Mispronouncing Thai

[klons]

whenever I have the shits I just say 'mee kee nam'.

Far more interesting than the real phrase.

Dominic.

If you are in a flood area, I have advice for you from the Center for Disease Control.

จึงแนะนำให้ประชาชนปฎิบัติตัวตามหลัก 4 ส.

ส. ที่ 4 คือสิ่งแวดล้อมรอบตัว เน้นการกำจัดขยะ ถ่ายอุจจาระลงถุง

[kpmsprtd]

For me, the ultimate goal is to communicate like the Thais do--without saying anything. I achieved it the last night of my most recent trip. I began to feel a bit funny in the buffet restaurant even before the meal was over. But I convinced myself it was nothing.

We began walking back to our hotel. I suppose I began walking slightly faster and faster and faster, but my friend--kind soul--kept up with me. By the time we got on the elevator, my sphincter muscles had held back several explosions. As the elevator arrived on our floor, before the door opened, something inside me dropped with a massive sound that emanated loudly from my body. I don't mean I expelled gas. I did not. Not one vapor. It was a sound like a pipe bursting. I said no words. My friend said no words. We just looked at each other.

The elevator door opened, and within seconds I was on the toilet doing my business. Let the context do the talking, indeed...

Edit = typo fix

Edited November 8, 2010 by kpmsprtd

[SimonN]

whenever I have the shits I just say 'mee kee nam'.

Far more interesting than the real phrase.

Dominic.

While for you it might seem "far more interesting than the real phrase"; sadly to a run-of-the-mill thai, aka; the-thai-on-the-street that phrase means nothing, it's just foreign b/s thai-speak . Maybe with hand gestures, and miming out the problem they'd get it, but normally, unmmm, no. This is especially so if you can't pronouce the words ride; ขี่ khee^L and shit; ขี้ khee^F clearly in thai .

ขี้น้ำ is quite a common phrase in southern Thailand.

Edited November 8, 2010 by SimonN

[Danart69]

When I see a westerner mispronuncing something and the Thai doesn't understand, the westerner usually repeats it louder and louder.

It's just as well, because Thais understand LOUD mispronounced Thai.

That particular trait of ramping up the volume when a thai doesn't understand a person the first go round seems to predominantly come from westerners. Althugh I hear it more from foreigners speaking engrish to thais than vice versa. It is easily one of the most frustrating things I hear foreigners do here .

I can't count how many times a foreigner will say something in what ever passes for engrish in their native accent, have a thai stare blankly, and then the foreigner will repeat it two or three more times with the volume increasing each time until they're almost shouting .

On more than one occasion in places I frequently go and where I know the sales staff really well, I've butted in when foreigners do this. I'll usually say, "Hey, how about bringing the volume down a notch or two there bud. They couldn't understand you speaking in a normal volume, they're certainly not gonna understand you when you shout at 'em!!" Sometimes the foreigners I admonish in this way get quite pissy, but for the most part they sullenly dial it back.

I've had the same situation when foreigners 'think' they're speaking thai, only to have a thai give them the 'deer in the headlights' look. Now it is my experience this type of situation usually stems from one of two root causes;

1.) Firstly, the thai being addressed wasn't expecting a foreigner to actually speak something which even resembled thai. They had already seen a foreigner approaching and adjusted their 'ear reception' to the 'receive engrish' side of the dial . Therefore the thai didn't recognize they were hearing thai as they were listening for engrish. .

This situation occurs quite a lot, especially in 'cold' conversations. These are situations where the foreigner will go up to a thai and ask what ever it is they're wanting to ask. Seeing as the foreigner didn't do what I call the 'thai-language-dance' FIRST, the thai doesn't always understand what was said.

What is exactly the 'thai-language-dance'? That's where you go up to an unfamiliar thai you're going to engage in conversation; say hello, ask the mundane pleasantry question(s), possibly ask if they can speak engrish, and then finally get around to asking in thai if they can help you.

This doesn't take a lotta time, in fact most of it is just 'frozen phrases' (things every thai says/hears countless times a day) . This serves as an 'ice breaker' letting the thai you're speaking to know several things;

A.) you can speak something which is at least close to thai.

B.) letting the thai hear your accent, (because yes, as a foreigner speaking thai here, believe me when I say, you most definitely DO speak thai with a foreign accent!)

