A dose of inspiration for Thai learners

I'm on never-ending quest to improve my Thai skills, both written and spoken. Recently however I've had days during which I barely have time to do more than read the signs on my commute to work, and chat to the office cleaner for a few minutes whilst grabbing a coffee - but every little helps keep my brain ticking over.

I'm looking to crank things up a little - particularly in the reading/writing department - but my motivation got a boost this week as I bumped into a couple of interest items online.

First of all, this excellent Bangkok episode with Learn Thai From A White Guy blogger Brett have some top-notch advice for learning Thai.

- find your inspiration: if learning is chore, you won't find yourself improving, says Brett (amen)
- tackle reading Thai as soon as possible (I can vouch for this)
- immerse yourself in Thai-only, or predominantly Thai-language, situations as often as possible (another factor I can vouch for)

Check out the podcast and more of the wise words within here.

Secondly, I ran into www.farangland.net, a hilarious website run by (what looks like) a bunch of farang comedians who speak and act in Thai. It is so convincing that it had my Thai colleagues forwarding the various videos around the office in laughter - not an easy crowd to win over, as my own gags attest.

A few choice vids are below, but check our the website for more...you won't be disappointed!

The Pattaya window into Thailand

We enjoyed a brief and impromptu one night stay in Pattaya last week.

The weather was fantastic and we love to be around the beach (and in a nice hotel) so the break is always a welcomed one.

That said, for me, Pattaya has a self-life of around 24 hours. Any longer in the city and I will start to go crazy. I love the sea air but a number of things make Pattaya a land where normality is amiss.

In Pattaya, universal logic is reversed...the older and fatter you are, the more appealing men are to the local women.

At least, that is based on my evidence during day time hours.

At night, if you are male, with a regular-ish pulse and walking (walking sticks and other assitance permitted) then any women will come after you, even if you happen to be out with your wife and young son.

Then there is good old Jonny Foreigner (not referring to myself, I hope) who is living the lap of luxury here on a month long holiday.

Jonny (me) overheard Jonny (one of them) talking to the internet cafe/travel agent manager about his business back at home (Australia, if you're interested).

He's got a lot of "boys" doing things for him...apparently...while business is going great, so great that he can afford to spent a little time out here with "my girl" (his, of course).

There's not a lot to say about this, the self-deluded, chest puffing 50 something year old who is clucking around trying to impress the none-too-interested man working the shop desk.

They say a sucker if born every minute but I'm sure the statistics from Pattaya have pushed this up for a minute. I'm not how catchy the 'a sucker is born every two minutes when we ignore the data from Pattaya, Thailand' phrase sounds?

If Pattaya is expats' window into Thailand, no wonder so many expats living out here are so f*cked up.

As for the guys sporting the 'good guy go to hell, bad guy go to Pattaya, Thailand' t-shirt...there's not a great deal I have to add.

I do love the sea air by the way.