American man one of three foreigners honored on Thai Language Day

 

Allen Long aka Udom Suksanaih

 

A popular American man living in Phrae in Thailand's north has been honored for promoting the Thai language.

 

Monday July 29th is National Thai Language day and the Culture Ministry has presented a shield to Allen Long also known to his many Facebook admirers as Udom Suksanaih.  

 

Allen - the son of American missionaries - has been in Thailand since he was a child and amuses his thousands of followers online with crackpot stories and jokes delivered in fluent local tones. 

 

Thaivisa asked him if this meant he might also be getting citizenship one day, something he has been trying to accomplish for years.

 

 "It was a great honor to be given this award," he said. "No Thai citizenship so far though I still remain extremely hopeful".

 

Christopher Chaafe

 

Also recognized were two other foreigners. 

 

Singer and actor Christopher Chaafe, an Australian who has competed in Thai singing competitions was honored. 

 

As was Isaan based Martin Wheeler, an English agriculturalist, lecturer and actor who was once described as a  “farang man who lives like a rural Thai”. 

 

Martin Wheeler

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-07-26

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4 minutes ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

English agriculturalist, lecturer and actor

Hmm. Three pretty dubious descriptions. Agriculturalist? Does that mean "farmer?" Got a work permit for that? 

10 minutes ago, zydeco said:

Hmm. Three pretty dubious descriptions. Agriculturalist? Does that mean "farmer?" Got a work permit for that? 

He needs to receive financial reward to break this law!Ever seen a Thai woman pay a farang husband for his efforts? 

Surely they could have come up with a better mug shot photo of Allen Long. 

 

Wanted or escaped from somewhere?

21 minutes ago, zydeco said:

Hmm. Three pretty dubious descriptions. Agriculturalist? Does that mean "farmer?" Got a work permit for that? 

HAHA and farmer  ,does that mean.. '' is Dave home man''...kudos Mr green thumb

Dear oh dear

I wonder if this is just a Thai thing awarding foreigners for promoting Thai Culture? Haven't seen anything similar in the US or UK? 'Thai man rewarded for speaking English and his amazing ability to make tasty hot dogs.' Or 'Thai man wins Mr black pudding and whippet competition in the UK.'

Sent from my SM-A700FD using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

1 minute ago, Wilsonandson said:

I wonder if this is just a Thai thing awarding foreigners for promoting Thai Culture? Haven't seen anything similar in the US or UK? 'Thai man rewarded for speaking English and his amazing ability to make tasty hot dogs.' Or 'Thai man wins Mr black pudding and whippet competition in the UK.'

Sent from my SM-A700FD using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

There are many awards for Thai women.  

I'm bilingual and I admire anybody who puts the effort into learning a foreign lingua. From personal experience, I know it truely does make daily life and integration much easier if you can communicate with the locals in their own language. 

Unfortunately, I (have to) spend most of my day speaking English and as a result, even after 10 yrs. here, I still haven't picked up a lot of the language. 

As native English speakers, we really do have a tendency to be lazy when it comes to learning foreign languages. 

I take my hat off to the three fellows. Good job! 

1 hour ago, mok199 said:

HAHA and farmer  ,does that mean.. '' is Dave home man''...kudos Mr green thumb

Dave's not here!

7 hours ago, Wilsonandson said:

I wonder if this is just a Thai thing awarding foreigners for promoting Thai Culture? Haven't seen anything similar in the US or UK? 'Thai man rewarded for speaking English and his amazing ability to make tasty hot dogs.' Or 'Thai man wins Mr black pudding and whippet competition in the UK.'

Sent from my SM-A700FD using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

France gives awards to foreigners for promoting the French language, for instance using French lyrics in songs.

See? Not all foreigners are looked upon as trash.

I'm always amazed how amazed Thais are that we can speak their language, like it's some kind of specially coded means of communicating.

 

It's a very simple language once you get past learning a new alphabet. It only takes about 30/40 hours to learn the alphabet and is important.

When I first attended school in BKK I didn't want to learn the alphabet (just learn to speak) but my teacher advised me it was crucial and I'm glad I did. I don't write very often but I read a lot and it makes my life easier and helps me understand the people more.

 

The tones are a red herring and seem to put people off from every trying. I purposely bypassed spending hours perfecting the tones of each word. Everything about language is context and as long as you can speak in sentences then it is no problem that you are tonally incorrect. You tend to pick up a lot just from listening anyway

 

Can't understand for the life of me why there is so much bewilderment regarding Allen Long .

I've seen the Thais post on his FB at how they are impressed by his accent.

He is THAI for all intent and purposes, he has lived here since he was a small child and went through the whole school system.

 

If he lived in the UK or US, he would be called British or American but here he is still farang.

Just shows how racist and xenophobic the Thais really are.

And we definitely would not be pissing our pants that he could speak the language with our accents. 

 

 

11 hours ago, marcusarelus said:

There are many awards for Thai women.  

Do you mean rewards ? ????

