Tradesmen in Chiang Mai

[trevoromgh]

Oh my,  how can anyone who read my last post come out with a statement like that, jeez

[scorecard]

8 hours ago, EricTh said:

ha..ha... 

 

That reminds me of a Thai guy who use this application to translate spoken words from Thai to English. Most of the time, it was gibberish.

 

Google translate and similar apps only works for simple sentences like 'where is toilet'.

 

It is naive to think that these apps can be as intelligent as a human translator.

 

I don't agree, 6 months back I got in a taxi in Bkk, as I was getting in the young very pleasant driver was ready for me to speak into his ipad, which had a line drawn down the centre of the page and on the left it was very quickly receiving and interpreting my spoken English into English script and on screen, and when he touched the screen it verbalizing the English. 

 

On the right side it was very quickly showing a translation into written Thai. The driver gave a verbal answer which then appeared on the screen and instantly back on the left side his response in written English and the ipad then spoke the drivers response in English.  All of this super fast.

 

He then spoke in perhaps lower intermediate English and explained the ipad was helping him very quickly to improve his English.  He went on, whatever ipad conversation he had with customers was recorded onto a tablet and when he had free time he was repeating it all again and again. And he was using it at home to give 'lessons' to his 2 kids.

 

He also explained the ipad / tablet didn't cost so much and the app for all of this was about 700Baht. I should have asked the name of th app. but we arrived quickly at my destination and all done.  

 

I did ask why don't more drivers do this. His instant response 'they's not interested'. And to be honest I'm not at all surprised that a 50 year taxi driver in Bkk is not interested or just finds learning English totally daunting, just human nature. 

 

 

 

 

[chingmai331]

English not an easy language to learn as an adult.  Millions of Asians in the UK, USA, OZ will never speak English beyond: 'where is the toilet/food/beer/girl'.

[EricTh]

13 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

I did ask why don't more drivers do this. His instant response 'they's not interested'. And to be honest I'm not at all surprised that a 50 year taxi driver in Bkk is not interested or just finds learning English totally daunting, just human nature. 

 

 

As I have said, it's only good for beginner English and beginner Thai.

 

In the past, I've Thai people using apps and Google translate to communicate with me and it turned out gibberish except for simple sentences.

 

If these apps are as intelligent as human translator, all the Thai language schools would have closed  down by now. Who can't afford 700 baht, right?

 

His kids learning from the app? No wonder there are so many grammatical mistakes and gibberish sentences in Thailand.

 

[EricTh]

8 hours ago, chingmai331 said:

English not an easy language to learn as an adult.  Millions of Asians in the UK, USA, OZ will never speak English beyond: 'where is the toilet/food/beer/girl'.

I agree, the differences between English and Thai are huge.

 

English is not an easy language to learn for native Thai speakers and vice versa when you are above 40 years old.

 

 

[orang37]

10 hours ago, EricTh said:

English is not an easy language to learn for native Thai speakers and vice versa when you are above 40 years old.

 

Depends on how you define "learn." And, what's age (past age 6) got to do with it ?

 

While there are certain sounds/tones in Thai very few western expats ever master (as in the word for snake, 'ngu,' the word for city, 'meung'), I've seen motivated newly arrived expats attain transactional fluency in terms of taking care of daily business in a short time.

 

Even though I can make puns in Thai, use "folk" idioms, and write songs in Thai (for comedic effect), I am awestruck by the very rare expat who (unlike me) can read and write Thai, and is conversationally fluent.

 

I once said to a friend of mine that one advantage of living here is not being able to have a deep conversation in Thai about the depths of my existential anguish ???? Of course, I imagine if I hung out with the youngish louche selfie-set I'm sure is here, somewhere, and my phone had a camera, maybe I could engage in analyzing the latest thing that "triggered" me.

 

Of course, I think it's fine for people to retire here, never learn Thai, join the lardasses at the expats' clubs for self-congratulatory chauvinist revels, but, if they've lived here for years, and complain about the language, or how hard it is to get whatever done: I don't respect that.

 

~o:37;

[EricTh]

3 hours ago, orang37 said:

 

Even though I can make puns in Thai, use "folk" idioms, and write songs in Thai (for comedic effect), I am awestruck by the very rare expat who (unlike me) can read and write Thai, and is conversationally fluent.

 

That reminds me of some Thai people who think they are conversationally fluent in English but when they spoke to native English speakers, the native English speakers couldn't understand them.

 

Maybe this discussion should be in the 'Thai language' subforum instead of here.

 

[rebo]

Even though I can communicate in Thai I strongly support the suggestion, especially due to the chance to get reputations/recommendations in Chiang Mai.

[trevoromgh]

7 hours ago, rebo said:

Even though I can communicate in Thai I strongly support the suggestion, especially due to the chance to get reputations/recommendations in Chiang Mai.

Thanks Rebo. At last someone sees the sense of such a pinned topic. It's been an uphill struggle and your support is most welcome.