Good guide

By Ajarn Helen Jandamit
Photos courtesy of Bangkok Post

University Tips is here to help you prepare for the English exams and tests that are coming your way. It gives you practise answering questions similar to those you may have at school and also on the University Entrance Examination.

Read the following story from the Bangkok Post. Then, answer the questions that follow.

Go to any bookshop here and you will find a shelf full of guides to Thailand, many penned by foreigners, and several with lovely, scenic photos. They all cover much the same ground. The Thai people are nice in every respect, yet they have quaint practices that you are expected to heed. But what can you expect? It's a foreign land, a third-world country that needs to catch up. Give it another century or so.

Most guidebooks gloss over the drawbacks, chuckling at them. As long as you don’t point with your feet and learn to say “mai phen rai” at every mishap, you’ll get by. And smile when you are showered with water during Songkran. Smiles go a long way. Friends smile. Enemies smile. Psychologists have yet to explain what is behind the Thai smile.

After nine years in the land of Smiles, Brad Walker presents what he has experienced and researched about his adopted country. The expat lives in the village of Kedon in the province of Surin in Issan.

A surfer in California, a garment manufacturer in Hawaii, an English teacher now, Brad likes marrying local women — in Hawaii, Indonesia and Thailand. He has done his homework for Amazing Thailand, which took six years to write. There are no other pictures apart from a tuk tuk on the cover.

Brad’s target audience is people thinking about relocating here. What businessmen need to know, what marriage here entails, red tape, types of visas, documents required, medical services, transportation, rip-offs and scams are also explained in the book without whitewash.

Readers who don’t know much about this Southeast Asian land will most likely take everything in the 276-page guide as fact. However, some residents will take exception to its chapter on national politics. It is his firm belief that Thaksin Shinawatra was Thailand’s best prime minister ever.

According to Brad, Thaksin was the first to care for the common man, his money improving their lives in a way that had never been done before. Corrupt, but which of his predecessors wasn’t? He should be allowed back to continue his improvements. His well-meaning sister may have been his clone, yet was popularly elected in the democratic tradition.

It is his understanding that the family was brought down by the Bangkok Establishment and Suthep, who had it in for the Shinawatra’s.

Amazing Thailand is an amazing guidebook in more ways than one, available for sale at Asia Books and other leading bookstores.

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Exercises

Section 1

Read the story and answer the following multiple-choice questions.

1. Who wrote Amazing Thailand?

a. Thaksin Shinawatra.
b. Helen Jandamit.
c. Brad Walker.

2. How long has the author been living in Thailand?

a. For nine years.
b. Since he was a surfer.
c. For six years.

3. How many pages does the book have?

a. 525.
b. 365.
c. 276.

4. What does the reviewer say about most of the guidebooks about Thailand?

a. They contain mostly the same information.
b. Foreigners never write guidebooks.
c. They never contain scenic photos.

5. Where does the author of the book live?

a. He lives in Hawaii.
b. He lives in Surin.
c. He lives in Indonesia.

6. According to this book review, how do psychologists explain the meaning of the Thai smile?

a. They say that friends smile.
b. They say that enemies smile.
c. They cannot explain the meaning of the Thai smile yet.

7. How many pictures are there in the book?

a. None.
b. One picture.
c. More than 10 pictures.

8. Which issue in the book does the reviewer think residents will possibly disagree with?

a. The political issue.
b. The issue about ways of life.
c. The issue about the cost of living.

Section 2

Read the story and decide whether the following statements are true or false.

9. The author used to be a garment manufacturer in Canada.

………………………

10. The book is available at Asia Books only.

………………………

11. Brad Walker believes that Thaksin should be allowed back to the kingdom.

………………………

12. Amazing Thailand is a book about politicals in Southeast Asia.

………………………

13. Brad Walker has lived in Thailand for more than a decade.

………………………

Section 3

Read each of the following sentences and underline the grammatically correct word in each from the choices given.

14. Some readers don’t know much away/afterward/about the Issan region.

15. The guidebook is available at/on/for leading bookshops.

16. He should have a chance to continue his/he/him improvements.

17. Tuk tuk is a favourite vehicle among much/more/many farangs living in Thailand.

18. A lot of guidebooks about the Land of Smiles were penned from/by/under foreigners.

Section 4

Find vocabulary words in the story that are synonyms of the following words.

19. enhancements ………………….

20. written ………………….

21. maker ………………….

22. emigrating ………………….

23. inhabitants ………………….

24. clothes ………………….

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