Advice On Helping My Children Living In “Farang-Land” Speak Thai.

[Foggy Dew]

Hi All,

I am looking for any tips / advice on helping my children living in “Farang-land” speak Thai.

My wife speaks only Thai to our two children age 2y 8m & 1y 3m.

My wife does not work outside the home, so she is with them 24/7.

I speak English and the little Thai I know to them.

My two children (age 21y & 14y) from 1st marriage who live with us speak only English.

They are exposed to English and Thai TV.

What are your experiences, have you any advice?

Have a happy,

Foggy

[7by7]

Where do you live?

If in the UK and near London, I'm fairly sure that Wat Buddhapadipa in Wimbledon has Thai language classes on Saturday mornings. I think many other Wats in the UK do as well.

[dumball]

Learning Thai is not an easy thing to do , to be profficient would take at least 6 years with an expert tutor provided the pupils are truly keen on learning the language , the young children stand a reasonable chance because they are in almost total immersion if and provided they are also taught to read and write at the same time .

One has to ask what the purpose or reasoning is to teach the elder children Thai , that is not spoken outside of Thailand in large enough proportion to warrant it for the chidrens future , there are many , many things and subjects that would be far more productive for thier future survival . I was taught 2 languages at school ( French/Latin) that were considered neccessary in those days , lost the latin and almost all French due to the fact I NEVER had a cause to use them , turns out I would have better spent the time learning Mandarin or even Spanish .

I know a few people living in Canada who have almost lost thier native tongue over the years because there has been no use for it , children need to be thought of in thier own entity and what will be in THIER best interest for a successfull future in the modern global village .

[dvdlock]

My wife and I currently live in the UK. Our daughter is now 9-years old. From the day she was born my wife only spoke to her in Thai and I only spoke to her in English.

She understands everything spoken to her in Thai buts speaks it very little. It's not that she can't, she is just self concious and prefers to speak English.

It's quite comical sometimes when my wife asks her a question in Thai and she answers in English, then I ask her what her mum said and she says 'I don't know'

Over the years when we have been in Thailand to visit family and friends, the first few days she does the same thing and is a little bemused when no-one understands her reply. Then she overcomes her shyness and by the time we are ready to go back to the UK, she's happily speaking Thai.

The only advice I could offer is don't worry too much about it. They will understand Thai and will speak it until they start school. Then English will become the dominant language and Thai will tend to be confined to home, You are likey to find they will resist speaking Thai all together for a while, especially after starting school. When they are ready and feel more comfortable with it they will start to speak a little Thai again. In the last 6-months our daughter has started to speak Thai more frequently without prompting.

Years back on one trip to Thailand we bought some reading/writing school books with the hope we could get my daughter to learn to read and write in Thai. Unfortunately we didn't keep on top of it so currently she can only communicate verbally in Thai.

When your young ones start pre-school there are bound to be some issues. There will be many occasions where the teacher or other kids will ask them questions, which they will understand, but will answer in Thai. We found that it was because in the new school environment they perhaps couldn't differentiate between the two languages. However, this will likely wear off quickly and English will become thier preferred way of communicating.

Hope this offers some re-assurance.

Cheers.

[SuperstarStatus]

Hi All,

I am looking for any tips / advice on helping my children living in “Farang-land” speak Thai.

My wife speaks only Thai to our two children age 2y 8m & 1y 3m.

My wife does not work outside the home, so she is with them 24/7.

I speak English and the little Thai I know to them.

My two children (age 21y & 14y) from 1st marriage who live with us speak only English.

They are exposed to English and Thai TV.

What are your experiences, have you any advice?

Have a happy,

Foggy

if she just speaks to them and till they are in there teens they will be fluent in Thai, just like they will be fluent I'm English when you speak to then there whole life. Kids also learn alot quicker and remember it faster than a person who is already set in there ways, so don't worry about it they don't need books or a teacher, mom just needs to Talk to them in Thai for there whole childhood and teen years and they'll be fulent, almost every person I know who is Asian in amercia is fluent both there native laugauge and in English, no teachers needed

[wolf5370]

Can I suggest it may be muh easier for your wife to learn to speak English - she is immersed in the UK and will be a fish out of water for as long as she doesn't. When I married 12 years ago, my wife came to live with me in the UK. She was a teaher and atually taught some English, but coulkd not cope directly with immersion. The councils are obliged to run free English language schools for foreigners that have long stay visa's (i.e. with a view to ILR/citizenship) , so sign her up. They usually have creches too (though they will charge). She will make friends, learn English and stop feeling so isolated and be able to communiate with you and your older kids too. My wife did this in Kent for the first 3 years (passing all 5 levels available). Now we live in Thailkand, but she has just left today to go bak the the UK for work - she flies back and forth and is fluent in English now.

As to the kids learning, i go with 7by7 - I did this (different Temple though - Wimbledon is a nightmare to park, but beautiful). They are either free or very low cost and they will learn culture and see the religion in action too.

[samran]

I'm a big believer of someone speaking exclusively Thai with them at home. It goes a long way to help with fluency, but it doesn't get you there.

I grew up in Australia, with my Thai speaking grandmother living with us. She couldn't understand English so I had no choice but to interact with her in Thai. It formed enough of a base so that when I did go back to Thaialnd for summer breaks I could top up what I was missing out on.

That said, I didn't get a formal Thai education, nor did I grow up there. But I have spent a fair chunk of my time working life there. So lots of slang, sayings and figures of speech just go over my head. I'm 'fluent' in my area of work, meaning I can present for an hour to senior civil servants on energy trends and flows in the Asia Pacific but I'll struggle to understand 70% of the soap opera on telly. I suppose if I devoted more time to the latter I'd get good at that too I guess...

[Foggy Dew]

Hi All,

Thank you for your replies. Just to clarify a couple of points. I am not trying to teach the older children to speak Thai. My wife speaks very good English, she does not speak English to the young children.

We live in a rural town in Ireland with only a few Thai / Irish couples in the area. Those that do have children are not interested in teaching them Thai. There is no Thai temple or monks in Ireland, some come to Dublin from the UK a couple of times a year.

We have Thai cartoons on dvd and some other kids educational stuff but it is not great. Last trip I was hoping to find something like a Thai “Sesame Street” but no luck.

If anyone knows of any good dvd type Thai educational material please let me know.

Regards

Foggy