Photo courtesy of Lane Nevares

My Bio

In 1996, I sold my cars, drums and other meaningless possessions, packed my bags and said goodbye to the rock ‘n’ roll circus that was post-grunge Seattle and came to Bangkok to teach English; a skill I developed while helping the native English-speaking drug addicts and alcoholics in my own band, Shiver communicate with each other.

Not long into my new career, I began to notice that many of the same mistakes kept cropping up, regardless of whether I was teaching the local Khun Ying Bouffant Jellyfish Luncheon Club or the Pak Moon Dam English Speaking Society. I started taking notes on the back of bus tickets, on empty cigarette packets - even on beer bottle labels. When my apartment started to resemble Chatuchak Market at the end of a long weekend, I realized it was time to gather up the scraps of paper, collate the common mistakes and turn them into a book. And that is just what I have done.

In my book, I have highlighted many, if not all, the classic mistakes from “I gossip you" to the ever 'tongue-tricky' "accuse/excuse me". The book addresses problems with prepositions, verbs, pronunciation, confusing words and Thai-style English. Each section begins with a self-test so you can check out just how good you really are before wading into the actual examples. The book is written in English and Thai, so you can spot your own mistakes in English and then refer to the Thai translation to see where you are going wrong and how this can be corrected.

I strongly feel that if a Thai student reads, studies and puts into practice what I have highlighted in the book, they will quickly improve their accuracy in using English.

Keep communicating.

Superlative regards,
Mark J. Grygiel

Education: 1993 BA (English literature major, philosophy minor), The University of Texas at Austin

Work Experience:

• Management Development Consultant: 2002-2006, Baker & McKenzie Ltd., Attorneys-at-Law, Bangkok
• Copy Editor: 2000-2002, CB Richard Ellis (Thailand) Co., Ltd., International Property Consultant, Bangkok
• English Instructor: 1997-1999, inlingua International School of Languages, Bangkok