Dutch People Learning Thai?

[Wentworth]

My thoughts are not based on any scientific data just my experiences.

I'm from the UK and have always considered that the Dutch generally seem to be the best at learning English as a second language. I wonder what strategies the Dutch use to learn English.

If you're Dutch I would be grateful for any guidance you could give me. How about when you're learning Thai, it's usually the third language? You probably have to learn it using your English; do you think it's a problem or puts you at a disadvantage?

[bubblegum]

Actually when pronouncing Thai and using your Dutch accent you are closer to correct way of speaking Thai so I think of it as a big advantage.

But I seem to forget most of the words again in the morning, it just does not stick, maybe I'm too old.

Trying to learn would be my 7th language so it could be my head is full:angry:

[kriswillems]

I am not Dutch, but my native language is Dutch. I am afraid that I am not one of those people you're talking about. I am not very self-confident when speaking English and have insufficient background knowledge of the language.

The only reason I can think of why it would be easier for a Dutch person to study English is that Dutch is similar to English. Dutch people from the Netherlands are great speakers (also in their native language), because they are self-confident and their educational system supports people to express their opinion.

Besides that Dutch is a small language so we are forced to use English when looking for information about certain subjects or when looking for certain movies.

I think Dutch (or German) are a better point to start from than English when you want to study Thai because these language have several sounds that don't exist in English but do exist in Thai.

Using English as a tool to study Thai is a disadvantage (for Dutch speaking people). All kinds of phonetic scripts are based are on English and this leads to great confusion for Dutch speaking people. So, for us, it's even more important to ignore the phonetic script and go straight to reading Thai.

Edited September 16, 2010 by kriswillems

[kriswillems]

I think people of the smaller and more central European countries are better in studying languages than Dutch people. Most people in Belgium, Luxembourg or Switzerland can speak several languages. In some of those countries it's not exceptional for a normal housewife to be fluent in 4 languages. There's a very big contrast with countries like the USA, where somebody that can speak 4 languages must be either called "professor" or "polyglot".

[dobadoy]

There's a very big contrast with countries like the USA, where somebody that can speak 4 languages must be either called "professor" or "polyglot".

...or "terrorist".

(Anyone for tea?)

[roberkla]

I started to learn the thai language about a year ago. For me as a native dutch it is the fourth foreign language after german, french and english (as for most of the older dutch).

Because my teacher is fluent in english there is no problem in the communication during the teachinghours. On the other hand I made the mistake in trying to translate everything first into dutch. This will take a two step translation every time you try to speak/understand thai. Because this takes to much time and CPU-usage (of your brain :-)), i did stop doing this after a few weeks.

From that moment on it is the combination of english and thai. Because the knowledgebase of enlish words is many times bigger then that of the thai words there is no problem. The real problem is the learning by heart of all those new words! Even after repeating them many times you are always searching for the right word to use.

Because I had only two months to learn just a bit of the language I only wanted to learn to communicate, so only the speaking/understanding part. The reading/writing is for the future when/if I decide to stay here for a longer time. It is a choice you have to make and I realise it is better way to chose for the reading/writing from the beginning.

I don't agree with Kriswillems that the phonetic script is a disadvantage, because you switch "completely to english" when studying thai.

[ChristianPFC]

I'm German, and when I see a word in latin letters, e.g. a transcription of Thai, that I don't recognize as an English word, I try to pronounce it as a German word. So there is loss of information during the transliteration from Thai to English, and when I pronounce it German, it probably becomes unintelligible for a Thai. Therefore, should I ever learn Thai, I will start with Thai script instead of transcription.

I once read that German is suitable for transliteration, as we have combination of vowels and "Umlaute" that come close to Thai vowels.

[DavidHouston]

I'm German, and when I see a word in latin letters, e.g. a transcription of Thai, that I don't recognize as an English word, I try to pronounce it as a German word. So there is loss of information during the transliteration from Thai to English, and when I pronounce it German, it probably becomes unintelligible for a Thai. Therefore, should I ever learn Thai, I will start with Thai script instead of transcription.

I once read that German is suitable for transliteration, as we have combination of vowels and "Umlaute" that come close to Thai vowels.

Thailand's Royal Institute has published a paper called "การเขียนคำทับศัพท์ภาษาเยอรมัน" "Writing German using Thai Orthography". This paper gives you some idea as to how the Thais see their language sounds vis a vis German. If you would like me to send this paper to you, please PM me your email address.