farangnahrak

Anyone know the Thai spelling to ผี peta?

It's that really tall ghost with the big stomach but tiny mouth.

Guess what I see in the news today . . . Reya is that controversial lakorn girl . . .

Yea, I saw มนต์รักทรานซิสเตอร์ about 5 years ago. It's a great film and I really enjoyed watching it. But . . . it doesn't have much to do with ลูกทุ่งอ่ะ . . .

=P

Nope definitely not a name, and the spelling is correct.

What does มนต์ mean in the phrase มนต์รักลูกทุ่ง ?

I've asked two Thai's already and neither knew . . .

In this passage:

คำพูดของเธอ/ทำร้ายความรู้สึกของฉัน

ไปเถอะนะ..ไปหาคนที่เธอคิดว่าใช่

รักเขาไห้มากกว่าใคร

อย่าคิดเด็ดดอกฟ้า <- ????

เพราะเธอมันแค่หมาวัด

what does คิดเด็ดดอกฟ้า mean?

ดอกฟ้า means this:

หญิงที่ถือว่ามีฐานะสูงศักดิ์กว่าชายที่หมายปอง

but เด็ดดอกไม้ means 'female urination'

literally, เด็ดดอกฟ้า means to pluck a flower . . .

ideas?

Probably right, as person B spent half her life near Chiang Mai, and google liked to include kanom jeen with it.

So . . . what exactly goes into it? Snake?

Yea the first thing I did was a google image search, but it had an endless variety of foods that appeared to have no connection . . .

How about this . . .

พูดไทยเป็น

and then above that, have a letter pointing up towards your head.

But of course, if it's not true, they'll just revert back to English with you

Definitely not Thai.

It looks very Burmese to me . . .

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CltXp4ASOWU/SgeDfTBTa0I/AAAAAAAAACI/SNzc_BA_aCU/s1600-h/devanagari-tai-burmese-khmer.gif

น้ำเงี้ยว . . . All I know is, given the context, was that person A was going to mail it to person B.

Google makes it appear to be a food . . . but you can't just mail food . . .

so I feel like its some kind of snake spice in a jar from Isaan or something . . .

I've been asking around . . . no Thai was able to tell me any grammar rules, they were just going by what they felt made sense or not . . .

แย่ขึ้น and แย่ลง mean the exact same thing, to get worse, and both are correct to say.

ดีขึ้น means to get better, but ดีลง has no meaning in Thai.

ผอมลง means to get skinnier, and ผอมขึ้น is sarcasm meaning to get fatter.

ผอมน้อยลง means to be less skinny than before, and อ้วนน้อยลง means to be less fat than before. อ้วนลง has no meaning.

Aulok . . . are you trying to tell us that Thais say อ้วนขึ้น because getting fat is desirable?

In using this methodology on your examples I would imagine with แย่ขึ้น the situation of being "terrible, dreadful or bad" is ascending or it's getting more แย่. While แย่ลง would mean it's descending, getting better or less แย่.

That methodology works great for อ้วน because more fat means fatter. Fatter is also bigger, which is more. We all agree on this.

But what about ผอม? Using this methodology, ผอมขึ้น would be more skinny, and ผอมลง would be less skinny. Right?

At the other end of looking at this (Rikkers comment), being more skinny means having less fat, and being more skinny means being a smaller size. So in that sense, ผอมลง would be to get skinnier, no? If thats the case it's not about ascending or descending, or whether ขึ้น or ลง means more or less of the adjective, but instead the quantity of what is actually happening to the adjective.

I could be wrong but maybe it's like this:

อ้วนขึ้น more fat

ผอมลง less fat

แก่ขึ้น more age (age only goes up)

But then there is still แย่ . . . when things get worse, they go in a downwards direction, no? That'd be แย่ลง for getting worse, and แย่ขึ้น for things getting better . . .

Or maybe this just doesn't have any well defined rules, and we just need to memorize it on a case by case word by word basis?

What about the difference between แย่ขึ้น and แย่ลง? Same thing?

I remember my monk teacher saying one means to 'get worse' and the other meant 'get better'. This is basically what has triggered my confusion . . .

Google gave me 11,000 results for "ผอมขึ้น", meaning it definitely exists. More importantly, the results talk about how to get skinnier not fatter, for example:

http://fashnchic.thport.com/?p=44

I'm getting confused with the words ขึ้น and ลง. They seem so counter-intuitive, and my understanding seems to contradict Thai Reference Grammar.

My understanding that agrees with the book:

รวยขึ้น - get richer

อ้วนขึ้น - get fatter

เร็วขึ้น - get faster

The confusion is when I use the opposites of these words . . .

According to my understanding:

จนขึ้น - get poorer

จนลง - become less poor (ie richer)

ผอมขึ้น - get skinnier

ผอมลง - become less skinny (ie fatter)

ช้าขึ้น - get slower

ช้าลง - become less slow (ie faster)

According to Thai Reference Grammar:

จนขึ้น - (doesn't exist)

จนลง - become poorer

ผอมขึ้น - (doesn't exist)

ผอมลง - become skinnier

ช้าขึ้น - (doesn't exist)

ช้าลง - become slower

I've noticed there is a rough progression of compliments (both direct and indirect) Thais pay to foreigners who make an effort to speak the language. Obviously it's nothing hard and fast, and depends on how many different foreigners they've heard try to speak. Mostly it's just something I've amused myself with, noticing how the comments people make change over the years as the accent improves.

