Is it worth learning Thai

[TKDfella]

7 minutes ago, Cheops said:

My English reading comprehension is more than enough, but it seems yours is lacking, since I previously wrote that quite a few Thai people don't recognize me being a foreigner when they call me at work. Those people do indeed not compliment me, but just carry on conversation as if they I'm a Thai.

Ha, strangely enough that can be a problem. Although I read, write and speak Thai I still don't consider that I know enough to be fluent. For example, Although I know quite a few of the slang combinations (Wan nee duang heng เฮง =lucky, Mai bpen sabparot = low quality, and so on) once I speak one of them it's assumed I know many more...which I don't, Ha! But then that's all part of the learning process, isn't it.????

[Cheops]

3 minutes ago, TKDfella said:

Ha, strangely enough that can be a problem. Although I read, write and speak Thai I still don't consider that I know enough to be fluent. For example, Although I know quite a few of the slang combinations (Wan nee duang heng เฮง =lucky, Mai bpen sabparot = low quality, and so on) once I speak one of them it's assumed I know many more...which I don't, Ha! But then that's all part of the learning process, isn't it.????

Agree, that is sometimes a problem, since I'm far from fluent and I don't know a lot of slang either. I'm good enough for quite some conversations, but still need to ask some words. 

[Lacessit]

Definitely. It's tragic when farangs refuse to learn any Thai at all.

While I'll never be fluent, I can communicate and occasionally joke in Thai. That smooths the path.

[brewsterbudgen]

Definitely. It's tragic when farangs refuse to learn any Thai at all.
While I'll never be fluent, I can communicate and occasionally joke in Thai. That smooths the path.

"Tragic"? Why? No one has died and it's very easy to live here without learning much Thai. I find the smug superiority of some rather tiresome.

Sent from my SM-A500F using Tapatalk

[tingtongtourist]

On 5/11/2019 at 4:39 PM, simon43 said:

Being able to write Thai is a useful skill for me that meets a particular need.  When I teach English to young Thai children, they often have zero skills in reading English letters and phonics, and are very shy. But they are old enough (8 years+) to be able to read Thai script.

 

That being the case, I write the English word using Thai script, so that they are able to correctly pronounce the English word.

 

Eg - for the English word 'get', I might write 'เก็ด'

 

Sometimes, it can be tricky trying to think of the best Thai letters to use when reating the English word ????

Kudos to you sir and congrats on getting to that level.

But do be careful showing such advanced teaching skills if the school have many farang teachers.

 

Very jealous and vindictive crybabys some of them!!

[1FinickyOne]

On 5/12/2019 at 11:00 PM, BestB said:

I would call total bs on this one, unless you grew up in Thailand from a very young age.

 

you may well speak complete sentences it does not mean you do not have an accent for a Thai not to know you are not native . 

 

But carry on believing whatever makes you feel better????

There definitely are farang who can really speak well... my Thai is pretty good but being street learned I have many holes in my comprehension. I am regularly told that my accent is quite good, though not being told anything and just conversing is the larger compliment...

 

That said, I have had a few friends who are excellent. One British friend who my wife could not recognize as farang on the phone... so, it can be done. 

[1FinickyOne]

On 5/15/2019 at 9:23 AM, mlkik said:

Maybe some peoples idea of fluency is different to mine ?

Yes. People use that word "fluent" quite liberally. I am easily conversational and have spent many years living in areas with very few farang.... so, my conversations were mostly in Thai. Non-Thai speakers call me fluent - I am not. I consider myself fluid... 

[richard_smith237]

12 minutes ago, kenk24 said:

There definitely are farang who can really speak well... my Thai is pretty good but being street learned I have many holes in my comprehension. I am regularly told that my accent is quite good, though not being told anything and just conversing is the larger compliment...

 

That said, I have had a few friends who are excellent. One British friend who my wife could not recognize as farang on the phone... so, it can be done. 

No it can't... didn't you know BestB is the ultimate authority on this? 

