Patako’s Blog

First Cooking Indian Food in Shanghai

April 13, 2009

Today I went to “Indian Cooking Class” this morning. I was very impressed. The cooking way is simple but very tasty.

I am going to share my experience with you. Next week I will invite some friends to taste my Indian food.  Then I will show some pictures to you.

This recipe is from Lotta, http://indiancookingclasses.blogspot.com/.

I am looking to the next indian cooking class next sunday morning.

Enjoy the Indian food.

About Thai Language

August 17, 2008

Today’s post is about the Thai Language.

Thai is a monosyllabic and tonal language. In fact, there are 5 different tones. That is why it is so different. The same word pronounced in a different tone has a different meaning. The Thai language has different levels of vocabulary. These levels are according to the role of the speaker. The script is divided into 44 consonants (2 of which are no longer in use) and vowels, which in turn are subdivided into simple and composed vowels. Thai is written from the left to the right hand side. The letters are distinct and aren’t linked to each other. There is no space between the words. Punctuation does not exist. To establish a separation in a text just leave a space. Capital and small letters do not exist. Words are invariable: no feminine, no plural, and no conjugation. Words or supplementary particles indicate these notions.
For instance, “Refer to department of export promotion, Royal Thai Government.”

One more thing to note is that when Thais speak, they usually replace “R” with “L”. That’s why they speak a bit different. For example, sport => pronounced as “spolt”, Mirror => Millor.
So when you talk to Thais, please get used to this.

It is similar to how foreigners cannot speak “Five tones” of Thai language very well…. Please do not blame the Thais until you (the foreigner) can master the Five tones
Thais are kind and patient to understand non-Thais speaking Thai. So in the same manner I request all the foreign people to tolerate the way Thais speak English. If you did that, the world would be a more peaceful place!

Another problem while speaking to Thais in English => the way of speaking. For instance, Americans or Europeans being their conversation with “How are you doing?” or “Today, the weather seems good”…
Thais would say “How are you?” or “Where are you going?” or “did you have a lunch/dinner already” as a small talk
Please note, just be open while speaking…. It doesn’t mean they really want to know where you are going. It is just a statement to spark the conversation. Similar to discussing today’s weather situation.

Don’t wanna tell “I come from Thailand”

August 15, 2008

Do you know why…?

Yesterday evening I, my friend and her husband went to the beer festival in the city where I live, Dachau! The table was quite full. So we sat at one table that was already occupied by 3 old Germans. We ordered beer and some food.
One OLD & Fat German guy who was sitting next to me wanted to talk to me. He asked me in German about China (he thought I was Chinese). I told him that I was not Chinese and that I came from Thailand! Suddenly he seemed happy. He told me that he had been to Thailand many times before and there were many beautiful women there. I looked at my friend’s eyes and I didn’t say anything at that time. In my opinion, he was just an OLD and FAT German guy who always went to Thailand to get a Thai girl.
He tried to talk to me some more in German. I looked at him with cold eyes. And I ignored him.
But he didn’t stop. He still kept going to talk to me “Bla Bla Bla….” He moved himself closer to me. And He spoke to me as if I was a strip dancer and he was suggesting that I should do what strip dancers do in order to entertain him and cheer him up. It was disgusting. Finally he learnt and understood my position. He understood that I didn’t want to talk with an uneducated guy who went to Thailand to get girls. My Country, Thailand has beautiful seas, nice nature and some of the best food! People should visit Thailand for this.
My colleague recommended that I should tell people that I am Canadian etc (many Hong Kong people have moved to Canada). I love my country I but feel ashamed that people view Thailand in this manner.

Blood Type…..

July 29, 2008

I got this cute story from the forwarded email. Have fun!

new scam at Suvarnabhumi airport in Thailand

July 27, 2008

refer to http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1640812&tstart=0

A friend of mine forward me this story, in Thai. I’m translating it so you can forward to your foreigner friend/acquaintance to be caution.

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On July 23, 2008, a client of his company supposed to be arriving at Suvarnabhumi Airport from Australia. The company already assigned a person (one of their manager) to pick the client up. Coordination were made and the client knew that he will be dropped off at Novotel Bangna for overnight stay before travel to the factory upcountry next morning.

After the plane had landed for a long while, the pick-up person still not meet with the client. So he called the hotel to find out that the client had safely arrived at the hotel and already checked in. Very early next morning, the manager met with the client to verify how he come to the hotel. The client told him that there was a person claiming to be representative of the company took him from the airport and drop him off at the hotel. This impersonator also charged 3,200 THB from the client for his service, and left a card and a receipted saying the service was provided by “Airport Taxi Service”.

The manager also found out that the client asked this impersonator to meet again at 09:00 for the trip to the site upcountry that morning. So he took the client to the site himself and ask his staff to come and meet this impersonator at the hotel at 09:00.
To keep the long story short, this impersonator was an illegal taxi driver. (This can be distinguished by the car’s license plate. The legal taxi would either be yellow plate with black character or white plate with green character. The illegal taxi would be white plate with black character.) Once confronted by the staff of the company and a police, he claimed that he was contracted by an accomplice inside the airport, who claimed to be representative of this company.

The accomplice inside the airport arrival hall would go around the greeting area, make notice of the meeting sign held up by the person who supposed to pick up a person that they never met. Such as the sign mention a name of the arriving party, they then make a copy of the sign and step in closer to the arrival exit at the airport, so the impersonator sign would be noticed by the arriving party before the genuine person. Add this to the confusion at the arrival hall at the airport, the arriving party would easily be misled.

It is true story ,please be careful.

For me, I met the same story in Romania for biz trip. The taxi driver has the Airport taxi driver card. And he can speak english well. so I though he is real taxi driver. Then he drove toe me and stop at the near hotel , not in front of hotel that make me curious but I didn’t think much. I paid the taxi fee, 180 Lei. The day after I asked the hotel taxi to sent me the office , suddenly I saw the hotel taxi the price from Airport to hotel. It is about 55 Lei. I regonize immedently I got cheating from the Romania taxi driver already.