พูดไทยเก่ง - "You speak Thai well" (doesn't mean much)

พูดไทยชัด - "You speak Thai clearly"

พูดไทยชัดมาก/ชัดแจ๋ว/etc - "Your Thai is really good/clear"

พูดไทยคล่อง - "Your Thai is fluent"

พูดไทยเหมือนคนไทยเลย - "You speak just like a Thai"

เป็นลูกครึ่งเหรือเปล่า/เกิดเมืองไทยหรือเปล่า/อยู่เมืองไทยกี่ปีเนี่ยะ - "Are you a luuk-khrueng?" / "Were you born in Thailand?" / "Geez, how long you lived in Thailand?"

I've noticed this too . . . I'd swear these phrases are genetically programmed into every Thai on the planet!

I've been on level "พูดไทยชัดมาก" for about two years now . . . I'm guessing "พูดไทยคล่อง" is the next level? I think I'll hold a graduation party the first time i hear it =P

As for "เป็นลูกครึ่งเหรือเปล่า", I've been asked that a few times lately (I'm *very* white btw) . . . I'd argue it goes somewhere between "พูดไทยชัดมาก" and "พูดไทยคล่อง".

The fact that she used the word มัน in this way makes me think she has little respect for Gary, almost as if she's met many other farang just like him . . . cough . . .

It's my experience that the only thing which can 'dull' your foreign accented Thai is speaking nothing but Thai with Thais (day in/day out) but it will take many YEARS! Chat-speak, or M-speak has NOTHING to do with how you speak Thai in real life. It is an interesting diversion and you DO learn the current ways "youngsters" massacre Thai when they type. Being 52, I don't have a lotta patience for that type of interaction. I prefer my friends to be closer to my age than that of my son (who is 29)!

You're never gonna completely get rid of it (your foreign accent), no matter how much you're patronized by people saying you speak Thai just like a Thai (In reality, you don't, and they're just being culturally polite). Nearly everyone you speak with will realize you're a non-native Thai speaker (even over the phone when they can't see for their own eyes you're a foreigner), if you speak to them long enough your foreign accented Thai or sentence constructs will give you away.

Yea well, I'm still in my 20's, hence the nahrak part in my name

I once knew a chinese man who lived in the US for 20 years and spoke barely understandable english, and a chinese lady who has been here for 15 years with equally as bad english. I'm sure my accent will improve over time on it's own, but just like learning vocab, it'll go much faster if I intentionally study it on a daily basis.

may i just ask OP,do you read thai aswell and im curious why you want to speak like a thai,im not saying theres anything wrong with it,just wondered is it to be more thai or is it for a job or something like that.

I've read like 50 something books in Thai, and I'd challenge any farang to a speed reading contest

(although my weak vocab still limits me compared to some of you guys)

So why want to speak perfect Thai? Why only climb a mountain halfway?

Although, there was one Thai girl who insisted that a farang accent is sexier than a perfect thai accent . . . she insisted she was serious, and that if I spoke perfect Thai, that I'd be 'boring'. Not so sure about that . . . anyone else get a comment like that before?

Actually, Thais have at least 10 different ways to say 'krap', depending on the situation, and I've mastered them all.

As for reading mastery, it'll help you with Bangkok dialect greatly . . . however it has one major flaw - Thai people don't talk like a book . . . I've more recently been chatting online with Thais every day, and that forces me to learn ภาษาวัยรุ่น, it's basically the art of intentionally misspelling every other word to match the true pronunciation and street grammar, not to mention all the words that no Thai teacher would ever teach you [cough]. It's really hard though so I'm only starting to get the hang of it . . .

As for on the phone, it's pretty obvious I'm not Thai when speaking

I guess I'm looking for exercises that'll help me . . . or a teacher someone knows that specializes in this kinda thing . . .

. . . . maybe I should just squeeze my nose when I talk?

withnail . . . I am at the level where there isn't much left for me to learn other than all the little nuances of the language . . . there are a *lot* of nuances left for me to learn lol . . . that and highly obscure vocabulary, which just doesn't interest me . . .

Point is . . . the longer I say things incorrectly (ie accent), the longer it'll take me to unlearn the accent.

In the US, there is an advanced ESL class called 'Remove your Accent'. It's specifically designed to help you sound like a 100% native born English speaker.

Are there any classes, skilled teachers, books, or techniques anywhere to help remove my farang accent?

Like most people, I can't hear my accent when I speak my second language, although its much more obvious when I record my voice and play it back to myself . . .

I'm going to have to agree with p_brownstone on the questionable character of your sister-in-law, given her choice of vocabulary.

Nothing in the message to suggest you did anything wrong at all, even remotely, but she did use a rude version of the word for 'husband' (referring to you) . . .

Buy some Thai children's school books. I've been learning every day for 6 years now but still find บ5 (5th grade) a challenge lol . . .