Why I Don'T Teach My Gf English

[mark45y]

The same reason as the Thai elite.

It has been almost three years. She understands a few words of English. I think a bit less than when I met her.

She is not university educated.

I don't teach her English because we don't need it to communicate. My Thai is OK. I can talk to her mother on the phone.

When we go out with her Thai girlfriends I join in the conversation.

When we go out with my Falang men friends she sits there like a bump on a log.

The guys say, “nice looking woman too bad she doesn't speak English.”

When I first came to Thailand in the 1960's as a soldier we taught the Thai people how to speak English, built schools and hospitals and funded middle class people to build infrastructure projects like deep water ports, oil storage and refineries and communications projects. This made the elite edgy and they asked us to leave in 1975. The Thai government gave other reasons but I didn't believe them. I think they were upset at the affluent middle class we were creating.

Had they left us here at the rate we were building Thailand would have eclipsed Korea and Singapore by 1980. For those who don't know the US built the industrial East coast including airports and deep water port facilities. Thailand was among other things the gas station for the Vietnam war.

Thailand invited the American presence because of concerns about the stability of the Monarchy as a result of the problems in Laos during the 1950's and 1960's and North Vietnam incursions in border areas. There was also a communist presence in Phetchabun for a number of years. The Indochinese communist party advocated an overthrow of the Lao monarchy.

So to summarize, if I had only taught my GF one word a day for the past three years and spoke English to her on a daily basis she would by now speak fairly well. But I didn't, on purpose. She does not read, write or speak any English. She is Dependent on me for money, friendship and her future.

[capKnuckle]

she is dependant of you for $s, not much of a gf is she:whistling: :whistling: seems you got a turtle or something!

Edited October 12, 2010 by capKnuckle

[Old Croc]

Sorry Mark, I don't quite understand why you don't teach your GF english.

Is it because your Thai is adequate and you don't need english to communicate?

Or, is it because when you first came to Thailand in the 1960's as a soldier we taught the Thai people how to speak English, built schools and hospitals and funded middle class people to build infrastructure projects like deep water ports, oil storage and refineries and communications projects. This made the elite edgy and they asked us to leave in 1975. The Thai government gave other reasons but I didn't believe them. I think they were upset at the affluent middle class we were creating?

Or, if you were to teach your gf english, Thailand would eclipse Korea and Singapore!

Or, you want to keep her dependent on you?

I quite like some of your posts Mark, but this one is ludacris. If you wanted to have a chat about the history of Thai- US relationships in the 60s perhasps a different lead-in was the way to go?

[BillR]

so you want to keep her oblivious to what's going in the rest of the world?

[capKnuckle]

he is in favor of keeping the peasent peasents.

if he were to teech his gf english she may leave him and even outdo him!

[bonobo]

Not that True Visions is any great shakes, but teaching a g/f to speak English can keep you from having to watch Thai TV!  

[longstebe]

What's your point. If you can speak Thai good enough to communicate then that's fair enough. I've never met any girls that didn't want to better their English skills, this includes university students.

[MrJohnson]

OK. Reel me in. What is the point of this post?

[stander]

OP was here as a soldier in the 60's and he is probably pushing into his 70's now, so the GF is not going to get much out of him. I imagine she is quite happy to string him along until he kicks the bucket.

[afarang]

OK. Reel me in. What is the point of this post?

Good question. Only thing I can think of is to demonstrate his arrogant stupidity

[longstebe]

What's the bit about talking to the mother on the phone.

Are you ok Mark?

[mark45y]

My point is, the same as the Thai elite. I like the status quo.

My second wife in the States was a farmers daughter. I dressed her up, sent her back to school, Taught her how to be a hi so woman.

I had forgotten how much I liked the farmers daughter. For the first seven years of our marriage I was happy. She was a beauty queen from Texas. She knew how to take care of a man.

A lot of guys in the States from NY or LA go to Texas and Arkansas to find a wife.

Granted the women are uneducated and a bit on the country side but they never complain about a man drinking too much or smoking. “Stand by your man, after all he's just a man.” I think that's how the song goes.

Go to the airport in Dallas. The women are shockingly beautiful. Then go to any airport in NY.

The reason for this is Southern women are trained from an early age about make up and clothes and how to look good for a man. None of that lesbian new wave stuff in Texas. (realize I left the state 15 years ago).

My ex wife now has herself a millionaire with a garage bigger than any house I ever owned. Why? I taught her. She had a natural ability and I smoothed over the rough edges. Now she speaks French and is as much at home in her Castle in Spain as her farm in Arkansas.

I'm not going to make the same mistake again.

