Farangs Using Funny Accents

[mca]

Pattaya is the absolute worst. All you hear is farang talking in the manner of: "Why you no call me yesterday?"

Where I'd love the reply to be " Because you biggest c*nt in world"

Edited December 28, 2010 by mca

[transam]

Pattaya is the absolute worst. All you hear is farang talking in the manner of: "Why you no call me yesterday?"

Where I'd love the reply to be " Because you biggest c*nt in world"

oooops, sorry.

[mca]

Keep it in mind mate. Not sure how long that post will last!

[transam]

Keep it in mind mate. Not sure how long that post will last!

Hmmmmm yes, lots have disappeared lately.

[Beetlejuice]

Other irritations is when farangs use the Thai words; muk muk and moo meaning pork. Sound like they`re doing some farm yard impressions.

Edited December 28, 2010 by Beetlejuice

[Beetlejuice]

Pattaya is the absolute worst. All you hear is farang talking in the manner of: "Why you no call me yesterday?"

Where I'd love the reply to be " Because you biggest c*nt in world"

Sorry, I not understood.

What mean krup?

[greasemonkey]

With an accent like mine, you need to change it, no matter how weird it sounds. Its not only thais that can't understand me.

One of my favorite comedy moments was two germans struggling to talk in pidgen english to each other, before discovering they were from the same town.......

[BruceBanner]

In a restaurant the other day an aussie at a nearby table kept saying 'krap hom' (or 'kap pom'...however you want to spell it) at every opportunity....didn't say much more than that in Thai....it was very funny....

[Moonrakers]

I just say "cheers mate" nowadays.

I find it has the same effect!

[Loz]

when they can't talk to other westerners without dropping the spastic voice it bothers me more. people like this aren't helping anyone.

[katana]

Reminds me of the strange Dutch accent used by former English manager Steve McClaren, when he was interviewed by a Dutch reporter about his team's chances in the Champions league.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWptErAWrmQ

[Kilgore Trout]

When I first came here about 28 years ago, I spoke with a broad Yorkshire accent. None of the locals could understand a word I was saying. Bit of a problem when teaching. So I started enunciating words. After more than I year of this I had lost my accent totally. It wasn't intentionally, it just happened. Now even Brits ask me where I am from, meaning country. My dad didn't even recognize my voice when I called him after being here a few years.

Could it be possible that they are simply trying to pronounce words in a way that is understandable?

Reminds me of that American taliban they caught, what was his name; Chris Walker Lind or something; when interviewed he said he hadn't spoken English for so long he had to speak with an accent; what an idiot!

You never lose your mother tongue or your accent (unless on purpose) even if you hadn't spoken it for 20 years.

No matter how much you would like to be Thai or non-English, you can never escape where you came from, including accent

[GarryP]

When I first came here about 28 years ago, I spoke with a broad Yorkshire accent. None of the locals could understand a word I was saying. Bit of a problem when teaching. So I started enunciating words. After more than I year of this I had lost my accent totally. It wasn't intentionally, it just happened. Now even Brits ask me where I am from, meaning country. My dad didn't even recognize my voice when I called him after being here a few years.

Could it be possible that they are simply trying to pronounce words in a way that is understandable?

Reminds me of that American taliban they caught, what was his name; Chris Walker Lind or something; when interviewed he said he hadn't spoken English for so long he had to speak with an accent; what an idiot!

You never lose your mother tongue or your accent (unless on purpose) even if you hadn't spoken it for 20 years.

No matter how much you would like to be Thai or non-English, you can never escape where you came from, including accent

I humbly disagree. It has got nothing to do with wanting to be Thai or non-English in my case. I am English and will be until the day I die, but I no longer have a Yorkshire accent. Though I am proud to be a Yorkshireman, I have lost all but very faint traces of the acccent, which your average English speaker would never catch. Perhaps if you don't at last try to be understood, there is no chance of you losing your accent. Another funny point is that I cannot even put on a Yorkshire accent anymore, it just sounds so artificial or false.

Believe it or not. That is up to you. I am sure there are others out there like myself.

Just reread your post and note that you said you would never lose your accent "(unless on purpose)", which is my case. Perhaps you should go back and reread what I said. On my part it was intentional, so that I could be understood and as a necessity for teaching.

Edited December 29, 2010 by GarryP

[astral]

It is not just accent, but trying to speak clearly

and using a simplified vocabulary.

GarryP summed it up.

When I first came here about 28 years ago, I spoke with a broad Yorkshire accent. None of the locals could understand a word I was saying

A friend accused me of "talking down"..........

No, it is a matter of necessity if you want to communicate,

but cannot speak the local language

and applies anywhere that English is not the native language or a strong second language.

[Naam]

Then there are the farang Thai wannabes, these people really annoy me. You know, the ones that can speak fluent Thai, shout it out at the top of they're voices in public, just to make sure that everyone is aware of their brilliant command of the Thai language

I am very mindful of this perception. So when I speak Thai when seated near to someone who looks like an old ill-adjusted buffoon who can't even order a plate of rice in the language of the country where he lives, then I make sure I use both Thai and English when speaking to any Thais in attendance, to ensure everyone feels included and understands me. (This is typically in bars).

I do this especially if I get the impression that the Thai I'm speaking to has some kind of relationship/acqaintance with said buffoon; then it would just be rude to yap only in Thai and thus exclude the guy.

