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think_too_mut

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Posts posted by think_too_mut

  1. I don't see any "Thai way" when it comes to the professionals. I might see an Asian way who always ask for something the westerners may say is irrelevant or fixed, move on.  Asians are after the  details, down to the binary guts of some failure, even down to hardware failure analysis in scientific Lab.

    Thais are much milder than Japanese, Korean or even India,  happy to see some logical high level explanation.

  2. May I chip in (removed my signature, aware it clutters the posts for those reading from mobile devices):
    America today is the place where everybody talks, nobody listens, and the population consists of helpless voters, whoever wins the next presidency.

    Contrary, China knows that 95% of the population are fools. China knows who talks, the listeners know who to obey (like in this pandemic) and nobody votes.

    Just last Thursday China's Golden week, 8 days holiday saw 650 million people travelling. Twice the population of USA. Could be too early for the Chinese authorities to tell if the virus got spread further afield.

  3. During that holiday, among other places we went Hua Hin 3 days (15th time) , Koh Samui 4 days, Koh Samet 3 days.

    Koh Samui, 2nd time, Koh Samet 6th time. I think, no reason to go to Koh Samui if you are with family and after clear sea and seafood. The beaches are the same, the food the same, the prices even better at Koh Samet.

    Chaweng Beach (we were at Chaweng Noi) 

    2020chaweng01.jpg

    You also get, at Chaweng Beach, screaming jets every 15 minutes

    2020chaweng02.jpg

    Lamai Beach, Koh Samui

    2020lamai01.jpg

    Koh Samet, one main beach, same thing, you don't need motorbike, cars not allowed anyway. Just stroll from your accommodation to the beach, hardly anyone has to go more than 50m. 

    2020samet01.jpg

    At night, the same choreography with one advantage: the beach is the main street, hardly anything else than 7-11s in the back street.

    2020samet02.jpg

    I think, Koh Samui has seen me for the last time.

     

  4. 1 hour ago, Mekong said:

    I am bringing it up calling you. You initially stated in your post installed SKYPE for daughters mother in 2001 before you edited it 

    If SKYPE has no relevance to online Thai learning why did you bring it up first then.

    Stalking. Appears you have no other interest in the topic other than chasing my posts only and polluting the thread.

    Otherwise, you would have seen that one post up, Paul101 is asking exactly that and me replying:

    2020skype01.jpg

    • Like 1
  5. 11 minutes ago, Mekong said:

    Considering SKYPE wasn’t released until August 2003 you did well.

    Why are you bringing up 2003? (Now I am doing what you do: edit already submitted and answered post.)

    Could be, now I remember installing in Tokyo (where I came in September 2003) and then in Bangkok on next trip. It was beta and unreliable.

    Where are you drawing any relevance to online Thai learning today? Or you are back to stalking mode and pissing over posts when nothing to say?

  6. Skype, user account I opened for her mother to talk to me back in 2003. when there was nothing else. To talk to friends she uses FaceTime, all have iPhones.

    Zoom is good and recent, I use it all day for work and it can do (invite and hold a meeting) with any email address outside of organization. She does not need any of those features, FaceTime is good enough.

  7. 1 minute ago, paul101 said:

    6-10 lessons a day is what the Mrs did when she worked at a language school, she packed it in, the owner was not a good employer. Now it's more like 6-10 lessons a week, she goes to students homes. One of her best students learned speaking reading and writing to a high standard in a couple of years, others like me never get the tones and give up. She's had Japanese students in the past and said they were quick learners.

    Asians are hard-wired to their languages. When my daughter was 5-6 years old, my wife would take her to playgrounds. Almost daily, a Japanese mother would come to talk to her in Thai. Wives of Japanese sent to Thai, they had language school paid. Toyota, Denso, Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Yazaki companies, to name a few.

    Indians, where only 10% of population speaks English, are very quick to learn Japanese.

    • Like 1
  8. Just now, buffalo_bill said:

    You may estimate paypal fees in the region of 2,3 %. They are more or less a credit insurance company.

    The site asked me to be "generous" and add 40 THB  to the sum of 12 lessons x 15 dollars so the teacher gets better money. I did. If that is their only cut, fine. Buying lessons in chunks of 12.

    School holiday for my daughter next week, she agreed to have Thai lessons every day.

  9. Good that we did our Thai holiday 16. December 2019 - 5. January 2020. Then the world caved in. In 2019. we spent 75 days in Thai (two trips, the longer one in July-August 2019 with Singapore 3 days visit to break my 30 days visa exempt).

    With an intention to spend 2 months a year in Thai, 3 years ago we took wifi router and subscription for work from home (for me). And, it was fine. Now, no travel, the router will expire, no yearly payment in August (must be from Thai issued credit card or cash).

    Rent-a-car, we were planning a 15 days tour to Buriram, Surin, Si Saket, Ubon Ratchatani, Mukdahan, Sakhon Nakhon, Kalasin, Roi Et.

  10. On 10/8/2020 at 5:26 PM, paul101 said:

    My Mrs teaches it online now as a result of the virus but she also visits students, she charges 500 baht an hour. I can't afford it 😀 She is qualified and has over 20 years experience.

