What is Your Attitude to Learning Thai?

[Lacessit]

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Speaking with a Lao accent?

I prefer to roll my R's.

My GF rolls the R's. I can't do it, a blot on my part Scots ancestry.

[ballpoint]

3 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

My GF rolls the R's. I can't do it, a blot on my part Scots ancestry.

My wife used to roll her R's very nicely, but it's gotten too large for that sort of thing now.

 

And my head will roll if she reads this post.

[ballpoint]

Back on topic: I could never live in a country, no matter for how short a period, without at least making an effort to learn the language.

[Lacessit]

16 minutes ago, ballpoint said:

My wife used to roll her R's very nicely, but it's gotten too large for that sort of thing now.

 

And my head will roll if she reads this post.

Som nam na.

[55Jay]

I was indifferent for the first 2 or 3 years, just picking up bits here and there, as you do.  Finally attended Thai language classes, first with other people but they moved too slowly, so I went one-on-one.  Did that 3 or 4 months then lost interest.  Retained some but still nowhere near conversational level. 

 

My wife did 1 year in English institutes when we lived outside Thailand and became fairly proficient, so I'm sure her ability with English helped me rationalize my way out of the Thai lang classes. 

[GinBoy2]

14 minutes ago, 55Jay said:

I was indifferent for the first 2 or 3 years, just picking up bits here and there, as you do.  Finally attended Thai language classes, first with other people but they moved too slowly, so I went one-on-one.  Did that 3 or 4 months then lost interest.  Retained some but still nowhere near conversational level. 

 

My wife did 1 year in English institutes when we lived outside Thailand and became fairly proficient, so I'm sure her ability with English helped me rationalize my way out of the Thai lang classes. 

I think that scenario is quite common.

 

If the wife/gf is good in English then a lot of guys slip into laziness (that's not a slam btw) since it's just easier.

 

Like I said in an earlier post, a lot depends on how your brain is wired for languages, and I totally get for many it's hard, especially the older you are

[55Jay]

15 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

I think that scenario is quite common.

 

If the wife/gf is good in English then a lot of guys slip into laziness (that's not a slam btw) since it's just easier.

 

Like I said in an earlier post, a lot depends on how your brain is wired for languages, and I totally get for many it's hard, especially the older you are

No offense, you're absolutely right.  That first 1 hour course I did, man, I had Excedrin headache Numba 1 afterward.  My brain had atrophied, was like pull starting a stubborn lawn mower, but felt great once it got going again.  Otherwise, wasn't having a problem learning the tones, vocab, I was soaking it up.  I think having a baseline in Spanish and a smattering of other languages, helped.

[EricTh]

On 3/17/2019 at 7:39 AM, BritManToo said:

If you live in a village no point in learning central Thai as they'll all be speaking some other language, probably Laos or some local variation of it.

I went to school and learned central Thai, everyone around me converses in Lao ....... mai aroy = bor sep, chan rak tur = bun hat too-wer, mai pen rai = bor bin yang. Wasted 2 years of my time.

Agree. Even for those who speak central Thai...., they don't speak the same way as what the teachers taught.

 

Those Thai teachers think that every foreigners should speak perfect formal Thai.

 

They teach all these formal words that most Thai don't use except in television or formal occasions.

[JimmyTheMook]

What would really be great is along with the financial requirements for long stay visa's is a basic working knowledge of the Thai language.

 

Pathetic how many expats can't even string a basic sentence together in Thai after being here for more than 5 years.

 

 

[Orton Rd]

Gave up years ago, it's a struggle for me to get the cashier at Big C to understand the member numbers you have to quote, tops have a pad to enter them so that's better. Took one 4 tries last week, she still could not get it, Mrs says I pronounce them OK. If I have got no further than that in communicating after 25 years it's flogging a dead horse to keep trying. Tones are a problem of course, just cannot identify them at all.

I have tried language Schools, Linguaphone and several book course.

[Damrongsak]

9 hours ago, BritManToo said:

...Bet they can't ask 'Who sells chicken eggs?' ...

My mother in law used to.

[HighPriority]

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Speaking with a Lao accent?

I prefer to roll my R's.

That’s what got us all into this mess to begin with ! ????

