smint

aTypeTrainer4Mac for the Macs.. And one more, I need to go look up the software name again, that is windows and I think it trains better.

But I think not much fun as the English ones, which I did when young, i got to go racing cars or shooting aliens while training touchtype

Yes indeed.

So to not go off-topic and to answer the OP as always, it is best to try it out yourself which school fits you best. You might need a visa, you might not - most foreigners if they're not working here in Thailand they might need it, but you have to consider especially if -

-You want to enter a class of serious learners who are keen in learning Thai? - this will speed up your language learning quickly as you will feel a bit of 'competitiveness' in class and want to catch up with your classmates to improve - no one likes to be last in class, and being the 'worst thai learner in class' - this will make you improve!

-or you want to enter a class of just learners who "want to learn thai" - "yes i want to learn thai! i live in thailand so i want to know what other people are saying behind my back" and that's about it - they just want enough to get by and want to skip the difficult parts (ie. writing system, consonants, difficult to pronounce words), these are the people who will brush off thai once they encounter these difficulties. And if you are in a class of slackers who don't really want to speak much Thai but just want to know Thai enough to get by (their goal is just to know how to order food, say not spicy, buy clothes, ask for discount; and to them any other word they learnt is not a goal but a 'bonus' to them), will you genuinely improve in speaking, reading, writing, listening?

Ask yourself before enrolling, what type of school/learning environment would you like to be part of?

It is really a pity for Walen's method if better developed and with some fine-tuning it would be excellent - but the target group and the teaching method don't really match, many who are there for visa might also want easier way to learn thai (short-term) and that = karaoke and just colloquial Thai, slang... street talk. (Of course I'm not saying all, there are also those who need the visa and are genuinely interested in learning Thai to a 'deeper' level)

So maybe there are some schools with the latter environment.. some schools with a bit of both.. and some really good schools with good environment... and keen learners... So it's a school environment, we prolly can't change that, but we can choose which school to go to... And which environment we think would suit us best - what kind of Thai would you want to learn?

Book 1 - needs to be revised to include a systematic introduction to Thai-script

Book 2 - is actually the best of the 3 - "Kii mii glin men" is typically replaced by "Durian mii glin men" - by your teachers.

Book 3 - is probably the worst - with many useless "Thai words" such as Maichelangelo (misspelled) Sherlock Holmes, Kennedy etc etc etc.. There appears to be a "desperate" attempt to include new vocabulary to increase total words "taught".

I'm a Walen student, and somehow I agree with this statement that Parvis made. Yes Walen has a good method but it takes time and lots of patience on the part of the student in order to get going in Thai. And also to add on, you guys must have read how Walen is a very popular school, and as a current student, I can vouch for their visa effectiveness, and there are many students coming in for the visa but I don't know how serious they are in learning Thai. Many come and go, many you see come once a week and thereafter disappear for 2 weeks and come back for 2 lessons again. So maybe I regretted a bit in choosing this school, as the visa thing makes the group of students net wider, and there are all sorts of people who might not want to learn Thai..

That's why when you enter book 1 in Walen you find yourself extremely frustrated, not only because of the new language and system, but also because you are surrounded by other students with different learning styles - and not to mention those who are not really serious about learning, which accumulates and make the lesson even more frustrating. The occasional joke is fine and really livens up the lesson (as this method really quite makes the book boring, so jokes are good), but too much jokers and non-serious learners in a class, to me, it's an impediment. This is something I believe the school can work on. I don't want to discriminate but some specifically enter the school, enroll and say "they want the minimum hours", minimum work, and "come to school minimum" and they enter the classroom not doing any homework and just trying to go off-topic whenever possible in class. I've spoke to some classmates who even told me they dislike learning the language, and frown everytime they're in class, and keep criticizing how troublesome the language is and how "thai language is making it difficult for me" - instead of working harder at the language they are blaming the language, all in the midst of the lesson. There's nothing I can do about this, as a student, so oh well.