    That is it. Minus visiting the students. My afore mentioned friend, said only some neutral pad, the teachers never come to your home. Restaurant or shopping mall food court. I guess, if we were in Bangkok,  they might come to our home where whole family is present and the students is a teenager.

    The site I am using has maybe 60 teachers for Thai. The site takes Paypal and the money goes to the teacher only when you confirm that the lesson did happen and you were happy with it.
    I don't know what their cut is, she must be getting a good part of those 15$ and, according to her schedule, has 6-10 lessons a day. Weekends are usually grayed out.

     

  11. So, the whole story was about bargirls milking us, while there were GTGs (Internet caffees employees at that time) making up emails while demands the poor bargrils of the year 2001. would not know how to do? Simply, no ability, nearly illiterate they were.  Neither they knew what they can get. That is what my wife told me about those emails.

    Several people here got badly burned by GTGs (Good Thai Girls) they had met out of the nightlife bars, over the Net. 

  12. Kubota (farm machines, Made in japan) is my customer.

    What you said is not far from my post. Buffaloes roaming.

    I know exact locations where the pics were taken, 

    2020buffalo01.jpg

    2020buffalo02.jpg

    Buffalo trade, the pink spray means "already sold".

    2020buffalo03.jpg

    A happy buffalo trader (between Wang Nam Yen and Kanchanaburi)

    2020buffalo04.jpg

     

     

  13. Those were the days before Facebook, Google. Forums had a big role. I remember, late Lao Huli, had 930 posts in one month. pattaya127 had 650. At that time, Fidel Castro had 11 more years to rule Cuba.

    Somebody had posted, from  the Admin of Delphi board explanation that the board (Delphi) was a good idea but pop ups and ads were a bad idea. Can't remember now if that was the reason for their demise and if nanaplaza.com took off to replace that board.

    Today, if this board (bar the links in the US tread) if it can get 100 posts a month altogether, that is where the board is.
    Those were the days when we thought a wider audience would come. They did, but to other, easier to use and more attractive media that did not exist during the nanaplaza.com best days.

    And now (for some time already) everything available to anyone, anywhere. Too much information, too much choice, the public has no other way than to go by "likes" and ratings.

    Thai has been photographed from all angles, 100s of millions of pictures. A single board like this one, with back legs in the Internet infancy 20 years ago, stands a very small chance.

    Good that someone is maintaining it, if the time comes, tell us when the lights go off.

    • Like 1
  14. It was 30THB per email, yes, those Internet cafes. Girls would hand over a post-it note or several emails and messages on one paper. The staff writing emails would (if the tone of the message was asking for something or saying one week going hometown)  massage and twist the messages with extras, copy/pasting and using "English for Lovers" pamphlet with melodramatic phrases.

    I even think sick buffalo came from those writing or composing messages, never heard anyone in the sticks owning a buffalo, unless they were in dozens or hundreds under one owner.

    Saw several large houses between Khon Kaen and Dinosaurus museum with 6-7-8 buffaloes (what I could spot from the road) around them. Was told that is their sign of wealth, girls from those house don't go into nightlife.

  15. I presented my wife her old emails, from 2001. She said, she had  never wrote them, did not even know those emails existed  or sent, she would not even know how, even in Thai language.

    "Is it what I said? Never ever, I would have known how to say that in English".

    Who wrote the emails? Then, dial up Internet staff around nana Plaza Internet joints, they did, their staff. They were talking to us, asking for money for their customer "sisters" likely some cut if any money comes. It was a hub where bargirls would drop email addresses and leave it to the staff to massage them and flirt. What the bar girls did, a note "Luv u big time" and email address and the rest was up to the staff.

    They were laughing at us, how stupid farangs could get, reinforcing their national disdain towards anyone not Thai. And we were stupid. Whole Thailand may be laughing and despising us. Not totally out of the blue. That is how they treat all foreigners today, humiliating visa rules, taking a piss over foreigners, outright.

    What I want from Thai now is - when the World opens, to go there again and do touring through the provincies, one week tour, one week home, then another one. As a tourist, not keen to know Thai internals (that I already know) any further. Enjoy the country.

  16. How poor nanaplaza.com was,  it had many good posters but no perspective (I was part of that failure) what Thailand has to offer outside of the Bangkok/Pattaya nightlife areas.

    Look at this: where, in which part of the board I could post this experience from Udon Thani?

     

     

     

    • Like 1
  17. The scepticism  against online learning has abated. Daughter's school had the whole semester online, due to the virus.

    My daughter is taking online Thai lessons, 1 hour goes from 10-25 dollars. We settled with a mature lady, a professional teacher, 15USD an hour. 

    My good friend, an American (late 30-s), living in the complex with American-Thai wife, a sophisticated lady and two beautiful daughters, told me. 500THB Thai language lesson 1:1 with a professional Thai language tutor goes 500THB. That is where we are, the ball park and online.

     

    2020thaiclass01.jpg

    My daughter is not a novice to Thai language, that was the first language she had learned before coming to Japan. She can understand, even translate, but no reading or writing. And the teacher is delighted she is teaching a teenager eager to learn and with Thai background.

