Bangkok Blogger|Tales from Thailand

So far I’ve really enjoyed living in Thailand.  I’ve loved going to so many cool beaches.  I loved the low cost for a higher quality of life.  I’ve loved the food and the sun.  But I have to admit I’ve found living in Bangkok a bit boring.  I am familiar with the saying ‘only boring people get bored’ and I must confess  I am not the most interesting person you are going to meet but previous places I have lived have usually managed to keep me entertained.

The main problem I have found with Bangkok is that there just doesn’t seem that much to do.  Once you have done the touristy things there doesn’t seem much to do unless you are happy to hang around bars drinking and doing all that goes with the Bangkok bar scene.  Don’t get me wrong I like a good session but not all day every day.  Bangkok also has some of the best malls I have ever seen so if you are into buying stuff then that can take up a lot of your time but after a while you will probably have most of what you want or need.

Back home I used to enjoy going out for a walk and visiting markets and seeing the sights and just generally being out and about.  In Bangkok thanks to the oppressive weather that isn’t really possible and there also doesn’t seem to be anywhere to walk to.  Yes taxis are very cheap but where do I tell the driver to go?

Anyone got any suggestions or things for me to check out in Bangkok?

Went to Indian Hut this weekend which is one of the most well-known Indian Restaurants in Bangkok.

It is located at the end on Thannon Surawong which is the road that runs parallel with Silom.  It’s not that far from the library and the British Club and there is also another good but smaller Indian restaurant a few doors along.

The food was really good and the portion size and service was good.  I think they delivery too via Food By Phone and ChefXP so if you are in Bangkok and fancy a nice Indian it is definitely worth checking out.

Tomorrow is supposed to be the big day when the pro-Thaksin red shirts descend on Bangkok to protest.

Rumours are flying around from the believable (50,000 will arrive) to the slightly more wild (snipers and looting at Central World).   I’ll probably be staying in and watching it on TV if they haven’t shut down all the local TV stations as reported by some newspapers.

Fingers crossed it all goes off peacefully.

Just spied a group of red shirts down by Silom on my way home just now.  I seem to recall reading they are protesting at the branch of Bangkok Bank down there.

The road was cordoned off and there were a few police there on motorcycles so I couldn’t get close enough to see how many of them there were.

Lets hope it doesn’t turn nasty!

After a few lessons and some attempts at self-teaching I have decided to start taking proper lessons and have enrolled at a Thai language school.  We are having two one hour lessons a week which should help us get more familiar with the language.

After the first two lessons we’ve realised how little we know!

Going to have a go at learning to read the Thai script in my own time too as it would be good to be able to read all the signs and menus.

This Thai alphabet soundboard looks like a good resource for learning the names of the letters.

Due to the tight immigration rules in Thailand teaching English is pretty much the only job a foreigner can get out here without jumping through major hoops.  Thanks to this there are many many people out here working as English teachers at Thai schools, language centres and universities.

I wasn’t too keen to work as a teacher in Thailand but I knew my options were limited so I started a part-time job teaching ICT in English at a Thai secondary (or mathayom as they are known out here) school.  I got the job through an agency and the contract was for one term.   I was relieved to hear from the agency that it was a good Thai school and even had air-con!

I arrived on my first day to find myself in a large classroom in front of 35 14 year olds.  Each student had their own computer and I had one at the front that was connected to a projection screen.  That first lesson lasted for two hours and was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done.  The kids weren’t interested, I had no means of discipline and our lack of a common language didn’t really help much.

After a few more lessons like that the end of the day had arrived and I left a dejected, broken, former shadow of myself vowing to quit and not go back.

Over the weekend with time to think it over I decided to go back the following week and try a different approach.  But I finished my day in the same mood vowing never to return.