[Briggsy]

6 hours ago, evadgib said:

Been shackled/in prison!

Ah! Sorry for being slow on the uptake.

[scorecard]

Answer:

 

- everybody has a different level of desire to learn other languages regardless of any other factors.

 

I'm aware of a US guy who worked in Bkk for over 20 years, he adamantly stubbornly refused to learn Thai (his choice), when he fell down the stairs and died he couldn't say the days of the week, he couldn't understand the time in Thai, and he continued to get 8 and 9 in spoken Thai all confused.

 

He had many boyfriends, he sent each one to English schools, then always complained to his farang buddies 'He's been going to English school for 10 days and he still can't speak English!'

 

 

[scorecard]

 Seems to me this is:

 

- I want to live in another culture.

 

- I don't want to do the necessary work to live in the other culture smoothly / successfully.

[Pilotman]

1 hour ago, JimmyTheMook said:

What would really be great is along with the financial requirements for long stay visa's is a basic working knowledge of the Thai language.

 

Pathetic how many expats can't even string a basic sentence together in Thai after being here for more than 5 years.

 

 

That would certainly be the death knell of the western expat. 

[BritManToo]

8 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 Seems to me this is:

- I want to live in another culture.

- I don't want to do the necessary work to live in the other culture smoothly / successfully.

I'm only here for 90 days (says so in my passport), hardly worth the effort.

[richard_smith237]

3 hours ago, GinBoy2 said:

I think that scenario is quite common.

 

If the wife/gf is good in English then a lot of guys slip into laziness (that's not a slam btw) since it's just easier.

 

Like I said in an earlier post, a lot depends on how your brain is wired for languages, and I totally get for many it's hard, especially the older you are

 

Same here... my Wife is fluent so we converse in English 100% of the time. 

 

I’m sure this has contributed towards my laziness with regards to learning Thai. But, I would never entertain the idea of dating someone I was unable to converse with fluently in ‘Educated’ English (not Engris - some of you will get what I mean by that - just my preference).

 

 

I understand the majority conversations around me, my Wife talking with her friends & parents etc but I find it harder to ‘find’ the words and phrases when speaking than to understand them when listening.

 

My Wife talks to my Son in Thai and I in English, so when my 5yr old son caught me speaking Thai to a Thai guy he really didn’t know what to make of it - quite amusing. 

[scorecard]

18 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

That would certainly be the death knell of the western expat. 

Here's a twist - Many years back an Ozzie guy retired from a lifetime of work, he and his wife had never travelled more than about 400 kilometers from Adelaide. They decided to do a 7 days tour to Singapore, which was very popular at that time, they got passports and booked the tour.

 

They departed, within 24 hours family at home got a one minute phone call, going to the airport (Changi) in 1 hour.

 

Family wait at Adelaide airport to meet them, worried that one of the couple was seriously ill...

 

They arrive, a few minutes later their son asked 'what happened / whats' wrong'.

 

The always arrogant always stubborn always ignorant father replies 'We were totally shocked that neither the Singapore government have restaurants set up to specifically feed and take care of Australians. I'm not having this, it's unacceptable'. 

 

End of story - he wrote the Australian PM and complained. 

 

 

[scorecard]

23 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I'm only here for 90 days (says so in my passport), hardly worth the effort.

Not so sure I believe that.

[GinBoy2]

2 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Gave up years ago, it's a struggle for me to get the cashier at Big C to understand the member numbers you have to quote, tops have a pad to enter them so that's better. Took one 4 tries last week, she still could not get it, Mrs says I pronounce them OK. If I have got no further than that in communicating after 25 years it's flogging a dead horse to keep trying. Tones are a problem of course, just cannot identify them at all.

I have tried language Schools, Linguaphone and several book course.

You may be suffering a little of this....

 

 

 

My Thai & Lao are pretty perfect, yet I've still had times when they will just ignore what I've said and talk directly to my wife

[Ebumbu]

 

On 3/16/2019 at 6:15 PM, Lacessit said:

I keep trying to learn new words, such as suggesting to my GF she needed handcuffs ( Khun Jair Meeu )

 

 

Good way to stay motivated.  ????