The cost of supporting a woman in Thailand is minuscule. I'm not going to teach her about fine wines and gourmet food and how to dress. I did that once.

Now it's speaking Thai, eating som tom and moonshine and 50 baht dresses from the weekend open market.

The Thai elite don't want the people to speak English as a second language. That would open up a whole new world. Thailand would truly be the tiger of SEA. The wealth would be redistributed.

If all the lasses from Issan spoke English in the farming communities in the hinterland the bar business in Pattaya would dissolve.

If all the Thai young men spoke English up north and in the deep south tech businesses would rush to Thailand to start small manufacturing plants.

The wealth of the middle class would explode. Somchai rich guy would be lowered in relative status.

Somchai the rich guy would not want this.

A wealthy middle class would insist on actually voting and would not buy the argument that the middle class was not capable of voting. Politics would be irrevocably changed. You know who would be looking for a job.

[capKnuckle]

he is in favor of keeping the peasent peasents.

if he were to teech his gf english she may leave him and even outdo him!

wow..........im good:lol: :lol:

[bunnaag]

dependant on you for frendship ,food (money) and for her future like a dog?How old is this poor girl?

Edited October 12, 2010 by bunnaag

[MrJohnson]

My point is, the same as the Thai elite. I like the status quo.

My second wife in the States was a farmers daughter. I dressed her up, sent her back to school, Taught her how to be a hi so woman.

I had forgotten how much I liked the farmers daughter. For the first seven years of our marriage I was happy. She was a beauty queen from Texas. She knew how to take care of a man.

A lot of guys in the States from NY or LA go to Texas and Arkansas to find a wife.

Granted the women are uneducated and a bit on the country side but they never complain about a man drinking too much or smoking. "Stand by your man, after all he's just a man." I think that's how the song goes.

Go to the airport in Dallas. The women are shockingly beautiful. Then go to any airport in NY.

The reason for this is Southern women are trained from an early age about make up and clothes and how to look good for a man. None of that lesbian new wave stuff in Texas. (realize I left the state 15 years ago).

My ex wife now has herself a millionaire with a garage bigger than any house I ever owned. Why? I taught her. She had a natural ability and I smoothed over the rough edges. Now she speaks French and is as much at home in her Castle in Spain as her farm in Arkansas.

I'm not going to make the same mistake again.

The cost of supporting a woman in Thailand is minuscule. I'm not going to teach her about fine wines and gourmet food and how to dress. I did that once.

Now it's speaking Thai, eating som tom and moonshine and 50 baht dresses from the weekend open market.

The Thai elite don't want the people to speak English as a second language. That would open up a whole new world. Thailand would truly be the tiger of SEA. The wealth would be redistributed.

If all the lasses from Issan spoke English in the farming communities in the hinterland the bar business in Pattaya would dissolve.

If all the Thai young men spoke English up north and in the deep south tech businesses would rush to Thailand to start small manufacturing plants.

The wealth of the middle class would explode. Somchai rich guy would be lowered in relative status.

Somchai the rich guy would not want this.

A wealthy middle class would insist on actually voting and would not buy the argument that the middle class was not capable of voting. Politics would be irrevocably changed. You know who would be looking for a job.

Is your name Henry Higgins?

[stander]

Is this guy for real?

[Loz]

I just read this Mark.

The political implications that you alude to have long been a subject of interest to me but you can't really talk to many people about it. Change is not something that's handled well when loss of power or wealth is involved. But I don't think it will be well recieved here.

[Laughing Gravy]

My point is, the same as the Thai elite. I like the status quo.

My second wife in the States was a farmers daughter. I dressed her up, sent her back to school, Taught her how to be a hi so woman.

I had forgotten how much I liked the farmers daughter. For the first seven years of our marriage I was happy. She was a beauty queen from Texas. She knew how to take care of a man.

A lot of guys in the States from NY or LA go to Texas and Arkansas to find a wife.

Granted the women are uneducated and a bit on the country side but they never complain about a man drinking too much or smoking. “Stand by your man, after all he's just a man.” I think that's how the song goes.

Go to the airport in Dallas. The women are shockingly beautiful. Then go to any airport in NY.

The reason for this is Southern women are trained from an early age about make up and clothes and how to look good for a man. None of that lesbian new wave stuff in Texas. (realize I left the state 15 years ago).

My ex wife now has herself a millionaire with a garage bigger than any house I ever owned. Why? I taught her. She had a natural ability and I smoothed over the rough edges. Now she speaks French and is as much at home in her Castle in Spain as her farm in Arkansas.

I'm not going to make the same mistake again.

