Thailand Voice

Considered weird food by some, ant eggs are a delicacy in Northern and N.Eastern Thailand especially. Red Ant Eggs ( Kai Mot Daeng) are available in local markets but many Thai people will collect the ant eggs by themselves. This can be a hazardous exercise as the red ants do not take kindly … Read full story >>>

Week three of my 30 day Thai language trial… I am settled into a study schedule, so that’s it. It took three weeks for me to gain a new language learning habit. Nothing odd happened this week so I won’t post the results. I basically … Read full story >>>

Week two of my 30 day Thai language trial… The more I note the lack of sleep in the weekly reviews of my trial, the more I am getting pissed off. Insomnia has been a part of my life since my toddler days and … Read full story >>>

Jonas Anderson is one of best known singers in Thailand of the Thaimusic genre known as Luktung and most surprisingly is not a Thai. Jonas Anderson was born in Sweden and came with his parents to Thailand when he was just 9 years old. They settled in Nakorn Ratchasima in Isaan, N.E. Thailand … Read full story >>>

The new year is almost here… It’s that time again: New Year’s resolution time. And this year I am serious about using the opportunity to ramp up my Thai language learning. Because even with the best intentions, it seems that I can find the time to do everything except for … Read full story >>>

Ho, ho, ho and a subliminal oh! … Last year I wrote a Christmas post on subliminal products for learning Thai: Subliminal Thai… ehh? And as it was such a huge hit, I thought I’d do the same this year. Amazon has two on offer: Learn To Speak The… Read full story >>>

Google Translate does more than before… Google Translate has added three more items of interest: Translations as you type: Type your text in the main box and the translation appears below. Romanization option: the ability to receive transliteration instead. Text-to-… Read full story >>>

I fancy myself something of a pretty good martial artist. Back in the day when I was younger (okay, okay, MUCH younger) I used to pride myself on my ability to kick very high and with excellent form. It took a long time for me to be able to kick like that… Read full story >>>

Ah, to have the insecurities of a kid again… When I was fourteen, I moved from the glorious New Zealand to the enormous U.S. The U.S. was too strange, too big, too shiny new. Worse, I did not assimilate. My experiences were not the… Read full story >>>

Sesame Street comes of age… This week, on November 10th, Sesame Street turned the big FOUR OH. My, oh, my, does time fly… So if you didn’t know Sesame Street as a child, then your brothers or sisters, nephews or nieces, or even … Read full story >>>

L-Ceps Personaltrainer language learning software… I played around with L-Ceps Thai Language Software last year, but I did not spent a lot of time with it (my bad). There were three reasons: L-Ceps had too much of a PC feel I already had Rosetta Stone (also PC) I did … Read full story >>>

Anocha “Mai” Suwichakornpong’s debut feature Mundane History has generated good buzz at the Pusan International Film Festival, where it premiered on Sunday in the New Currents competition. It has two more screenings on Thursday and then will hopefully be awarded when the festival closes on Friday. The Hollywood Reporter’s Maggie Lee has a review . Here’s… Read full story >>>

Considerations for Thai phrase book apps on your iPhone… Choosing a Thai language phrase book for your iPhone is similar to choosing a hardcopy Thai language phrase book . But not quite. For instance: If you are a first time tourist or expat new to… Read full story >>>

Matichon reports that NACC spokesman Klanarong Chantik said that in relation to Samak, as the head of the government being charged that Samak would have known well that there could be damage and an effect on territory and social issues. Also, Samak asked Noppadol to help Hun Sen… Read full story >>>

Thai language resource: thai-language.com… You all know Glenn Slayden from an earlier interview: Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners: Glenn Slayden . Today I’m writing a brief overview of his site, thai-language.com . Mission Statement: The mission of thai-language.com is to offer English speakers the highest-quality non-commercial Thai language resource… Read full story >>>

Well not really but it is on it’s way and is already having a big affect around Ubon Ratchatani. The rain slowly started yesterday mid morning and has slowly built up to be a steady continuous shower then hasn’t slackened at… Read full story >>>

A couple of days ago Reuters put together a summary of “five key Asian political risk themes”.  Hidden among the consolidated insights on Japan’s new government, Chinese trade, corruption in Indonesia, and India-Pakistan relations, is a short blurb about the “health of Thailand’s king”.  … Read full story >>>

The Thailand-Laos-Cambodia Studies Group and New Mandala are planning a new initiative that will offer regular book reviews of important new texts (in English and other languages) on mainland Southeast Asia. The reviews will be jointly published on the TLC email list and on New Mandala . This will … Read full story >>>

The Economist : These latest antics are an embarrassment for him [Kasit] and for the prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, who came to power in the wake of the PAD’s debilitating protests but has testy relations with the group. Nationalism is a powerful tool for demagogues such… Read full story >>>

Thai Rath ’s political analysis the other day is summarized below. A Democrat MP from Bangkok, Boonyord S, and a Democrat MP from Samut Songkrahm, Rungsima R, have been suggesting that Thaksin has a serious disease. Thaksin has denied this in a twitter posting and showing a picture of him getting his… Read full story >>>

