pokerkid

13000 hours spend on learning thai so now you are able to have wonderful long meaningful conversations with the rest of the villagers in Nakhon nowhere. It must also be a wonderful experience to be able to understand the thai soap operas that most of the people in your village watch. boing boing, honk honk etc etc.

I don't even go into the reason why you have not helped your wife to speak at least a bit of english....

This entire thread should be moved to the psychology forum (or mental health forum) because it is a fascinating case study in man's ability to rationalize away their own shortcomings. If a person doesn't want to take the time to learn the language of their adopted country, that's their problem, not mine. But, as is well evidenced on this thread, (and in the above comments) when people attack Thais and anyone who has bothered to learn the language in a futile effort to justify to themselves and others that it wasn't worth the bother (Thais have nothing of interest to say, Thais insult you constantly, it's a minor language, it's too difficult, it's a waste of time, blah, blah, blah) then I say professional counseling needs to be called in.

The fact is that once you reach a reasonable degree of fluency (far less than 13,000 hours) you can begin to initiate topics of discussion if you find what others are talking about is not to your liking. I have discussed numerous TVF topics and other topics with my family and neighbors. For example, I have discussed:

deflation, the global economic crisis, interest rates, monetary stimulus, the Japanese bubble economy, teen pregnancy, drug addiction, alcoholism, farming, gardening, Thai language, impressions of other foreigners, Thai attitudes towards other SE Asian nations, prostitution, the cost of living, average household income, educational quality, teacher accountability, Thai traditional cooking, blood pressure, exercise, dog care, money management, importance of having goals, pre-natal nutrition, autism, pig raising, incarceration for drug offenses, land law, current events, crime, the military coup, the environment, earthquakes, tsunamis, ergonomics, safety, etc.,etc.

To the extent that these topics qualify as interesting, I have intellectually stimulating conversations with my family and my neighbors.

Those who claim that they can't have an intellectually stimulating conversation with Thais are saying far more about their own inability to speak Thai or engage a Thai in an interesting topic of conversation than they are about Thais themselves.

As far as my wife not learning English, there was no need for this as we always planned on living in Thailand, and English is rarely spoken locally. My step-daughter, of course, is studying English in school and is proficient in the language. Not that my family is any of your business, or I'm under any obligation to explain myself to to you, or anything, right?

If you want to keep your family out of the discussion then don't mention them.

I think we all get a pretty good idea what kind of life you lead and why it is essential for you to be able to speak thai well....

Oh no oh wise one I am sure you have lived here 40 years and are fluent in both speaking, reading and writing. You have convinced me, I am going to learn and just cannot wait to talk about som tam, lakorn and the lesbians in the house opposite. Off to watch Downton Abbey on now channel, thank god the Thai language they murder it in can be switched to English.

I am speak, read and write Thai fluently, and have studied Thai for close to 21 years. I have also studied French, Spanish and Japanese.

My very first study of the Thai language was actually in 1986 (28 years ago), prior to my first trip to Thailand. This consisted of 10 two hour lessons with a university student as well as listening to a scratchy Parlaphone Thai language LP borrowed from the local library.

I did not begin my intensive study of Thai until Nov, 1994. Between 1994 and 2003 (when I moved to Thailand), I studied with Thai foreign exchange students, Thai restaurant owners and at a Thai temple. During this period my primary hobby was studying Thai. Aside from weekend study with teachers, I regularly came into the office early or stayed late into the evening studying Thai. My study activity consisted of translating and composing correspondence, reading aloud, translating newspaper articles and light fiction books, watching Thai language movies and TV shows, and vocabulary building work. The pinacle of my achievement during this period was completing a very readable translation of Suwanii Sukanatha's novel "Tonight There Is No Moon. Rarely did I spend less than 20-25 per week studying Thai. I kept detailed logs of my study activity from 1996 to 2003 and would conservatively estimate that I spent at a minimum 13000 hours studying Thai prior to moving to Thailand.

In 1998 I visited Benjawan Poomsan Becker at her home and asked her to evaluate my progress in the Thai language. She told me at that time (17 years ago) that she knew "very few people who had reached my level of competency in Thai." In 2000 I decided that I would move to Thailand in 2004. Knowing that I would be moving to Thailand, I was very motivated to study the language, and from 2000 to July, 2003 (I moved here 6 months earlier than originally planned), if anything, my study of Thai was even more intensive than in prior years.

Since moving to Thailand in 2003, I have lived here full time continuously. I live in a small rural village where very little English is spoken, and my wife does not speak any English at all. My study of the language consists mainly of conversation, watching Thai language TV, but I also regularly translate newspaper articles and practice building and maintaining my vocabulary. Since moving here, I have had a house built, have testified in court, and teach, all of which involved my Thai language skills. I am sure there are many foreigners in Thailand who have a higher degree of proficiency in Thai than I do, but knowing that the investment I have made in learning the language is considerable and not commonplace, I am confident that my language skills are way above average.