[amexpat]

This ever happen with you?

 

I go out to eat with a pal.

 

The waiter says (in English) something like "Good evening gentlemen are you ready to order?"

I order in English. 

Pal starts ordering in "Thai" sorta.

 

Waiter asks "That's fried pork, right?"

 

Pal continues ordering in "Thai".

 

When Pal doesn't get what he thinks he ordered, he is peeved that these idiots can't understand their own damn language. 

[Tomahawk21]

On 5/11/2019 at 3:55 PM, Orton Rd said:

No, after 25 years it's still sometimes a struggle to get the cashier at Big C to understand the card number I give her, takes 3 or 4 goes sometimes. This is after adult education course, linguaphone, two Thai language Schools, assorted books and cd's and marrying a teacher of Thai language!

i sort of agree, i speak a bit of Thai reasonably well and while one Thai person will understand me another one will have no glue. i think a majority of them you meet on a day to day basis are pretty thick.

[TKDfella]

11 hours ago, tingtongtourist said:

Kudos to you sir and congrats on getting to that level.

But do be careful showing such advanced teaching skills if the school have many farang teachers.

 

Very jealous and vindictive crybabys some of them!!

Ha, but there are many English words that cannot be written in Thai script...all those that begin with 'th' for a start. I have also taught English Conversation but I had to teach the Thai students how important the tongue was first.

[cranki]

Wow...so many haters on this thread who are unable to speak Thai after many years...I'd like to ask why are the attacking guys that have made the effort??

[richard_smith237]

23 hours ago, amexpat said:

This ever happen with you?

 

I go out to eat with a pal.

 

The waiter says (in English) something like "Good evening gentlemen are you ready to order?"

I order in English. 

Pal starts ordering in "Thai" sorta.

 

Waiter asks "That's fried pork, right?"

 

Pal continues ordering in "Thai".

 

When Pal doesn't get what he thinks he ordered, he is peeved that these idiots can't understand their own damn language. 

 

I've encountered this quite commonly when out eating with my Wife. 

It's usually because the Person who is taking the order is not Thai, but from Burma, Cambodia or Vietnam. 

But it will also be quite a common occurrence that my Wife will order something in Thai, I've clearly understood her order, the waitress brings the wrong item - I'm at a loss as to what happens in this situation: I suspect the waiter/waitress is just inattentive, not paying attention, or for whatever reason what they expect to hear is what they hear - very strange indeed.

 

 

After witnessing such events I know its my the quality of my Thai which is in question when faced with a similar situation, the misunderstanding is commonly down to the intelligence of the listener. I find that when speaking Thai I have far fewer misunderstandings with educated Thai's - perhaps their 'critical' ear is more tuned to recognize and understand the inaccuracies in a foreigners imperfect pronunciation.

 

 

 

 

[marcusarelus]

9 minutes ago, cranki said:

Wow...so many haters on this thread who are unable to speak Thai after many years...I'd like to ask why are the attacking guys that have made the effort??

Why would they tell you?  It would make them seem not as well adjusted as those who can speak Thai. 

[richard_smith237]

11 minutes ago, cranki said:

Wow...so many haters on this thread who are unable to speak Thai after many years...I'd like to ask why are the attacking guys that have made the effort??

When reading the response of some of 'the haters' its hardly surprises me that they defend their inability to speak Thai with counter arguments often so flawed they border on the downright sad to humorous, but when reading their response in many cases it becomes clear they are yet to master their own language. 

[amexpat]

11 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

I've encountered this quite commonly when out eating with my Wife. 

It's usually because the Person who is taking the order is not Thai, but from Burma, Cambodia or Vietnam. 

But it will also be quite a common occurrence that my Wife will order something in Thai, I've clearly understood her order, the waitress brings the wrong item - I'm at a loss as to what happens in this situation: I suspect the waiter/waitress is just inattentive, not paying attention, or for whatever reason what they expect to hear is what they hear - very strange indeed.

