I’ve made some slight changes to the blog sidebar in hopes of keeping it more active and encouraging you (and me) to be here more often.

First, you will see that the “Learn Thai Words” is back. A glitch in some code update made this go away temporarily, but now it’s back. I’ll be adding more words to this slowly but surely.

Second, a “Thailand News” RSS feed has been added. This grabs the latest posts from Google related to Thailand and makes them easily available for you to read.

Third, a “Community Links” widget has been added. I’m most excited about this, as it allows everyone to submit links to their favorite news stories and blog posts from anywhere on the web. I’m sure this is going to get spammed, but the good news is that the section is moderated so nothing will be posted without me seeing it first.

I strongly encourage everyone to submit links. Your favorite Thai blog articles, news items etc. The only thing I ask is that you not post overly-political items that lean too far to one side or another. Those items won’t be posted. But anything else is welcome and I hope it’s a way for us to grow the Thai blogger community.

Lastly, I’ve put up a “Buy Me a Snapple” donation widget. I held off on doing this for a long time, but since the Learning Thai (My Story) blog is now over one year old (Happy Anniversary to me!) I figured it was a good time. The purpose of the donation widget is hopefully to make enough scratch to cover my blog expenses. This would be things like hosting charges, products I want to review but have to buy with my own money, and getting royalty-free (but paid) images to enhance my posts.

It would be wonderful if I could also have it help pay for my trips to Thailand, but I’m not going to press my luck. If you like the site, if something I have written has helped you, taught you, or entertained you, and you feel compelled to donate, anything would help. If not, that’s fine too!

Thanks, everyone. I hope you like the new updates.

It's "tsch" not "sch" you no good...

This topic has caused many a debate in the world of Thai grammar and language. Like one of those all-too-common Asian government gang fights they pass off as legislation debates, the issue of how exactly we Westerners should pronounce Thai consonants and vowels is highly discussed and often argued.

I have my own thoughts, which I will share with you today. Please keep in mind that these are general suggestions, not intended to be taken as the absolute way. These ideas are meant to get you a little bit closer to sounding more natural when you speak Thai, and for me to learn as well. If you have any thoughts on the subject, please chime in.

Since we’re not trying to pass any new laws, let’s keep the fist-fighting to a minimum as I discuss five pronunciation tips…

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I was recently asked to write a guest post on the Thai language for another blog, and so I did.

You can read Learning to speak Thai: the ins and outs of Tackling the Thai language on the Expat Arrivals website. Please take a few minutes and visit their site to show your support.

Thanks!

A little while back I reviewed a certain Thailand travel guide that was less than stellar. In fact, the book pretty much pissed me off. You can read the review if you like (I’d certainly appreciate the page views), but all in all I wasn’t able to put my recommendation on it.

At the end of that review, however, I alluded to other books I would feel comfortable putting my name behind (for whatever that’s worth). Today I’d like to tell you about the travel guide I like the most. I read this book before my 2009 trip, lent it to my Mom before we went, and just gave my old copy to a friend who is planning on traveling with me to Thailand this year.

Since the first copy I bought they have gone through at least one revision, with another due to be released in August 2010. That they have gone through two revisions/updates in a year would normally seem suspect, but this guide is of such high quality I can only assume that they are adding information and detail rather than correcting mistakes.

I’m talking about the Eyewitness Travel Thailand guide by BK Publishing.

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