alantheembalmer

I like the way the caption reads "Suspected swindler Panasan Somchevita, seated left," just in case you thought it might be the other two, seated right!

"Niran on the day said that there could be misunderstanding."
I, and most people on here, understood that the police had to attend on certain dates, and failed to do so. What exactly is there to misunderstand?

Time to learn some Thai. It's a relatively easy language.

It's actually one of the most difficult to learn for a Westerner.

Not really. I'm completely fluent in it and sound like a Thai - and I know I'm not the only one. You just need some street smarts and stop instinctively speaking Thai using your native accent or letting your native accent interfere with learning Thai. In any given country one should be able to pick up the local language and eventually become fluent over time if residing in said country for an extended period.

It also helps a lot if you are already bilingual or fluent in other languages before attempting Thai. I grew up speaking multiple languages since birth, so have a bit of a gift when it comes to language acquisition. Having said that, I don't want to brag but all I can say is Thai really isn't that difficult. I see so many westerners speaking Chinese quite well whenever I'm in China (I personally only speak intermediate conversational Chinese, including some reading and writing) so I can't understand the difficulty about learning Thai amongst westerners when Chinese is so much more difficult, mainly due to the many characters you need to learn, and also the ability to decipher the difference between it's many, many homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings).

Thai actually doesn't have that many homophones, it's more about being able to tell the difference between words that have different meanings based on changes in pitch or tones (to a trained ear they do sound different hence why strictly speaking I wouldn't consider them to be homophones unless they have the same tone and same pronunciation). Apart from that, you have to assume that English homophones (pick any 2 words that sound the same but have different meanings) are not going to be the same in Thai. For example, to wear (an item of clothing) and wear (as in this bicycle tire/tyre shows signs of wear or deterioration).

This is one of the biggest problems I've always faced when learning new languages - making those incorrect assumptions about the transferability of homophones. In Thai to wear a piece of clothing is "sai" for example "sai seua", while wear or deterioration is "seuk" or "seuk hro". So completely different words are used - you can't say "sai" when referring to a worn bicycle tyre. It just doesn't make one bit of sense.

Blimey, you must be good at languages. I was over 2 years old before I said my first word in English, and I'm from London!

On a side issue, I have pretty bad tinnitus, and hearing the change of tones is, for me at least, near impossible.

Why is the robber wearing better protective gear than the forensic police?

Looks like the same drill Somchai used to put a picture on the wall in my condo.

No more! We are hubbed to death.

I hope that's a very old photograph, or else Somchai is trying to pull a fast one saying he has nearly finished the bridge.