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Ballsburstin
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CJ,
"does a former Dean of Law outrank a grad student?" Reminds me of the old joke, "she was a legend in her own mind," so maybe  Ha!
Let me shoot out an e-mail to her (provided she's still responding) and see if I can get clarication. We'd had that discussion back in April/May timeframe, and my Thai was much worse then. I'll let you know what she says (probably take about a week to ferret this one out).
- Balls
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:12 pm on Oct. 2, 2002
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Ballsburstin
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CJ,
You've piqued my curiosity again -- is there another expression you know that is used to denote the "big man" for the evening, who pays the bill? I assume this is not always the poo yai (baan), as I was the "indirect" owner of the first dinner (admittedly modest) "bill" for the get together at my TGs parent's house (but not for any thereafter). This didn't appear to be a case of "fleece the farang," just an assumption that all farangs have loads of cash, and that a new potential addition to the family should show them hospitality and respect.
- Balls
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 5:22 pm on Oct. 2, 2002
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chateaujade
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The big advantage of learning to read Thai first is that you can then see the differences between words long before you will develope the 'ear' to hear the difference between them. Without the reading, you will constatly be frustrated by variations on the old Get Smart shtick: "Not the craw -- the craw!" And not just tonal differences either. There are words that are spelled very differently, but that to the untrained ear sound so very much alike, but if someone writes them out for you in Thai, you can see the difference at once.
IMHO this will keep you moving forward instead of the frustration miring you down till you lose interest completely.
Unlike English Thai is almost perfectly consistent and even logical, once you can simply write the Thai 44 consonants in dictionary order, and the 33 vowels and vocalics as well.
GET WINDOWS THAI EDITION. And a Thai-English keyboard. Then you can just open a word processor and key onto the screen, in large sizes, Thai letters in a wide variety of fonts (some are easier for learning than others, some of the artsy ones drop the clues that new students need to tell letters apart) and soon you can display whole words and phrases on your screen.
You also need to learn as every Thai schoolchild does the names of the letters, for example Gaw Gai = G. It's always called Gaw never Gee as in English. and Gai is a common easily remembered word (chicken) that starts with Gaw. A mnemonic device. Knowing these 44 names also helps distinguish between the multiple Kaw, Saw, Taw, Baw, Paw, Daw etc. Taw tong (flag) is not the same letter as Taw Taharn (soldier) and so on.
This also helps you with Thai abbreviations: for example Gaw Taw Maw = Grung Thep Mahanakorn = Bangkok. Also used to mean the City administration and to refer to the governor (Samak Sundaravej, aka Jamook Chompoo, "Guava Nose". Or Taw Maw, Thamruat Mahadthai, Immigration Police. Or Maw Taw, Mahadthai, Interior (Ministry), example, Maw Taw Nung, MT1, the Minister of Interior. Or Saw Waw, Samachik Wuthisapha, Senator.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:25 pm on Oct. 2, 2002
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chateaujade
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Poo Yai (without the Baan) means a senior-status person, an adult, a leader, a boss. And the biggest poo yai always pays the bill.
Poo Dii (good people) means socially superior, high society, aristocracy almost. For example Anand Panyarachun, former PM, is nicknamed "Poo Dii Rattanakosin" -- the latter being the oldest part of Bangkok, where the Grand Palace is. An island by the way. The implication is Old Money/Society/probably distant connections to the extended Royal family.
Poo Dii means Good People in almost exactly the way the Sicilians use it -- to mean the people with the real clout (in Sicily that's the Mafia, but I do not mean to imply that Khun Anand is such. In Thailand the Mafia is almost NEVER socially acceptable. Although they may rise high politically.)
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 5:36 pm on Oct. 2, 2002
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hooomyy
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These colloquial insight lessons are great! I'm going to keep my eyes open for a Thai copy of Windows (most probably it will be a cracked copy as it probably isn't widely distributed here in the States). Also, I'll be searching for a Thai keyboard as chateaujade also recommended. Any places that you would recommend for such accoutrements? My first stop will be eBay.
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 5:42 pm on Oct. 2, 2002
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Ballsburstin
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CJ,
I know we're a bit off-topic by now, but I'll heed your advice. In fact, while sunning on Koh Lanta last May with my TG, she told me flat out that I needed to learn the whole name of the Thai letter, just like every Thai school kid (or just pack it in and go home). That was, and is good advice, and I'm trying to do that. It's making it much easier to begin to wade through the unique spelling of words, that to my tin ear, sound the same, but are worlds apart.
BTW, my TG has complained that English seems to make no sense by comparision, and, after my rudimentary studies in Thai, I have to agree (though I love the depth of the English language). Explaining to her all of the exceptions to the rules in her English books really opened my eyes to the apparent insanity of my own language. But I am hoping that with enough work, maybe one of these years I'll be able to read the Thai equivalent of Moby Dick.
-- Balls
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:43 pm on Oct. 2, 2002
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Ballsburstin
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hoomy,
I got a copy of Windows Thai through a Thai restaurant owner down the street from me. So you might want to try that approach. Not sure where you'd find the Thai keyboard here, but the Thai student union at a university can certainly help you (can probably also point you to stick-ons for the standard keyboard -- my former Korean GF used stickons on own main computer).
I haven't yet loaded the Thai Windows version here at home. Plan on getting a small machine to dedicate to it.
BTW, I did get a copy of the English-Thai Sofwtare-Dictionary from Asia Books (not sure if it's available in the States; they had it on CD). It has a cool pop-up window that tells you the full name of the Thai letters when you move the cursor over them. Only problem is the font is fixed and small, and can be a bit hard on the eyes (one reason CJ is recommending Windows Thai, at least you can see the characters in scalable fonts).
-- Balls
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:55 pm on Oct. 2, 2002
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hooomyy
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I'd say we're right on target with this latest aspriation to read a fictitious tale involving one man's desire to thrust into and possess the object of his obsession.
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:58 pm on Oct. 2, 2002
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hooomyy
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Thank you, ballsburstin, for your recommendation to acquire Thai windows & keyboard/stick-ons while in Thailand. A wide-spread search has come up with the sole option of purchasing directly from Microsoft. I'd prefer to "get it for less", so I'm certain that this can be done in LOS.
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 6:00 pm on Oct. 2, 2002
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Ballsburstin
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Hooomyy,
Just don't tell Bill, ha!
-- Balls
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 6:05 pm on Oct. 2, 2002
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