However fortunately , when you progress on to further books it gets better as they have lesser students and it becomes more serious. (not in a boring sense but just filled with enthusiastic learners who genuinely want to learn the language) So if the school can't improve on this part, we just have to work hard ourselves and get away from the beginning books in order to have a better classroom environment, if the school can't provide it.

As I said, these are some of the reasons which make the school look bad as posted all over these forums, I believe there are more which I shan't talk about here as it's sensitive, but overall as I said it is a good method, I like the fact it does not use karaoke Thai, and repetition of certain sentence structures is good for newbies. But lots to improve on as well if it wants to be a "good thai language school", which it is far from right now... it belongs to some other category, but I can see the school slowly improving..

Well, but I chose this school... so I'd just have to stick with it, I guess when you choose a school which does visa well you'll have to just live with it. But the above points surely can be looked into

Sorry my post is not that neatly structured, but would just like to give my two cents worth

I know you can hire motorbikes there, for a low fee. As for bringing your motorbike over, I saw a local Thai bringing his motorbike up from a boat/ferry (can't remember) and loaded it up his own pickup truck in Ko Si Chang so maybe it's possible - but he is a Thai so maybe he owns the boat and all, but if you have money nothing is impossible here. Ferry is 30B if I'm not wrong and departs everytwo hours. Still have the brochure in my house so it says - 8am, 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, 8pm. And leave the island before 6pm, think it's the last ferry back to mainland.

And during peak hours there are the larger ferries with aircon. (Saturdays 10am) Otherwise it's the smaller ferry/boat w/o aircon.

Let me know if you need more info, just been there few months back though..

Hi guys, thinking of going to Rayong on a little trip sometime these few days by bus. I'm totally unfamiliar with the place so appreciate if you guys who've been there or living there can help. So I'm taking the Sukhumvit bus to Rayong (the long bus ride that passes chonburi and perhaps pattaya?)

Was just wondering where (and what name) is the best place to stop for just some looking around and exploring - somewhere along is there a main town with some shopping/food, or it's just best to go to the terminal? Personally I'm more interested in going to some local places like the markets, or beaches, maybe even Koh Samet or some nice Thai restaurants there.. Or just any special place worth looking

Any recommendations from you experts who've been there or some of you who know some info?

Thanks in advance!

If you can touchtype in English, you can also save yourself the hassle of sticky stickers by having a window of the Thai characters in your computer screen, with "Keep On Top" or "Keep Afloat" option activated on the mac. At least that's what I do, but I usually remember the keys (especially lowercaps its easier). I'm not really used to looking at my keyboard and finding where are the Thai characters when my fingers are blocking it....... well thats what I do.. maybe different for you

Wow, thanks everyone for the wonderful insights... Some quite funny too lol if you know what I mean =P I'm really glad some of you enjoyed the 9 temple tour trip so I'm really looking forward to it too.

Ah, thanks Ayutthaya69 for the info, if it's 30B or so like you said "maiphaeng", then okay... I was worried if it was hundred bahts or so per temple or so then it really set me back, seeing I'm a student... And yes, I think I would probably follow and make a donation, just not very sure about these stuff, so I guess I'll go with the flow, see what the Thais do and just follow them... *cross my fingers and hopefully all goes well!*

Thank you very much once again for you guys suggestions.. any more input very welcome ^^

Hi thanks for the input, I will most certainly be careful. Yeah it's going to be quite a new experience going with them but apparently their manager is also going, so I don't know if I'll be their ATM or not.. Will tread carefully, thanks for the advice.. Oh btw I'm not farang, neither am I a man... In case some of you are wondering..

They quote me 400 baht thereabouts for to and fro transport from Chonburi to Ayutthaya...

PS: How much will be the entrance for temple? Some of you said no charge, yet some say charge?

Well... Actually it's not exactly official work, they just asked me to go on the trip with them, I am staying in a serviced apartment, and the Thais going with me there are those working in the apartment (mechanic, laundry staff, housekeepers..)

