Does it annoy you when a Thai person doesn't understand your spoken Thai?

[spidermike007]

My personal opinion, is that for most people who speak the Western languages, they are able to think in circles. Most of us are taught the art of creativity, and the virtues of an open mind. So, if you mispronounce or improperly state something, an effort will be made to try and stretch the mind, to figure out what you have just said, and what it means. This is especially true of Spanish. Not as much with French. 

 

It is not at all the case with Thai. If you do not nail it, it is your fault, and little effort can and will be made to accommodate your lack of perfection. It becomes a huge challenge when trying to speak or converse here. If the tones are not right, most Thai people are completely lost or unable, or unwilling to even venture a guess as to what you are saying.

 

The exact opposite is the case with most Spanish speaking people, nearly anywhere in Latin America. And that makes it so much more rewarding. 

 

[rwill]

I know I am not the best with tones so harder to understand.

 

But I think sometimes they see a foreigner and expect them to speak english and are trying hard to understand what you are saying.  But you are speaking Thai and it all sounds like a big scramble to them because they are not listening for Thai.

 

I once ordered at a coffee shop and the girls mouth opened in shock.  I asked her if i said something wrong.  She said no, you said it clearer than most Thai's do.  I told her I must of got lucky.

[Scouse123]

21 hours ago, KhunLA said:

Not annoy me, but do wonder why some understand me perfectly, and others haven't a clue what I said.  Not like I'm in deep conversation with them, just ordering food at restaurant or simple shopping questions.

 

 

Because they are not paying attention and are not expecting you to speak Thai.

 

I have had it plenty of times in the past.

[jayboy]

10 hours ago, susanlea said:

Country people speak slow

 

Not in Southern Thailand they don't.

[KhunLA]

3 minutes ago, Scouse123 said:

Because they are not paying attention and are not expecting you to speak Thai.

 

I have had it plenty of times in the past.

Actually they are, and when I repeat myself 2 or 3X, and still get the blank stare.   Then look to the wife, and she simple repeats the exact same thing, and it gets written down.   One does have to wonder.

 

As I stated, another person will understand the exact same, first time spoken.  No need to repeat.  

[Rhys]

hmmm....since Thai is quite a tonal L-1, I give it to them.. my attempts at tones are bad... one for the home team.

[Galong]

I went to a restaurant and ordered Nam Tok Moo.  The waitress didn't seem to have the slightest idea what I was saying. I tried it a few times in different tones... no luck. I asked her for her notepad and pen (she understood that somehow, probably because I pointed at them).  I wrote it down in Thai. She still didn't understand. The boss finally came over and basically said, "she's new, she doesn't speak Thai".   I have no idea what Nam Tok Moo is in Burmese.

[BKKBike09]

21 hours ago, simon43 said:

I can speak Thai as good as Churchill speaking French - even a little better!

 

Shades of “Quand je regarde mon derrière, je vois qu'il est divisé en deux parties égales”, perhaps?

[BKKBike09]

21 hours ago, simon43 said:

I can speak Thai as good as Churchill speaking French - even a little better!

 

Shades of “Quand je regarde mon derrière, je vois qu'il est divisé en deux parties égales”, perhaps?

[Caldera]

That almost never happens to me nowadays, but when it does, it doesn't annoy me too much, I just try to work around it and move on.

 

Most Thais really aren't conditioned to Thai that is mispronounced by a foreigner though. How many times have I listened in on a foreigner getting most of the tones wrong. Nevertheless, I had no trouble understanding what they wanted to say just from context and from not being focused on the tones religiously, but most Thais seem to be unable to do that.

[klauskunkel]

No, not annoyed, it's just me not nailing the correct tone, which gives a whole new meaning to the word.

look at "near/far" = glai, if it's pronounced with falling tone it means near, otherwise it's far...

I imagine that example for the Thai military in wartime:

"Where is the enemy, near or far? And don't answer on the handset, use the Thai Post!"

 

[Skeptic7]

Thais don't even understand one another. Just listen to any Thai-Thai conversation and you'll mostly hear "huh?...arai?...arai na?"...🤣

[cjinchiangrai]

My Thai is so bad that I consider it a miracle if they do understand. I have to thank everyone for being as patient as they are.