Now once a thai has his head wrapped around your accented thai, you can move on to actually asking them what you needed to know in the first place.

2.) The second BIG problem occurs when foreigners intermix thai and english words in a sentence. This arises from a variety of reasons, two of which are;

A.) Foreigners lacking sufficient vocabulary or concepts of sentence structure in thai to actually speak with anything resembling clarity or cohesiveness.

B.) From a foreigner living with a thai significant other where that type of intermixed language (engrish-thai thai-engrish) is spoken as the norm in the household often leading the foreigner into mistakenly believing they're speaking something any thai would understand.

I was reading a thai book by Andrew Biggs which goes over methods for thais to speak english like foreigners. He has an entire chapter written warning his readers NOT to mix the two languages together. His great examples are of some interviews on thai t/v with the thai superstars or 'dara' where they throw in a word or two in english whilst speaking thai to the interviewer just to show off that they are 'inter' (or can speak engrish)...

The above things mentioned can and do lower how a normal run-'o-the-mill thai you're likely to encounter here and engage in conversation understands you.

Whenever I'm in doubt (which I seem to be frequently);

I stick to either all engrish or all thai.

I do the 'thai-language-dance' with them first to break the ice with unfamiliar thais.

And by all means I follow the acronym; "K-I-S-S" (Keep It Simple, Stupid!).

Believe me I make no assertions that I'm a frickin' thai language pundit here . I offer out my observations after WAY too many hours spent listening to thai foreign interactions.

You mileage can and will vary, deal with it.

Thank you for the very helpful post. I love how so many Thais are willing to help me with my language skills but was mildly surprised when a waiter at DM airport complimented me on my usage of Thai slang. I didn't know I was speaking slang and wouldn't have if I knew better. My bugaboo word is Glie, meaning either 'close' or 'far' depending on the tone used. I asked somone directions (in Thai) to my hotel and after they gave me the directions, which were simple, I asked, "Glie mai"? and they replied, ""Glie". I hailed a taxi and he took me the five blocks to my hotel. I could have walked. I also have witnessed farang hearing Thai speak English with Thai pronunciation e.g. cola, burger, comuter, etc., where the last sylable is high tone, or i' for ice, motorcy for motorcyle, 'ber for number, and the farangs are not understanding 'Bangkok English', My Thai GF still laughs about when I wanted to buy some sunglasses (without her) and asked for 'wentha atit' i.e. glasses of the sun, or so I thought. It is correctly said, 'wentha gun dad'. What fun.

[Glock3am]

 

However I have NEVER EVER heard the phrase มีขี้น้ำ meeM khee^F naam^H or in engrish; "have shit water" spoken here   .  

I've had a Thai work colleague use the phrase "mee khee nam" just the other day. Though it's an fairly informal situation where everyone knows every one fairly well so that could make a difference as you hinted in the rest of your post. I've heard it from other people as well from time to time so it's strange you've never heard it as you seem to have been around for awhile.

Regardless, I'm really enjoying this thread, I'm definitely a "frozen phrase" guy and still a pretty limited one at that, and it's teaching me a few things and giving me some laughs!

Thanks!

[GarryP]

I too have never heard the phrase "khee nam" in all the years I've been here. However, I have heard people say "khee bpen nam" ขี้เป็นน้ำ when describing the consistency of their fecal matter rather than the condition of having diarrhoea.

Another one for me was again when first in Thailand many moons ago. I was in the south of Thailand and knew no Thai language, and to my ears it was all gibberish. I was on a songtaew (pickup truck bus) and wanted the thing to stop to let me off. Now there was no bell so all the locals would scream out yeut yeut yeut, running these words into each other at a very quick pace. The truck would then stop, they would then hop off and pay the driver. I had no choice but to emulate them, only to my ears it sounded like they were saying yetyetyet. Upon shouting out these magic words the truck screamed to a halt, I jumped off, and the truck took off. Everyone on the truck was staring at me throughout, but I was oblivious as to the reason why. It wasn't until later that day that I learned I had been shouting to the driver to f**kf**kf**k.

[SoftWater]

A phrase that's used here where i live is ขี้แตก (kee dtaek).

