cophen

"n. a particular form of a language that is peculiar to a specific region or social group"

An exact description of both the the Queen's and RP English. So how are they more Englsih than Brummie?

There is a standard American pronunciation, which has been common since radio was standardized: the Northern Indiana version. It is not a dialect and barely even an accent, easily understood from Pennsylvania to Florida to San Diego to Portland. It is the standard American language which has conquered the world,

And there we have it....So lets call the language you teach American then.....personally I prefer to stick to English/English..."y"all... ...Reinforces my original arguement, that its not English that is being taught, but a dialect of English

FYI

Definition of a dialect

n. a particular form of a language that is peculiar to a specific region or social group

So which English English would you teach? The English that's spoken in Cornwall? Bristol? Sunderland? Wolverhampton? Clay Cross? Glasgow? Kirkwall? These are all different Englishes - no less English than RP or Boston English or Cape Town English. There is no English English.

what's so important about pride? try going through life without it. shame, humiliation & disgrace you prefer? just the way a nonaccepting str8 world would have you feel about yourself. pride parades could not be more properly named.

I don't think the issue is about the importance of pride. I've certainly had my fill of "shame, humiliation & disgrace," and would welcome anything that helps me feel proud.

The point, at least for me, is what sorts of things promote a sense of pride in yourself and demonstrate to others that gays have cause to be proud.

The intellectual abilities, artistic talents, political achievements, etc of people who are gay make me proud.

gays are hardly yet treated as equals in the west.

And you think we'll gain equality based on: ???

i very much look forward to one day (i hope soon) screaming for beads in bangkok.

Maybe I'm a stick-in-the-mud or whatever, but the ability to "scream for beads in Bangkok," doesn't strike me as a moment I would look back upon with pride.

It seems many parades actually promote some of the things for which others hold us in contempt. And, especially in Bangkok or Pattaya, the parade participants seem mostly drawn from the sex trade businesses.

The "shame, humiliation & disgrace" seems often to come from the belief that we all want to dress up like women or in bizarre costumes, to run around squealing with limp wrists and to try to be as silly as we can. If that is the perception of us held by non-gays, it's not how I want people to think of me, so I don't find any pride in events staged to reinforce those perceptions.

Have you ever found yourself in a group of people who are laughing at some gay joke or at the reference to being gay in movies or the silly escapades of gays on TV shows. Does that inspire pride? It seems at least some of these parades simply feed the same amused contempt people hold for us, at best, and provide fodder for people who feel justified in hating us.

Who we choose to be in love with male, female, whatever, is our personal business and need not be announced unless drawn into it by conversation. Flame away.

Actually I agree with you. I am a lot of things and have accomplished a fair number of things in my life which I would prefer to be used when identifying me. Who I have sex with or the positions we do it in or what turns me on are all personal, of importance to virtually no one and hardly how I want to be defined.

But you allow yourself to be defined, or rather embarrassed, by the reactions that a bunch of straight people have for a bunch of gay people that you don't know who are choosing their own way to have a good time. The Thai boyfriend and I were at a New Year's Eve party in Chiang Mai where some large, hairy, gay German guys were celebrating the evening by wearing drag. When I laughed at them the BF turned round and said 'Why do you laugh? They're having sanuk, they're not hurting you. Why don't you let them have their fun without laughing at them'. He made me feel quite ashamed of myself. We gays spend all our lives whining about the fact that the straight world expects us to behave in a way that suits them but, often, we're no better than they are.

I thought this was the forum FOR gay folks, not ABOUT gay folks?

Let's not tell other folks how to live their lives. After all, isn't that what we've been complaining about for years?

Why did you give them away AFTER your card had been charged?

All the Eastern Europeans I've met in the UK in the past 6 months have been gainfully employed, doing the jobs the indigenous population think beneath them. Norfolk and Lincolnshire would be festering square miles of unpicked crops without the Eastern Europeans that you disparage.

How can you 'cure' someone when they have nothing wrong with them?

How much will you miss your wife when she finds out and leaves you?

Is this why, already at 8 years old, I was looking at men in underwear in the Sears catalogue?

At the age of 9 I used to leer at my aunt's lodger, Mister Buckley - him big hansum man

For those non-Brit readers of this forum the Daily Mail is regularly outraged by pretty much anything that's changed in the past 100 years. They ought to rename it 'The Little Englander'.

