“Don’t complain about our English, If you can’t speak Thai” - sign at restaurant goes viral - again

[DrTuner]

13 minutes ago, Artisi said:

I fully agree,  a very tongue-in-cheek comment - although I think the "love you" was a bit of a spoiler. 

That love you is like an abusive husband after knocking the wife's teeth out. 

[richard_smith237]

43 minutes ago, ravip said:

But, there are official stats on this and 3 times as many people speak English in the Phils then Thailand.

With the US influence in the Philippines, is this rocket science?

Thailand never had that 'privilege' to be blessed with fluency in English!

 

 

 

Unfortunately, in many of the restaurants Thailand doesn’t have the privilege to be ‘blessed in Thai’ either... 

 

I used to think it was due to my ‘farang’ accent when the wrong food arrived in a restaurant. 

I then thought it was due to the person listening out for English and not understanding that I wasn’t speaking English and in fact speaking Thai.. (eyes not believing the ears).

Then it dawned on me that half the waiting staff in restaurants are just not that bright and don’t pay attention, the other half are not from Thailand and can’t speak Thai or English very well. I learned this from visiting places with my Wife (who’s Bangkokian and speaks Thai very clearly) - It wasn’t a particularly uncommon experience to listen to my Wife’s order in a restaurant, I would fully understand her order in clear and perfect Thai, yet the incorrect order arrives. I soon realized ‘it wasn’t her/me, it was them’, they were either inattentive or not from Thailand (i.e. they are Burmese or Vietnamese) or freshly from the provinces and had were not used to the Bangkok accent. 

 

When I speak Thai with educated people I rarely hit a stumbling block with their comprehension, when I speak Thai with uneducated Thai’s (i.e. Waitresses etc) I often get a blank stare and find myself repeating the order etc - again, its not me, its them !!!!

 

So... a lot of comprehension regardless of language comes down to how switched on the ‘listener’ is. 

 

 

[rtwiddy]

The official language of ASEAN is English, so Thai's need to learn English to be compliant business wise with ASEAN.  It seems this restaurant may or may not understand this.

[dcnx]

I won’t complain about your English despite having learned your language. However, I will complain about your sub par food and lazy service.

[Ajarnbrian]

That restaurant may gain sympathetic customers, while losing those who expect low paid Thai restaurant staff to have high level English. I would happily use that restaurant, with my fairly basic Thai and staff basic English getting the food order done. And I`ll be happy to avoid arrogant customers who have unrealistic expectations.

[HaleySabai]

The customer is all-ways wrong here in "Love You" land.

[Gweiloman]

6 hours ago, ChrisKC said:

Irrespective of language; being rude is no way to promote your business; this sign has the message, "we don't need your business" - certainly turns me away!

You are right. The restaurant is saying in no uncertain terms that they don’t need farang’s business. I don’t understand why that is so difficult for supposedly native English speakers to understand. 
 

p/s: I would like to add that many thousands of restaurants survive very well without so much as a satang from entitled farangs. 

Edited January 22, 2020 by Gweiloman

[Gweiloman]

13 hours ago, Airbagwill said:

of course it doesn't - only the Chinese speak Chinese ........... UK, Singapore, Russia, India Japan, Koreans Malaysia will all try to communicate with Thais in ENGLISH.

 

In the future the demographics will change but the lingua franca of ALL business will remain for the foreseeable future as English

You do realise that many Singaporeans and Malaysians are Chinese, right? If the Thai business in question is able to communicate better in Chinese than English, then the chances are that they would be communicating in Chinese as opposed to English. 

[Sonhia]

Most Thai do not want to learn English language. Fact!

 

Most Thai consider themselves above all other nationalities. 

 

Considering the bulk of Thai trade etc is genrerated by tourism plus foregine companies combined, that mostly communicate in and by the use of English language, Thai should make more of an effort to learn good English, after all English is supposed to be Thai nationals second language and is used by other Asean member countries, but Thai being Thai think the rest of the forward thinkimg world should adhere to the Thai fickle, lazy way of thinking.

