dao16

If you read the state dept's reports on any country, you will find pages and pages of incidents....crime, deaths, etc.....This actually doesn't seem that bad. Pick up the report about, Guatemala, say, and you will have some interesting reading.

A some quick questions to those that have learnt Thai. If you could answer all. Thanks.

1. How long did it take to learn?

mmmm....to just speak and say some stuff to people? about a year or so I could do that. To get into more complicated conversations, about 2 more years.

2. What level do you consider yourself. Learner.

Proficient. Fluent.

I like to say "conversationally fluent", meaning that in everyday situations, I am not thinking about the words really..they just come out on their own. However, if I am in new situations that I haven't dealt with, I will have to dig up vocab, possibly look it up or ask someone and also be ready for words I don't know coming from the other person.

3. Did you learn at a school or by yourselves?

All by myself...but I am also not shy about asking Thais for help, either. If you sit down in a place where there are people around, they will almost always want to know what you are reading...when they see it is elementary Thai, they just go crazy and want to help (in my experience). Then you can ask them whatever you want.

4. Were you in full time employment when learning?

Yes and no. Most of the time, yes, but I did make a lot of progress when I took 3 months off and was just in Thailand with a thai book and hanging out speaking thai all day. That was helpful, but the majority was when I was fully employed...you just need an hour a night or at lunch time or whenever.

Good luck!

Thanks. Your answers MAY give inspiration to others.

Sent from my i-mobile i-STYLE Q6

1. How long did it take to learn?

mmmm....to just speak and say some stuff to people? about a year or so I could do that. To get into more complicated conversations, about 2 more years.

2. What level do you consider yourself. Learner.

Proficient. Fluent.

I like to say "conversationally fluent", meaning that in everyday situations, I am not thinking about the words really..they just come out on their own. However, if I am in new situations that I haven't dealt with, I will have to dig up vocab, possibly look it up or ask someone and also be ready for words I don't know coming from the other person.

3. Did you learn at a school or by yourselves?

All by myself...but I am also not shy about asking Thais for help, either. If you sit down in a place where there are people around, they will almost always want to know what you are reading...when they see it is elementary Thai, they just go crazy and want to help (in my experience). Then you can ask them whatever you want.

4. Were you in full time employment when learning?

Yes and no. Most of the time, yes, but I did make a lot of progress when I took 3 months off and was just in Thailand with a thai book and hanging out speaking thai all day. That was helpful, but the majority was when I was fully employed...you just need an hour a night or at lunch time or whenever.

Good luck!

Yes, and that I find disrespectful.

The less use of the F - word, the better, the greater chance we will be integrated and fully respected.

Oh, really? Never would have worked that out from the fact that you post the same thing over and over ( and paint the word and its use in the most ridiculously extreme and un-nuanced ways) at seemingly every opportunity.

Don't know about "ayayay" s previous posts...but I just use the home rule.....if I would say "the Asian guy" or "the/this Thai guy" in the same context, but reversed, I don't have a problem. When people do it in front of me, depending on how it was said, I just say "I am right here" or "My name is X, you know that" and they almost never do it again.

On the other hand, if someone makes a phone call to someone who doesn't know me and they say "Yeah, I am here having a drink with a/the falang" I don't mind. The person on the other side of the line doesn't know me....just knows there is a falang in the apt complex.

I never reply to these things, but something should be cleared up (some posters have, but here I go again): most Thais, like 99% of them can speak and understand standard Thai. Even the long neck ladies out in the boonies in the North can. I have been to all the regions and never once run into someone who just didn't speak Thai (unless they were actually immigrants from another country) and I have definitely been to out-of-the-way places in all the regions. Never learned any of the Northern or Southern dialects. Just spoke Thai to them.

As for staying longer, you can just use standard Thai and people will slowly point out the local variants to you. Of course, they can and will code switch, so you just have to get used to that. But if someone really wants to talk to you, they can easily just switch back to Thai.

I cannot imagine how it would be to live here without learning Thai. It changes the way people see you and interact with you. Several times, somewhere in the countryside, I have had the same experience: sit down for a coke or a beer. Order in Thai. The shopkeeper, who had been kind of apprehensive about my presence, suddenly would do a 180 and just be so happy to talk to us. Neighbors get called over. Then, invariably, after they finish freaking out about me speaking Thai, they start in about the Falang in the area, no matter where he is from, who has been there for 10-15 years or whatever and can't speak a word of Thai. It irks them. They don't say they hate the guy, but the resentment is clear.