But I stuck with it.  It didn’t get any easier overall although some lessons were easier than others but as time went by my expectation of what teaching would be like changed and I no longer had the idealistic thoughts of it being fun or making a difference.  I was just there to try and teach to the few who were interested and keep the naughtiest kids from disturbing the rest of the class too much.   Once I’d become resigned to this it became more easier to get through the day.

Eventually the contract was up and I walked out for the last time (hopefully).  I will look for some more teaching work but will be looking for jobs in language schools where people actually want to learn rather than at schools teaching adolescent teenagers!

To all the full-time permanent English teachers in Thailand earning 35,000 a month, I don’t know how you do it but I salute you!

Since coming to Thailand I’ve been reading lots of books about the land of smiles.  Some have been fiction and some have been non-fiction accounts of peoples’ time in the country.  One that I finished recently was Farang: Thailand Through the Eyes of an Ex-pat by Dr Iain Corness.

It is a collection of short stories written by a guy from Australia and England who moved to Thailand during the latter part of his life.  He doesnt get up to much but I learned a few things from some of his tales and it is very easy to read.  There is also a part 2 if you liked the first one.

I’d probably recommend it to people who are yet to reach Thailand or have only just got here as some of the topics covered you will quickly discover for yourselves!

Its an easy read and you do learn a bit so you can’t really go wrong.

To view the list of other books about Thailand click here today.

The least favourite season, the wet season, has just ended.  The end was marked by the Loy Krathong festival in which a tribute is made to the water by launching wreaths into the river.  The first day of the following cool season was overcast, grey and quite chilly.  We had some friends staying who arrived on that day and it felt like they had brought the English weather with them.  Most of my kids didn’t come into school and some of the ones that did come in were wearing jeans and jackets!  Even though it was cold for the Thais I was still comfortable wearing flip flops, shorts and a t-shirt.  Since then the weather has been back to its old self and the sun has been out and it’s been pretty hot but not as humid as before which makes a nice change.  The cool season lasts until around March and then it is the hot season.  I thought the wet season was hot enough so it should be interesting to see how it gets out here.

Since arriving here I have been reading books about Thailand and Bangkok inparticular to find out more about the country and its customs.  Guide books such as those by Lonely Planet have been good but there are also quite a lot of fiction books set in Thailand and Bangkok.  One of the more popular authors writing fiction set in Bangkok is John Burdett and English born ex-laywer who started writing novels a few years ago.

There are three books in his series:  Bangkok Eight, Bangkok Tatto and Bangkok Haunts.

There are all easy to read and give a good insight into Bangkok and the various people who live here from corrupt cops, ladyboys, English teachers, monks and army generals.

These books are well worth a read and are great beach fodder.

Same Same, But Different

I’ve seen the above slogan on quite a few t-shirts worn by the Thai folk and wondered if it might be some joke about Thais trying to speak English.  After a quick Google search I found out that I was right and it refers to Tinglish which is a mutation of English spoken by some Thai people.  Here are some examples that might help you better understand Thais speaking English:

• same same (similar, as usual) and same same but different (seems similar but different in some ways);
• open/close the light (means “To turn on/off the light”);
• no have … (means “there is no …” or “I do not have a …”);
• I send you to the airport (means “I will take you to the airport”);
• I love you too much;
• I’m not pretty sure (means “I don’t know”);
• I have ever been to London;
• I’m interesting in football (means “I am interested in watching/playing football”);
• wash the film (means “develop the film”);
• I very like it (means “I really like it”);
• I’m sad when my mother angries me meaning is angry with me;
• I used to go to Phuket meaning I have been to Phuket before;
• take a bath referring to taking a shower;
• “Do you know how to eat this?” referring to food with taste that may be unfamiliar, or food requiring special eating method (such as wrapping it in lettuce) that may not be known to the listener;
• I play internet (I go on/use the internet);
• “This is suck!” means “This sucks!”;
• omission of pronouns and of the verb be;
• use of present tense + “already” instead of past tense

Stolen from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinglish

Anyone got any photos of signs in Tinglish?