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Posted
4 minutes ago, transam said:

No I didn't, I am telling you my story of fact....????

 

I cannot ever be given Thai nationality, but if I take Mrs.T to the UK, it is more or less certain she will get a Brit Passport in very little time.... 

Having Thai kids is not a requirement.

 

Having an income of a certain amount and paying tax is one.

 

Even a pensioner can come to Thailand, get the right visa he needs to get a work permit, get a job and pay taxes on it.

 

He can even start a company and make himself director with a paid salary and pay income taxes.

 

Because you are over 50, you have no obligation to apply for a retirement extension, you can still work if you want.

 

So please explain again why it never can happen for you

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Posted

I won’t judge other expats and foreigners here for not being able to speak Thai. 

 

But, I will judge other expats and foreigners who live here if their attitude is ‘why bother?  and they refuse to even try the basics’ ....

 

There are so many dismissive excuses people will use to avoid admitting there is an underlying laziness or lack of intelligence or combination of both... 

 

 

For me, the reason I’m not better at Thai than I am is that I’m lazy and not smart enough with languages...   I should be wholly fluent by now and I’m not.

The reason I’m not is that I’ve never had any formal training. 

The reason I’ve never had any formal training is that I travel too much, but thats just an excuse....  the reality is that when I here I want to enjoy my time here not attend class or lessons etc.. 

 

I’ve been very fortunate that I have picked up Thai to a level whereby I can get by in most situations, hold conversations etc.... but I struggle when conversations become more advanced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Like 2
Posted
6 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

I won’t judge other expats and foreigners here for not being able to speak Thai. 

 

But, I will judge other expats and foreigners who live here if their attitude is ‘why bother?  and they refuse to even try the basics’ ....

 

There are so many dismissive excuses people will use to avoid admitting there is an underlying laziness or lack of intelligence or combination of both... 

 

 

For me, the reason I’m not better at Thai than I am is that I’m lazy and not smart enough with languages...   I should be wholly fluent by now and I’m not.

The reason I’m not is that I’ve never had any formal training. 

The reason I’ve never had any formal training is that I travel too much, but thats just an excuse....  the reality is that when I here I want to enjoy my time here not attend class or lessons etc.. 

 

I’ve been very fortunate that I have picked up Thai to a level whereby I can get by in most situations, hold conversations etc.... but I struggle when conversations become more advanced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am English, I failed my English exams as a kid, get the picture....:stoner: 

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Posted
4 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

And yet I had enough money to retire at age 45 and be fully funded for the rest of my life, while you need to work in Thailand for 3rd world wages.

 

I also speak central Thai, French, Spanish and some German.

I have never worked in Thailand, retired at 32, don;t eat with 4 from 128gr tin of Tuna, or feed my kid Tulip chocolate with 12% cocoa and 64 % sugar, and tell him it tasted the same as cote d'or

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Posted
1 hour ago, HappyExpat57 said:

I knew a black teacher, very much a gentleman, who learned to speak Thai. Once he realized what they were saying about him being a "chocolate man" and other much nastier things, he confronted them in their native tongue. Didn't slow them down one bit.

Is it bad to be a chocolate man? 

Some people call me "wan", the guy with glasses. Fair enough, I wear glasses. And if I would be green then probably they would call me green man, or maybe apple or something like that. No problem! 

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Posted
1 minute ago, peterfranks said:

I have never worked in Thailand, retired at 32, don;t eat with 4 from 128gr tin of Tuna, or feed my kid Tulip chocolate with 12% cocoa and 64 % sugar, and tell him it tasted the same as cote d'or

I like canned tuna.

Oddly enough I have 1Kg of Cadbury's Dairy milk arriving today.

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Posted
19 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I think mostly it has to do with having a reason to learn Thai.

I live here since over two decades and my Thai is far away from good. But it's good enough for what I need it. I.e. I can order food in Thai, tell the taxi driver where to go, and I can say a few polite words to Thai people.

I am not able to have a proper business conversation in Thai. Why not? Because I don't need that. Because option one I do business with farangs or option two I do business with educated Thais who often studied outside of Thailand. My Thai will never be as good as their English. So we will anyhow talk in English.

Some valid points here.... 

 

With anything I consider wholly important.... i.e. seeking a medical opinion etc I will only converse with a doctor whose English is excellent, my Thai may never be good enough for that.... 

 

A plateau has been reached whereby significant effort needs to be made to step beyond 'conversation-casual’ to ‘professional business’...  and when dealing with anything or anyone at a ‘professional business’ level their English is usually fluent.

The exception here would be dealing with the police - but at a checkpoint etc my Thai is good enough to argue, object to their BS etc !! (although getting stopped is a very rare occasion these days). 

 

That said, there are so many times when speaking with local labourers, the Amphur office staff, the local juristic staff, security guards, delivery staff, etc etc is all useful....  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted (edited)

Should countries that largely depend on tourism as well new technology, for future economy, know basic English? Yes they do.

Should expats learn basic Thai? Yes as it helps a lot but the priority for Thais to know at least basic English should be higher on the list. 

Edited by ChaiyaTH
  • Like 1
Posted
1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

The UK only requires you to be there and be non-white to get nationality.

Pretty much the same in the USA or Europe.

Helps if you're a Muslim.

Not true.  You need to pass various levels of English Language tests and the Life in the UK Test.

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Posted

I thought this is why evil whitey conquered the world 150 years ago for?  So we all speak the same language everywhere:  English. lol

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Posted (edited)

They most certainly should not!

 

Expats speaking Thai is a shanda.

 

But I suppose we should be kind hearted and not denigrate the poor dears that do too much.

 

They may give us more dignified expats a bad name but I suppose we can't fault them for outdated notions they likely acquired in early childhood.

Edited by Jingthing
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Posted
1 hour ago, transam said:

No I didn't, I am telling you my story of fact....????

 

I cannot ever be given Thai nationality, but if I take Mrs.T to the UK, it is more or less certain she will get a Brit Passport in very little time.... 

Mrs got hers in 3 years - I believe it is now 5 years minimum.

 

RAZZ

Posted

I'm relatively new here.  But it's hard for me to pick up any "thai". Part of that is I have aCambodian gf, who goes in and out of thai and cambodian, and I have no clue which is which...

But more so is the advent of internet and video streaming.  I get all news, and movies and TV in English.  all my social media and free phone calls across the world and connection to anyone at any time.

I'm guessing 10 years ago or more, no smartphones, no streaming, 

and all you had was some cable TV in english, of course still had internet, but not at your fingertip and not projected onto your TV...

that it had to be much easier as you simply HAD to listen to more Thai speaking in every facet of your life.

Correct me if I'm wrong?  this is just a hypothesis.   

I mean, I might as well be in my home country until I'm driving by an officer lol.

Posted
2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Nobody in my family speaks central Thai in normal conversation

Central Thai is spoken by less than 20 mill people.

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Posted
1 hour ago, richard_smith237 said:

That said, there are so many times when speaking with local labourers, the Amphur office staff, the local juristic staff, security guards, delivery staff, etc etc is all useful....  

Obviously it's good to use the same language to understand each other. But IMHO even if my Thai would be perfect I would have trouble having a meaning conversation with a local official or a laborer. Because their frame of mind and type of thinking is very different from my kind of thinking.

 

That reminds me of a farang who (pre covid) I saw regularly reading the Thai newspaper. I asked him about it and how difficult it is. He told me the difficult part was not only the language but all the nickname and phrases, etc..

At least my motivation is not high enough to learn all this without a good reason.

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