Greetings everyone..

I've been invited by Thais for a tour in Ayutthaya, we'll probably be going there by a minibus, and I thought it would be interesting so I just agreed to go along with them...

Then, thereafter, I discovered we were going to visit not 1, not 2, but 9 temples! In one day alone.

Anyway, I came to Thailand also to understand more about Thai culture and see their lifestyle, so I'm still okay about it.. But I would like to ask more experienced friends here what do I have to take note when I go with Thais to a temple tour, and what to do etc., what not to do.. and what not to say - any superstitions? What about entrance fees, photography, all that? I think no dressing inappropriately yes, but what else do I need to expect?

Those on the bus with me are all Thais so they don't speak English probably might have some miscommunication, and some of them are doing official work with me....

Any help and advice greatly appreciated ^^

Correct me if I'm wrong here but sometimes I notice if they are of the same age but if it's someone serving someone higher in stature they will just call the 'higher' person Pee (if age is close or even if they are slightly older)... is it true?

Okay, thanks, hoping to download it now. I can run windows stuff too so I suppose no problem.. hopefully!

Hi Eric, what is the .wdl format that you have shared, which app could we use to open it? Any apps for mac users?

I have some, including page numbers which I did while studying some time ago... This is in an excel format, perhaps useful:

Thai_words_list.xls

That is indeed not good. I would not like copy of my passport to be given to others. I will remind our staff to make sure it is not happening at Walen.

Walen School - Phuket coming soon!

www.thaiwalen.com

Hopefully so, Walen, because I still see it in one of the classroom's 'rough paper'. On one side was a passport copy, the other side was some scribblings supposedly to explain the lesson. But I suppose it is considered 'alright for Thai standards' if it is not circulated outside the classroom or allowed to be brought outside... Thank you

Yes, I see many spare batteries and parts for sale at Tukcom shops, with assorted brands, Nokia, samsung etc. written on the product packaging but just a generic battery brand. (No brand name on printed on the battery). I wonder if these are the ones which will explode or overheat as well; how safe it is to use them. Any ideas?

I have a G1 (HTC Dream) - Slide out qwerty keyboard, no problems with mac, decent (not excellent) camera. It is excellent and allows me to customize my phone the way I want it. Syncing with mac is also not too much of a problem if you are just fairly decent with computers as it syncs through google contacts, and has a removable sd card. Unfortunately, not sold in Thailand, but can get it online, ebay, etc.

By the way, it runs on android, so its open source, you can get as many apps as you want for almost free, do tethering, and more. When I bought it, it cost about 10,000B, but I had to sign on for a 2 year contract. Should be much cheaper now with all the HTC heroes and the nexus.

Thanks to everyone who replied and for the info.

Plenty on offer, but with your time scale mmmmmmmmmmmm not too sure.

By the Way is this

which charges around 2,000-4,000B for 2D1N tour,

per person?

Sadwaee

Yeah. Was worried about the timing thing too because it'll be quite odd, it's actually like this, I will be only able to leave BKK at 4pm+ on the first day (well I'm actually coming from the airport), have the full second day and second night to stay in Kan, third day also okay, but I will have to reach BKK by 7pm on the third day! So it is kind of a weird time, have just 1N/2N to stay (depending on whether I choose to leave BKK at 4pm on the first day, or leave BKK in the early morning on the second day) and 1D++ to explore.

Yup, the tour is per person, checked around the Internet most include accomodation for that kind of price. Worth it? How much is an elephant ride in the jungle/river if you go on your own? - or you have to go for a package tour to get to try that?

Thanks!

Have been living in Thailand for a few months, know some Thai (very very basic) and I'm planning to go to Kanchanaburi this January. (Group of 3-4 of us)

Would like to gather some advice from everyone whether it would be better to follow a group tour or just walk around ourselves - is it easy to get around and find our way there? We have about only 24 hours to spend there (but staying there for the night).