 

 

After witnessing such events I know its my the quality of my Thai which is in question when faced with a similar situation, the misunderstanding is commonly down to the intelligence of the listener. I find that when speaking Thai I have far fewer misunderstandings with educated Thai's - perhaps their 'critical' ear is more tuned to recognize and understand the inaccuracies in a foreigners imperfect pronunciation.

 

 

 

 

Maybe sometimes.  In this situation I know enough Thai to tell that the pal's tones are way off and his pronunciation isn't much better while the waiter's English is very good. 

[tingtongtourist]

On 5/21/2019 at 8:54 AM, TKDfella said:

 

 

On 5/21/2019 at 8:54 AM, TKDfella said:

Ha, but there are many English words that cannot be written in Thai script...all those that begin with 'th' for a start. 

 there is always a way.

just guess it like Simon does

THought= โทหษ

fixed it for you

555

[monkeycu]

My Thai vocabulary has enough words to get in trouble, any more may be dangerous to my health 

[nebuer]

Whether it's worth it or not depends what you want to get out of it. Financially obviously it's not. It's not required to hop in a taxi, or buy stuff at the supermarket, or order some chang

 

After having learnt Thai reasonably well, I couldn't imagine living in a country long term without being able to speak the language fluently. It's nice to be able to talk to people and make genuine friendships without a language barrier. People are always a lot more interesting and expressive in their native language, and you can get a much better sense of 'who they are'

 

I also don't think it's possible to fully understand the culture until you're fluent. The two are so intertwined

 

That said, if you want and are fine with hanging out in an expat bubble, only talking to Thais who speak good English, reading English news, learning about what's happening through the filtered speech and interpretations of those who understand the local language, then don't bother. Nothing against that, learning a language well is a huge investment that not everyone wants to make

 

In my opinion either just learn the basics to get by, or do what it takes to get fluent. Anywhere in between isn't really worth it

[Danil Ishimov]

I think when you move to foreign country you are needed to learn local language. But I don't understand why people in Thailand don't appreciate it when foreign people try to speak on local language with them

[EricTh]

On 6/20/2019 at 2:23 PM, Danil Ishimov said:

I think when you move to foreign country you are needed to learn local language. But I don't understand why people in Thailand don't appreciate it when foreign people try to speak on local language with them

I have encountered several situations when I speak to them in Thai and they replied back in broken English e.g. 'same, same'.

 

Some of them think that their English is better than your Thai even though their 'next' is pronounced as 'neck'.

 

Funny but true.

 

 

[wilailuk]

On 5/22/2019 at 9:01 AM, nebuer said:

Whether it's worth it or not depends what you want to get out of it. Financially obviously it's not. It's not required to hop in a taxi, or buy stuff at the supermarket, or order some chang

 

After having learnt Thai reasonably well, I couldn't imagine living in a country long term without being able to speak the language fluently. It's nice to be able to talk to people and make genuine friendships without a language barrier. People are always a lot more interesting and expressive in their native language, and you can get a much better sense of 'who they are'

 

I also don't think it's possible to fully understand the culture until you're fluent. The two are so intertwined

 

That said, if you want and are fine with hanging out in an expat bubble, only talking to Thais who speak good English, reading English news, learning about what's happening through the filtered speech and interpretations of those who understand the local language, then don't bother. Nothing against that, learning a language well is a huge investment that not everyone wants to make

 

In my opinion either just learn the basics to get by, or do what it takes to get fluent. Anywhere in between isn't really worth it

"Genuine friendships" ???? In LOS?? Are you kidding me???

 

Came here in 1999 first time, moved here 2009, never bothered to learn, keeps from knowing all the stupid gossip around you, the back stabbing, the "kee nok" bla-bla. I play dumb tourist, and that suits me well, being dumb among idiots.

 

I can get by in Thai, but as mentioned by other member, the nong replies to me in english or in thai to the wife, just plain stupid is it.. same in 7/11, BIgC, Tesco etc. etc. Same with the police, tourist dumb, never got a fine, just move on, they can´t speak english.

