ChiangMaiAjarn

I see what you mean, but isn't there a problem with putting the patio on the north side of the house - it won't catch much sun...

Wow trogers, that sure is a lot of changes. i'm not sure I can visualise all of those changes, but i get your drift... you just think it is rubbish and should start again!

I'm looking to buy quite a lot of small cloth bags; about the size that would hold a small pack of playing cards. I'd like them to either have a drawstring closure, or just a flap and button, and I'd like them to in some way be linked to northern Thailand so hilltribe bags would be great. How do you go about getting such things, or getting them made?

I want about 150 to start with, but potentially a lot more in the future. Where can I buy them from?

Help!

Basically there are no French speaking schools in LOS outside of Bangkok.

I teach at Lanna International School in Chiang Mai and we have taken quite a few early teenage French students over the last couple of years with considerable success. We find that French students in particular tend to pick up English very quickly when immersed totally. Depending on their level of English they either join our Intensive English Programme for a term/year before joining the mainstream, or go straight into mainstream with lots of additional English language support.

It is very possible for a motivated French speaking student to successfully switch to studying in English, but it may well mean dropping a year to allow for language development and give the child a decent chance of success. I can't give you a link here but if you Google for our website and take some time to browse through it you will find lots of information about the various programmes we offer and the ways in which we provide language support. This isn't, however, supposed to be an advert for Lanna and you should also take a look at the websites of the other schools mentioned by earlier posters; depending on your specific needs and precisely where you intend to live in Chiang Mai one of the other schools may well be a better choice for you.

Good luck in finding a school that suits your needs.

I knew David a little. He was a tatented musician and a very delightful human being. Doesn't matter how he died. He will be missed by his many friends!

Just a thought for those of you looking to teach at an international school in Chiang Mai (I do, by the way). Now is a great time to check out their websites and see what vacancies they have. Most have already got vacancies published and will be adding more up until February or March next year (the final deadline for teachers to sign a new contract for the coming August, or end their contract).

In Chiang Mai the international schools are:

Lanna International School

Nakorn Payap International School

Chiang Mai International School

American Pacific International School

Prem Tinsulanonda International School

Grace International School

CDSC (German School)

I think i'm within forum rules by giving names of all of the International Schools, not just the one I teach at. I wish somebody had done this when I was first looking for a job here - it would have saved me playing the guess how many international schools there are in Chiang Mai game! Just google them if you want to hunt for a decent(ish) paid job...

I live close to the airport and use TOT. I pay for a 1.5mb connection and am consistently getting emule download rates of between 140 and 155 kb/sec. It very rarely goes off and I never need to reset my router. I have friends nearby using TOT with similar experiences. I also have a friend slightly further out of town than me who has real problems with his TT&T connection. It really seems to depend very much on exactly where you live!

Ozsamurai, I like the 1000 word list. I could make great use of this on my Palm using the free Anki software if it had the english translation too. Does the list exist with English translation?

Thanks.

PS I've got lots of vocabulary lists for the Palm. If anyone wants them just let me know.

Since living in Chiang Mai I've been pretty poor at recycling, but have decided to make an effort... advice needed...

Where I live people regularly come around in trucks to collect recyclables. If you leave them by the gate in plastic bags they just take them away - great! My question is: what exactly do they want?

I put all paper, card and cardboard in one bag (I'm pretty sure they want all of this)

Cans (both aluminium and tin go in another (this is fine i think)

Plastics go in another - here's the problem. Do they only want plastic bottles, or do they want plastic packaging and inserts, polystyrene, etc?

If I'm going to sort the stuff I might as well do it properly and save the collectors having to rummage through it and throw things out. Equally I don't want to throw things in the bin if they can be recycled!

Anyone know please?

See current thread in Chiang Mai forum:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Place-Learn-...ai-t200135.html

muser

SP3 is working great for me. Installed it on two computers a couple of months ago. Both are heavily used for a variety of different tasks and I've had no problems at all (touch wood!) so far... Go for it!

skirt

I can certainly recommend AUA on Rachadamnern (sorry about the spelling) road, about 100m from Tha Pae gate. They have lots of different options: learn using the roman alphabet; learn using thai characters; learn in classes; have a private teacher, etc...

I did the two basic courses (book 1 and book 2) using the roman alphabet and it was a fantastic experience - really got me speaking and gave me lots of confidence. That was in a class situation, with about twelve people, and it was a fun way to learn. The course, if i remember correctly, lasts for 6 weeks, 2 hours per day - you can choose mornings (10 to 12) or afternoons (2 until 4 I think). When i did it (3 years ago) it was about 4,500 Baht for each 30 hour course.

