Do Thai Really Speak English?

[anamore]

Just arrived yesterday at bkk.

Going around with no knowledge of thailanguage should be possible as most of the people say yes when I ask if they speak english prior to start asking something else.

After telling what I want and making sure I explained myself well, and looking at the reactions of the persoon I talk with (sometimes more than one at the time) I am convinced that things are going to be done the way we just agreed.

But many times nothing happens, and when I go and ask again they smile and say yes and sometimes a couple of words more and eventually something happens. But sometimes still nothing happens.

Example: today I waited 4 hours to have some clothes ironed at the hotel, and I talked with 7 different people before it happened. At the same time I discovered that quick is a word meaning something else and one hour doesn't have 60 minuts but at least 90.

This goes also for internetconnections hier at the hotel as well. This is very slow, Iam used to advanced adsl and a good computer. But I guess the heating here also affects elektronica and communications.

I guess I have to get used to it and I will because everybody just smiles at me and I am really convinced that they want to do it right, they only aren't sure about what.

Or could it be that I am not that good communicating?

[Bluecat]

Welcome to Thailand, amore.

TIT,...

[ProThaiExpat]

Your assumption is faulty, it is not communication that is responsible for your not getting your way.

In a western style hotel, there is little doubt that they understand you. The real question is are they able to or want to accomodate your requests, or to them, your DEMANDS.

Your problem seems to be cultural, not communications.

Stick around, read many of the posts in this forum, and you will see what I mean. Most complaints from farang end up, in the last analysis, as complaints about cultural issues, not communications.

It takes years, living here, to get around cultural issues, so my best advice is to take a page from Thai culture and mae pen rai.

Loosely translated, go with the flow, don't complain, be grateful for what does go right and enjoy.

[Bad News]

My recommendation, anamore or less?

Sunshine.

Takes some of the 'white' away from your thinking,

as well as the rest of you.

[meadish_sweetball]

Bad News,

Could you please stop making racist comments. I am white, and I don't have a problem with Thai culture in general, and neither will you accomplish anything by accusing anamore of being "white".

Anamore:

Some general suggestions:

Speak slowly. Use simple English, do not gesticulate too much, and phrase your requests as questions with a smile. Have patience. Do not get excited or angry, but if your message has not come through, explain again. Don't forget to smile and keep calm.

Make sure to try to learn elementary Thai, just the thank you and greeting phrases will be enough in the beginning. Do use them.

[davethailand]

anamore, i know exactly what you mean.

as BC says welcome to thailand.

i believe some of them speak tnglish.

anyway i think thats one of the reasons why we all love it here.

[rainman]

What's Thailand's official language? Thai.

With that said, you can only expect a country/culture to speak their own language. If they speak english, french or any other language and you can use it to communicate, great. If not, looks like you need to learn some thai, just like i am doing. A common mistake is to go into a foreign country and expect everyone to speak your language and then get confused as to why they don't.

[john b good]

The facts are that whilst many will claim to speak english (this is just to please you and "not to lose face") actually very few thais have a very good grasp of the language. Other countries (India, Phillipines, Singapore etc) are much better able to communicate in english.

Get your self a few thai lessons, hang out in the bars and converse with the girls and before you can say jack flash you will be able to understand / be understood.

It will take you years if you ever do to understand conversations between thai people though.

[Bluecat]

hang out in the bars and converse with the girls and before you can say jack flash you will be able to understand / be understood.

She's a girl, John.

Not sure this is what she wants to do to learn the Thai language,...

[taxexile]

Get your self a few thai lessons, hang out in the bars and converse with the girls and before you can say jack flash you will be able to understand / be understood.

hang around in the bars and learn thai ??

i dont think so. you will learn the slang and the rough language spoken by a large proportion of those who work there.

should you ever want to communicate with thais from a different level of society and you start speaking bargirl thai , then you might find you have problems being

taken seriously.

far better to study at a school or from books and learn standard thai, that way you can communicate with and be understood by everybody. including those who work in the bars.

