lol seriously?

I suggest we kidnap pumpui in broad daylight (I'm sure all of his Issan barfarmer neighbours will insta call police etc) and haul his ass to Burma. Pay the militia $200 a month for forcing him to farm ricefield and sleep in buffalo **** for a few years and then we'll see what life experience does to trolls. They'll probably cut off his tongue during the first day for telling how bad they are at guerilla work, while his rich and hot ninja girlfriend could give them insurgence coaching in japanese.

It sucks your child is going to be descended from an inferior race.

At least it will only be half french canadian.

BOOM HEADSHOT

"You'd better wear the latex... unless you want that "I'm late" text" - Lil Wayne

pumpui you are losing this one, and badly. i agree that learning thai is pretty useless if you move out of thailand, however it will enable you to learn other languages easier and some people just like to learn languages.

that said, i know several people who have been here 3+ years who have become near fluent in thai and it clearly aids their ability to get a higher caliber of female, to get along in thai society, to make thai friends and to understand the culture. i wish i had the patience to learn the language better, i'm so jealous of farang i see who are fluent/near fluent.

and i have to say i agree somewhat with kkf saying that your perception is based on your experiences in thailand.

i think you two should call a truce though.

Scientists Discover Inverse Relationship Between Expats’ Income and Thai Fluency
Poorest expats continue to lead community in diligent Thai-language studies, flirting


BANGKOK – Researchers have published the results of the first-ever study of the Thai-speaking habits of foreign expatriates in Thailand, which confirms the long-held belief that the more Thai a farang speaks, the less likely he is to have any money.



“The data are unambiguous,” declared Hitesh Murkh, the lead scientist on the project, which was sponsored by Thammasat University and surveyed over 2,000 permanent residents of foreign nationality in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, Udon Thani, and Phuket. “There is a consistent and predictable inverse relationship between income and fluency that cuts across almost all age groups, education levels, and nationalities.”



According to the study’s executive summary, which was distributed to the press, the highest Thai-language fluency among expatriates was to be found among members of the lowest paying jobs in industries such as tourism, teaching, and small-scale NGO work. Whereas the least proficient Thai speakers were heavily concentrated in the high-paying professional sectors of business, finance, and regional marketing.



“It confirms our original suspicions that with most expats, Thai fluency is a both a time-consuming hobby as well as a socially compensatory skill,” explained Weng-min Huang, a sociologist who co-authored the report. “Low-paid expats have both the time to devote to Thai studies as well as the motivation. They can’t afford to eat in nice restaurants, party in upscale nightclubs, or shop for tasteful furniture and quality electronics in their spare time. Additionally, their poverty of lifestyle and material possessions makes them unable to attract mates, so they have the motivation to adapt a non-material mating skill – speaking Thai.”



Other aggravating circumstances included poor expats’ tendencies to live in low income neighborhoods, where interactions with non-English speaking retailers and neighbors was unavoidable, compared to the insulated lives of expats with money. Huang cited the example of “James” and “Will,” two of the study’s in-depth participants.



“James lives in Center Point Serviced Apartments, has an English-speaking Burmese driver, shops at Paragon, eats at Gianni and goes to Bed Supperclub on weekends,” Huang said. “His staff includes a trilingual secretary and two full-time translators. He can literally go for months without encountering a single non-English speaking person. Even his girlfriend, a light-skinned Chinese-Thai model and VJ, speaks perfect English.” According to the study, someone like James whose income is Bt350,000/month, requires a Thai vocabulary of only 50 words, including basic numbers and taxi directions.



“Compare that to Will, who teaches English at Ramkhamhaeng, lives in Bang Kapi, and makes Bt30,000 a month. He shops at Tesco, eats street noodles and spends his evenings in internet cafes, posting self-righteous opinions on Ajarn.com about how much he hates people like James.” According to Huang, “Will’s only hope of getting laid without paying for it, which he couldn’t afford anyway, is to speak lots of Thai and crack jokes with his students, and hope one of them introduces him to their older sister.”

Oddly, the exceptions to the rule came at the extremes of the data. Some of the highest paid subjects such as diplomats, consultants, and specialized UN and development workers spoke fluent Thai despite being paid huge international salaries. At the low end there was a cluster of data representing near-destitute men over the age of 65 in Chiang Mai and Udon who, despite incomes lower than the average factory worker, still didn’t speak more than 30 words of bar-Thai. “These lifers have nothing to offer and have stopped trying,” suggested Murkh. “They’re pretty much just waiting to die, preferably beneath a once-a-month rented sex-worker.”



The other anomaly in the data was women expats, who showed universally superior Thai language skills at all income levels. However, the significance of the anomaly was dismissed by the researchers as insignificant, since women made up less than 2% of the expatriate population.



Reaction to the study was generally positive. Brendan Freedman, a securities analyst at Citibank, admitted he spoke almost no Thai and had no intention of learning. “Why bother,” he said, “when everything in this town is in English? And anyway, why waste a weekend studying Thai when I can be kite-surfing in Hua Hin?” His sentiments were echoed by Ron Frakes, an editor at a lifestyle magazine, who took daily Thai lessons for a year, but quit the moment he landed a Bt100,000/month job.