    My wife , Thai, has no teaching capabilities (starts yelling and making it a torture).

    So, we are in for reading and writing first. Took maybe 35 lessons so far, with 100s more to follow. At that rate, probably 4,000USD until she can go into conversation lessons. During school holidays, class every day, now 1-2 per week. The material is the official textbook used by Thai schools. 

    And, no need for a Thai keyboard. Hand writing.

    A question for our fellow board members who have mastered Thai language:
    When it comes to conversations, it may make a difference where the teacher is from (Surat Thani) and if her accent and diction would devalue the learning outcome? My wife says they (Surat Thani) speak too fast, mumble, the rest of Thai have difficulties understanding them. Not that my wife (Sa Kaew, Wang Nam Yen) is better but just as a warning.
     

     

  18. What the former board, with quality contributors did  to me, was developing interest in Thai history.

    Thai Airways had an inflight  serial "King Naresuan", 6 epizodes, almost 3 hours each. A nation building melodramatic propaganda but had many facts from Thai history I had never known. Watched them all on (last) 3 flights to Thai and back. Even wanted to buy the DVDs in Bangkok but the shops had them erratically, 1&2, 4&5, never all 6 of the DVDs.

    Based on that serial, we made 4 trips, 2,500km each around the Kingdom. My wife was puzzled why would anyone take such a great interest in Thai history. She does not know more than me.

    Phitsanulok, the birth place of the King Naresuan was one of the many places we visited, stayed there overnight in a hotel. The most revered king of Thailand (well, Ayutthaya).

    2020kingnaresuan01.jpg

    It was him who defeated the Burmese, who left Ayutthaya alone for 160 years. An epic battle (in all Thai text books, crammed into the heads of students, nation wide) that took place reportedly January 18. 1593. where he killed the Burmese invader's king Mying Shwe. My photo from Muang Boran history park, Bangkok

    2020naresunamingshwe01.jpg

    Tell me I am a moron, an idiot, but I love doing this - touring Thailand with my family. Even they are questioning why we are doing it to that extent.

    Look at this: Khon Kaen, night, we got lost, got in 1 way short street in opposite direction. A band of policemen were catching motorbikers, one spotted us and said - wrong way, stay here. Stay here!

    His commander came close, saw that I am a foreigner, asked my daughter "Nong, pasa Thai?  She could understand but not much speak, she said we were lost.

    The commander (good English) , ordered a policeman, on a big white police Honda bike, to lead us to our hotel.  He did not know where the place was, radioed their headquarters.

    Two days there, Khon Kaen is a lovely place. They are proud to be the heart of Isaan. Just go to the museums, Uni students  as custors. I loved the place,  the lake and the city. And vibrant it is, same shopping malls (Central, same shops asd in BKK), nothing what facebookers and bloggers portray as a poor armpit of Thai.

    • Like 1
  19. 8pm in Japan. I can hear my wife watching online Thai TV (glued to it, soapies). Thai Anthem playing every morning 8am and 6pm evening. She orders Thai food ingredients, no much difference when we are in Thai. True, no swimming pool in the building here but other things - same.

    First time this year no travel to Thai (last was Xmas/NY 2019/2020),  after that we travelled locally, Japan, my daughter asked: "Why  we ever travelled to Thai?"

    I loved to make 10 days tours to Udon Thani, Phitsanulok, Khorat, Khon Kaen. Several tours into the sticks (that are not as poor as media portraits them). Had more tours around Thai planed but this virus fcuked it all.

    • Like 1
  20. I was not around for maybe 7 years and when tried to login, there was redirection to the new board name. User name and password worked, content preserved.

    Indeed, could someone trade under that name while there is a legitimate business registered as Nana Plaza? Was there a legal issue or simply board management divesting from night life?

    Compared to other (then) popular nightlife boards, nanaplaza.com board, even with such name, was an innocent baby with content of far better quality.

  21. This is about nanaplaza.com days. 

    It was February 4th 2004. when I got ousted from the Mods team (relationships). Not exactly expelled, the management readily accepted my ask to get out. Many people got sick of me. Granted.

    Not my demise but since then, the board took a corkscrew drive downwards. Even changed their  web name. Previews kind of tell better not to be here, bothering  the board owner.

  22. Whether tattooed girls are not my cup of tea, even Stick's site had some complaints (that he elected to publish). If I remember well, even Stick himself said once that a bar with no tattooed staff should be in somebody's business plan.

    Too late for me, my time there, could not see none of the girls with tattoos.

  23. On 8/24/2020 at 5:33 PM, cavanami said:

    Now I found that TMB, Thai Military Bank, is charging a 5.5% "conversion fee". Bastards!!!

    So now only Bangkok Bank is not charging these extra fees, only the 220 baht fee, like they all do now. Not sure about GSB or some of the other banks.

    That fee that looks only 220THB is recouped by a bank through currency conversion fee. To send 20,000THB to my condo for yearly maintenance I have to send 20,700THB + local fee of about 500THB.

     

    Bangkok Bank, originating from Citibank (Japan) now called different but no change in fees over last 17 years.

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