Reading Thai Can Save You Money

[klons]

A tip for those who can't read Thai. Before checking out of a Hotel,

always put your mattress back on the bed so the front desk will be

none the wiser. Otherwise you may be hit with extra charges.

This Hotel reserves the right in the matter

of moving the sleeping place down from

it’s intended place. any of the following apply

The Hotel will charge 300 Baht per mattress per night

My translation skills aren’t that great, so any corrections

anyone might make are welcome. Personally, I like to

sleep on the floor in the bathroom to the sound of running

water. So I just bring one of those roll up mattress pads

along with me, then I don’t have to mess with moving the

mattress off the bed.

[bytebuster]

Yet another case when it can save you money.

[Naam]

Personally, I like to

sleep on the floor in the bathroom to the sound of running

water. So I just bring one of those roll up mattress pads

along with me, then I don’t have to mess with moving the

mattress off the bed.

you are a genius!

[Deserted]

It can also save you gas/petrol, which in turn saves you money. So many times, I went off the beaten track up north to places where roadsigns in English are rare to say the least. Had I not been able to read Thai, I would have got lost so many times.

[DowntownAl]

Just a suggestion but, there are many sleep programs available for smart phones these days. They have everything from running water (taps, waterfalls, babbling brooks etc), to train sounds, washing machines, murmuring crowds sounds etc. plus white noise, brown noise etc again. I have a wireless headset (the control unit is quite small) with very small ear buds. I have tinnitus and the noise is sometimes very distracting, but selecting the correct sound scape (depending on how my tinnitus is acting up) I can nullify most of the annoyance. It helps a ton too if your neighbours or the local bar are too noisy as well. I used it on an active military base (jets patrolling and taking off 24/7), worked like a charm.

[Ayutthaya69]

you know in Thailand you have price for foreigner and Thai its different price look at The Grand Palace in bangkok its วัดพระแก้ว its 400 baht for foreigner and for Thai its Free so different when you look Thai Website for hotel room the price for the same room same hotel for Thai its more cheaper

[Golden Nugget]

Yet another case when it can save you money.

It's not always good to be able to read Thai. When I see signs like this it upsets me. Pay 10x more you foreigner!

Edited September 4, 2012 by Golden Nugget

[bytebuster]

It's not always good to be able to read Thai. When I see signs like this it upsets me. Pay 10x more you foreigner!

At least, it's fair if they tell in advance!

I was wondering why they don't do something like this: "Price is NNN (write a farang price). Discount 90% for Thais."

Everyone would be happy

[edwardandtubs]

It's not really going to save you money. Time is money and it takes about 10,000 hours to become fluent. What is your time worth? 2000 baht an hour? Multiple that by 10,000 and it costs 20 million baht worth of your time to become fluent. Do you think you can recover that much money avoiding hotel fines?

[TommoPhysicist]

It's not really going to save you money. Time is money and it takes about 10,000 hours to become fluent. What is your time worth? 2000 baht an hour? Multiple that by 10,000 and it costs 20 million baht worth of your time to become fluent. Do you think you can recover that much money avoiding hotel fines?

It only takes 1-2 hours to memorize the numbers.

And you don't need to be anywhere near fluent to read and write Thai.

[Murf]

20 million... lol

The quality of life when you can speak the native language is 10,000 time better....

[bytebuster]

It's not really going to save you money. Time is money and it takes about 10,000 hours to become fluent. What is your time worth? 2000 baht an hour? Multiple that by 10,000 and it costs 20 million baht worth of your time to become fluent. Do you think you can recover that much money avoiding hotel fines?

10,000 hours / 2 hours a day / 365 days annually, no weekends, no hangover... = 14 years? I think you underestimate mankind's learning ability!

Seriously, I've seen people becoming very fluent in Thai within 3 years, from zero to hero.

In fact, any language starts saving you money on ~20th lesson which is no later than 50 hours spent overall.

I mean, a moment when one can remember numerals and is able to produce "it's too expensive".

Since that time, it starts to pay for itself.

Indeed, say your study is 25,000 THB annually. It's 600 THB weekly. I certainly do save 600+ THB a week solely because of my (humble) ability to speak Thai.