[davethailand]

you go to a beer bar, watch the change in behaviour of the bg's when they realize you can speak thai,

i can't speak thai well but i can speak the basics and myself and my business partner always pretend to be newcomers to pattaya when we go to a bar we've never been to before, it's great, the crap they come out with, (i respect that by the way as i understand they are doing a job)after about 15 mins we sometimes will come clean and tell the truth, (that does'nt always go down to well)

[Bad News]

Bad News,

Could you please stop making racist comments. I am white, and I don't have a problem with Thai culture in general, and neither will you accomplish anything by accusing anamore of being "white".

You do not have a problem with Thai culture in general?

Hey, that's really 'white' of you.

What specifically do you have a problem with in Thai culture.

White for your information is also an attitude.

And I suspect you know that.

I do not care what colour anyone is in fact,

but I do object to 'white' attitudes like

those indicated by the title of this topic.

And of course the application of the word

'racist' so easily by a white person like

yourself who has never suffered one day of

racism in your life.

Have a nice day

[natee1]

Switch your brains on, badnews, I wonder why you chose this name?

Anamore, I also see visiting friends having the same problems. Speaking slowly, using simple, short sentences helps a lot.

Also do not ask either -or questions, as in 'will the shirts be ironed in one hour or do you need more time?'. The answer will always be 'Yes".

[Bad News]

Switch your brains on, badnews, I wonder why you chose this name?

I chose my name for the same reason you chose yours

Switching brain on.....NOW.

Pssssssssttt!

[Basher]

When people ask me what I have learnt most living in LOS, I always reply 'Patience'

Even when I am kept waiting 2 hours in the bank for the man I want to see to finish with some dipshit tourist who wants to know the ins and outs of the whole system so he can deposit his 3000 Euros ..... w*nkers

But I never get flustered over these things, no need to get stressed and high bloodpressure, it wont change anything will it.

By the way I hate all this PC crap, all you benders who say they don't have a racist bone in their bodys need to spend the last 8 years in <deleted> Nigeria, you will have a slightly different slant on racism then, there are reasons why we 'westerners' are still running the game, so get a grip white boy

Peace

Out

Bash

[Bad News]

Basher..

I have looked and looked on several maps

but I cannot find '<deleted>' Nigeria.

Are you sure you spelled it right?

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Basher..

I have looked and looked on several maps

but I cannot find '<deleted>' Nigeria.

Are you sure you spelled it right?

Where did you study public relations ?

[Bad News]

By the way I hate all this PC crap, all you benders who say they don't have a racist bone in their bodys need to spend the last 8 years in <deleted> Nigeria, you will have a slightly different slant on racism then, there are reasons why we 'westerners' are still running the game, so get a grip white boy

Peace

Out

Bash

Oh I see now!

The capital 'F' fooled me.

Thanks Doc

[dr_Pat_Pong]

By the way I hate all this PC crap, all you benders who say they don't have a racist bone in their bodys need to spend the last 8 years in <deleted> Nigeria, you will have a slightly different slant on racism then, there are reasons why we 'westerners' are still running the game, so get a grip white boy

Peace

Out

Bash

Oh I see now!

The capital 'F' fooled me.

Thanks Doc

You're welcome.

[meadish_sweetball]

BadNews:

You're right I haven't suffered racism, until I met you. I really don't understand what your problem is. I am also pretty sure you yourself have more problems dealing with people in general, regardless of culture, than I do, since you totally fail to be polite, which is lesson A1 if you want to be accepted.

Actually your manners remind me of Asperger's syndrome patients, ring a bell?

When I said I don't have a problem with Thai culture in general, I also meant I do have a problem with some things, such as the distortion of Buddhism as practiced by many Thais - to make karma an account where bad deed A can be erased by good deed B to balance up the status quo. Other things I am not too keen on is the reluctance to stand up for one's beliefs against someone who is "superior" in age or rank. I do like that old people are respected by younger people, but not that this blocks communication.

[natee1]

Whatever happened to anamore? Still waiting for the shirts to be ironed?

Mai pen rai.

[CTM]

Back to the original topic.

One thing I have noticed as my Thai gets better is my ability to remember what was talked about 5 minutes ago sucks. I am sure is same for most Thais who “speak English”.

