Not sure if this the correct forum for my posting but I’m sure there are many like me with voice issues, mine being almost a whisper and trying to ask shop assistants, restaurant staff or even having any sort of conversation through a face mask is becoming extremely frustrating, when I lower my mask to speak I get anything from a not a problem to looks that could kill despite my trying to explain why. So how are others coping with a similar problem to me?

Use a phone translator perhaps. 

Perhaps speak more slowly and clearly.
Consider a different make / kind of face mask.
Use body language.

Write down name of product and show the assistant the name and say it slowly.

If looking for a certain product take a sample packaging.

I have worked with animals much of my life and also have a soft voice.

Definitely sign language is the solution. 

Whatever it is that you need, download a picture of it from Google images first.

 

Then, just show the pic. Makes my life sooooo easy. Good luck. ????

Same goes with people with difficulty in hearing. Prolonged exposure to loud sounds have caused the deterioration of my ability to hear.

It is difficult for me to hear everything before everyone started wearing masks. I am lost now.

Avoid taking your mask off because you will get the looks and it will increase your risk of picking up something from somewhere. Have things written down or use your phone. 

Yeah, my Thai vocab is pretty good, but my memory for tones is hopeless, so Thais had difficulty understanding whatever I was yakking on about before the face masks came along. Combined with the fact that they hide your face, so nobody can see if you're smiling or angry or sad or what, it's making communication a bit of a challenge to say the least.

Thanks for all the useful comments but as most of the issues are down to wearing a face mask in the first instance and I’m far from convinced they’re our saviours I’ll be polite and courteous but if they are not happy for me to lower my mask to understand me I’ll  simply go somewhere else to spend my money and many are perfectly happy for me to lower my mask if they cannot hear me. 

Use Google translate . It has visual thai as well as sound . Not accurate 100% all of the time but will get you by in most situations .

18 hours ago, poppysdad said:

Thanks for all the useful comments but as most of the issues are down to wearing a face mask in the first instance and I’m far from convinced they’re our saviours I’ll be polite and courteous but if they are not happy for me to lower my mask to understand me I’ll  simply go somewhere else to spend my money and many are perfectly happy for me to lower my mask if they cannot hear me. 

I think this is likely an issue beyond face masks... take some responsibility as you have identified yourself as a low talker and find a way... my problem is the opposite... my hearing must be going a little - not as easy for me to understand Thai when spoken through a mask... but it is my problem to work out - not theirs

Moved to general forum as not health related.

 

By the way I have a normal voice and still sometimes have to lower the mask to be understood. Esoecially the thicker cloth masks.

On 5/7/2020 at 7:06 PM, Speedo1968 said:

Perhaps speak more slowly and clearly.
Consider a different make / kind of face mask.
Use body language.

Write down name of product and show the assistant the name and say it slowly.

If looking for a certain product take a sample packaging.

I have worked with animals much of my life and also have a soft voice.

Surely it's not difficult to open your mouth and speak more clearly and more loudly. 

On 5/8/2020 at 2:23 PM, Macthehat said:

Use Google translate . It has visual thai as well as sound . Not accurate 100% all of the time but will get you by in most situations .

True, for a couple of years I regularly used a young taxi driver in bkk (he came from roi et) who had his cheap mid sized ipad set up with google translate including voice recognition and spoken translations. He was able to record every conversation he had with non-thai speakers and he used it at home to slowly teach himself some English. If I spoke to him in Thai he would politely ask me to speak English into hie ipad.

 

On the other hand one of my uni professor colleagues (from England) did the same thing, he would get in a taxi, speak English then quickly show his ipad to the driver to read the message in Thai.   

Edited May 10, 20206 yr by scorecard

There should be an app to turn a phone into a megaphone. When you put a call in speaker mode it's pretty loud. So there should be something out there to use the phone's speakers to amplify a voice.