Does it make (a lot of) sense to learn more Thai after knowing the basics?

[OneMoreFarang]

After living for more than 20 years in the middle of Bangkok my Thai language skills are still limited.

I am able to communicate with Thai people about basic things like food, locations (tell the driver/rider where to go), everyday shopping, and some small talk. 

When I visit the family of my Thai gf up country then we are somehow able to communicate, but not much. And to be fair I don't really care if I could have a deep meaningful conversation with them.

 

I am not able to have a proper business conversation in Thai. And when I go to official offices then I go normally together with my accountant or maybe an agent who deals with i.e. immigration every day.

 

I wonder if it makes sense to try to learn more Thai. And it's not just learning more. If I would learn to communicate properly with Thai officials, how long would I keep that ability if I use it only one or max 5 times a year? And even if I would understand every single word from the officials, would that replace a Thai person (i.e. accountant, lawyer, agent) who communicated with these officials all the time?

 

What is your experience with learning more than basic Thai? Do you need it? Did your life improve? How?

Or did you learn it and then forget most of it because you never used it?

 

If it would improve my life in Thailand considerable if I would know Thai language better, then maybe I should learn more.

But if it won't make a difference 99% of the time and if I would likely forget it soon again then what would be the point?

 

How about you?

[mstevens]

I speak and read Thai to a high level and I have found it both useful and rewarding.

 

In social situations, I have found that once Thais realise that they can just speak Thai with you and don't need to use English, they are much more comfortable. Even Thais who speak very good English really do appreciate foreigners who speak Thai well. It just makes them feel more relaxed around you.

 

I like knowing what is going on around me and, personally, would not like to feel like I was in the dark about what people were saying or doing.

 

I have seldom used the Thai language in the workplace or in business. When I was working, all of the Thais spoke English to a good standard and they used English for me for anything work-related and occasionally used Thai when out socially.

 

As an aside, I often heard it said that Thais don't like foreigners who speak Thai to a high level. My only experience of this was with the sort of Thais I have no interest in socialising with. Educated Thais all appreciate foreigners who take the time and effort to learn the Thai language to a good level.

 

Has my life been better through being able to read and speak Thai well? Yes, it has.

 

You can, of course, survive perfectly well in Thailand with no Thai at all. For me, learning Thai has been very rewarding and I am glad I put the effort in all those years ago to learn the language. But is is necessary? For the vast majority of people, I'd say no.

[Bredbury Blue]

30 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

After living for more than 20 years in the middle of Bangkok my Thai language skills are still limited.

I am able to communicate with Thai people about basic things like food, locations (tell the driver/rider where to go), everyday shopping, and some small talk. 

When I visit the family of my Thai gf up country then we are somehow able to communicate, but not much. And to be fair I don't really care if I could have a deep meaningful conversation with them.

 

I am not able to have a proper business conversation in Thai. And when I go to official offices then I go normally together with my accountant or maybe an agent who deals with i.e. immigration every day.

 

I wonder if it makes sense to try to learn more Thai. And it's not just learning more. If I would learn to communicate properly with Thai officials, how long would I keep that ability if I use it only one or max 5 times a year? And even if I would understand every single word from the officials, would that replace a Thai person (i.e. accountant, lawyer, agent) who communicated with these officials all the time?

 

What is your experience with learning more than basic Thai? Do you need it? Did your life improve? How?

Or did you learn it and then forget most of it because you never used it?

 

If it would improve my life in Thailand considerable if I would know Thai language better, then maybe I should learn more.

But if it won't make a difference 99% of the time and if I would likely forget it soon again then what would be the point?

 

How about you?

Interested to know how you got to such a level. I have reached a plateau at lower intermediate but would like to get to advanced level so any advice would be appreciated.

[JackGats]

The question is, once you speak Thai very fluently, will Thais want to speak to you in Thai? It may turn out that however better your Thai is compared to their English, they will refuse to speak Thai with you. Instead of pursuing the conversation in Thai, they will abort the conversation with the usual "How long you been Thailand? You speak Thai good". That's as far as spending years learning Thai may bring you: "How long you been Thailand - You speak Thai good".

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, mstevens said:

Educated Thais all appreciate foreigners who take the time and effort to learn the Thai language to a good level.

Thanks for your comment.

It would be interesting in which language you communicate with Thais who also speak English fluently.

I think often "serious conversation" is done in the language which the participants know best. 

I often have some Thai language small talk with Thais who know English a lot better than I do Thai. But if we have to talk about anything important then we talk in English, because at least in my case most (overseas) educated Thais speak English a lot better than I do Thai. 