The cost of supporting a woman in Thailand is minuscule. I'm not going to teach her about fine wines and gourmet food and how to dress. I did that once.

Now it's speaking Thai, eating som tom and moonshine and 50 baht dresses from the weekend open market.

The Thai elite don't want the people to speak English as a second language. That would open up a whole new world. Thailand would truly be the tiger of SEA. The wealth would be redistributed.

If all the lasses from Issan spoke English in the farming communities in the hinterland the bar business in Pattaya would dissolve.

If all the Thai young men spoke English up north and in the deep south tech businesses would rush to Thailand to start small manufacturing plants.

The wealth of the middle class would explode. Somchai rich guy would be lowered in relative status.

Somchai the rich guy would not want this.

A wealthy middle class would insist on actually voting and would not buy the argument that the middle class was not capable of voting. Politics would be irrevocably changed. You know who would be looking for a job.

Obviously a wind up merchant. You can never make a farmers daughter (insinuating that she is working class ) into a High class woman. Money can't buy class only some status. You have heard the "you can take a girl out of the bar saying"? Speaking the global business language would not have any benefit right?

There you go I have just fed the troll.

[rijb]

She might know more English than you think. Listen more, learn more. I like to do that with Thai.

[mark45y]

OP was here as a soldier in the 60's and he is probably pushing into his 70's now, so the GF is not going to get much out of him. I imagine she is quite happy to string him along until he kicks the bucket.

GF and family know that the pension stops when I die. So it is in everyone's interest to keep me alive.

She is quite happy. She does not read or write English so is happily ignorant of what I type or read.

She is not well traveled and is afraid to take a bus without me. Trips to Pattaya are amusing because she has only been there with me. She won't go out of the hotel alone. She is afraid of the place.

I have taught her how to cook rice with a fuzzy logic cooker and she is quite pleased with her ability to cook sticky rice as well as Jasmine rice. She is turning into a rice snob.

I never skimp on the cost of rice or noodles and buy the best available even though it may be twice the cost of the cheap rice it is still inexpensive.

An old restaurant habit, make the cheap stuff taste good. I ran buffet restaurants for quite some time and if you make the starches and pastas look and taste great customers fill up on those and leave the meat and seafood.

[Who, me ?]

[canuckamuck]

How sad

[mark45y]

My point is, the same as the Thai elite. I like the status quo.

My second wife in the States was a farmers daughter. I dressed her up, sent her back to school, Taught her how to be a hi so woman.

I had forgotten how much I liked the farmers daughter. For the first seven years of our marriage I was happy. She was a beauty queen from Texas. She knew how to take care of a man.

A lot of guys in the States from NY or LA go to Texas and Arkansas to find a wife.

Granted the women are uneducated and a bit on the country side but they never complain about a man drinking too much or smoking. “Stand by your man, after all he's just a man.” I think that's how the song goes.

Go to the airport in Dallas. The women are shockingly beautiful. Then go to any airport in NY.

The reason for this is Southern women are trained from an early age about make up and clothes and how to look good for a man. None of that lesbian new wave stuff in Texas. (realize I left the state 15 years ago).

My ex wife now has herself a millionaire with a garage bigger than any house I ever owned. Why? I taught her. She had a natural ability and I smoothed over the rough edges. Now she speaks French and is as much at home in her Castle in Spain as her farm in Arkansas.

I'm not going to make the same mistake again.

The cost of supporting a woman in Thailand is minuscule. I'm not going to teach her about fine wines and gourmet food and how to dress. I did that once.

Now it's speaking Thai, eating som tom and moonshine and 50 baht dresses from the weekend open market.

The Thai elite don't want the people to speak English as a second language. That would open up a whole new world. Thailand would truly be the tiger of SEA. The wealth would be redistributed.

If all the lasses from Issan spoke English in the farming communities in the hinterland the bar business in Pattaya would dissolve.

If all the Thai young men spoke English up north and in the deep south tech businesses would rush to Thailand to start small manufacturing plants.

The wealth of the middle class would explode. Somchai rich guy would be lowered in relative status.

Somchai the rich guy would not want this.

A wealthy middle class would insist on actually voting and would not buy the argument that the middle class was not capable of voting. Politics would be irrevocably changed. You know who would be looking for a job.

Obviously a wind up merchant. You can never make a farmers daughter (insinuating that she is working class ) into a High class woman. Money can't buy class only some status. You have heard the "you can take a girl out of the bar saying"? Speaking the global business language would not have any benefit right?

There you go I have just fed the troll.

You must be American. If you were English you would have read Shaw's Pygmalion.

I'll quote a few lines.