I would say that being fluent in Thai has enhanced my life here enormously and anyone who counsels that learning the language isn't worth the time and effort are only trying to rationalize away their failure to make the investment.

Regarding your challenge that I translate, "Exit stage left, big mouth" in order to prove my language skills to you, well here goes.

"Exit stage left" as used here is an idiom for "get off the stage," and would not be translated word for word.

Thai language translation: ลงเวธีเดี๋ยวนี้ดีกว่า ไอ้ปากไม่มีหูรูด

Transliteration: long wethi diaw nii dii gwaa, ai paak mai mii huu ruud

Literal translation: Better come down off the stage, blabbermouth. (literally: person whose mouth doesn't have a sphincter muscle)

13000 hours spend on learning thai so now you are able to have wonderful long meaningful conversations with the rest of the villagers in Nakhon nowhere. It must also be a wonderful experience to be able to understand the thai soap operas that most of the people in your village watch. boing boing, honk honk etc etc.

I don't even go into the reason why you have not helped your wife to speak at least a bit of english....

This looks like one of hundreds of corners of most mountain passes in the north of Thailand. Unless there something about the road surface that makes this extra slippery, I would just put it down to rider error.

If anything, this looks like a safe and easy corner, two lanes for uphill traffic. On the MHS loop, most of them are single lane.

Of course it is anecdotal evidence only , I might have seen the only four accidents on this corner . But it does seem like a fairly big coincidence that I have spent approximately 3 hours here over a period of 6 weeks and have seen this many accidents .

I think the problem is low powered bikes with 2 passengers taking a very sharp and steep corner .

it makes a difference in the kind of bikes that are involved in the accidents. If it is mostly thais 2 up on scooter than the reason why they crash is most likely that they forget to downshift before the corner and come to a virtual stop in the middle of the corner and just tip over.

I have seen so many times that thais don't downshift until its too late, be it overtaking somebody or going up a steep hill.

I said to her from the very beginning that the problems that arise from all this (sleepless nights, anarchy at feeding time etc etc) will be her problem and not mine and indeed I stick by my guns....after 8:30pm (way past bedtime for a toddler anyway) I a retreat to my man cave and the rest is up to her and same for most things...when it starts getting out of control (for reasons that are claerly attributable to the Thai parenting style) i walk away.

you stick to your guns, retreat to your mancave and walk away .

wow, what a way to raise kids, just walk away when things get tough....

Back in the '80s I taught in an experimental Individually Guided Education school in the inner city of Milwaukee.

Instead of busing the "minority" children out of the ghetto, the white kids were bussed in from the east side.

About 50% of the student population was made up of children of university professors, lawyers, and other professionals from the wealthy east side.

The other 50% lived in the ghetto neighborhood.

It was clear to me, as a specialist walking into the classrooms starting in Kindergarten that nothing could be done to lessen the chasm of difference in the lives of these young people.

For example at the age of 5:

Half of the children could read and half did not know the alphabet.

Half of the children could add and subtract and half did not know how to count.

Half of the children were sitting quietly listening to the teacher and half were fighting and urinating and defecating in their pants almost oblivious to the teacher.

You can guess which half was which.

The differences only gained with each progressing year.

The only ones who were affected were the little white kids who didn't try as hard as they learned to mimic the ghetto culture.

What can we do? Am I racist to just observe and report?

Very interesting ,the parents of the east side kids did not mind that their children would be in the same class as the ghetto kids ?

i doubt his day job paid for the aston though.

hahah it is true he does get perks & has some sponsors like Dainese

But he is not a factory contract rider which is why he is not beholding to the whole

sponsorship PR fest at races & stays alone outside the main compounds.

He is some kind of heavy equipment mechanic if I remember right

yes, think he and his dad ow a truck service center. It's in tt3d closer to the edge, one of the best movies about the tt i ever seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUqlgTjZUPg

He sure is one of a kind, a great ,humble man.[with huge balls!]

Respect ,Guy Martin.

He is a riders rider for sure.....Has a day job & does it all for the love of it

BTW: if your in the UK they have a long version we cannot see here in Thailand

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/guy-martins-passion-for-life/on-demand

i doubt his day job paid for the aston though.

I'm getting the Icon since it's a good base. I don't want tubes so Classic And Urban Enduro are out (not a fan of the Urban Enduro looks anyways). But I think I'll get the exhaust from the Full Throttle even though it's probably quite pricey. My guess it'll be something like 50k THB ($1.4k US MSRP), have to think if that's really worth it. Like the looks of it and hopefully it'll sound nice too. The only sound videos available are from the stock one and the racing slip-on with removed dB killer which would be too much for my neighbours

BTW do you guys also hear a "high" pitch sound coming from the bikes in all the review videos? Hard to describe it but it's not a pleasant sound and seems to be louder than the exhaust note.