Also, the subtleties of complex sentences (slang, idioms, etc) are lost of me in many cases. Again, my experience is it is same for most Thais without large vocabularies and near native fluency in English.

[TizMe]

That's pretty true.

My GF and I have never had a problem communicating. But on our recent trip to Australia she reckons that she only caught about 50% of what was being said.

Too many people talking all at once, everybody talking too fast and everyone using Ozzie slang that she had never learned.

[anamore]

Hi fellows,

wel it's not so easy to internet when I am going around and at the end of the day I just want to relax and get some sleep. But now I am already 3 hours behind the computer at a internetshop.

My Goodness some of you really get upset very easy and some also draw conclusions based on .... nothing.

I am white but can't help it, just like thai have a than and can't help it. Together with this goes a background which nobody can deny, but that is not the issue. I respect people and behave in the beste way I can to adapt to the situations.

I try to get a look around and learn from others. Iam humble enough to do so, but can't help noticing some things. By the way Iam also getting a than.

Yes my klothes got ironed, but I learned that I beter go to the reception because the girls who clean and say yes to me, don't speak english even thou they want to.

and yes, I already had a good look at the thai abc but I guess Iam not intelligent enough to learn it that fast.

However I did write some sentences with the pronunciation in thai which has brought others to look very surprised at me sometimes bursting into laugh when I use then

I got some explanation about pronunciation from my thaiguide but I hardly can't believe that the way I speak out some words just turns them into bad language.

And yes I just wait, I never loose my temper and I only ask for little things people can do for me...

Well in fact Iam getting allong quite well and loving to enjoy this chance.

greetings to all of you wherever you are

anamore

[Sandy]

That's all that matters, anamore. Glad you got the things u wanted done.

Just maybe, one reason the house keeping lady said "yes" to speaking English, is because she might understand a few words, but ironing wasn't one of them.

And don't listen to "some" of these fools. Before the fools get mad, remember, quote quote "some". OK so don't go psycho on me.

[otherstuff1957]

When I first arrived in Thailand I always had a Thai-English guidebook in my pocket. Now that I speak a little Thai, I look back at those guidebooks and wonder if the people who wrote them really speak either English or Thai!

The tourist phrasebooks are well intentioned, but pretty worthless. Your Thai acquantances will be happy to teach you a few real Thai words or sentences that you will find useful.

Good luck and remember this phrase: My Pen Rai! *

* Many northern Thais will say My Pen Lai, but if you want to sound like an educated Bangkok type, say Rai instead.

[Bad News]

BadNews:

Actually your manners remind me of Asperger's syndrome patients, ring a bell?

What a Pavlovian remark! Brilliant.

Nothing worse that white folk telling ya

they are not racist. You see their mouth

moving, but it's the last twinkle in the eye

that makes you say "Do White people really

speak English"?

[stroll]

I can't see sweetballs eye twinkle, nor the color of his skin, but his English appears to be good enough.

The problem I have with Thais speaking English, my wife to be more specific, is unless they learned it really well, they build sentences with Thai grammar, and it often doesn't make sense.

[Up2U]

However I did write some sentences with the pronunciation in thai which has brought others to look very surprised at me sometimes bursting into laugh when I use then

I got some explanation about pronunciation from my thaiguide but I hardly can't believe that the way I speak out some words just turns them into bad language.

And yes I just wait, I never loose my temper and I only ask for little things people can do for me...

Yes, that's a good way to start - but be accurate with the tones - think of 'singing' the language. You need to know when to raise the tone, when to lower it and when to keep in the middle.

The changing of a tone can and will mean a different (sometimes bad) word. But most Thais, used to farang ignorance of their language, will interpret what you have just said in the light of the rest of the conversation and construe the correct meaning. Even if they laugh themselves silly after you have left.

[Pink Mist]

I can't see sweetballs eye twinkle, nor the color of his skin, but his English appears to be good enough.

The problem I have with Thais speaking English, my wife to be more specific, is unless they learned it really well, they build sentences with Thai grammar, and it often doesn't make sense.

"brushing tooth" for tooth brush, comes to mind.