However, several English teachers interviewed took issue with the suggestion that their Thai was any kind of compensatory skill. “I love Thailand, the real Thailand, not the Q-Bar fantasy world of those corporate *******s,” insisted Ted Callendar, a freelance teacher. “I eat real Thai food, and I date real Thai women, and I couldn’t be prouder. Money isn’t freedom, it’s--” he said before being cut off by a call from his monolingual Thai girlfriend on his 6-year old Nokia 3310 phone.

thats interesting. come to think of it i know a bunch of super rich older dudes who have been living here 10 years+ and none of them speak thai. i think as poker players we fall somewhere in the middle of that. mostly consorting with the types of people who make modest incomes but making good money ourselves. kind of hard to mingle with those making $10k a month at salaried jobs here unless you work with them. maybe others have had a different experience.

haha that article is clearly trying to push buttons

i wonder if the study actually took place cause i seriously doubt the 'scientist ' working for the university said

According to Huang the scientist, “Will’s only hope of getting laid without paying for it, which he couldn’t afford anyway, is to speak lots of Thai and crack jokes with his students, and hope one of them introduces him to their older sister.”

...still funny though.

lol, it's obviously fake, but still ****ing hilarious.

haha that james guy
its my gf's ex bf..
and hes talking about her..

But ya, she wasnt a vj or anything.. he still tells his friend he has a gf cause hes a ***** ******... i have seen him calling here for the past 5months without an answer.

Good to finaly see his salary... want his job obv

Hey leave the french canadians out of it, we have a poker forum there and he has been banned from it a long time ago ...

any suggestions for must do things in bkk?, here with gf so guess half of the your suggestions will be voided!

Muay Thai fights are great (though gf might not be into that)

The canal cruises are ok. Slow paced, cheap and you get a different view of the city. There's also a dinner cruise on the main river that's supposed to be very nice. Apparently the grand palace lights up.

I never really did that much in BKK, so I'll leave it to others to come up with better suggestions.

The Muay Thai fight at RajaDamnern Stadium was ****ing awesome!

I will post some photos I took when we went there.

Front row seats were 2000 baht (~60 USD) each. Bargain! Was aweeesome.

10 fights. Last two are the "pro" fights that have the betting placed on them, or so we were told. They were ****ing BRUTAL ... a completely different level of smackdown ... the two guys looked like they were quite literally fighting for life and death.

One guy got totally KO'ed, was completely unconscious on the ground and then after taking at least 30 seconds to wake him up, stumbled back and kept fighting the last two rounds.

All the westerners watching were thinking JESUS WTF ... this guy isnt even going to make it to ****ing hospital alive!

my mom is shipping me in a tupperware a bag of miss vicky jalapeno home cooked chips...

Ship the only person in thailand eating good chips

Pumpui, are there pictures of you posted somewhere?
I've read so many of your posts (as a consequence of reading through all the thailand threads) and ive got this impression that your grand, and awesome, and bigger then life.

Infact so much so, that as a straight male, im willing to do things to you that i reserve only for women....but in this case, ive decided that because your just THE MOTHER****ING MAN at EVERYTHING and better then everyone at everything, that i wanto do these things to you.

Pls post pics of you so i can fap it.

Got everything squared away and my flight's in 4 days. Will be landing in Bangkok. Looking forward to being an impovershed socially inept loser since I'm anxious to learn the dead language!

Is it possible to sign up with moneybookers as an american in thailand?

Dire,

No, you can't sign up with Moneybookers without a bank account in a country from which they accept customers. (at least afaik) I opened a Thai bank account to get set up with moneybookers and it hasn't been smooth at all with them requesting all sorts of things from me that are not easy to get. I've gotten my account unlocked now but the transaction limits are so low that it doesn't help with much of anything.

If any Americans have had success with an ewallet and can offer suggestions I'd be happy to hear about it.

Best,

Bill

Moneybookers is a huge pain in the ass. My transaction limits are pretty low, and they have locked my account twice for "suspicious activities" I.E receiving Rakeback payments. I think you can set up an account though from almost everywhere though, all you need is an e-mail adress, getting the money out may prove to be a problem however.

yea money bookers is a paint in the ass, but once you get everything sorted its supperrrrrrrr

moneybookers is a lot better than neteller. your limit will be increased up to no limit at all if you provide id etc and wait a bit after asking that.

Who were the French dudes I met up with last night in RCA?

Craziest. Night. Ever. FFS.

they're from clubpoker.com

Alex !! Get a facebook seriously

Also guys I have a question, Im here since feb with a tourist visa 2 months + extension, I visa runned once in May at Phnom Penh and got another visa. Then next month Im going to Vietnam to get another one, will I have trouble getting it ? It would sucks if I can't get back to BKK !

Alex, we catch you tonight ?