 

Thankfully that does not happen.

 

Many other Asian nationals can converse much better using English language than most Thai nationals can.  Fact!  Egg on Thai face...

 

Simply put, Thai are lazy and very racist. Thai tend to beleive the rest of the world owe them, which is incorrect thinking.

 

Do most Thai care? No! They consider themselves too perfect.

 

Personally, if a Thai cannot offer me good service which normally means conversing in acceptable English, I simply take my business elsewhere. They need my business and money more than I need there very poor customer service and normally pathetic so called craftsmanship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gweiloman]

8 minutes ago, Sonhia said:

Most Thai do not want to learn English language. Fact!

 

Most Thai consider themselves above all other nationalities. 

 

Considering the bulk of Thai trade etc is genrerated by tourism plus foregine companies combined, that mostly communicate in and by the use of English language, Thai should make more of an effort to learn good English, after all English is supposed to be Thai nationals second language and is used by other Asean member countries, but Thai being Thai think the rest of the forward thinkimg world should adhere to the Thai fickle, lazy way of thinking.

 

Thankfully that does not happen.

 

Many other Asian nationals can converse much better using English language than most Thai nationals can.  Fact!  Egg on Thai face...

 

Simply put, Thai are lazy and very racist. Thai tend to beleive the rest of the world owe them, which is incorrect thinking.

 

Do most Thai care? No! They consider themselves too perfect.

 

Personally, if a Thai cannot offer me good service which normally means conversing in acceptable English, I simply take my business elsewhere. They need my business and money more than I need there very poor customer service and normally pathetic so called craftsmanship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Candidate for troll post of the year lol

[Artisi]

2 hours ago, Sonhia said:

Most Thai do not want to learn English language. Fact!

 

Most Thai consider themselves above all other nationalities. 

 

Considering the bulk of Thai trade etc is genrerated by tourism plus foregine companies combined, that mostly communicate in and by the use of English language, Thai should make more of an effort to learn good English, after all English is supposed to be Thai nationals second language and is used by other Asean member countries, but Thai being Thai think the rest of the forward thinkimg world should adhere to the Thai fickle, lazy way of thinking.

 

Thankfully that does not happen.

 

Many other Asian nationals can converse much better using English language than most Thai nationals can.  Fact!  Egg on Thai face...

 

Simply put, Thai are lazy and very racist. Thai tend to beleive the rest of the world owe them, which is incorrect thinking.

 

Do most Thai care? No! They consider themselves too perfect.

 

Personally, if a Thai cannot offer me good service which normally means conversing in acceptable English, I simply take my business elsewhere. They need my business and money more than I need there very poor customer service and normally pathetic so called craftsmanship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You're certainly going to have a major impact on Thailand's economy to the point that the country may well not survive without your ongoing patronage. 

[Artisi]

12 hours ago, rtwiddy said:

The official language of ASEAN is English, so Thai's need to learn English to be compliant business wise with ASEAN.  It seems this restaurant may or may not understand this.

Maybe you don't understand that the majority of Thai restaurants don't give a rat's a rse about ASEAN. 

[Pachalan]

On 1/20/2020 at 11:41 AM, ParkerN said:

Yes. well. English is the default uniquitous language of the world. Thai isn't. It must surely be the responsibility of Thais to speak English, not for Europeans or Americans (both of whom come here mainly for cheap beaches, cheap food or cheap sex) to learn how to order Somtam in Thai or to engage a waiter whose IQ is likely less than 90 in conversation (quantum mechanics anyone?).

 

Seems reasonable for foreigners to boycott jingoistic little restaurants like this one. It probably isn't very clean anyway and it seems they need a few lessons in how not to <deleted> their customers off.

What a remarkably arrogant comment. It is a polite friendly notice, but you immediately label them as jingoistic and their restaurant as unclean.

