One may not be able to speak a language as well as one can understand

This is certainly the case with me. I speak reasonable Thai but get stumped occasionally with what I want to say but the only time I don't understand what a local is saying is if they're using some new vocabulary I haven't come across although in those situations i can usually work out what they mean from the context.

The Stickman article was much too long. So is this thread (I made it to post 40).

I decided after five years here to give up even trying to learn Thai. Too difficult; not worth the effort.

I note that you've been a member of TV for a little over five years. In that time you've posted just over 15,000 posts. That works out to be a little over eight posts per day, every day for the past five years. If, instead of posting to this forum, you'd put the same amount of time into studying Thai, you'd have a good, well rounded grasp of the language by now.

The Stickman article was much too long. So is this thread (I made it to post 40).

I decided after five years here to give up even trying to learn Thai. Too difficult; not worth the effort.

I note that you've been a member of TV for a little over five years. In that time you've posted just over 15,000 posts. That works out to be a little over eight posts per day, every day for the past five years. If, instead of posting to this forum, you'd put the same amount of time into studying Thai, you'd have a good, well rounded grasp of the language by now.

Ouch!!