Johpa

If you read thai magazines, thailand tatler for example (a lifesyle mag picturing and aming to the noveau rich, media ppl. generally rich folks.) You never see them wear heavy gold chains. Infact, I don´t even see heavy "gold armor" in Paragon either. But it is much more easy to spot gold chains walking around with thier owners round suk soi 4- Asok.

I also don't see many Thais of high Sakdina rating wearing baat gold chain. And the only member of the higher Sakdina class that I am on familiar terms with once noted that Thai baat gold is looked down upon by his peers and if they were to purchase gold they would purchase the gold at a higher end shop in Hong Kong.

It has also been my experience that Thai baat gold can not be traded in gold shops outside of Thailand. In the US, the baat chains are usually only found in department stores alongside the other costume jewelery. Did you really think that sharp Thai-Chinese business people were really selling you gold at low single digit profit margins?

Took is excellent, but I think a little bit self-indulgent sometimes.

Wasn't one of Took's mentors the master of self-indulgence, what did he call himself....Deng the Magnificent or something like that......quite the character as I remember, and the only rock guitar show in town years ago.

Hence, they are both so called 'dead syllables'. The difference is in the vowel length, and as we know from the tone rules, the vowel length changes the tone in words with a low class initial and final stop.

So to write that mai tai kuu does not change the tone is a bit confusing, because even though that is not its primary function, the absence of it in this case means the syllable's tone would be different.

Just to put in some perspective, vowel length also changes tones in English words, although it has no phonemic affect, that is it does not change meaning. In English the tone is influenced by the final consonant in a syllable and by whether than consonant is voiced or unvoiced. (In Thai, all final stops are unvoiced)

English unvoiced stops include /k/, /t/, and /p/. Their equivalent voiced stops are /g/, /d/, and /b/.

Look at these pairs:

book boog (as in boogie or bugger)

seat seed

gape Gabe (the name)

The first in each pair tends to be a shorter vowel with a higher tone than does the second in the pair. Looking for similar pairs you will note that English also prefers unvoiced consonants to end single syllable words. The tone rules are based upon the phonetic environment, sometimes now historical, and not based upon consonant classes.

The Thai writing system, like English writing system, suffers a bit from having borrowed an alphabet as well as having borrowed a great deal of vocabulary from Pali which included sounds not allowed in Thai; i.e. the /sh/ sound. Although, IMHO, Thai does not quite rise to the same level of bastardization as does English. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with a bit of bastardization, just that it makes learning to read a bit more difficult in the beginning stages.

I see many people on the forum discussing the current political situation in Thailand,

My question is that, is there any point in those who cannot vote here discussing politics ?

Using the same specious logic, one might ponder whether there is any point in allowing the syntactically challenged to continue posting written comments in these very forums.

For you Ahmerican ex-pats who have concerns about inflation, stay put in Chiang Mai as all this talk about recession is just a smoke screen to hide the impending major inflationary trends. As some of you know, January is the beginning of the major trade show season here in the US, jumping off with the CES show in early January. This is followed by a never-ending procession of trade shows, mostly in Las Vegas, that continues into March, covering just about every industry and sector. Business people like myself are just now getting our wholesale prices for the coming year as we place our seasonal order for next fall and winter and also to some extent orders for this summer. I am already getting advanced notice from a few of my wholesalers of price increases in the double-digit ranges up to 30%. I am also hearing similar stories from people involved in unrelated industries to my own. One story is that China has implemented a new VAT tax on exports, or rather extended the range of products that incur this tax. Thailand now also imports large quantities of consumer goods from the PRC, so I would expect to see some inflation within the Kingdom as well, although partially softened by the strength of the baat relative to the dollar.

Thai Air worked out the same price when you allow for ad ons

When we flew in last summer with the family we also discovered that with the excess fees, Thai Air would have been the better option. Air Asia service was good, no different than Thai Air on the mini flight up to Chiang Mai, but who needs the hassle of being sent over to wait in yet another another line to pay the over-weight fees.

For a Thai-to-English dictionary you can not go wrong tracking down a copy of the Mary Haas Student dictionary. Sure it may lack more modern terminology as it is now over 40 years old, but it is still worth the investment. If you consider yourself a student of the Thai language, this dictionary remains invaluable.