 

You categorise any Thai working in a restaurant as having a low IQ, and then use the non-word “uniquitous”  ……. couldn't make it up, ha ha ha.

 

Oh, and I suggest you google ‘quantum mechanics’ you obviously have no idea of its meaning.

[Airbagwill]

3 hours ago, Sonhia said:

Most Thai do not want to learn English language. Fact!

the comment  is not fact it's the poster's bigotry

[Airbagwill]

On 1/20/2020 at 11:41 AM, ParkerN said:

English is the default uniquitous language of the world.

As this comment is barely English and meaningless it really sums up the attitude of so many NESs. The poster also fails to realise that it is not just NES who use English in Thailand, it is virtually all visitors. 

English is the LINGUA FRANCA, "a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different."

[SCOTT FITZGERSLD]

On 1/20/2020 at 1:28 AM, Jingthing said:

Translation of Love you.

the sign says "cove you", not love you.

[josephbloggs]

Incredible.  A light hearted sign (written in good English actually) gets 42 pages of butthurt comments.  Even for here that is impressive.  42 pages!!

So many people feel persecuted, so many chips on shoulders, so much paranoia, people playing the race card.  Honestly it's like some people have nothing better to do than to read every thread here and read anti-foreigner hatred in every one of them them.  What?  Oh.

It's a light hearted sign, written in English.  Get over yourselves.

[URMySunshine]

16 hours ago, Tulak said:

I had traveled in many countries all over the world (including Thailand) and found my (second language English) very useful.

English language allows me to cross barriers and communicate with  people of different nationalities.

Like it or not, English is the language of the World. It helps us to unite.

Besides of all this, if every tourist had to learn all languages of all countries where they go, world tourist industry would stop dead.

Regardless of all the above, it is always appreciated when tourist learns some simple local phrases. Just to say "Hello" in native people's tongue creates good vibes.

Good will on both sides goes a long way.

What is your native language ?

[rkidlad]

I'm not a business expert, but the last thing you want to do in business is 'lecture' your customers or prospective customers. Customers can be a fickle bunch who are allowed be as biased and discriminatory as they want. They're free to choose where they spend their money.

 

 

[RJRS1301]

2 hours ago, Airbagwill said:

uniquitous

DO you mean :ubiquitous

What you have mentioned is a cloud based game, unless you are speaking Hindi, but since the thread is about Thai/English, I very much doubt you would intro the less spoken (in Thailand) Hindi

Edited January 23, 2020 by RJRS1301

[Tulak]

1 hour ago, URMySunshine said:

What is your native language ?

Czech

[URMySunshine]

2 minutes ago, Tulak said:

Czech

You have very good English, your language skills and that of many non-English folk puts many of our native speakers to shame. 

[Tulak]

2 minutes ago, URMySunshine said:

You have very good English, your language skills and that of many non-English folk puts many of our native speakers to shame. 

Thanks. I take it as a compliment. 

Your remark wants me to learn some more of this beautiful language ????

[Artisi]

31 minutes ago, RJRS1301 said:

DO you mean :ubiquitous

What you have mentioned is a cloud based game, unless you are speaking Hindi, but since the thread is about Thai/English, I very much doubt you would intro the less spoken (in Thailand) Hindi

Come on, give airbag a break, you know he is never wrong - this is simply a typo ????

[monkfish]

3 hours ago, josephbloggs said:

Incredible.  A light hearted sign (written in good English actually) gets 42 pages of butthurt comments.  Even for here that is impressive.  42 pages!!

So many people feel persecuted, so many chips on shoulders, so much paranoia, people playing the race card.  Honestly it's like some people have nothing better to do than to read every thread here and read anti-foreigner hatred in every one of them them.  What?  Oh.

It's a light hearted sign, written in English.  Get over yourselves.

Well thanks for your contribution to those 42 pages.
PS the sign is obviously fake but I think it only made 42 pages with people defending it.