One last tip. Ask if a course is starting with Khun Boonmark teaching (assuming he is still there!). He was a really funny bloke, having a dig at all nationalities equally, and making us laugh and enjoy the experience. On top of that he has taught the book 1 class so many times that he is able to communicate with you only ever using the words that he has taught you - a very impressive skill! My class enjoyed book 1 so much that we all signed up for book 2, on the understanding that Khun Boonmark taught us!

My Thai teacher is filling out the spreadsheet in The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages Fast so I can do a marathon 7 day wordfest. I'm planning on taking the seven day vocab and inputting then into either Anki or ProVoc. We'll also record the words so it's not just reading. If that works, I'll go the whole 30 days.

I just figure that anything I try will add to my vocabulary and understanding of the Thai language. For me, the trick is not to get bored so I'll be trying out quite a few methods, then keeping what sticks.

Thanks for some more useful ideas Desi. I've been looking at Anki - it seems like a great idea. How about sharing any files that we make for it? There's one (the Thai alphabet) available at the Anki aite, but that's it for Thai. Lets share!

Here's a few good game/educational sites that I can recommend:

http://www.starfall.com

http://pbskids.org

http://www.thomasandfriends.com

Good luck with limiting the kids' usage of useful sites only!

I wouldn't worry about the bandwidth issue with sites of this type. It tends to be downloading smallish chunks of flash and then playing that game for a while. No big problem with your 100kish to share between 3 computers. i doubt you would notice much of a difference, in general...

Thanks for feedback folks. I have bitten the bullet and bought the software online (45 dollars in total, using Paypal) and think it is well worth the money. I bought my Palm Zire 72 recently (2nd hand) for 4000 Baht, including a bunch of extras. Add in 1300 Baht for the great dictionary and I've got something much more useful than a Cyberdict (with a dictionary actually aimed at Thai language learners, rather than being aimed at Thais) for a similar price. The Palm's leather case is also my wallet, so I actually carry this everywhere. So useful!

Actually buying software is a strange experience in Thailand, but this is great software, it's a niche market, and it deserves to be supported. Get yourself a Palm if you want a great electronic dictionary! If you've already got a Palm then buy this dictionary: what's 45 bucks! ;-)

My apologies if you have read this before. I posted it originally in reponse to a post in the ladies forum, but thought it might be useful to some folks who read this forum...

I have made use of lots of different materials in my Thai learning journey (that is far from over...). Here's my two penneth worth on how to go about learnig this wonderful language!

Lessons, preferably in a small group for me, are really valuable and dramatically improve your rate of learning - but I have a full-time job and a small child, hence I mostly study by myself whenever I can and practice speaking with friends! My recommendations for self-study are:

• Rosetta Stone Beginners Thai for use on the computer is great for building vocabulary and simple sentence structures - repetitive, but this works for me! The software, however, only uses Thai characters (no transliteration) so is useful to beginners who can at least read a little! I came upon this only recently (I regard myself as lower intermediate) and have found it very useful at this stage of my language learning. They also do an English version (2 actually, one USA and one UK English) - useful for your Thai friends.
  
• Pimsleur Thai (30 half hour MP3 files) are a great place to start for beginners, and focus a lot on correct pronunciation - they take the words apart and teach them from the end syllable by syllable, also they come back to words and structures as the lessons progress. Very well considered lessons in my opinion. Great for those who spend time traveling to and from work, so long as you don't mind gibbering in public as you practice speaking!
  
• Linguaphone - don't waste your time and energy (I did, far too much - almost put me off learning Thai!) - appalling! Has its own bizarre and horrible transliteration system and no sensible learning structure. Yuk.
  
• Colloquial Thai (book and audio set, published by Routledge) - A complete beginner course. I learnt a lot from this, but I think the title is misleading; If you know no Thai at all it will quickly become too difficult - It would be better to complete the Pimsleur audio lessons first, then use this book. I liked this because it is all about questions and responses, forcing you to think about the language and not just repeat like a parrot (Linguaphone styley!). On a negative note there is no use of Thai characters and it uses a phonetic system peculiar to this book only (as far as I can see).
  
