Andrew Biggs Radio Program On Sunday Morning

[Tod Daniels]

Does anyone listen to Andrew Biggs on 106FM Sunday mornings from 9:30 to 11:00?

I caught it two weeks ago and listened again this last week. He uses songs from the 60's-70's-80's to teach english idioms and expressions to thais.

It can work the opposite way as well, and I've picked up a fair amount of thai sentence construct and grammar corrections from listening to him. To me; he speaks clearer and slower than most native thai speakers I hear on the news. It seems almost like he over enunciates his thai to compensate for his thick Aussie accented english. Most everyone will know the classic songs he uses as examples for teaching English idioms/phrases.

I thought it was worth a mention as a possible adjunct to learning thai, and IF you have a significant other they might learn better english too.

[meadish_sweetball]

Good suggestion Tod, thanks for sharing.

A few years ago I bought to books by Andrew Biggs' written in Thai, and found them helpful, although both of them aim at teaching English to Thais and providing a 'Western' perspective on Thailand for Thais. The titles are

เกรงใจแปลว่าอะไรเป็นภาษาอังกฤษ (How do you say 'kgreengjai' in English?)

เมืองไทยในสายตาของผม (Thailand, as I see it)

His name is written แอนดรูว์ บิกส์ in Thai.

As an aside I don't find Biggs' Australian accent particularly thick - it's there, but doesn't make it difficult to understand what he is saying.

I guess it is a matter of what you are used to. During my time in Oz I met plenty of people whose accents were far, far stronger.

[sabaijai]

What about his Aussie-accented Thai?

[Tod Daniels]

Perhaps you meant your comment to be a tongue in cheek response due to my reference at his Aussie accented English, then again perhaps not.

I have see few foreigners in this kingdom who don't speak thai with some trace of an accent or other "tell" that clues people into the fact they are NOT native thai speakers. It is nearly unavoidable IF thai is not your native language. In fact, given the regional dialects and accents in this extremely small country, I don't think any native speaker talks without some accent or another either.

You may delude yourself into thinking you speak thai without an accent. Or you might buy into the diminutive inhabitants tendency to constantly over patronize a person saying how much you sound like a thai. In reality; more times than not a thai can discern a foreigner once they hear a sentence or two if not immediately.

I wish I had the proficiency at solid sentence construction, and the huge vocabulary Andrew does what ever accent he (or I) speaks with.

I don't know why but for me, I can understand his thai far easier than I can that of thai people I talk to on the streets near my home. I think he makes an effort to over-enunciate to be understood than the average native despite the accent he might have.

[meadish_sweetball]

While you're certainly right about most people Tod, sabaijai is actually one of the very few people I know that learned Thai at an adult age and yet has almost completely accent-free Thai. He would not have any problems whatsoever passing for a Thai over the phone.

[sabaijai]

It was meant tongue-in-cheek, as I know Andrew personally and am hoping he's following this thread And thanks for the compliment, meadish

[samran]

Andrews thai is excellent. Occasionally, one word does not come out correctly, but they are few and far between. I my case, I from time to time have uncontrollable vocal cords, who unexpectedly mangle a word. I've mangled quite a few this morning. A bit like a 12 year olds voice breaking!

The very original thing that Andrew Biggs does is that he pronounces all his individual english words in his Australian accent, which I think is highly unusual, as most people who speak Thai, who drop an english word or two into their sentances will use a Thai pronunciation.

[rgs2001uk]

Andrews thai is excellent. Occasionally, one word does not come out correctly, but they are few and far between. I my case, I from time to time have uncontrollable vocal cords, who unexpectedly mangle a word. I've mangled quite a few this morning. A bit like a 12 year olds voice breaking!

The very original thing that Andrew Biggs does is that he pronounces all his individual english words in his Australian accent, which I think is highly unusual, as most people who speak Thai, who drop an english word or two into their sentances will use a Thai pronunciation.

samran,

guilty as charged, the merits of it of course are another topic, the reason i do it is because i am usually copying the way i hear thais speak, also at times there is no thai word to use and of course if i used the correct english pronounciation they wouldnt know what i was talking about.

words that spring to mind include, tow how for town house, bon for football snook for snooker etc etc.

other words have to be pronounced the thai way because of the restrictions imposed by the thai language, wee see dee is probably a prime example because of the lack of a vee in thai.

on the topic of a vee, a few years ago i was in a liquor store, the thai girl said in perfest english , we dont have any chivas ( yes she could actually pronounce the vee) we only have chiwas,

andrew biggs is in my opinion correct to talk the way he does, because he is teaching thais how to talk english as opposed to being a farang talking thai the way thais do, the only problem my wife and i have is where does he dig up some of his sayings and expressions from, even my brother who has lived in australia for over 20 years has never heard of half of them, i, at first thought he was taking thai expressions and converting them into english, but my wife says no, any ideas?

[DavidHouston]

I hold Andrew Biggs as a wonderful example of a speaker and expert in Thai language to whom we should aspire. He, along with other people who have mastered excellence in Thai language such as Michael Wright who writes for the Matichon Group, are exemplars of what can be achieved given sufficient ability and effort.

See the following article from Andrew Biggs's blog regarding the award he and others received in recognition of their abilities on Thai Language Day in July of last year: http://www.andrewbiggs.com/blog2/?m=200707.

[sabaijai]

Yes a great example indeed.

Andrew's Thai is quite good but he is not unique. I have met several foreigners with his relative ability in Thai, or better. The most accomplished adult-learner westerner I've seen speak, read and write Thai over the 30+ years I've been here was the late Jerry Gainey. He wasn't a celebrity, didn't have his own TV show and was in fact quite unknown to most people I reckon. But he earned the highest score ever received by anyone - Thais included - on the national written Thai language test used for uni entrance, in the history of the exam. He completed his MA in Thai linguistics at Chula, in Thai of course. Jerry was also fluent in Khmer (and well acquainted with several other Mon-Khmer languages, such as Kui, Bru and So), Sawoei and lower Isan. He got his start as a US Peace Corps volunteer in Surin Province in the 70s. I didn't know him well but we met a few times in the 70s and 80s.

Another very impressive adult/western learner Thai speaker is Geoffrey Longfellow, who teaches political science in Thai at Chula and is Her Majesty The Queen's chief adviser for international affairs. Geoff and I arrived in Thailand for our first time on the same plane back in 1977 and have been friends ever since. He is also fluent in Southern Thai after spending 13 years in Krabi in the 70s and 80s.

Congrats to Andrew and the four other foreigners who received the MOC's Thai language honours in 2007. Wonderful to see the MOC recognising these achievements.