Wonder if it's better to book in advance from a tour agent online (those package tours I've been looking through which charges around 2000-4000B for 2D1N tour, including accomodation) or just jump in there and see what's on offer. I'm thinking of elephant rides in the river and bamboo rafting, death railway etc. Would prefer to walk around ourselves but just afraid we'll lose the way or get overcharged by way too much (overcharge a little ok, but not too much, on a budget! then I'd rather go for group tour!).. What do you guys think? Has anyone tried exploring themselves and going to the elephant camp or something? Appreciate your advice. Thanks in advance.

Smint

Thank you! Found it extremely useful.

I have to get this off my chest or I feel like I am going to explode... ...

Hi there, reading this thread, as an Asian, and someone who has grew up in Asia all my life, I might have to differ with your opinion. Yes, I've only been in Thailand for a little while, but I can understand how you feel, and also perhaps guess why your ex Thai gf refuses to help you, bystanders don't do anything etc.

Of course, this is an unfortunate incident, and I also believe that no human should be beating another person - no matter male/female whatever. But you have to remember not everyone thinks so. And these values might change with the circumstances as well.

There isn't much of an emphasis of "human rights" or "abuse of a woman or a child" thing here. This society lives by a totally different set of rules, and I believe that we simply cannot apply Western rules or American rules to anything that you see. Yes, there is non-interference. And yes, there is less of the law - not much 'suing', and the laws are there as a general guide, many are just simply not followed, this is the way it is. In my opinion, the rules are not to be applied to everything in the whole of thailand - how many police officers are there, and how big is thailand? And you have to remember Thailand is not a 'developed, Westernised' country, and the basic thing to do is to respect the culture and rules, customs of the country.

Maybe I'm the only one here to think this way, but I think you should not interfere because first you don't know their culture, and you don't know what's happening, you've only been there for 5 minutes, plus, you don't know the language enough to call in the police or call some bystanders in and communicate your point effectively. (your point, basically, is that she is being abused, but that generates from "Western eyes", but in "Thai eyes", it might not be the same thing. You might make it worse instead of helping the lady.)

Plus, this type of "abuse" might be happening everywhere. To you, an American / Westerner it might be abuse, but to them it might not be. Asians beat their kids when their kids do wrong but Westerners don't. Westerners would be shocked when these things happen, and question it confidently - "What?! What the hel_l? This is BS!" and express themselves freely, confidently, while Asians are more subdued - they don't like this type of behaviour, not at all, in my opinion. I'm using a lot of stereotypes here here, but I hope it's clearer for you know... or not?

Yes, no one likes to witness these kind of behaviour, I think even Thais won't like it, but somehow something serious or unfortunate might have happened to warrant that kind of behaviour, and as someone living in a foreign country, I don't think calling the cops or interfering would be the smartest thing to do..

You can call me apathetic, uncaring, whatever, but that's how me, an Asian brought up in Asia all her life, thinks.

Finally, by saying "Back in the states, where I was a cop, I would have this guy on the ground in cuffs quickly," ; " She refuses and gives me the same line of BS" ; "All non-sense of course."

ain't gonna get much respect from Thais, or other Asians, reading this thread, especially if you are representing yourself as someone from America or representing "American / Western culture".

Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm still learning always, thank you.

Regards

Yeah, just happened to see the link before you posted... (oops). Sorry. I think that would be a good time too. Well just wondering too if anyone's been there before... previous years, anyone?

Saw a banner around which talks about some footy event in Jomtien Stadium, was it street soccer or something like that? Beach football? Anyone?

Cool, would like to know more about the balloon fiesta - if going on the weekend, let's say 12th or 13th, what time would be best to go there? Like the previous post said, evening? Or earlier... Thanks in advance for any tips

In some Asian languages and dialect as I see it:

Farang

法 = read as 'fa' ; french (法国人) - Mandarin Chinese

rang/lang = person - Teochew dialect (spoken by many Chinese in Thailand)

In many ways, perhaps many Asian languages are similar... and then it evolved to become farang...

Maybe, just maybe...