• Banjawan Poomsam Becker's series of books/CDs/Computer materials/dictionary/Palm software (Paiboon Publishing). My personal favourites, and a great place to start, although I think using a variety of different materials gives you a more interesting learning experience.
  Here's why I like this set of materials: They use a well considered and consistent transliteration system throughout (making it worth you while learning the sounds of the few strange characters); they build logically; they use both Thai characters and transliteration (although they don't do much of a job of teaching you to read Thai characters: see below for a better method of dong this).
  On the negative side: some chapters are tedious, particularly in the intermediate book (beginners less so), and I pick and choose what I use - not perfect then, but better than most other materials. The consistency between books and dictionary is very valuable to me. The dictionary has red, blue and white stripes on the cover and I thoroughly recommend it. They also do an electronic version for Palm (small handheld computer) and I have recently bought a Palm just to install the dictionary - far better for foreigners than Cyberdicts (they are aimed at Thais learning English) - and now carry that with me everywhere. The case is also my wallet so I have to carry it! I even paid for this software (45 dollars from their website)!
  
• Lastly, but not least (I'm getting tired!) don't learn Thai without visiting www.learningthai.com
  They have a huge amount of stuff to help you on your journey, but, in my opinion, the most valuable thing they offer is a foolproof way to learn to read Thai without the need for a teacher. What it teaches you (over a series of 22 lessons, each with listening, speaking and reading components) is how to read most vowels and the most common 23 consonants. After that you are on your own, but can already read most signs, menus etc. Great and free - full respect to the people who made this (Thai Department at Sriwittayapaknam School) who state on their website "One of the most popular Thai Readers for primary students for many years has been "Manee and Friends". The book has been long out of print in Thailand. When we first proposed doing this internet edition, many of our teachers were very excited as they have fond memories of these characters. We are pleased now to share this book with our foreign friends who have so graciously decided to make an attempt at learning our national language." Gotta love 'em! Go to www.learningthai.com/books/manee/
  
  
• Okay - really lastly - I'm now learning the alphabet (in it's proper order, like I know the English one) using a series of 4 foam jigsaw thingys from Tesco. Splitting it into four section, and playing with the puzzles (not really a jigsaw; putting shapes into holes) with my son makes it really manageable!
  

Good luck everyone. I hope my ramblings are useful to somebody out there, and give you a more direct route to learning the language than I have used. Other people's opinions/ideas very welcome. Please!

My apologies for being a man... but I have made use of lots of different materials in my Thai learning journey (that is far from over...). Here's my two penneth worth!

Lessons, preferably in a small group for me, are really valuable and dramatically improve your rate of learning - but I have a full-time job and a small child, hence I mostly study by myself whenever I can and practice speaking with friends! My recommendations for self-study are:

• Rosetta Stone Beginners Thai for use on the computer is great for building vocabulary and simple sentence structures - repetitive, but this works for me! The software, however, only uses Thai characters (no transliteration) so is useful to beginners who can at least read a little! I came upon this only recently (I regard myself as lower intermediate) and have found it very useful at this stage of my language learning. They also do an English version (2 actually, one USA and one UK English) - useful for your Thai friends.
  
• Pimsleur Thai (30 half hour MP3 files) are a great place to start for beginners, and focus a lot on correct pronunciation - they take the words apart and teach them from the end syllable by syllable, also they come back to words and structures as the lessons progress. Very well considered lessons in my opinion. Great for those who spend time traveling to and from work, so long as you don't mind gibbering in public as you practice speaking!
  
• Linguaphone - don't waste your time and energy (I did, far too much - almost put me off learning Thai!) - appalling! Has its own bizarre and horrible transliteration system and no sensible learning structure. Yuk.
  
• Colloquial Thai (book and audio set, published by Routledge) - A complete beginner course. I learnt a lot from this, but I think the title is misleading; If you know no Thai at all it will quickly become too difficult - It would be better to complete the Pimsleur audio lessons first, then use this book. I liked this because it is all about questions and responses, forcing you to think about the language and not just repeat like a parrot (Linguaphone styley!). On a negative note there is no use of Thai characters and it uses a phonetic system peculiar to this book only (as far as I can see).
  
• Banjawan Poomsam Becker's series of books/CDs/Computer materials/dictionary/Palm software (Paiboon Publishing). My personal favourites, and a great place to start, although I think using a variety of different materials gives you a more interesting learning experience.
  Here's why I like this set of materials: They use a well considered and consistent transliteration system throughout (making it worth you while learning the sounds of the few strange characters); they build logically; they use both Thai characters and transliteration (although they don't do much of a job of teaching you to read Thai characters: see below for a better method of dong this).
  On the negative side: some chapters are tedious, particularly in the intermediate book (beginners less so), and I pick and choose what I use - not perfect then, but better than most other materials. The consistency between books and dictionary is very valuable to me. The dictionary has red, blue and white stripes on the cover and I thoroughly recommend it. They also do an electronic version for Palm (small handheld computer) and I have recently bought a Palm just to install the dictionary - far better for foreigners than Cyberdicts (they are aimed at Thais learning English) - and now carry that with me everywhere. The case is also my wallet so I have to carry it! I even paid for this software (45 dollars from their website)!
  