But for me, beyond how others see me, it is just about enjoying being here. I can't imagine not being able to make small talk in a store, get things I want without a babysitter, etc. Granted, sometimes I turn out to be that babysitter for recent arrivals, but I don't mind. I just wouldn't want to do that here for years. Many of the negative reactions to foreigners just disappear when you can have basic conversations.

That leads to another point. A lot of posters are saying it is too difficult. Well, it all depends on what you want to do. It would probably take me several more years to ever even dream about taking a university class in Thai, but I don't want to. On the other hand, I can sit down with a beer/whiskey/meal and have a group conversation and get along understanding most of what it said and I can even contribute to the conversation. Most conversations here are not about rocket science--they are about people and things happening now.

Of course, it is difficult at the beginning, but, having learned other Asian languages, I remember starting out and mispronouncing words so badly that people couldn't understand me. Now, I can't even remember how I mispronounced them. It's a matter of time, practice and persistence.

Learn what you need to learn to enjoy living here more.

Good post. That is one side of things.

The other side might be me. I don't get any enjoyment at all from making small talk to people (in any language). The world is bleak. Life is largely arbitrary and short. There is no god or afterlife. People, for the most part, care only about themselves and will not think much of you when you are no longer here.

So, against that backdrop, I really don't want any small talk. I like to have 'more meaningful' (what is meaningful to me) conversations with people. However, even in Western countries, among rather educated populace, most people don't want to have deeper conversations. It's more comfortable to just gossip or to find other ways of creating likeness and forming and nurturing human bonds. Nothing wrong with that. I just don't really need much of it. When I want that feeling of connectedness, I can just do as I'm sure many do and find a young thing to spend some short time with.

Thailand is a place that is particularly hard to find a deeper conversation. You will not find many Thais who wish to discuss (in Thai or English and with Thais or non-Thais) any serious issues such as cultural, economy, politics, violence, religion. Even the most elite are mostly interested in talking about the 'new' Som Tam place and other, innocent current events. That's also beautiful in itself -- to be so simple, but some of us just don't enjoy that I'm gathering. I don't. I can have similar conversations with young children...

Yeah, I totally agree with that and I understand why you wouldn't be motivated...it depresses me sometimes. Of all the conversations I have had here, most are about the most trivial things. There are two guys I know who can and do engage in more interesting conversations, but they are definitely the exceptions. The they kind of outed themselves by bringing up world affairs (wife's uncle) and Mongolian history (random government official in my apt block) and it was fun to try out new words and sentences. But yeah, the remainder of the time, it is all trivial. I just like being able to shoot the proverbial shizen with the people down at the shop or wherever, even if for just a few minutes.

Sorry, but I wear sandals or flipflops or whatever you call them all the time here, unless I have a business related meeting or function. Thais mostly wear them and it makes sense. Your feet will stay rash free and you can clean them when you go home.

I wear jeans and a dress shirt when going to immigration...sandals stay on. Guess you could go for one of the nicer looking leather ones if you want to look nicer.

I would say the biggest thing (in the eyes of the Thai people) is that everything is clean and free of holes. You really don't need to walk around like a fashion queen unless you want to. However, stained/ripped clothes will quickly draw comments.

One more thing I would add...learn Thai. Yes, people always say this, but it is true. People have their set ideas about who you are...ok, that is not a great thing. But once you know the language, you can shatter those expectations and get along wonderfully with people.

You would be surprised at the number of villages I have traveled through, stopped to get some water, and people see I can speak Thai and they flock to me. Then, in less that 5 minutes, out come the stories of "hey, there is this foreigner here...he has been here for 10 years and doesn't speak Thai, doesn't even say hello to us. What is his problem?" Again, if you can't speak, you can't show them who you are. Some very basic Thai would put this all to rest. This is one of the major causes of problems for falangs living here. And no, it is not that hard to learn on an everyday basis, regardless of what everyone says.

This is the system, get use to it or.....

Exactly. Back in the US a Thai once asked me how to get somewhere on the public transport. My response was "if you were rich enough to get here from thailand, then you are rich enough to take a taxi." I then pointed to the cab stand, smiled and walked away.