[Expat68]

Different regions speak different dialect, ie Thai, Issaan, Laos and quite likely the deeper South

[DualSportBiker]

21 hours ago, watthong said:

 

Absolutely, it also annoys me when someone claims that he could speak  "Thai to a high level", and when the local Thais don't understand them, he turns around and asks if they speak their own language. That is what I called "conceited" - a word I believe is widely used among the "master"-class

Was just chatting with my the ex of a recently deceased friend. She has lived in the US for 20 years now and recently returned for the first time. She is Thai, but multiple Thais failed to understand her throughout her trip. She was asked if she was Thai, or "Where are you from?" consistently.  Asking someone if they are Thai is a legitimate question. There are plenty of non-Thai Asians in Thailand. I ask waitresses all the time because some Burmese staff speak reasonable English.

 

I have moments of real clarity with my Thai - everyone understands everything I say. I also have moments when I am tired, stressed, bored/non-committal when I can't understand the loose approximation of Thai that comes out of my mouth, let alone the poor sod I am talking to. When that happens I flip to English, or better still French, just to stir up my head and help myself refocus. It does not annoy me, but it can be frustrating. That frustration is more due to being tired, stressed or bored, not failing to make myself understood. There is always room for improvement. What I never do is get visibly frustrated and repeat the same phrase louder hoping that will help. I try a different tack and use completely different phrasing.

[sikishrory]

Not saying it is you. I have no idea.
Probably around 70% of the foreigners i've seen that claim they can speak Thai or I see speaking Thai slaughter it with great confidence.

[expat_4_life]

23 hours ago, simon43 said:

I'm not talking about 'pidgin' Thai.  This is a question for those of us who can speak Thai to a high level.

 

I just had one of those experiences, at a hotel on Koh Lanta.  I wandered in and asked if they had any available rooms and what the price was.  The reception lady looked at me completely blank.  I repeated my request and got the same response.  I therefore said in slowly-spoken English 'Do you speak Thai?'.  (Actually, I was 99% sure that the woman was Thai, and this was my way of winding her up!).  Yes, there are many Burmese working in Thailand, but I was pretty sure that she was Thai.

 

Anyway, the only way to complete my transaction was in English... 

 

The point being, I'm pretty sure that she didn't understand my spoken Thai was because her brain didn't expect a western foreigner to speak Thai. The hotel had many Swedish tourists and I'm sure the poor lady was trying to decipher my utterances as some form of English spoken with a thick Swedish accent!

 

 

 

I always view any interaction as a negotiation as to which language we are going to use.  I'm obviously a farang.  When I speak first I usually start with some sort of Thai greeting or easily understood question.  If they choose to reply in English, so be it. They are typically quite comfortable sticking to Thai though, or often unable to speak English, especially outside of tourist or large metropolitan areas. 

Kind of cracks me up though when I've had a complete interaction in Thai with them until it is time to pay - then they suddenly start speaking English - one thousand two hundred forty three baht sir.

[StevieAus]

23 hours ago, simon43 said:

I'm not talking about 'pidgin' Thai.  This is a question for those of us who can speak Thai to a high level.

 

I just had one of those experiences, at a hotel on Koh Lanta.  I wandered in and asked if they had any available rooms and what the price was.  The reception lady looked at me completely blank.  I repeated my request and got the same response.  I therefore said in slowly-spoken English 'Do you speak Thai?'.  (Actually, I was 99% sure that the woman was Thai, and this was my way of winding her up!).  Yes, there are many Burmese working in Thailand, but I was pretty sure that she was Thai.

 

Anyway, the only way to complete my transaction was in English... 

 

The point being, I'm pretty sure that she didn't understand my spoken Thai was because her brain didn't expect a western foreigner to speak Thai. The hotel had many Swedish tourists and I'm sure the poor lady was trying to decipher my utterances as some form of English spoken with a thick Swedish accent!

 

 

I speak very little Thai but the issue is I think, that while some foreigners think  their Thai is too a high standard it is not spoken the way Thais speak.

I suspect that it is for a number of reasons, tonal, the fact that in the North for example Lana is used more than National Thai and people in different areas have there own accent and slang similar perhaps to what occurs in the UK.

We have a friend who claims to speak Thai well but my wife and one our friends cannot understand him and tell him to speak English to them as both speak fluent English.

[FritsSikkink]

9 hours ago, watthong said:

If you started learning a foreign language when you have reached mid teen it's already too late. Your vocal box (mouth, tongue and throat) has been too well "tuned" into your own mother tongue by then.

