ninjat

Hi,

I have been practicing Thai for quite some time and can get my meaning across in most situations... but my pronouncation continues to be really, really bad.

The problem is the tones. I started out learning Thai by myself, so I never really got down to learning them probably. Today, I speak everything in more or less the same tone - and it happens way to often that I have to repeat myself a few times before the locals understand me

What can I do to learn the tones probably? Is the some kind of resource on the internet I can use to learn the tones (especially considering I have already been practicing Thai for quite some time).

Thanks,

Ninjat

Hi,

We live in Bangkok. Lots of my Thai wife's relatives from both in- and outside Bangkok wants to come by and visit us. Sometimes the just stay for a few hours, but at other times they want to move in for a week or more

All of them are very nice, but honestly speaking, both of us would prefer to have some more peace, quiet and privacy at home.

But how do we get that? (especially since we don't want to make anyone angry).

Thanks,

Ninjat

Interesting reading the posts on this topic and what people do in such circumstances. I spend time both in the UK and in Thailand with my daughter. She has no problem with it. As her mother what I find is the most important thing is that she feels secure. When I am in the UK she spends lots of time with her grandparents and has her group of friends. When we are in Thailand she spends lots of time with her father and has her group of friends here as well.

I think she gets the best of both worlds and as long as I am not anxious and I am careful in what I speak around her she is secure in where we live.

As for schools, she goes to a private school in Thailand, it is a small school and runs of the UK curiculum so she is at the same level as she would be back in the UK. She also has the UK holidays so it fits in well with travel. We go back to the UK in July and stay there until Christmas, so my daughter does 1 term in the UK. It is a private school and she goes there every time back.

I don't see a problem and my daughter is happy and health and very bright.

How much does all the schooling cost you? And can you avoid paying for both terms in both UK and Thailand?

I can offer the OP an example that has worked, as I have been doing it for ten years now with my four children, now aged 6, 11, 16 and 19, and it has worked fine for them. We live September to March in Chiangmai and April to August in France. As far as I can see, one has two choices if doing this: homeschooling or boarding schools. If you choose the former, you will be heavily criticised by people who think all children should be with others their own age. Personally, I believe that is true of teenagers, but not before puberty, so my children have been taught at home by a Thai teacher (also competent in English) until aged about twelve, then sent to boarding school in England or France. I believe it has been very good for them, but then I must add that they were already being home-schooled when we started living half and half, because I believed that was better for them anyway. So starting to live equally in two countries was just an added bonus, not a reason for doing it.

Jeremy

Very interesting. A few questions:

1) What did you pay the Thai teacher? And what did you do while in France?

2) Why do you believe teenagers, but not younger children need to be with others their own age?

Thanks.

School in Europe and school holidays in Thailand.

Or the other way round.

Simple really.

That would give the same amount of freedom as 50/50 + the ability to choose when we want to be in each place.

I would be interested to hear back from the OP, to see if he has been deterred by the advice given, or weather he's going to go ahead and give it ago.

That's good question. I'm not surprised to hear a lot of advice against it since it surely isn't the road most families follow.

But what you all think about those people who take their children out of school for 1-2 years to travel the world? Are they also breaking up their childrens need for stability?

For the sake of a childs stability, we can't always live exactly how we want. I would say it's not impossible to continue as you are, but schooling and general routine and stability would suffer. I'm no expert, just making it up as I go along myself, but that's what we've decided.

Will it really affect the childrens stability if you live 50/50? I believe the import thing is that the parents are there, location/surroundings come a far second after the parents (and maybe a box with teddy and other favorite stuff).

Hi,

My wife and I are considering the possibility of living 50% in Thailand and 50% in Europe (we currently live in Europe, taking long trips to Thailand as often as possible).

All seems good and possible except one thing: How do we manage the education of our children if we choose to live 50/50 in two different places?

One of our children is just about to begin in school, the second one will begin in 2-3 years (age 5 and 3).

Would love to hear some ideas, recommendations - and tips from people who live 50/50 in two different places.