Simply phonetics. The science of speech. Thats my profession: also my hobby. Happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby! You can spot an Irishman or a Yorkshireman by his brogue. I can place any man within six miles. I can place him within two miles in London. Sometimes within two streets.

But is there a living in that?

Oh yes. Quite a fat one. This is an age of upstarts. Men begin in Kentish Town with £80 a year, and end in Park Lane with a hundred thousand. They want to drop Kentish Town; but they give themselves away every time they open their mouths. Now I can teach them.

Flower girl speaks.....

A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere--no right to live. Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespear and Milton and The Bible; and dont sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon.

You see this creature with her kerbstone English: the English that will keep her in the gutter to the end of her days. Well, sir, in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party. I could even get her a place as lady's maid or shop assistant, which requires better English. Thats the sort of thing I do for commercial millionaires. And on the profits of it I do genuine scientific work in phonetics, and a little as a poet on Miltonic lines.

End of Shaw.

Of course you can turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. That is what education is all about.

[travelmann]

When I met my wife she already knew some English and had a steady job, I started her up in a small business turning over 50k a month profit, she took to it well and quit her job of about 11k a month, I helped her learn how to do the job and left her to it, she was then conatcted by other people wanting her services and now gets about 90k a month and has never looked back, she doesnt have much time for me now but we're still married and all is fine.

Her English is much better and she will hopefully have a good life, I dont want her relying on me in anyway for her future and she is toally independant but still she stays with me quite happily.

[PompeyMatt]

OP sounds like a bit of a wrongun, if you ask me. Why would you "almost" deliberately make efforts to ensure some one you "loved" (could be wrong here, on both sides of the coin) would remain less educated ? Surely teaching any new skill would be the right thing to do ? My GFs daughter will be coming to live with us soon, and I will do my best (as will my GF) to help her speak English to the best of her ability. Why ? Because I hope that it will help her improve her life, and chances of getting a good job. I dont understand why some one would have the same view as what OP terms Thai Elite (I agree this happens BTW). A surf is always a surf ? Why does it have to be like that ? My step daughter wants (at this early stage) to be a doctor, and be dam_n sure I will do everything I can to help her achieve her goal. She may change and decide she wants to be a farmer, and I'll support her there too. (Would prefer her to be a doctor though obviously!)

[ilyelol]

in 1 sentence

Op is a great life teacher but terrible person and very dumb women dump him as soon as they have used him.

That'S what i understood?

[Somtamnication]

Just the fact that the OP actually talks to the mother on the phone convinces me he has completely lost the plot!!

[mark45y]

When I met my wife she already knew some English and had a steady job, I started her up in a small business turning over 50k a month profit, she took to it well and quit her job of about 11k a month, I helped her learn how to do the job and left her to it, she was then conatcted by other people wanting her services and now gets about 90k a month and has never looked back, she doesnt have much time for me now but we're still married and all is fine.

Her English is much better and she will hopefully have a good life, I dont want her relying on me in anyway for her future and she is toally independant but still she stays with me quite happily.

I think that is a great thing to do and I commend you.

I think it is something a person in love would do.

I don't believe in love nor ghosts.

I think love is a construct that explains things easier than the real reasons. Hence so many people use the word to describe actions that would otherwise be irrational.

If I was in love I would teach my GF English.

[DMC1]

OP sounds like a bit of a wrongun, if you ask me. Why would you "almost" deliberately make efforts to ensure some one you "loved" (could be wrong here, on both sides of the coin) would remain less educated ? Surely teaching any new skill would be the right thing to do ? My GFs daughter will be coming to live with us soon, and I will do my best (as will my GF) to help her speak English to the best of her ability. Why ? Because I hope that it will help her improve her life, and chances of getting a good job. I dont understand why some one would have the same view as what OP terms Thai Elite (I agree this happens BTW). A surf is always a surf ? Why does it have to be like that ? My step daughter wants (at this early stage) to be a doctor, and be dam_n sure I will do everything I can to help her achieve her goal. She may change and decide she wants to be a farmer, and I'll support her there too. (Would prefer her to be a doctor though obviously!)

Pompey I agree that in your world that doing the right thing by your GF's daughter is the good thing to do, however, a lot of what Marky says is correct for the 'bigger picture'. If Thailand wasn't the way that it is now then I very much doubt that I or many others would be living or working here and taking advantage of the way things are.

[longballlarry]

I went one step further and had my wife's vocal chords removed.

I'm thinking about chopping her legs off too. Cant have her walking off.

She's now trying to learn sign language, so that could be the end of her arms.

Just a torso with a non speaking head. The perfect wife, but if she keeps looking at things I might well pop her eyes out with tea spoons.