The scrambler is indeed de-tuned for what they say easier riding experience. Probably more linear torque. But I hope the rearwheel numbers wont be (much) lower than the specified ones.

First class insurance is 18k THB. I would really love to know the servicing costs too. I shot Ducati an email about this.

They are already producing it, wonder why there are none here in the dealer showrooms and why deliveries will be in April. Any ideas why they'd stockpile them for a few months?

There's one in the Chiang Mai showroom. Sat on it today - it's a classic motorcycle. Long wheelbase compared to monster, at least optically, and not nearly as sporty a stance as the Hypermotard. All as expected. It's really low too, but IMO by no means "small" (as some have said).

Don't worry about the servicing costs. It seems to be a bit more than at, say, Kawasaki, but by no means outrageous. And long service intervals means you actually kinda end up paying the same. My first 15k service is tomorrow, I'll update on that. But the 1000k service was cheap, can't remember the exact figure.

Testastretta service is going to cost more, at least I assume so. But that's only every 30k km? Something like that.

The only thing I've been getting ripped off on was the headlight; it's apparently a standard H4 halogen blue light - costs 3,000 baht from Ducati, or 250 or so in a shop. I didn't know this. Oh well. Ok so the install was free, and it's apparently pretty tricky, a friend paid 400 for that.

Accordding to Ducati the scrambler has a 5mm shorter wheelbase then the monster 795

you can buy it in thailand for around 115.000 baht or less i believe, its called the zongshen rx3

Though to be fair if you got crap electric. Why not have gas showers?

I have thought about gas showers - about 5,000 baht from Thai Watsadu.

Does anyone have experience of gas shower heaters? Can they heat the water faster than electric IWHs?

I think gas may have a problem in a guesthouse and add a potential safety risk with misuse

the guests will not see or touch the gas heater they will only open the taps. when installed improperly any system can be hazardous especially an electric shower heating system when your standing right under it barefoot on a wet floor...

Though to be fair if you got crap electric. Why not have gas showers?

I have thought about gas showers - about 5,000 baht from Thai Watsadu.

Does anyone have experience of gas shower heaters? Can they heat the water faster than electric IWHs?

i have used the gas heaters from home pro (brand mazuma )for many years but i will use the brand rinai in the future because they are more reliable though slightly more expensive. Very hot water at high pressure and I use rainshowers . they also sell pro gasheaters for small hotels. You can install these heaters meters away from the rooms so the bathroom will also look a lot better without the typical thai style electric shower heater, Not even starting about the way some of these electric heaters are installed by some eletricians....

http://www.luckyflame.co.th/products/electric-shower.html

good review here

Nice marketing video. In particular I love the retro helmet and goggles..

don't think this particular video is a marketing tool for Ducati though i threw up a bit in my mouth seeing all those hipsters . Good thing the journalist riding the bike isn't one and knows what he is talking about.

good review here

I guess these limestone features are called karsks.

limestone karsks.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karst

is there a nice informal place to watch the fireworks on new years eve in bangkok (if there are any fireworks worth mentioning )

Bike still in brand new condition, no accidents. Oil change already done twice in BMW R1200GS Purchased in may 2013

Well serviced and taken care of, great bike - have to sell as I do not drive it around any more. 6,000 Kms.

Spot Lights

GSA Tall Windscreen

Stainless Sport and is in perfect condition 180,000

(He wants me to pay 20,000 before meeting him and he says he'll give me the money back after I look at the bike if I choose not to buy it!!!! Because he claims people have messed him and his wife about!! However, he hasn't yet stated how I am supposed to pay this without meeting him. I'm waiting for his next reply. He also told me if I'm not willing to pay the 'warrenty' payment I should forget it.......) Also, I guess the price is far to low for this bike, right?

this is obviously a scam, for one thing price should be a multiple of 180.000

sorry, but it seems you are a newby when it comes to bikes and especially bikes in Thailand, Do yourself a favour and just rent a couple of bikes first , make up your mind about what bike you want and then buy that bike .

Just forget about getting a bike that is not well established here because most likely you will end up with a grey import bike that does not have the correct paperwork.

Jesus!

Has anyone ever been asked for a 'warranty' payment before even going to see a bike.?!?!

(I smell a scam!)

be careful, did you see this bike on graigslist? if so be extra extra careful, There are some scammers about.

whatever you do before you buy a bike, make sure the bike has been properly checked and transferred into your name before paying anything.

how much do they want for the bmw ?

he said it could be his last TT, nothing sure yet. if he is clever he will stop because he will kill himself one of these days. he used up already too many lives.

so what to do if your house is on a private road that can not be seen on google maps ?

Nice write up, so how much you paid for it?

You meet the nicest people on a Honda - the old ads said.

Times have changed.

seems to be you meet the biggest tw.ts on a honda, still a catchy slogan