think_too_mut

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.

Eggs are a new thing to the humanity, scientists have to have some time to figure out whether the eggs are good or bad.

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.

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) You also get, at Chaweng Beach, screaming jets every 15 minutes Lamai Beach, Koh Samui 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. At night, the same choreography with one advantage: the beach is the main street, hardly anything else than 7-11s in the back street. I think, Koh Samui has seen me for the last time.

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:

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, Buffalo trade, the pink spray means "already sold". A happy buffalo trader (between Wang Nam Yen and Kanchanaburi)

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.

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.