 

 

[Damrongsak]

On 5/13/2019 at 9:18 PM, LawrenceN said:

Do you speak from experience? Aah, I didn't think so. I sounds like sour grapes to me at best, bigotry at worst. You tried for a while and gave it up, I'm guessing.

 

Speaking from 42 years in, I can tell you that speaking, reading, writing Thai fluently has opened doors for me. I text old friends in real Thai, not this silly phonetic junk seen above. I speak with my neighbors about our gardens, our families, our hobbies, our lives. I go to the market and share friendly banter with the fruit and veggie ladies.

 

That said, is my life free of conflict in Thailand? No. There can be misunderstandings over prices, or delivery times, or dogs barking. But I don't automatically presume monolithic Thai hatred of people like me. Conflicts happen between people everywhere.

 

I'm writing from a hospital where I have been receiving treatment for cancer. The nurses seem to feel they must speak English with me. Much of what they say is unintelligible, so I simply ask them to repeat it in Thai. They seem relieved to have that as a fallback position.

 

Much of what I have read in this thread seems to be written by people with no foreign language ability. I have observed people who become more frustrated and impatient when they can't make themselves understood. Frustration and impatience don't get you very far in Thailand. You might not think your behavior is poor, but it seems hostile in Thai culture, and the people withdraw.

 

OK, I have said enough, pointing out the failure of so many of you. You may begin your attacks on me now.

@LawrenceN, I was talking about you in my post #129, 555. Hey, I may get back to visit Thailand later this year.  I'll keep you posted.  Hang in there.  I'll PM you.

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As for Thai language being worth learning, hell yes.  It got me a wife 41 years ago, has been useful since then, not just on visits.  I spent the better part of 3 years in Loei back then.  It was rare to encounter a foreigner or an English speaker once a month.  A few missionaries and volunteers (VSO, CUSO, Peace Corps).  Worst part was I learned central Thai and ended up working with folks who spoke Isaan/Lao dialect.  Like my relatives, 555. 

 

But I love it when I can walk around a small town or in the market and chat with people a bit.  Talk with cops when I'm carrying a big knife I just bought, that sort of thing.  Hell, one time I was accompanying two Lao Hmong refugees from the Loei camp to BKK to work as translators at the refugee transit center back around 1979/80.  Got caught on the night train from Nong Khai, no permissions or papers.  The refugees spent the night in jail, I tapped danced so they wouldn't get beat up.  Had to be friendly and go to an all-night illegal card game at a local hotel with a couple cops when their shift ended.  The things we do ...  It helps if you can talk out your backside in the local language.

[richard_smith237]

3 hours ago, wilailuk said:

"Genuine friendships" ???? In LOS?? Are you kidding me???

 

Came here in 1999 first time, moved here 2009, never bothered to learn, keeps from knowing all the stupid gossip around you, the back stabbing, the "kee nok" bla-bla. I play dumb tourist, and that suits me well, being dumb among idiots.

 

I can get by in Thai, but as mentioned by other member, the nong replies to me in english or in thai to the wife, just plain stupid is it.. same in 7/11, BIgC, Tesco etc. etc. Same with the police, tourist dumb, never got a fine, just move on, they can´t speak english.

 

IF you never bothered to learn how could you possibly know that Thai's are gossiping about you and back stabbing etc?

 

These issues perhaps seem not one of language, but one of attitude. 

 

Getting by is one thing, but no one who speaks Thai fluently ever says its not really worth it, whether that is confirmation bias of their efforts or not can't truly be determined, but those who say they do not need to know Thai and can get by without it and those who say not learning Thai keeps them from knowing the gossip etc are all using highly flawed logic for what is most certainly an attempt to achieve some level confirmation bias in their failings to develop their minds.... 

 

 

From a personal perspective - my Thai is ok, not great, not having aptitude to improve beyond my current level is something I accept, as is my laziness to push my Thai skills in the spare time I have. But, I'll not make any false statements that I am better off not being fluent in the language of the country I live - that's just idiotic. 

