Language Barrier

[tommy27durham]

Im back, not wanting any answers as such, just a few of peoples experiences. Ive been with my missus since october and since then her english has improved alot. She has now been in the uk with me for 2 weeks and has already started an ESOL course. Just after some peoples experiences about what sort of time period you start seeing a bigger improvement?? obviously its a gradual thing day by day but im just wondering what people can tell me what its like after 3 months, 6 months, 9 months etc............

[londonthai]

talking, listening to the radio (bbc4), watching tv or videos are more important than scholl, where there is more gramma, writing and reading.

[Mossfinn]

It will all be dependent on the commitment of the individual, how much time they put in and what media they use.

After a year, she should be fairly adequate, but conversing with people long before that, but understanding of certain areas will still be sketchy.

My daughter of 14, who could speak little English after coming here, was fairly fluent in everyday language after 3 to 4 months, written English was still fairly sketchy though.

Moss

[Tomkagai]

talking, listening to the radio (bbc4), watching tv or videos are more important than scholl, where there is more gramma, writing and reading.

Just a well you are not teaching anybody English....."scholl" and "gramma"....but then again LondonThai !!...cockney...cant speak English any way....LOL.... ....think you should watch a bit more bbc 4, TV and video...

[Lite Beer]

talking, listening to the radio (bbc4), watching tv or videos are more important than scholl, where there is more gramma, writing and reading.

Just a well you are not teaching anybody English....."scholl" and "gramma"....but then again LondonThai !!...cockney...cant speak English any way....LOL.... ....think you should watch a bit more bbc 4, TV and video...

[londonthai]

the idea of language is to communicate - speaking is far more important to learn, than writing skills (unless some wants to be a teacher, journalist).

reading newspapers, books or even tv subtitles might be a help to learn vacabulary, rather than writing.

no, I am not a cockney, even english - just giving some advise based on my exerience

[teacherofwoe]

talking, listening to the radio (bbc4), watching tv or videos are more important than scholl, where there is more gramma, writing and reading.

Just a well you are not teaching anybody English....."scholl" and "gramma"....but then again LondonThai !!...cockney...cant speak English any way....LOL.... ....think you should watch a bit more bbc 4, TV and video...

Erm... I think you mean "Just AS well", don't you?

[Nignoy]

Imagine the language barrier the other way round in UK. Imagine meeting the 14 year old son of an english father and a thai mother,who could not speak a word of Thai, whose mother was forbidden to speak to him in thai or mention her thai heritage or cook thai food one of his teachers was our neighbour in Farnborough, they sent him along to one of our thai social evenings,we were able to introduce him to thais of his own age group, over a period of 3 years he learned to speak and write fluent Thai, some of you have certainly met him on BA longhaul between LHR and Don Muang or Swampypoo Nignoy

[peter991]

Interesting topic. I wonder if the reverse applies too. I have met resident farangs in Thailand - some have been here for nearly 10 years and would be battling to converse in Thai at a bar. Others have been here for less than 6 months and have immersed themselves in he language and culture and can have meaningful conversations with Thais.

Peter

[torrenova]

Don't know about Thais but my highly educated Japanese ex wife had relatively poor english when I first met her. I'd say after a year or so she was fairly fluent and her pronunciation for words like "wolf" was not coming out as "ooolf". Some 10+ years later she holds down a job in a bank using both languages. I think it depends upon the input. She was doing a masters at UCL in London and I was able to help her progress in social english.

[teacherofwoe]

When I met my wife she had very little English conversational skills. Most Thais start studying English from an early age; the education system here is appauling though. Think back to high school when you studied French, or German in some cases, and you can still remember some stuff. If you go to France, all of that stuff will resurface as was the case with my wife. Just simply hanging out with me soon produced amazing results. Most Thai adults know loads of English but don't even know it. As long as your wife gets continual correction then she'll be fine. She need to understand that the correction is an important part of the learning process and not critisism. If she's in a native speaking country even better. As long as she is prepared to imerse herself then no problems. I know of some Thai ladies who live almost as prisoners in their own homes in the U.K. because they can't even go to the supermarket.

If she wants it, and you're supportive, then it will take less than a year to have some fluency and two to three years to become really good. Professional classes are also a good idea, but can be expensive for decent teachers in the west.

[teacherofwoe]

talking, listening to the radio (bbc4), watching tv or videos are more important than scholl, where there is more gramma, writing and reading.

Just a well you are not teaching anybody English....."scholl" and "gramma"....but then again LondonThai !!...cockney...cant speak English any way....LOL.... ....think you should watch a bit more bbc 4, TV and video...

Hold on! How do you know he's a cockney? London is a bloody big place mate. A cockney is from the east end and is born to the sound of Bow bells. Do some research before you start using vocabulary that you don't know the meaning of. That way you won't look like a wally.

P.S. I'm a cockney as is my father. I have an M.A. and he has a PhD. Alrigh me ol mukka?

[torrenova]

She need to understand that the correction is an important part of the learning process and not critisism.

This is really important and you must also not look down on her attempts to speak english. I was lucky as my ex was educatde and thus understood the need to learn. My missus is lazy in her pronunciation but we live in Thailand and I think it would improve immensely if we lived in the west.