What a load of nonsense.

[fondue zoo]

 

My Thai is serviceable, but I always end up performing a combo of interpretative dance, ASL and mime just to get to Central in a taxi.

I do recall my Thai tutor, a smoke-show by the way, telling me 'don't feel too bad you suck, most Thai don't speak Thai correctly either.'

[fondue zoo]

 

My Thai is serviceable, but I always end up performing a combo of interpretative dance, ASL and mime just to get to Central in a taxi.

I do recall my Thai tutor, a smoke-show by the way, telling me 'don't feel too bad you suck, most Thai don't speak Thai correctly either.'

[fondue zoo]

 

My Thai is serviceable, but I always end up performing a combo of interpretative dance, ASL and mime just to get to Central in a taxi.

I do recall my Thai tutor, a smoke-show by the way, telling me 'don't feel too bad you suck, most Thai don't speak Thai correctly either.'

[Peterphuket]

On 8/4/2024 at 9:46 AM, KhunLA said:

Not annoy me, but do wonder why some understand me perfectly, and others haven't a clue what I said.  Not like I'm in deep conversation with them, just ordering food at restaurant or simple shopping questions.

In my opinion, Thais also sometimes have difficulty understanding or comprehending each other.

[simon43]

3 hours ago, jippytum said:

Perhaps your Thai is not as perfect as you think. p

Yawn, same old, same old!  This thread is not about how good I think my Thai is (MA in Thai from Chula University, 22+ years in Thailand, Thai wives blah blah blah).  It is about the brain's perception and recognition of what language you are speaking, and assumptions that you make.

 

Let's make it easier for you 🙂 .  30 years ago, I was working in France and sat down to a long dinner with some French suppliers for my Belgian employer.  We got round to talking about foreigners (of course, we were all speaking in French). My would-be supplier started a conversation about how much he disliked the English!  I encouraged him to tell all....  Only when he had finished his tirade did I point out that I was English 🙂  He assumed that I was a Belgian speaking French, since he assumed (wrongly) that I couldn't be English because I spoke French so well.  

[simon43]

10 hours ago, watthong said:

 

It's the vocal delivery and word enunciation. Fluency has nothing to do with it. If you started learning a foreign language when you have reached mid teen it's already too late. Your vocal box (mouth, tongue and throat) has been too well "tuned" into your own mother tongue by then.

I absolutely disagree with your comment 🙂 .I have been learning languages all my life (my father was a professor of languages and a polyglot, fluent in more than 10 languages). I personally believe that the ability to learn languages to a high level of fluency is hardcoded into your DNA. For some it's not difficult, but for others, your comment about late teens being too late to learn probably holds true.

[simon43]

9 hours ago, radiochaser said:

And now, I am curious about what you are going to do with 100 meters of 1.5 mm wire.

 

Oh!  Antenna!   I am guessing a loop antenna of some sort.   For AM radio??

 

lol, could be a loop antenna (project # 123). Nope, I build my shortwave antennas using cheap wire that is taped to 10 metre telescopic fibreglass poles.  I need to build a halfwave antenna for 20 metres and 10 metre band, because I've just moved to a new location on Lanta Island.  There are 5 of these poles in my car just waiting to be used 🙂

[simon43]

2 hours ago, Galong said:

...

  I have no idea what Nam Tok Moo is in Burmese.

 

It would be something like ရေတံခွန်ဝက်သား

 

But I've never seen that dish in Burma. Apart from tasty Shan salads, I usually only found something like pig's balls in engine oil.....  Never keen on most Burmese food!!

[WDSmart]

Yes! I've lived in Thailand for over 20 years, and most of that time has been far away from other Farangs and primarily with Thais.

What surprises me is that most Thais seem to understand everything I say, but some just can't. I'll say something over and over again, and then some other Thai will come and say the very same thing (as it sounds to me), and then, of course, they understand it. I know it sometimes has to do with pronunciations, but I think it's more often the accent and whether a word is spoken with a falling, steady, or rising tone. I try to be aware of that, but as I say above, sometimes for some Thais it just doesn't work.

[WDSmart]

I've erased this post because it was a duplicate of the one above. Sometimes when I click on the SUBMIT button, nothing seems to happen, so I click on it again. 

[sanabavy IV]

I can get through with my low class pidgin, the problem is I don't understand their replies.