Chiangmai University Open Courseware… TCU’s Open Thai Courseware : What a brilliant find by Kokesat, a member of the ThaiVisa Thai language forum! Quoting SoftWater: I don’t think I’m overstating the case (?) when I say this is the BEST beginners material I have … Read full story >>>

The Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board has issued a report on Thailand’s social outlook in the second quarter of 2009. The report, which was acknowledged by the Cabinet, covers four major areas, namely the quality of human resources, social…

The free FSI Thai lessons… If you have been anywhere near WLT’s extensive resource page, Learn Thai for FREE , then you’ll know all about the fantastic Thai lessons created by the Foreign Service Institute . And ever since I’ve known about the… Read full story >>>

I first found out about this annual festival held in Nakhon Phanom last year through a series of cryptic e-mails my girlfriend had sent with pictures of beautiful illuminated boats attached. I say cryptic but the reality of the situation was that she couldn’t explain… Read full story >>>

Bang Rajan was one of the early films that hit the scene when Thai movies starting going “inter” back in the late 1990s and 2000s. Directed by Thanit Jitnukul, it received the deluxe treatment for a DVD release in the U.K. , and in the … Read full story >>>

Meeting successful language learners… One of the many pluses with hosting the Successful Thai Language Learners series is meeting talented (and generous) Thai speakers. For instance, take Hugh Long of www.retire2thailand.com . Hugh was yesterday’s Successful Thai Language Learner . In the middle of our back and … Read full story >>>

Last Peter Reid post, I promise, but I wanted to put the matter to rest, given my obsession with ongoing interest in the situation: Peter Reid is officially off to Stoke City. Steve Darby , who was Reid’s assistant, is now acting national team coach. BBC … Read full story >>>

Many of the coastal provinces in Thailand have mangrove forests. However, the number of mangroves over the last 30 years or so have decreased greatly. In 1961 there were 909,346 acres of mangrove forests. By 2002 this number had reduced to only 593,052 acres. This is mainly due to urbanization, agriculture and aquaculture. In …

The Socialist Party of Malaysia ( Parti Sosialis Malaysia : PSM) is officially back. Since the general election of 8 March 2008 it has had a member of parliament  and three members in the state legislative assembly. Ironically, since the party was not officially recognised until after the election, all … Read full story >>>

The Top 100 Language Learning Blogs… Earlier, I shared my favourite blogs amongst Lexiophiles Top 100 Language Blogs for 2008. In July, WLT was included in the 2009 voting for Lexiophiles Top 100 Language Blogs . WLT is new so I was more than a bit nervous about the whole deal. But, with your support, I did manage to make … Read full story >>>

Thai 101 and book learning… There’s a whole market for books on how to learn Thai. A given book might promise you that you’ll learn Thai in 24 hours, that you’ll speak like a native – and that you’ll simultaneously cure cancer and world hunger in … Read full story >>>

Voting commences for the top 100 language learning blogs… Before we get started with Rikker’s Thai 101 Learners Series , I have wee announcement to make. Back in February we visited Lexiophiles Top 100 Language Blogs , where I dug through their list to share… Read full story >>>

As am busy it is difficult to devote many resources to find out what the problem is, but from a limited search it does not appear to be a blogger/blogspot problem (there are always Blogger comment problems). It may be a template issue which will resolve itself because of a switch in code by … Read full story >>>

Not to pile on Atiya after her op-ed on Burma (as b logged about here), but there is another part of her op-ed that BP wanted to note and that was her concern about the Lady of Burma: So much for being concerned! Yes… Read full story >>>

Another Green Shoots Story . Another 1+1 = 2 equation that any child at school would have been able to understand… All but the stupid politicians, bureaucrats and Lalaland inhabitants of course. Listed companies posted first-quarter net profits totalling 80.27 billion baht, a 48% decline from the same period last year , according… Read full story >>>

The working week has again started off well for me. It was another smooth day with no real problems. A few students who didn’t hand in homework, or handed in substandard work, were given extra work to do tonight and … Read full story >>>

Although it’s known as Bangkok’s floating market the Damnoen Saduak floating market is actually about 100 kilometers Southwest of Bangkok in Ratchaburi Province . If, like me, you’ve seen many pictures of people selling many colorful fruits and vegetables on the open waters of the canals then this … Read full story >>>

Hands up if you’ve ever heard of Technorati ? If you read blogs, and by reading this entry your answer is ‘yes’, then Technorati is a site you should look at. If you blog, then you should definitely head  there . Technorati is a website which gives order to the (often) chaotic, messy… Read full story >>>

And what phrase book is without humour?… Deep into all things Thai phrase books , I couldn’t resist sharing a classic, The Hungarian Phrasebook sketch. The Hungarian Phrasebook sketch was first shown in Episode 25 of the Flying Circus TV Show , in the 1970’s. Later on it was included in ‘And Now For Something Completely Different’. Enjoy… Read full story >>>

As the years go by, there seems to be an increasing number of children growing up in Thailand with either one or two parents who are not Thai nationals. The children who have one parent Thai and one foreign are called “luk kreung”. I guess…