Found a cool music video in Thai. Check it out.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ovRMM7ukBAY

Im thinking about going to the Angtong National Marine Park tommorrow for some snorkeling.

Certain parts of 'the beach' were filmed here. Actaully, in the movie if you take a look at the map that he has, the beach iteself is actually Ang Tong marine park, but that is not where the majority of the filming was done.

For those that are interested, Nov 1 on there is going to be an international beach volleyball for women competition in Phuket. I think it's on Patong; haven't been able to find much info yet. Luckily I have a super zoom camera...

Where you there during the Tsunamis? If so, what was your experience like it? How well has the country recovered since then?

I came to Thailand a month after the Tsunami.

I saw some damage in Phuket in certain areas and also Khao Lak was pretty much whiped out. Id say 'everything' is pretty much 'recovered' There are a lot of poeple who lost their homes (and lives) but I think that thailand has pretty much gotten back on their feet.

Well degen I think you gave me the Thai fever. I have a thai friend who I asked a bunch of questions. Seems like an awesome place and I will be going summer 08 or sooner. Hopefully I'll learn a good amount of thai before then so I can benifit from immersion and have another language under my belt.

if you dedicated a few hours a day to it and hired a teacher, how long for an educated american to become passable in thai?in country of course

I need to start learning thai.

I get by pretty good and can make the ladies laugh, which is good enough in my book.

Ive been to NagyYuan already, [censored] amazing there.

Saturday night in Samui: Good [censored] times.

Just to prove my point mentioned above about farang chicks being desperate, tonight the white chicks were hounding me more then the Thai hookerrs. Desperate bitches. I gave them the cold sholder and deverted my eyes back to the gorgous asian eye candy.

Shot some pool over at green mango. Played a bunch of games before I realized that the balls from 2 tables were messed up and we have 8 stripes and only 6 solids. I was stripes all night too, no wonder I lost tonight.

if you dedicated a few hours a day to it and hired a teacher, how long for an educated american to become passable in thai?

certain people will probably do better. i never really cared enough to take a class. i just practice with some software, books, and other people. ive begun to learn to write thai because this is supposed to help you speak it better. once you speak enough to get by i think it can be v hard to push yourself to do more. it can be really fustrating when someone is teaching you and they say "No, its not Toong, its Toong" and they both sound exactly the same to you.

the best apart about speaking some thai is the strange looks people make when you come out with.

to be honest, most of the white chicks i find myself attracted to are the high schoolers around 16 years old. i guess i am turning thai!

I have cd's / software / books for learning Thai and I was dedicating an hour or 2 a day on it trying to learn to write as well. But I havent used it in abotu 6 months.

I can still get by pretty decent. Its fun when your out shopping and you can listen to all the girls and their friends talk about you as you walk by and maybe throw a comment in yourself.

what is the best way to go about learning to read thai? I've learned other languages before, but thai has its own alphabet which is throwing me off a bit. How did you guys learn the thai alphabet and how long did it take until you were able to read thai? Not understand it, but be able to say it

Also how much of a problem did the tones present to you?

Im using alphabet books that the little kids use when they first start to read. I cant read thai, Im still learning the letters.

I'm using the guide at www.teachthai.com

A little cartoonish but its ok. Once I can read the characters and pronounce the tones correctly I should be able to pick up enough to be able to convey simple ideas.

I don't want to even start learning meanings with transliterations because they are all different and some are flatout wrong.

The best approach I can think of is to learn what the vowels look like and where each one of them is located in relation to the the starting consonants (in front, behind, on top, below) and then its a matter of what sound does the consonant make/what sound does the vowel make. It seems like a daunting task to memorize them since there are so many, so I will do it a few at a time.

I start teaching at a microeconomics at a university tomorrow. Trip report with how hot the chicks are. No pics though.

www.learningthai.com is a pretty good way to get started. You can click on various words/phrases and hear it spoken so you can learn the tones.

I have been going to 1 on 1 tutoring for a few months and I can speak a fair amount but I'm not great at understanding it yet. In another few days I'll have finished the basic reading/writing course. I'll be able to read but usually won't have a clue what it means!