Looks to me like you and your wife can pick up 20 rai of land worth 200K for only 100K and thus be able to afford to let Khun Lung stay on his property. You just need to decide who is going to profit from the situation.

When Thaksin was around he was able to deal with these circumstances decisively and with extreme prejudice. OK, so some of his henchman killed a few innocent geese and ducks and even a few turkeys to settle some personal scores. But he did get rid of the chicken problem, or at least forced it to go underground and out of the schools.

So on a scale of 1 to 18...how hard is it to learn Thai??

When i was in Samui i used to do a bit of footie betting and i didnt want to get scammed so i learnt all the numbers in a couple of days.but there again thats easy!!

On a more gross scale once used by the US State Department to rate difficulty of acquisition by native English speakers (average number of class hours needed to reach a certain level of competency) Thai ranked a 3 out of 4, same as Chinese. Major languages in the level 4 in included Russian, Arabic, and Japanese. I think most of the European languages ranked a level 2.

Thai grammer is pretty straight forward similar to English using a subject-verb-object (SVO) word order. Beware that many of us English speakers find it difficult, in the beginning, to place the question word at the end of a phrase.

I learned reading from an old school professor who had a PhD in linguistics and who, in effect, taught everyone introductory phonetics in order to teach us how to read in Thai. So not only did we learn to read in Thai, but we also learned about open vs closed syllables, voiced vs unvoiced consonants, stop consonants (including the glottal stop) vs all other consonants, points of articulation, etc.

Most of the tone rules reflect the phonetic environment, so it might, at least for some of us, be easier, or at least helpful for those learning in a classroom environment, to learn some basic phonology so that when the folks here talk about closed or open syllables (live of dead syllables) you understand and can apply the rules more generally. And you can search a former thread on the subject, but try to accept that a glottal stop is indeed a real consonant in Thai.

I always find that a few pints (of beer) loosens me up.

If you are going to learn to speak Thai you gotta learn to drink Thai. See avatar for recommended dosage. I have friends who, newly arrived in-country, claimed they were speaking Thai fluently after they had finished off their very first bottle.

We have to forget about this shocking case. Nothing much is goin' to happen soon. The Thai police - as we all know - are totally corrupt.

The Thai police, as an institution are corrupt, but not all Thai police are corrupt. Corruption follows the money trail, and like money corruption percolates upwards and not, as Thatcher and Reagan would have had you erroneously believe about money, trickle downwards. The fact that the Thai National Police, as an institution are corrupt as yet tells us nothing about this particular incident.

Anyone opening a betting book on the timing of the next coup?

Between two months and 6 months from the inevitable event that will forever change Thai society one way or another.

Section 13. A woman of Thai nationality who marries an alien and may acquire the nationality of her husband according to the nationality law of her husband, shall, if she desires to renounce Thai nationality, make a declaration of her intention before the competent official according to the form and in the manner prescribed in the Ministerial Regulations.

"the competent official" - I just love that phrase

G

And in practicality, what this laws allows is for a Thai national to renounce their Thai citizenship to a foreign government and thus obtain foreign citizenship without losing Thai citizenship. Pretty standard fare amongst nation-states around the globe which is why it is so common to meet people with multiple passports. I have one friend who carries at least four passports at all times.

Please forgive me for not writing in Thai(I'm watching football and my eyes aren't what they used to be.)

How do I work this out?

Kwaam payayarm yuu thi naai. Kwaam samret you thi nan.

In English the saying is: Where there is effort. There is success.

The Thai appears to ask the question: Where is the effort?

Am I missing something?

Tony.

A bit akin to the difference in English between the interrogative "where" and the adverb "wherever". Bring both to the head of the phrase and you get in English either the question "where is the effort?" or "wherever the effort". In Thai it is the context that changes the syntax, often called poetic license in the vernacular.

WOW!! clothiing for the dogs, with all the hungry children walking the street, shoeless, Amazing sad indeed but true.

A very sad comment on priorities in LOS.......

And seen this weekend on the telly news here in the US, employees of some large corporations are given discounted pet health insurance whilst even those gainfully employed elsewhere can no longer afford any health insurance.

There is a certain lovely satisfaction in seeing the junta so roundly defeated by the people!

Thats an extremely naive comment.