For a long time, when I heard this I erroneously thought it was ขี้เด็ก.

Its commonly used around babies and toddlers when they've messed themselves, so putting 2+2 together I came up with 4.5

Agree with many of Todd's earlier points, particularly the 'Thai dance' idea. The analogy of speakers having to mutually tune their ears to each other like tuning a radio is a good one. It's why our spouses/partners can understand us when no one else can.

Edited November 14, 2010 by SoftWater

[JUDAS]

I too have never heard the phrase "khee nam" in all the years I've been here. However, I have heard people say "khee bpen nam" ขี้เป็นน้ำ when describing the consistency of their fecal matter rather than the condition of having diarrhoea.

Another one for me was again when first in Thailand many moons ago. I was in the south of Thailand and knew no Thai language, and to my ears it was all gibberish. I was on a songtaew (pickup truck bus) and wanted the thing to stop to let me off. Now there was no bell so all the locals would scream out yeut yeut yeut, running these words into each other at a very quick pace. The truck would then stop, they would then hop off and pay the driver. I had no choice but to emulate them, only to my ears it sounded like they were saying yetyetyet. Upon shouting out these magic words the truck screamed to a halt, I jumped off, and the truck took off. Everyone on the truck was staring at me throughout, but I was oblivious as to the reason why. It wasn't until later that day that I learned I had been shouting to the driver to f**kf**kf**k.

My wife and I just had a good laugh at that....

[Travel2003]

สิงห์ - The beer sa-pelled in engrish as Singha - sing^R (even though the 'ha' is silent).

Yet every time I ask for a "sing" beer at Thai restaurants in Australia, and at many farang oriented places in Thailand, they say "sing-ha" back at me.

*sigh*

So it is pronounced "Sing", nomatter what region of Thailand we are in, correct?

Sorry to "chew" on this one, but I have been told recently that it depends what region, and the Thais will pronounce it differently.

I find that strange.

Im not counting slang, but correct pronounciation of the written word.

I know many of the members here speak fluently Thai(and my wife is not present for the moment), so can anyone confirm that it is in fact pronounced "Sing", nomatter where one order it in Thailand?

[DavidHouston]

The problem lies with the brewery itself. see http://www.boonrawd.co.th/ and look at the company name in Thai and English. The company's name is "Singha Corporation" in English; บริษัทสิงห์ in Thai with the sound of the "ha" syllable silenced.

Apparently, the brewery wants consumers to say "Singha" when speaking English and "Sing" when speaking Thai. I wonder what they expect in German or French.

[Travel2003]

The problem lies with the brewery itself. see http://www.boonrawd.co.th/ and look at the company name in Thai and English. The company's name is "Singha Corporation" in English; บริษัทสิงห์ in Thai with the sound of the "ha" syllable silenced.

Apparently, the brewery wants consumers to say "Singha" when speaking English and "Sing" when speaking Thai. I wonder what they expect in German or French.

I understand,..... I think.

But you can confirm that the Thai written name is indeed pronounced "sing", and nothing else?

[Ratsima]

Unfortunately (mostly for the thais you speak to early on ) the only way to increase the understandability of your spoken thai is to actually speak thai to thais.

I for one am thankful I have such great thai friends . They are fairly close to my age (+/- 6 years or so), we share similar interests; current events in thailand, sports, politics, pretty women, and we have similar educations). They are both patient as well as pretty darned good drinkers too !

I think this points out what a huge role personality plays in adult language acquisition. If you're a misanthropic recluse as I've become you won't learn any language no matter how hard you study. But, if you're outgoing, self-confident and easily make friends you're well on your way.

[krading]

At the local eatery in the village a few years ago I ordered ไข่เยิ่ยว (egg urine) instead of an omelet ไข่เจียว

and just the other night I was after that rat catching sticky paper but couldn't think of the product name so I was trying to explain what I wanted by asking for กระดาษเหนียวจับหนู it came out as จับหมู instead. (catch pig)

After they finished laughing they told me they didn't have paper big enough.

[NaiGreg]

Long time ago (just married)

wife (calling out): "Time to eat(dear)!" เวลากินข้าว

me (entering the front door): "Great!(I'll) fry my shoes" เยี่ยม ทอดรองเท้าก่อน

wife: giggles knowingly