thai language studies.

But look... If scientists want to try to slow down the natural cycle of this planet, I have no problem with that.  My problem is with being told that humans are causing all of this.  Actually, we only have advanced weather data going back what, 100 years?  That is virtually NO data in terms of knowing what the cycle of surface temperatures and ocean currents and ocean temperatures, etc.  We know nothing about what is "normal" with these things... all we know is what has happened in the last blink of an eye of this planet's history.

Actually, we can tell quite a bit beyond the last 100 years by looking at the effects of various climatic changes.  Looking at growth rings, coral reefs, ice cores, and the like can be a pretty good indication of what was going on weather-wise in the past.

Additionally, many of the things that conservationists like Al Gore are telling us to do have just as big of impact on the environment... Ethenol fuel, for example.  It may burn cleaner, but once you factor in the production of ethenol... the "carbon footprint" is at least as big as regular fuel in the end.  

Here, you are 100% right.  Ethanol, except for in Brazil, uses more oil to produce the ethanol with which it is trying to replace. Even in Brazil, the "oil savings" is minimal and has caused huge tracts of rainforest and the Pantanal to be plowed under. Ethanol is largely a political pork barrel to keep powerful agricultural interest happy.

But just because one so-called solution to oil dependency is faulty does not mean that global warming is a farce.

Furthermore, don't you think that trying to change the course of nature could cause some seriously devastating and unforseen consequences?  No one knows.  Is it a risk we should take?  I don't really care honestly, I'll be dead before the consequences hit I'm sure. LoL  I think we are worrying about things we can't control though.  It's humane nature, but... it's silly too.

I may not see Bangkok under water, but if I have kids, they may see it.  And when faced with huge climatic pattern shifts which would destroy much of the fertile regions of the world, change the availability of water, and put quite a bit of land below sea level, then yes, I might be willing to try drastic actions.  But many of the actions are not drastic.  Do you really think that shifting from SUV's and pick-up trucks for city driving to smaller, fuel-efficient cars will have dramatic unforeseen negative consequences?  That offshore windmills will?  That more efficient, cleaner-burning cola plants will?  

Sorry, as I have written before, I just don't see the downside, global warming or not.

I've never said I have a problem with people trying to do things that they feel are better for the environment.  Unfortunately the bulk of what we see is just the government finding ways to get money out of people polluting, or doing things in ways which they claim is cleaner, but isn't.  Those little hybrid cars everyone is in love with... using up a very rare natural resource... did they ever tell u that in the brochure?  No.  Neither do the liberal hippies that are always telling us how great hybrid cars are.

If someone makes a new type of fuel, that is ACTUALLY cleaner and not just a big scam, I don't think anyone will have a problem using it.  The oil in the planet will run out eventually, so we certainly do need some alternatives at some point whether or not we are trying to save the environment.

One of the downsides, "global warming or not", is that democrats don't care about ruining businesses and the economy of our country with completely random feel-good policies regarding the environment.  Ethanol is just one example, cap and trade is another looming example.  Wind farms?  They're ugly as shit - I drove up to the northern part of Wisconsin a couple weeks ago and I saw one city where all the farm fields had huge white wind mills alllllll over.  God, talk about ruining the environment!  Off-shore... sure, why not.  But I swear to God, they need to keep them off of the countryside... particularlly when they are right off of the country highways... they are a freaking eyesore.

Doesn't it seem like most of the proposals and policies are just things that people feel good about themselves for passing but aren't ever going to have any type of impact?  Let's say humans are causing 1% of the global warming effect... and of that 1%, all these policies are effecting what, 10% or less of that?  We're never going to eliminate all man-made effects into the environment... so, at best, what, we can effect 0.25% of the entire problem someday?  What is that going to accomplish?  Is that worth dramatically changing our lives?  I dunno, I don't see it.

If democrats want to do this, they need to get some politicians in office that actually care about the environment and not just about ways to raise taxes in the name of the environment.

And I can almost guarantee there's going to be another ice age... but the ice ages coming and going started way before man was on this planet. But , meh, that's just silly facts again...

So if another ice age is coming, should we just enjoy the beach today and worry about putting on an extra-heavy coat tomorrow?

We already modify nature now.  We put up dams and re-route rivers, for example.  So why shouldn't we try and develop technologies which would mitigate any extreme shifts in climate patterns?

If the Gulf Stream is shut down by global warming and Europe goes into a freeze, is there a way to kick-start it back up again?  One idea is to dump about half the world's annual consumption of salt into the ocean at what is now the northern-most reach of the stream.  Will that work?  I don't know.  BUt at least people are trying to come up with some solutions now.  

Yea, that's pretty much my philosophy.

But look... If scientists want to try to slow down the natural cycle of this planet, I have no problem with that.  My problem is with being told that humans are causing all of this.  Actually, we only have advanced weather data going back what, 100 years?  That is virtually NO data in terms of knowing what the cycle of surface temperatures and ocean currents and ocean temperatures, etc.  We know nothing about what is "normal" with these things... all we know is what has happened in the last blink of an eye of this planet's history.

Additionally, many of the things that conservationists like Al Gore are telling us to do have just as big of impact on the environment... Ethenol fuel, for example.  It may burn cleaner, but once you factor in the production of ethenol... the "carbon footprint" is at least as big as regular fuel in the end.  And yea, look at Al Gore's life... he probably has a bigger carbon footprint than most people on the planet, but... oh, we should just ignore that and take him seriously anyway right.

Furthermore, don't you think that trying to change the course of nature could cause some seriously devastating and unforseen consequences?  No one knows.  Is it a risk we should take?  I don't really care honestly, I'll be dead before the consequences hit I'm sure. LoL  I think we are worrying about things we can't control though.  It's humane nature, but... it's silly too.

Actually, humans have nothing to do with it.............it is the result of Martians farting..........really!

Now, if that sounds wacko, it is because it is in line with your reasoning.

If you say so... I guess you ran out of comments concerning Big Oil?

He said he handed over his wallet cuz you guys wanted to "see thai money" ???

That doesn't even make sense... LoL

Are you sure you want to drive, what city are you going to.

I watched some video of AUA's method on YouTube... I thought it was silly personally. I heard they don't even get to speak/interact until a few LEVELS in? That sounds like a complete waste of time... you may as well just spend a few hundred baht on some movies if you are able to learn that way.

At Chula the first 5 weeks was with phonetics, we got a headstart on learning Thai before spending all our time worrying about the script. But by the end of Basic II it was all Thai script and that has been incredibly useful for me. I have so many friends online that I talk with... if I was going to write Thai in phonetics to my friends that don't speak English it would be useless. LoL

*giggle* Glad I wasn't the only one thinking that.

I didn't need anything to remember the tone rules, but I have plenty of stupid tricks to remember other things that I would never share... LoL

Check out ProLanguage too... see which school works best for u.