Has he any proof that he transferred money here to buy the house. If he has, he has a running chance that he might get that money back from having to Auction the house.

it was 7 years ago that money was transfered for the house in Thailand from the UK. he still has the account number from then, but will it still be on there records re: the transfer transaction

The UK bank should still have a record of the Transaction and he needs a copy of this. As soon as he recieves this, he needs to go immediately to a Lawyer. The word 'URGENT' now comes to mind. The Lady in question might very well have already sold his house or remortgaged it for it's full value.

but he still has the book and the deeds locked up in his safe, can she still sell it without these ??

Luckily, he has more credit than I gave him. She should not be able to do too much without these but can always get a copy since she is the owner. He still needs to get a copy of transfer of funds from his bank and still go and visit a Lawyer when he has this proof and make sure the house is transfered into his Company name with a 30 year lease registered at the Land Office. This might cost him a bit for transfer taxes etc., but it will be less than the heartache and loss of his home.

He needs to get a move on. UK banks only keep records for 7 years.

my husband recently transferred 10k gbp from his lloydstsb account to his bangkok bank account using swift transfer, each one cost (I think) 15gbp & he had to do it in 2 lots of 5k gbp each. Took approx 3 working days to be received.

make sure you specify tat the exchange is done in thai baht & not sterling. Also split charges as usually works out cheaper (IME)

I have to disagree with this. If you transfer baht you'll get the exchange rate valid in the UK which is usually approximately 10% worse than that in Thailand. Make sure you transfer sterling and you'll get the exchange rate available in Thailand.

A gay rights group (FACT - Fraternity for AIDS Cessation in Thailand) was started 20 years ago by Natee Teerarojjanapongs. At the time it was (obviously) dealing with information and misinformation about AIDS. It doesn't seem to have grown very much over the 20 years. Perhaps the Thais don't feel they need groups to defend their rights. I'm sure that if it was important someone would have done something by now. All this 'making sure the Thais have their rights' (according to what we westerners think their rights ought to be) seems a bit colonial to me. Mine's a pink gin and a solar topee what! what!

I think Customs in the UK get quite interested if they know you're taking a big wodge out. I'm not quite sure how big big is but it's in the low thousands.

I have to agree with saibaijai's recommendation of Buddha's Lost Children. The cinematography is really good and the quality seems to be as well.

http://www.buddhaslostchildren.com

Thanks for that. I've just ordered it.

Cophen, I really think you are blind.

In Thailand you are really not accepted.

Do you speak and understand Thai Language?

They make a joke of you, specially if you are Farang and Thai.

Katoys are presented on Thai TV for fun and make joke out of them.

And you think that passing some law will stop any of that? The reason that there are gay groups that fight for our rights in the west is because in most western countries homosexuality was illegal until the recent past. The groups were formed to change the law. In Thailand homosexuality has never been illegal so there's been no need for the groups to form in the first place.

Oh you say, gays are accepted and tolerated in Thailand, are you sure?

Yes, I do. Until you have spent some time as a gay person in the west with all its anti-discrimination laws and same-sex partnerships you have no idea what discrimination really is. You don't think those laws were passed for fun, do you? They were passed because there was (and still is) enormous discrimination against gays and because they were necessary. There might not be laws protecting gay folks in Thailand but that's mainly because they don't need it. People don't get the crap beaten out of them for being gay in Thailand. Some folks may snigger at them and look down on them but everyone looks down on someone else wherever you go in the world. Stop trying to fix problems that don't exist.

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What stars?

I suspect you're looking for our special 'flair'. Some of us are fashion queens - some of us are grammar queens. I suspect that the time is long gone when any of us are willing to be patronised queens.

Thanks very much!

How about Richard please?

So what you are saying is if you have contributed 30 years or more national insurance payments you are ok to claim a full pension.However if you are below the 30 years you need to pay the rest before the deadline in 2009.In my case i have paid a minimum of 33-34 years so i should be ok.

Its worth checking....get a forcast

The Pension Service - Guides and forms - Get a State Pension forecast online

They are unable to give forecasts to people retiring after 6th April 2010:

"We are currently unable to provide our usual pension forecasting service to some of our customers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This is because we are changing our computer systems to reflect the changes to State Pension rules introduced by the Pensions Act 2007 and the Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 2008. We aim to provide the full service again by Autumn 2008."

The book in Boots was MIMS. It said so on the cover.