Often times when having small talk, the question comes up on how I learned to speak Thai. This is with both expats and Thais.  I find most people assume I went to a language school or some sort of formal classroom setting. Quite the opposite. Simply talking, practicing and vocabulary development everyday will lead you to enriching yourself with the Thai language. I find some of us are better at pronunciations than others.

 

As far as reading and writing. Well, such an enriching skill once achieved I'm sure. I just don't find the "fire" or "motivation" to learn to read and write Thai. So shout-out to those who can read and right! 55555????

 

 

Learning Thai over the decades has been an uphill struggle for me because my wife and kids speak English, as do my staff. My Thai stepdaughter speaks English like she was raised in Richmond Upon Thames. I'll never forget her taking the oath during her British citizenship ceremony in her received pronunciation. This has not removed the motivation to learn Thai, but provided and easier way forward in conversation. What you really need is no option but to learn Thai. I managed to learn, but I'm still illiterate in Thai. Nevermind, I guess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You are a lucky person if you can remember without 'jottings'. If you do jot things down then often you need to learn special sounds unique to Thai plus long and short vowels and add the tone. I tried that and decided to learn Thai directly. The biggest limitation I imagine is the inability to leave notes, communicate on messaging apps, fora like this or read books especially dictionaries, notices, bus destinations etc.
That reminds me, I met a Thai lady once whose school didn't teach Thai only English, buses were her problem. I doubt that she is riding busses now but that would be a bigger problem, now that busses have doors.



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