Hi again,

searching the farming forum in detail, one Question arrises

Do all you Farmers speak Thai, or Issan language, or even Lao ?

How did you learn or how did you cope with not speaking it ?

Moderators don't move this thread, cause we are not talking about normal learnable Thai here

Seppl

Well,,,,you don't have to speak Thai to your tractor...or to your plow...or to your cabbage plants..or to your.......

I don't speak Thai/Issan/Lao very well but I have learned the words I need for communicating when I need to communicate....I just learn them as I need them mostly.

Hi again,

searching the farming forum in detail, one Question arrises

Do all you Farmers speak Thai, or Issan language, or even Lao ?

How did you learn or how did you cope with not speaking it ?

Moderators don't move this thread, cause we are not talking about normal learnable Thai here

Seppl

There is nothing un-learnable about Lao or the Isaan dialect. If it would make your life easier get out there and learn it!

It depends where in Isaan you are, the local rice farmers etc in our area, Buriram, they speak Thai & Khmer. also some lao,

Learning indigenous languages of rural people can be incredibly frustrating due to the complexities and evolution of local dialects. I know people born and raised in their local culture that can barely communicate with cousins that live 60 miles away. I have seen elders bent over in laughter as they try to create new words for newly arrived products and concepts. The words and terms they create may not go beyond their meeting or they may become embraced by thousands.

A local well accepted example is pop as in Coca Cola has become sweet bubbling water.

One that gets a lot of laughter from the frivolous and a lot of contempt from the high minded is spagetti described as white mans wiggly worms . Each of the words making up the descriptive phrase is an impossible tongue twister to an outsider. There are also a lot of hidden suggestions in the overall expression that can only be fully appreciated by someone raised in the culture.

Within indigenous cultures language will always be a difficulty.

I am inspired by a man that travels the globe resolving breakdowns in disaster relief efforts involving recipients rebeling against providers in areas such as sanitation. He makes little effort to learn more than a dozen words in the local language and dialect. Before he arrives a rumor is started about his future arrival . Peole are told that he is a very wealthy and influential man that has turned from desparate needy projects to resolve the problems that are occurring locally.This rumor instills a minor sense of guilt in the people. Upon arrival he takes the leading trouble makers for dinner and beer. When I met him I was a bit confused by his first days actions because he seemed more of a party animal than a world relief leader.

The problem at this disaster site was that people were demonstrating their anger against the relief organisations by dumping their sewage in front of their tents instead of carrying it to disinfecting tanks and lagoons that were no more than 100 feet from their tents.

On his second day at the site he emerged from his trailer dressed in his finest clothing bearing a shovel in one hand and a pail in the other. He proceeded to the first tent with sewage in front of it and cheerfully began cleaning the mess. Within seconds the womans neighbours began rebuking her for creating such a mess to distract this noble man from his important work. Suddenly people everywhere were grabbing shovels and scoops to clean up sewage and kitchen waste. In less than an hour he returned to his trailer because the camp of 6000 had been thouroughly cleaned.

During the days he was there he spent a good deal of time teaching me that it is more important to cheerfully show people what must be done than it is to teach or tell them what to do.

It depends where in Isaan you are, the local rice farmers etc in our area, Buriram, they speak Thai & Khmer. also some lao,

My wife comes from ban phur (please forgive the spelling i'm half asleep). All her family speak issan and lao with a bit of thai thrown in. Trouble is she's teaching me thai as i thought but she's also teaching me another language.