[richard_smith237]

2 hours ago, GinBoy2 said:

 

My Thai & Lao are pretty perfect, yet I've still had times when they will just ignore what I've said and talk directly to my wife

My Wife's Thai is perfect, it should be she's Thai !!!... but that doesn't help in some cases where waitresses / waiters etc get the order wrong, even if I've understood her perfectly too !...  Sometimes, its not us, it the person listening to us whose seems devoid of any listening skills and is not really paying proper attention. 

 

When foreigners speak Thai I don't have trouble understanding them, even when their accent is rather ropey, I can often tell where a foreigner is from by their accent when speaking Thai !!!!..... I have difficulty understanding how many Thai's struggle so much with this - I suspect more often than not Westerners may place context and listen for key words, Thai's on the other hand seem to need a perfect sentence and pronunciation before its understood...   This, I think, can be quite off-putting for many trying to learn. 

[scorecard]

10 hours ago, GinBoy2 said:

You may be suffering a little of this....

 

 

 

My Thai & Lao are pretty perfect, yet I've still had times when they will just ignore what I've said and talk directly to my wife

I guess we've all experienced that.

[samran]

On 3/18/2019 at 11:02 PM, GinBoy2 said:

You may be suffering a little of this....

 

 

 

My Thai & Lao are pretty perfect, yet I've still had times when they will just ignore what I've said and talk directly to my wife

I’ve got kind of the opposite happening to me. I’m doing some external work at the moment for a very high profile organization where all of the Thai staff are just about fluent in English. 

 

Naturally when dealing with the Thai staff I speak Thai to them and they deal with me in Thai.

 

Except for one lady. She flat out refuses to speak Thai with me. She is very polite but if I ask her something she’ll just come back to me in English. It’s bizzare.

[samran]

On 3/18/2019 at 10:00 PM, Pilotman said:

That would certainly be the death knell of the western expat. 

Citizenship applications give a good amount of points for thai language skills and thai knowledge. It’s a shame however that to apply, basically the only way to be considered is you have to be working. 

[stephen tracy]

I put it off for years, just knew enough to get by, and then I took the plunge. Went to a school for a year (part time but did a ot of work alone), and then did another year with private teachers. It wasn't easy but after two years I was finally able to have normal conversations with people on pretty much any subject. I had no Thai g/f to practise with and my two Thai friends at the tine spoke English with American accents (that's how fluent they were/are) so had little patience to speak with me n Thai at first. So, I had to really go out of my way to engage people regularly every day to practise. I started taking a lot of taxis and became the annoying chatty passenger!! But it all paid off. It changed my life here leaps and bounds but I can understand anyone being reluctant to take on a second language with the aim reaching a high level of fluency. It's tough, but is rewarding in the end. 

[stephen tracy]

3 hours ago, samran said:

I’ve got kind of the opposite happening to me. I’m doing some external work at the moment for a very high profile organization where all of the Thai staff are just about fluent in English. 

 

Naturally when dealing with the Thai staff I speak Thai to them and they deal with me in Thai.

 

Except for one lady. She flat out refuses to speak Thai with me. She is very polite but if I ask her something she’ll just come back to me in English. It’s bizzare.

That is a little weird. I wonder why she wouldn't encourage you to speak Thai. I'd help anyone who was having a go at improving their English by taking some time to speak to them in English. 

[Aforek]

1 hour ago, samran said:

...Except for one lady. She flat out refuses to speak Thai with me. She is very polite but if I ask her something she’ll just come back to me in English. It’s bizzare.

I have noticed several times that people who can speak good English , refused to speak Thai with me ; people who did it were an exception; may be they are proud to show they can speak English; but people who can't speak English are happy to speak Thai with me 

[villagefarang]

1 hour ago, samran said:

I’ve got kind of the opposite happening to me. I’m doing some external work at the moment for a very high profile organization where all of the Thai staff are just about fluent in English. 

 

Naturally when dealing with the Thai staff I speak Thai to them and they deal with me in Thai.

 

Except for one lady. She flat out refuses to speak Thai with me. She is very polite but if I ask her something she’ll just come back to me in English. It’s bizzare.

I find people like her rare but they do pop up from time to time in my life.  I try to be understanding of their apparent need to use English as long as it is pretty good and the conversation doesn't suffer.