[Opl]

different mindset - different sign...

[Mister Fixit]

23 hours ago, Artisi said:

Nothing stopping you leaving your comments. 

Beat me to it - why could he not leave his comments in English?

[Mister Fixit]

20 hours ago, Spike1938 said:

It is indeed the government's fault. I live in rural Thailand. Several years back one of my Thai nieces came to me for help. It came out that her English teacher could not speak English so there was no conversational English happening in class. When I offered to help I was officially rejected.

Basically, because you would show up their ignorance.  

My wife is a traditional Thai masseuse with her own spa.  No hanky-panky, just straight out pain and prodding type massage. 

However, she studied for about 6 years and joined (sounds something like, forget the exact title) the Thai Traditional and Complementary Medicine Institute based at the Ministry of Public Health.

They offered a free weekend teaching members English so I took her along and offered to help out with some conversation if they wanted.  They were actually very snotty indeed to me and some fat old bat told me it was only for Thais and I must leave forthwith.  I did, but not before telling her that with her standard of English, it was going to be a waste of time for the poor attendees.

My wife stayed but she said everyone complained later that it was useless (as I strongly suspected it would be).

What these Thais in petty bureaucratic posts never grasp is that not only are they generally useless in speaking decent English, they are also utterly useless at teaching it.  Unfortunately, someone with a vocabulary of about 150 words of English is seen as an expert, especially in their own mind.  

 

Edited January 23, 2020 by Mister Fixit

[Airbagwill]

22 hours ago, Duck J Butters said:

No, it’s a complete and utter waste of your time to learn a dead language like Thai. This is precisely why it is imperative to land a Thai wife that was educated in the US before you move to Thailand. I met my wife ( went to Stanford, #1 school on planet Earth ) on Tinder while I was still living in San Francisco. When I learned of the massive money to be made in the Thai supplement industry, of course, I moved to Thailand. That said, I’ve been here five years now and don’t know a lick of Thai or care to waste my time learning. However, I have learned Chinese since moving to Thailand. If you’re going to learn an Asian language, you learn Chinese which has actual real world value. If you need an interpreter, you marry a smart Thai woman. There are loads of single rich smart bilingual Thai girls due to lack of straight males in Thailand. Don’t just settle for a lowly bar girl. You can do way better than that!!! Stupid is as stupid does though. You reap what you sow. Survival of the fittest. Adapt or die.

I have lived and worked in Thailand for nearly 20 years - I speak reasonably conversation level Thai - it opens doors and helps in all sorts of matters - especially in day-to-day pricing and inter-personal relationships

[Coremouse]

15 hours ago, Gweiloman said:

You do realise that many Singaporeans and Malaysians are Chinese, right? If the Thai business in question is able to communicate better in Chinese than English, then the chances are that they would be communicating in Chinese as opposed to English. 

Actually I don't have high hopes Thai people could embrace Chinese if they can't even popularize English... What more scary than Thai-Angleet would be Thai-ish Chinese. Trying to understand them is like solving logic puzzle. 

 

I( as a Chinese who's quite good at, say Chinese ) mostly working in companies cater Chinese customer, many my colleague / sale girls are returnee from Chinese university. I usually can't understand what they're saying and always revert to English / Thai / etc. when possible. The more headache comes from read and write Chinese characters, in case there're 6k of commonly-used-character compare to 26 latin alphabet. I gave up teaching the staff to write properly, and mostly did all company paperwork by myself. Now also consider many accents of spoken Chinese are not mutually understandable( though everyone can understand Mandarin )

 

Through my time here I could only remember 2 Thai girls spoke fluent Chinese, one's 2nd-gen Thai from a very rich family, and graduated from top China university. The other lived in China for many yrs, majored in Chinese( yet she writes formal document in quite vulgar way ). 

 

Edited January 23, 2020 by Coremouse
typo