Thanks,

Ninjat

Hi,

Most nurseries seems to prefer children 2+ years old, but our girl is only 12 months. Are there any nurseries in Bangkok that accept children that young?

Thanks,

Ninjat

Hi,

I will be in southern Thailand for a few months, but I have a problem. I can't understand a word of what the locals are saying.

Usually I have no problems getting by in Bangkok, but in southern Thailand they all speak phasaa-dai (southern Thai dialect).

Anyone know of an introduction to phasaa-dai, a word conversion list or something like that?

Thanks,

Ninjat

My expenses are almost identical to yours. My entertainment expense is much lower but I do send my wife to private English lessons which brings me to the same total. when I came here I planned to live on 30K a month. I did for a few months and found I had to sacrifice fine dining and doing just about anything fun. Doubling that amount provides for a pretty good life except for the fact I'm living in a 3rd world country with the attendant pollution and crumbling infrastructure. Not a very good value in my opinion when I could live in the west for less.

How would you be able to live in the west on 30K/60K baht a month?

Hi,

We are looking for a townhouse in Bangkok.

Amongst other things, we have looked at a townhouse in Bangkapi. It's around 220 square meters, 4 floors and no garden. Price is 2 million baht.

How much would such a house cost if it's close to a BTS station and/or Lumpini park?

How much would the price increase if there is also a small garden (just 30-50 square meters would be enough).

Thanks a lot,

ninjat

Hi,

My Thai reading is getting better. Unfortunately my Thai writing sucks, so I got the idea to find some basic English sentences and translate them to Thai by myself.

Only problem is to find these basic English sentences. I have found some, but they contain quite a few advanced words that I will have problems translating to Thai:

http://esl.about.com/library/vocabulary/bl..._list_noun1.htm

Anyone seen a website/document with basic English sentences?

Thanks a lot,

ninjat

Hi,

I can read a bit of Thai, but I can't write anything at all (both my spelling and grammar are horrible). I'm therefore looking for some lessons/exercises that can teach me how to write just a little bit of Thai.

Any ideas/recommendations? My reading is currently on a level so I can the graded bittexts on http://www.sealang.net/lab/ without to many problems.

I'm not in Thailand at the moment , so it would be best if the lessons/exercises can be found somewhere online.

Thanks a lot,

ninjat

Hi,

Two of my friends and I want to bike some 500 km in Southern Thailand.

Only problem is we don't know where can get the bikes from. I have a bike here, but what about my two friends? Is it possible to rent bikes in/around Hat Yai?

Thanks a lot,

ninjat

Excellent answers, thank you

Hi,

I have a problem finding out where the Thai vowels belong. In some words two consonants share the same vowel and in other words each of the two consonants have their own vowel.

Example:

ประตู - bradoo, i.e. a shared vowel (ปร share ะ)

สนับสนุน - sanap sanun, i.e. two bonus vowels after each ส (if shared, it would be snap snun, สน would share first ั and then ุ)

My wife says the shared/non-shared vowel effect is called คำควบกล้ำ (kam kuab glam).

Can anyone explain how to see if a word uses shared vowels or not and what คำควบกล้ำ is? Or point to an article that explains it?

Thanks a lot.

Hi,

Can anyone recommend some easy books/texts that I can try to read?

I can read and write basic Thai at the moment, but would definately like to improve my skills.

It would be best if the texts are online or the books can be brought online (I'm not in Thailand at the moment).

Thanks, ninjat

The picture of the book cover says it's been translated to English, German and Japanese, so I guess there's an English version somewhere.

That's exactely what my wife says too, so there must be an English translation somewhere out there. If we just knew what is was called - or how you would spell the author's name with latin letters...

Hi,

Anyone know if this book exist in English? Wife says it's called "I'm not a prostitute" in Thai, but I can't find any books with that title on Amazon

img50.imageshack.us/img50/8643/bookrl3.jpg (it's a URL to a picture of the book cover, but as a new user I'm not allowed to post Urls).

Thanks.