PPP, or whatever derivative name you want to give them, cheated, scammed and hoodwinked 'the people'.

The junta, who is allegedly the big bad giant, played by the rules.

Come back in 6-12 months time and see what a complete f#ck up this circus brings to town

It has long been a three ring circus. Nothing has changed for decades. The only minor changes are who happens to occupy the center ring. The tent never changes, the seating never changes. Welcome to Thailand.

Chaiyo!

What exactly is Crack Heroin? I'd be very interested to know.

Crack Heroin is actually a misleading name.

It's heroin that is turned from powder form to rock form by cooking it with(baking powder?). It's easier to smoke than the powder version.

Crack Heroin doesn't contain any cocaine/cocaine based products.

I can't imagine anything easier to smoke than white powder heroin, thus the term "chasing the dragon". I thought that the crack referred to where the drugs were found upon the hapless Iranian's body.

My friends have their elder relatives over, and they want to make a change in their travel plans. They are looking for a 1500 – 2500 baht-per-night range hotel with a pool. I have no idea, I stay with friends when I am there. So I thought I would ask you Chiang Maians what you thought.

For a more elderly couple you might try the venerable Orchid Hotel, conveniently located next to the Central Shopping mall.

This is how my teacher explained it:

"na dja" is used when the reality is different or might be different from what you thought it would or should be.

"kuan dja" is used when you suggest something and expect it to become reality.

Well that must explain the past two decades of miscommunication between me and the wife. All these years I thought kuan ja was best translated as "should" or "ought" whilst the entire time it translates as "you must do this or else have body parts fed to the ducks".

Hello,

Would like to know the difference between and in what instance should I use the the following:

????? nâa jà - had better

????? kuan jà - ought to

They both mean the same to me...

"nâa jà" often is used in the sense of "it would be nicer (or better) that..." as opposed to "kuan jà" which has the more neutral sense of "ought to".

I hesitate to point this out for fear of being criticized for failing to respect Thai culture by the many highly assimilated members of TV but I just noticed that in the photograph of Sgt Uthai displaying the minute scratch to his right elbow you can see from the fresh looking white strings attached to his right wrist that he had very recently participated in a merit making ceremony. I think I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread the effectiveness of merit making in resolving moral dilemmas and guilt that might otherwise be suffered by Thais who kill.....

Oh please, kindly take this as a dismissive and not a criticism, and pardon this occasionally assimilated TV member from pointing out that there are countless reasons that Thais go about making merit and many reasons, including but not limited to making merit, that they would have a string tied around their wrist. I am not disputing that Thais will often seek merit (tham bun) to make amends for actual or perceived acts of "tham baap" by themselves of other family members, but the string, in and of itself has no intrinsic significance, although it does make for good public relations on the part of our hapless Pai constable. But in opposition to my former professor's recent speech in Bangkok, I believe that most rural Thais are animist at heart with only a veneer of Buddhism on the outside.

I was humming this song once in the presence of my girlfriend and she made me stop and explained the meaning of the lyrics. She absolutely detest this song, not because of the music, but because of the idea that men can break up with their girlfriends and carry on with their lives as if nothing much had happened. Now I only sing this song to her tongue-in-cheek on appropriate occasions.

It is really just the reality of having to imagine mama's boy Thongchai, AKA Bird, breaking up with his "girlfriend" that makes people cringe a bit.

Conclusion, the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar has outlived its days and with the current mentality and set up, will go the same way as the small retailers versus Tesco/Big C/Carrefour.

But this same thread indicates that Anusorn Market has risen from the dead an so I am certain that in a few years the night market might also re-invent itself yet again. Besides, where else on the planet can you take young children to watch Thai boxing and a female impersonator style Cabaret show at the same time?

Tourism will best be served by transparency and justice.

Tourism in Pai will be served all right. My guess is that we will see a retreat over the recent pressure over drug testing in Pai that was an issue on a thread last year. My guess is that the police will simply back off for a few months, let the party in Pai continue. Toga...toga...toga...! And the beat goes on and all will soon be forgotten. And that is how tourism in Pai will be served. What you will not see is a mass migration of tourists out of Pai because the tourist bubble in Pai still has few conterparts where there is such a comfortable level of subsistence (and substances) and tolerance.