 

[Perhaps2more]

Learning a local language is always useful regardless of how long you intend to stay.

Thai language is very easy to learn. It is very different from yours so leave yours behind and clear your mind for the new.

There are only 44 consonants and 32 vowels. These 32 vowels, each of them controls exact sound and you can not pronounce it any other way. They are not too many to remember 76 of them in all.

In Thai language people listen to the tones only, to get the word meaning, not the ending of the word as English speaking people do. 

In English, kid, kids, kit, kits, kiss, kissed, are all different and you will hear them because it is in your nature to hear them but this is not the same for Thais. It is not natural for them to listen to the endings.

Thai language is a very easy language because there are no conjugation, no plural, and very basic grammar.

They do not pronounce the word endings.

You add number to make it plural and add time to make tenses, nothing else changes.

Once you know words you just string them all together, basically in the same order as in English.

To say, "I went home yesterday", in Thai would be, "I go home yesterday."

 

[naboo]

Today on the BTS, as the train pulled away from Thong Lo or Ekkamai the wheels slipped on the track in the rain and we jolted about a bit. We came to a halt for a couple of minutes and an anoouncement came on, only in Thai, from the female driver apologising for the non-normal train behaviour. We carried on. I was surrounded by several young men, one of whom said the non-normal behaviour wasn't the train, but the female driver. This joke was repeated again and again until I got off at Samrong. I am very happy to have spent so much effort learning the language to be able to understand such inane conversation.

 

Yesterday I read endless comments on the SF Cinemas Facebook page regarding Halle Bailey playing Ariel in The Little Mermaid. It has been an important part of my understanding of Thai culture to have read such utter racist bile about how only beautiful white people should play the good characters in Disney movies.

 

Over 11 years of learning Thai, I'm pretty fluent, but the more I learn, the more I dislike the people. So yes, learn Thai, just to make sure you know the consequence of nationalist bullshit on the general population.

[Perhaps2more]

23 hours ago, naboo said:

"how only beautiful white people should play the good characters in Disney movies."

 

Over 11 years of learning Thai, I'm pretty fluent, but the more I learn, the more I dislike the people.

(1) The racism in who should play a character in any movie is not unique to the Thai population.

(2) It is sad that you said the more you learned, the more you disliked the people.

Every country has many social groups and they all are not the same. What you think only tells about the group of people you are with not the whole country. I think you can do with a change of your surroundings. 

A young English guy came back from working in Hong Kong said to me that Chinese people are very rude and have no manners. I asked, where did he work in Hong Kong. The answer was, "in the kitchen."

[naboo]

22 hours ago, Perhaps2more said:

What you think only tells about the group of people you are with not the whole country. I think you can do with a change of your surroundings. 

The two examples I gave were the BTS and the SF Cinema Facebook page. Yet you blame it on the group of people I am with... 

 

I have good Thai friends, good people, best friend is a Thai optician, another good friend runs a multi-million Baht business. The company I keep is good enough. The population in general has become more nationalistic in recent years, and with it more unpleasant.

[tgeezer]

Once I applied for a re-entry permit directly after obtaining my extension and didn’t have a photocopy of my passport.  I showed my contrition in Thai etc. and offered the cut-down copies which I carried in my wallet, as I was fumbling around the officer relented and did without.

I like to think that if I was not able to observe all the niceties of social interaction I would have been sent away to get the copies. 

[Perhaps2more]

On 7/5/2019 at 5:42 PM, naboo said:

 

(1) Over 11 years of learning Thai, I'm pretty fluent, but the more I learn, the more I dislike the people. 

(2) another good friend runs a multi-million Baht business.

naboo...... (1)  So, you did not mean that...really.

              (2)  I found many more evil minded people in multi-million baht business than in the ordinary people. Money class in Thailand is quite extreme but then most westerners in Thailand often acting, thinking superior to the locals anyway. Perhaps they do not notice it because they are one of them.