languageexpress

Go a week earlier; explain your problem, they don’t have to accept it, but they might.

I faced a similar problem in February - admittedly I was dealing with a consulate out of the country- but they all seem to be cut from the same cloth. In my case I needed them to add a visa to my passport that afternoon, not the morning as per policy.

I arrived after the post lunch rush, apologized profusely, explained the situation and much to my surprise the Thai official took it, and even arranged for me to pick it up next morning (not the afternoon) so I could make my flight.

Not sure why this guy acted contrary to their stated rule. I guess it involved no extra work for him, plus I was well presented and looked suitably grateful. It showed me they’re not all officious drones, and you might get lucky, particularly if you go through your Thai colleague’s connection.

Good Luck.

I went to the "19 Dental Clinic" on Sukhmvit Soi 19, on the advice of a co-worker.

I was very satisfied with the treatment and standard of service.Modern equipment, professional staff.

Had a clean, enamel replaced and 3 x-rays...I forget the price, but would have remembered if it had been expensive!

Can anyone tell me which, if any, of the schools listed above, have their entire syllabus available in Thai script? The reason I ask is, I can already read and write Thai, but would like to begin study from beginner level so as to fill the gaps in my rather shaky, entry level, intermediate, (this is a self-assessment), spoken Thai.

I have no need of phonetic scripts, and studying for two or three months via such a script, (to get to the point where proper written Thai is introduced in the syllabus), seems like a waste of time and money to me.

I can’t speak for other schools, but Language Express core textbooks have both Thai and a transliterated roman script. The later uses the same format as PB Becker, since we use these books as supplementary texts.

Given the fact you can already read and write, you’d be better of skipping skip the first 8 weeks of our course since we primarily use this to teach the Thai alphabet and tones (+ a few basic dialogs).

Learning the Thai alphabet is a no brainer for me, however there are an awful lot of students who insist they don’t want to learn to read Thai, but, as many posters have noted, it’s better to put the work in and get literate early on, as it pays big dividends down the track.

Overall it’s a pretty efficient airport, but some things (like the bizarre arrangements with the floor skipping elevators) could do with a bit more tweaking.

A bit OP but the arrivals area could do with a bit of work. At peak times planeloads of people are channeled through the ‘cattle races’ so everyone exits through a 2 metre wide slot.

I made 2 airport pickups this week and both times the joint was jam packed with friends, relatives and drivers. A simple way to widen the exit would be remove some of the side stalls so that passengers can disperse over a wider area.

Go to this US Govt website and print the application form - and you can overnite it and ask for Expedited Service (extra money) - processing time between 2 to 3 weeks.

Really takes so long time to get a new passport in Usa

In my country (Finland) normal processing time is one week, fast 2-3 days, express 1 day

hmmm let me see... maybe it's because there are 304 million of us in comparison to 5.3 milllion of you?

Fair point. Still, the US authorities should employ more people to cope with the extra demand. They’ve got a bigger population, but they’ve also got a bigger tax/resources base to work with. US citizens cop a raw deal on these sorts of issues- there’s no real reason why Americans should wait longer or jump through more hoops than other countries for basic government services.

My brother married an Oregon girl and the bureaucratic hoops they had to jump through when they moved there to live were numerous, petty and pointless. (E.g. list every address you have EVER lived at for more than 6 months……although it’s kind of touching the paper pushers believe evil doers are too honest/stupid to omit the time they spent drug running, terrorist training, death squad organizing from their bio’s).

Hey Gas,

Since others have done so before me, I am going to answer your question and include a plug for my school at the same time.

My advice is that anyone serious about learning a language should check out a couple of schools, to find one that’s right for them. Naturally I hope you include ours in your list when you do -it’s called Language Express

The Thai department has it’s own excellent textbook (with translations in the back) this is supplemented by a commercially available textbook, Poomsecker ‘s Thai for Beginners.

The teachers at Language Express are first rate, qualified and given on -going training to keep them up to the mark. They’re serious about teaching but energetic, friendly and very approachable. As with many language schools, you can take a trial lesson before you buy, and I also recommend you talk to other students in the break (and without ‘helpful’ staff hovering around) to see what they really think.

One final point worth mentioning is that it’s easy to get to. Language Express is located 5 meters from Exit 2 at Ploejnjit Station. It's on the ground floor, easy to spot and very nicely appointed.

I am being upfront about declaring my involvement in a school I have a vested interest in, but think the advice is sound. That is, check out a few schools, look through their textbooks, take a trial lesson and talk to students to see if they’re happy or not. You should also ask if the school has a plan for putting you in an existing class, or are they just going to drop you in at week 14 and let you work it out on your own.

Hope this helps.

Opps my apologies! I didn't realise this! In fact I thought I was being upfront by making clear who I was and what I was representing. We did have a lot of discussions with Thai visa about the name ( and passwords) so perhaps as you say its ok. I have to admit i didnt spend a whole of time on the fine print...but will get round to it soon!

Softwater has a very valid point. The rules need to be clarified.

Personally, I prefer the format where the sponsor (or any other company) has a user ID that clearly identifies that it is a company.

Their post should also make clear that this is a company comment, not a personal unbiased opinion. (can a header be added to individual company posts stating so?)

One issue with some of the previous companies postings was that this was not seen to be being done transparently, could be misinterpreted as an individual (not in any way associated with the company being referred to) offering a personal opinion. That could be seen as abuse of the system (deliberately or otherwise) and misleading to forum members.

ST

(Edited for spelling (forclarirty). There may be more. )

There are a number of people who write their name at the end of messages, I'll leave it to you to check out who. I didn't see any comments about not using names next to their posts. In the absence of clear rules I used the precedent, on that basis I thought it was reasonable to state names.

Opps my apologies! I didn't realise this! In fact I thought I was being upfront by making clear who I was and what I was representing. We did have a lot of discussions with Thai visa about the name ( and passwords) so perhaps as you say its ok. I have to admit i didnt spend a whole of time on the fine print...but will get round to it soon!

Thanks for your favorable review about Language Express. However I noticed one thing our staff may not have pointed out when you called. In fact, the bulk of teaching at Language Express is done using our own series of textbooks.

Our illustrated textbooks use dialogs on common topics to provide students with language they can use on a daily basis. The Language Express textbooks lets students practice constructing their own sentences using the listed vocabulary, and each lesson provides plenty of opportunity to practice using the language they have just learned and (very importantly) integrating it with language they already know. The idea is to build up a base of language that gets student talking as quickly as possible.

It's also worth noting that there are complete translations for all vocab lists and dialogs in the back of the textbook, and the book itself uses both Thai script and transliterations in Roman alphabet, so that it is suitable for use by students who want to read/write Thai, as well as people who just want to speak as quickly as possible.

Our text books are based on the same formula used at our language schools in Japan and Australia over the past ten years - so it's well trialed system. As you noted, at Language Express we do indeed use the Banjawan Poomsan Becker textbooks, but we prefer not to base our entire course around them. However, they are solid textbooks and when used by a trained teacher, provide a good secondary source of information that is appreciated by many students. Once again, thanks for your comments about Language Express. Let us know if we can help you in any way.

The best thing to do is visit a few schools and sit in on a class, and then talk to to the students to gauge their feelings. My advice is biased since I run a school myself, but I am more than happy for you to ask my students any questions you like. For the record, I have 20 years in language education, and my school has well trained teachers using a well planned course with non gimmicky methodology. We are very interested in education so use commercial textbooks in conjunction with textbooks we have produced/published ourselves on this and most of our other courses.

Mike Ratcliff