[duncanm]

Using Thai to say you work in BKK and checking you can pay the Thai price has always worked for me on Samed.

[kriswillems]

Yet another case when it can save you money.

It's not always good to be able to read Thai. When I see signs like this it upsets me. Pay 10x more you foreigner!

On most signs Thai people use Arabic numbers. So, when you see Thai numbers on a sign in a tourist place, it's probably to hide something.

If you've a Thai drivers license or work permit you can get in at the Thai price at many places.

I personally try to avoid places that have double pricing and I'll never take friends or family that visit me in Thailand to such places.

I do believe learning Thai can save you a lot of money if you live here, because you can make decisions based on more complete information (so, you'll make less stupid decisions). The fact that you can read legal documents is also a huge advantage.

But that is not the main reason why I learned Thai. Learning Thai will make the quality of your life better because you can have more social interactions with the people that live here and you learn to understand their way of thinking. Most farang that are unhappy here and that continuously complain about how bad things are here in Thailand also can't speak Thai. So, I think learning Thai can make you more happy.

Edited September 10, 2012 by kriswillems

[Naam]

20 million... lol

The quality of life when you can speak the native language is 10,000 time better....

sure! but only in your wet dreams

[p_brownstone]

I cannot imagine how life would be in Thailand if one did NOT read Thai - from traffic signs to menus being able to read Thai is a huge advantage in day to day life.

Even in more "Farang" oriented places such as Central or Siam Paragon I can't recall the number of times I have bought things like aftershave, alcohol or clothing and there is a big sign on the Counter or Checkout - only in Thai - saying something like "Purchase more than Baht 2,000.- and get xxxx free". I also cannot recall a single instance where the Cashier or whoever has volunteered this information when I make my purchase (assuming the Farang does not read Thai) and I had to point out the sign to get the freebies. Irritating to say the least.

Patrick

[Naam]

10,000 hours / 2 hours a day / 365 days annually, no weekends, no hangover... = 14 years? I think you underestimate mankind's learning ability!

Seriously, I've seen people becoming very fluent in Thai within 3 years, from zero to hero.

In fact, any language starts saving you money on ~20th lesson which is no later than 50 hours spent overall.

I mean, a moment when one can remember numerals and is able to produce "it's too expensive".

Since that time, it starts to pay for itself.

Indeed, say your study is 25,000 THB annually. It's 600 THB weekly. I certainly do save 600+ THB a week solely because of my (humble) ability to speak Thai.

your maths is very convincing! with these kind of savings it takes only 800 years to buy a Ferrari plus a nice home if you use the accrued interest on saved capital.

[bytebuster]

Indeed, say your study is 25,000 THB annually. It's 600 THB weekly. I certainly do save 600+ THB a week solely because of my (humble) ability to speak Thai.

your maths is very convincing! with these kind of savings it takes only 800 years to buy a Ferrari plus a nice home if you use the accrued interest on saved capital.

Please don't translate me from English to English.

I only said that knowing a language of a country you're living in pays off study expenses and greatly reduces living costs.

If one needs having a Ferrari in less than 800 years she would most likely look for a better investment of her time.

And yes, trolling people on Internet forums is not the fastest way to a Ferrari, either.

[Murf]

Naam is a 19,000+ post troll... God knows how he has survived this long.

[bytebuster]

Naam is a 19,000+ post troll... God knows how he has survived this long.

Hmmm, wait a moment... 19,000 posts... 10 posts hourly... 1,900 hours. that's a full working year... $75,000 annual salary... Here's a Ferrari! (uhm well, a used one)

[Naam]

Naam is a 19,000+ post troll... God knows how he has survived this long.

aliens get special treatment

[Naam]

Naam is a 19,000+ post troll... God knows how he has survived this long.

Hmmm, wait a moment... 19,000 posts... 10 posts hourly... 1,900 hours. that's a full working year... $75,000 annual salary... Here's a Ferrari! (uhm well, a used one)

your maths is not convincing, in fact rather lame. better stick to the THB 600+ per week savings because you can say fluently in Thai "dis nudell supp be eggsbensive too mutt Khun street vendor!"