Kilgore Trout

You've shown yourself to be a sensitive man of the world now aren’t you.

I wonder how many of your fellow compatriots would agree with your lesson in diplomacy?

Anyone from the "USA" care to comment?

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Yeah, this post is ridiculous. Yes, I am from the US, and when I see foreigners there, I sympathize with them and try to help them, since I have been the person in need of help in many countries. It helps them and gives them a good image of the country. Of course, if they are being a**holes, then they will get what is coming to them. But a guy asking for where the bus is? I promise you, most Americans of any color are much nicer than this poster......

Honestly, BKK is a good suggestion. Just don't go to KhaoSan/Banglampu....in fact, if you search, you can find out what the bangkok police have decided. They have marked off areas for SongKhran celebration. If you stay outside of those areas, should be fine.And, like other posters said, it will be relatively quiet, as tons of people have gone to the countryside.

One time, coming back from Laos, I stopped by the place where they stamp your passport and the guy waved me on. I tried to explain I needed the exit stamp and he said no, proceed to Thailand (maybe because I was with Thais who were there on a day pass so he was directing me to the same office as them??? I don't know). So, rather than arguing, I went to the Thai border post where, surprise, they told me I needed an exit stamp from Laos. They weren't angry or anything.

Funny thing was, I had to go back to the same guy who told me to go to Thailand and he looked at me, embarrassed, and stamped my passport quickly.

Not the same issue, but I think they usually do notice these things.

Just make English a specialization like you would math/science or whatever. Would be better.

Maths and science are not electives . . . nor should English be one.

I didn't say they should be electives as such. However, you are aware that school systems across the world have specializations, where the science kids focus on science and the lang kids focus on lang, while they all do study all subjects, right????

The focus should be more on educating the few who really need it and want it (like the examples given in many posts...multi-national workers, those who would emigrate, air-traffic controllers, people involved in tourism/hospitality, etc). The people who don't see the need can study something else. By trying to force English down everyone's face, you end up with millions upon millions of people who can say "hallo, falang, whey you come fom?" Just make English a specialization like you would math/science or whatever. Would be better.

Of course, all the changes in teaching styles and pay would still be needed, but it would be more manageable.

Well, Thais can do corruption free work, but usually it isn't in Thailand. Some of the Thai embassies and consulates abroad are very strict about what their employees can do (and they stick by it). It seems to be the ones that are farther away from Thailand that have these strict rules in place.

In fact, when we have questions about papers, we sometimes call the embassy in the country where we were living before. Yes, they are removed, but they usually know the proper fees for things. Of course, on the ground in Thailand, they will not say this, but the knowledge can save you money and possibly help you walk away having paid the proper fee.

I had to sign up again to reply here (don't know what happened to previous id).

I met my wife when I was 26 in Thailand. She worked at a bar as a server. So, she was a half bar girl. I know she had some foreign boyfriends, but she was not one of the go every night with another guy types. Honestly, she doesn't really have the "look" for that, either, although she had her admirers (and foreign boyfriends...still have pictures of them today, but hey, I had my gfs in several countries before as well).

Basically, I liked her a lot, hung around the town where we met longer than I should have ^^ and ended up starting to run out of money. So, I had enough to take us back to another Asian country where I had been working and I told her "now or never", as I knew I would not send her money or anything from abroad (maybe once, but I knew I would not keep up with it).

Eventually, after a few weeks of somewhat tense deliberations, she agreed to go with me and try it out. I met her family twice. Stayed at their home for a few weeks. Then we went abroad and worked for a year. After getting sick of jumping hoops to keep her in country, I decided we should get married for visa purposes. We were 28 (I am about 6 months older than the wife). Still together now after almost 6 years and we live mostly in Thailand, although I do have to sometimes go abroad to work and fill up the coffers. Might make the move to the home country soon, though, so we can make more and educate the chillens'.

That said, I have talked many foreign men out of staying with Thai girls. Not directly, but I just tell them how things work so they can be informed. All of them have decided it is not for them. Who knows, maybe later someone will bite, but I prefer they really know how living in/with a Thai woman and family. I am still fine with it, but there are certain expectations and assumptions that the typical falang will have to change to make it successful.

Ok, there is the story. Have fun and good luck.