• Lastly, but not least (I'm getting tired!) don't learn Thai without visiting www.learningthai.com
  They have a huge amount of stuff to help you on your journey, but, in my opinion, the most valuable thing they offer is a foolproof way to learn to read Thai without the need for a teacher. What it teaches you (over a series of 22 lessons, each with listening, speaking and reading components) is how to read most vowels and the most common 23 consonants. After that you are on your own, but can already read most signs, menus etc. Great and free - full respect to the people who made this (Thai Department at Sriwittayapaknam School) who state on their website "One of the most popular Thai Readers for primary students for many years has been "Manee and Friends". The book has been long out of print in Thailand. When we first proposed doing this internet edition, many of our teachers were very excited as they have fond memories of these characters. We are pleased now to share this book with our foreign friends who have so graciously decided to make an attempt at learning our national language." Gotta love 'em! Go to www.learningthai.com/books/manee/
  
  
• Okay - really lastly - I'm now learning the alphabet (in it's proper order, like I know the English one) using a series of 4 foam jigsaw thingys from Tesco. Splitting it into four section, and playing with the puzzles (not really a jigsaw; putting shapes into holes) with my son makes it really manageable!
  

Good luck everyone. I hope my ramblings are useful to somebody out there, and give you a more direct route to learning the language than I have used. Other people's opinions/ideas very welcome. Please!

Thanks a lot - nice clear directions. I'm on my way!

Must agree I too have tried nearly every wine I could find the latest being Mont Clair which I believe is a Hua Hin variety and that was not very enjoyable. Hearsay has it that a few Australian Wine producers have tried to get joint ventures going in Thailand without success. If the Thai Gov had the foresight to encourage local producers with tax breaks and incentives it would provide a great source of local employment but thats ,at this time,just another lost opportunity.

Actually the Mont Clair is imported from South Africa. A 5 litre box is 880 THB from my local wholesale liquor distributor in Chiang Mai- a 2 litre screwcap bottle of the same plonk is 400 THB. Not local wine, so I know this is off-topic.

It's ahhhh...drinkable, in the sense that with food, it is OK. Not as a standalone sipping wine, however. Here is a link to their site should anyone be interested in reading about them (Thai company). I have no personal interest in this business whatsoever.

The import taxes, and excise (internal) taxes for wine in Thailand are very high. This seems to benefit the "white spirit" producers- to the detriment of we farang who like a decent glass of wine, at a reasonable cost, to accompany a meal. Ah well...can't expect all to be perfect in our little slice of heaven, can we?

I'm down in Chiang Mai and drink the Mont Clair boxes. It's not the world's greatest wine (by any stretch), but very quaffable, reliable, and reasonably priced - unlike most other wines that I can buy here! However, I pay 995B for a 5L Box from the well known chain of farang supermarkets that we have here. Where can I get it for 880B please?

Myself and my friend plan to sample these sausages with mashed spuds and onion gravy this evening (I'll let you know what I think about them later). We'd been discussing how to cook them and I suggested defrosting them first, which he said wouldn't be a good idea as the skin goes all baggy. This sounded strange to me, but as the conversation went on he told me that it was almost like they had a second skin - and not a very nice tasting one at that.

Well... before we started cooking today I said how good it was that each sausage was wrapped in clingfilm - making them very easy to seperate... hmm, says he, clingfilm, huh! The not very tasty second skin that he'd enjoyed the day before! donkey!

Try the Body & Mind Gym on the airport service road (parallel to the Hangdong road). A years membership is only 4,000 Baht(ish), and I think it's great for the money. They have a large indoor hall that can be used for badminton. I don't know how much for non-members, but it sure won't be expensive. Enjoy...

PS: They have tennis courts too!

Well.... thank you.... but I'm kinda okay doing Google searches. I was rather hoping for personal opinions from people who have actual experience of using the software!

I've recently bought a Palm handheld PC thingy, and would like to add Thai dictionary software to it. To my mind the best software will probably be the Thai-English dictionary produced by Benjawan Poomsam Becker (I love her paper dictionary, in my opinion it is much more useful, and useable, than any other available). Does anyone have any experience of using her dictionary on a Palm? or any other dictionary software for that matter?

I'd be very interested to hear any opinions. Thanks in advance!