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, Bredbury Blue said:

Interested to know how you got to such a level. I have reached a plateau at lower intermediate but would like to get to advanced level so any advice would be appreciated.

I think it is difficult to say what level Thai I speak. I try to speak Thai in everyday life with my gf, people in shops, restaurants, (bar-)girls, and many others. And obviously after doing that for years my Thai gets better.

 

Sometimes when I work with Thais, and they talk to each other in Thai, I have a pretty good idea what they were talking about. But not in detail. I get better with that just by listening to their Thai conversations between each other, and then later listening to their English translation for me.

That happens at work. But I guess such scenario doesn't really happen in casual situations.

 

But that's as far as my learning happens. I never really thought about having regular lessons to learn better Thai. That's the subject of this thread.

[OneMoreFarang]

56 minutes ago, JackGats said:

The question is, once you speak Thai very fluently, will Thais want to speak to you in Thai? It may turn out that however better your Thai is compared to their English, they will refuse to speak Thai with you. Instead of pursuing the conversation in Thai, they will abort the conversation with the usual "How long you been Thailand? You speak Thai good". That's as far as spending years learning Thai may bring you: "How long you been Thailand - You speak Thai good".

What you describe are typical situation where Thais are looking for inexperienced foreigners to (mostly) sell them something. That is a reason why I speak Thai in shops or with taxi drivers so that they know right away that I am not new in town.

If they don't want to talk to me because my Thai is not too bad, then I agree with a comment above, I am not interested in those people who are happier if I don't understand their language. 

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

What is your experience with learning more than basic Thai? Do you need it? Did your life improve? How?

Or did you learn it and then forget most of it because you never used it?

Spent several years learning to read, write and speak Thai.

Forgot it all, aside from simple commerce.

Also forgot German, Spanish and French (and I used to teach German and French in high school).

 

What you don't use, you forget.

[mstevens]

2 hours ago, JackGats said:

The question is, once you speak Thai very fluently, will Thais want to speak to you in Thai? It may turn out that however better your Thai is compared to their English, they will refuse to speak Thai with you. Instead of pursuing the conversation in Thai, they will abort the conversation with the usual "How long you been Thailand? You speak Thai good". That's as far as spending years learning Thai may bring you: "How long you been Thailand - You speak Thai good".

I have never had such a reaction from an educated Thai. That’s the sort of silly comment you might get from thr employees in bar areas, I suppose. 

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, mstevens said:

I have never had such a reaction from an educated Thai. That’s the sort of silly comment you might get from thr employees in bar areas, I suppose. 

I am sure you can also get that reaction from a tuktuk driver in front of a temple - far away from any bar. 

[Lorry]

All Thais whose English is limited or who feel uncomfortable using English (because they rarely use it) will be much more friendly and will be much less reluctant to talk to you. 

Regular girls,  vendors,  technicians who fix a phone or an a/c, tax office, bank staff (especially back office), nurses (including in Bumrungrad)...

(not: immigration,  BTS staff)

They might even teach you in what country you live here.  Thailand is more than lower Sukhumvit, the English speaking elite and some English speaking professionals.

[ColeBOzbourne]

21 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

what would be the point?

The point for me would be that I just enjoy studying languages. I have other hobbies too, but do spend a good part of my day studying Thai because I like to spend my time that way. If you continued studying Thai, in class or on your own, would it be because you want to, and enjoy the learning process? Or because you feel like your obligated? 

[OneMoreFarang]

5 minutes ago, ColeBOzbourne said:

The point for me would be that I just enjoy studying languages. I have other hobbies too, but do spend a good part of my day studying Thai because I like to spend my time that way. If you continued studying Thai, in class or on your own, would it be because you want to, and enjoy the learning process? Or because you feel like your obligated? 

I learn when I have a motivation to learn.

In school I was always bad in any language. When I was on holiday, I had to learn a foreign language to be able to communicate. That's how I learned English.

And in Thailand I learned Thai as far as I needed to learn it.

If I need only, let's say, 1,000 words, why should I learn 3,000 or 5,000?

 

Another sample is learning programming languages. One way is to just learn it step by step. I learned it mostly by having projects which I wanted to do, and I learned how to use a programming language to do what I wanted. For me this motivation makes a big difference. 

 

I guess with that I also answered my own question from above. Do I really need more Thai? No, not really. 

[digbeth]

If you're running a business here of any worth, not having access to media in the native language would put you at a big disadvantage, the newspaper that must not be linked here aren't reliable and doesn't capture the true sentiment and is at best 2nd or 3rd hand account 

 

Having better understanding of language to enjoy Thai media and literature, I'd say not so much you're not missing anything. 

 

day to day life, you can get along just fine without