1 hour ago, Sticky Wicket said:

I'm always amazed how amazed Thais are that we can speak their language, like it's some kind of specially coded means of communicating.

 

I'm always amazed how amazed Thai get when they see a foreigner eat steamed rice. "Oh! You can east rice! Very good!" 

Well, the guy with the mugshot deserves to be a Thai citizen. Lived here since a child. I mean, come on, Thailand!

5 hours ago, Andrew65 said:

France gives awards to foreigners for promoting the French language, for instance using French lyrics in songs.

That's correct, smaller, "has been", countries try to stay on the map by pretending to be cultural giants.

What a weird, biased title.

Also I don't see any special merit in speaking fluently the language of a country if you have been there since a child, zillions of children do that all over the world.

1 minute ago, arithai12 said:

What a weird, biased title.

Also I don't see any special merit in speaking fluently the language of a country if you have been there since a child, zillions of children do that all over the world.

Even the Philippines has more English speakers than the United Kingdom.

1 hour ago, Somtamnication said:

Well, the guy with the mugshot deserves to be a Thai citizen. Lived here since a child. I mean, come on, Thailand!

Might not fulfill the salary requirements to get permanent residency / Thai citizenship. Let's see if they kick him out of the country when he retires because he can't prove 65k per month income from abroad, then he can go back to his "home" country.

 

40 minutes ago, arithai12 said:

What a weird, biased title.

Also I don't see any special merit in speaking fluently the language of a country if you have been there since a child, zillions of children do that all over the world.

Many Thais can't understand how somebody who looks western can be able to speak their language.

13 hours ago, djayz said:

As native English speakers, we really do have a tendency to be lazy when it comes to learning foreign languages.

As a native french speaker I have never learnt english like that ...

Maybe it's a new way to write and/or speak ?

I always learned that after the preposition "to" there must be an infinitive

 

To learning ?

Is this correct english?

 

 

Maybe to learn ?

 

Correct me if I wrote an error.

18 minutes ago, jackdd said:

Might not fulfill the salary requirements to get permanent residency / Thai citizenship. Let's see if they kick him out of the country when he retires because he can't prove 65k per month income from abroad, then he can go back to his "home" country.

 

Many Thais can't understand how somebody who looks western can be able to speak their language.

It will change in the next generation as there are more mixed race kids and some look very western.

2 hours ago, Sticky Wicket said:

I'm always amazed how amazed Thais are that we can speak their language, like it's some kind of specially coded means of communicating.

They're not amazed because they think their language is specially coded. It's because so few farang make any effort and most of those who make the effort fail so spectacularly. 

 

You also seem to confuse expressions of appreciation with displays of bewilderment. Sounds like someone thinks he should have earned an award. And towards the end of your screed you seem to really come unhinged.. In America if you seemed at all foreign you'd be told to go back where you came from and in Britain there's a catalogue of names you'd be called and "British" wouldn't be among them.

2 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

As a native french speaker I have never learnt english like that ...

Maybe it's a new way to write and/or speak ?

I always learned that after the preposition "to" there must be an infinitive

 

To learning ?

Is this correct english?

 

 

Maybe to learn ?

 

Correct me if I wrote an error.

No that's fine "comes to learning foreign languages" . That's how we say it in that context

2 minutes ago, Suradit69 said:

They're not amazed because they think their language is specially coded. It's because so few farang make any effort and most of those who make the effort fail so spectacularly. 

 

You also seem to confuse expressions of appreciation with displays of bewilderment. Sounds like someone thinks he should have earned an award. And towards the end of your screed you seem to really come unhinged.. In America if you seemed at all foreign you'd be told to go back where you came from and in Britain there's a catalogue of names you'd be called and "British" wouldn't be among them.

Utter rubbish, a very small fraction of the UK would act like that.

Britain is an extremely tolerant country, especially compared to Thailand

 

1 hour ago, Somtamnication said:

Well, the guy with the mugshot deserves to be a Thai citizen. Lived here since a child. I mean, come on, Thailand!

<deleted><deleted><deleted><deleted><deleted> Thats saves me a banning order on the forum. This is not the West.

11 minutes ago, Sticky Wicket said:

Utter rubbish, a very small fraction of the UK would act like that.

Britain is an extremely tolerant country, especially compared to Thailand

 

And for that matter the new UK PM is a foreigner in my book. His great grandmother was Swiss and his great grandfather was Turkish.  I mean to say that's only 100  years ago, these bloody foreigners poking their noses in

Guess if I was born and raised here I would be fluent as well. 

7 minutes ago, geoffbezoz said:

And for that matter the new UK PM is a foreigner in my book. His great grandmother was Swiss and his great grandfather was Turkish.  I mean to say that's only 100  years ago, these bloody foreigners poking their noses in

And what about those bloody Germans, Betty & Co

16 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

Thaivisa asked him if this meant he might also be getting citizenship one day

him and the other 500,000 who are stateless in Thailand