Well l can't order rice, so buffoon l am. But l can spell acquaintance.

we could form a club

[ClockworkOranges]

Ahhh. We are talking about "Tinglish" here. One of my pet hates.

Thai: Hello, what is your name?

Ferang: My name Tony (pronounced TOW NEEEEEE)

Thai: Where are you from?

Ferang: Me from England. Me stay here long time already. Today, I go drink in the bar.

Thai: Why are you speaking to me like I am a retard?

I have friends whose sole grasp of the Thai language is the translation of penis, breasts, arse, sexy, sex, kiss, miss you, love you, darling. It pains me to here them rattle away with "bar girl language". Especialy when they speak to them in the same way you would speak to a 5 year old, or a dog.

[Jingthing]

That's ridiculous. If a Thai is speaking decent English, I simply don't believe many native English speaking Thais would reply in pidgin.

[MSingh]

I think it's their desperation of acceptance that make them use the funny accent consistently..

I understand a lot more than i speak, i barely speak it at all except when on my own in BKK when i simply have to in a lot of cases but confidence when using it & fear of sounding liek a Mushroom when using it makes me not use it as much as i could, use of the Thai Language i mean..

It's one of the reasons i never Wai too, i'm worried i could cause offense by doing it wrong so i'd rather not do it so as not to even possibly offend, that's not to say my use of the Language would offend but i believe, like 99% of Westerners i'd be getting it wrong somewhere along the line so invariably don't use it..

There is a difference though between slowing down the way you speak & the funny accent..

I had to slow down my London accent big time when i lived in the US, no one understood me & i simply had to change my whole way of talkign for people to understand me..

That wasn't easy for a 22 Year Old & for the first week or so until i realised i had to change it completely, it was hell on Earth after i kept having to repeat myself again & again & again &............

Once around Londoners again, i slipped back into my natural way of talking & slang also..

The funny accent though is generally used by the sex trade Merchants & that sector of Society etc anyway which says a lot about them & the people that they're talkign to & where they fit in on teh Social Ladder in Thailand, whcih is the very bottom...

It's a Pet hate of mine the people that use that pigeon English sh*t here, the " No have " ridiculousness & i believe if everyone spoke the correct English Westerners/Native English speakers wise, then the commannd of English in Thailand would be much better that what it is, which surely would be advantagous to the Country itself ??

[ballpoint]

we could form a club

And beat the OP over the head with it.

Sorry Groucho.

[madmitch]

we could form a club

And beat the OP over the head with it.

Sorry Groucho.

Ouch!

I've been told that Scandinavians that speak English are often easier to understand than native English speakers as they speak slowly and with clarity.

However, the odd accents to which I referred bear no resemblance to Swedish or Norwegian!

Edited December 29, 2010 by madmitch

[Travel2003]

One think is for sure.

There is no way I will dare to even try to speak Thai again, unless I learn to speak so good that both Thais and foreigners (especially) think I'm born here.

And regarding my English.

so solly.

[Wallaby]

I was born in Nth Ireland but moved to Australia when about 7. I have no idea how to have the Nth Irish accent anymore. I also lived in New Zealand for 5 years and every time I called home my brothers would give me a hard time about sounding like a kiwi.

Seems I pick up small changes in accent without knowing. Have a look at golfer Greg Norman, he certainly doesn't seem aussie or american.

However, I must admit I'm one of the idiots that talk like a 3 year old with a stupid thai accent when talking to my thai gf. I did give it some thought at first and tried to speak normally but found she couldn't understand me. Then I cut out most of the words and she still struggled with some. So I said the same words with an stupid attempt at a thai accent and she understood easily.

I remember my brother telling me to ask her if she likes australia......

ask her if she likes australia

you ask her

I can't speak thai

And I can?

Natsuday, do you like australia?

Blank stare

Darling, australia you like (in the worst accent on the planet)

yes I like

Horses for courses, you just have to do what you have to do to be understood even if you do look like a pratt.

[Tod Daniels]

Ahhh. We are talking about "Tinglish" here. One of my pet hates.

<SNIPPED>

Sorry, guessed you missed reading the actual original post . Evidently a lot of posters missed it too. It’s not about using ting-lish, or a mishmash of engrish thai words together (something that is for your run-o-the-mill thai a tough thing to figure out. You wanna be understood, speak one language; don’t feel you hafta throw in your marginal thai vocab to impress anyone. )

As far as the O/P, changing the way words are pronounced to accommodate the way thai ears are used to hearing engrish. Most if not all engrish is taught here using THAI grammar pronunciation rules. That’s why you will hear a thai who hasn’t had higher level english classes put a short ‘a’ after engrish words which start with an ‘s’ like; sa-top, sa-lowly, sa-peak, sa-tupid. In thai the letter ‘s’ has a short ‘a’ which can and does go with it in a lotta thai words.

You’ll also almost always hear the second syllable of an engrish word accented or stressed more; wa-TER, po-WER, com-pu-TER, as that’s how they’re taught engrish. Even uni educated thais will revert to the thai pronunciation of engrish words, as it was pounded into their heads when they first learnt their engrish as a kid in school. About the only thais who don't do this are ones educated abroad.

I don’t have any problem morphing my relatively unaccented middle-america engrish into something a thai would understand better if I pronounced it the thai way. Like another poster mentioned, do I wanna spend 20 minutes pronouncing engrish correctly or do I want to have a thai know what I'm on about?

FWIW: I was at Changwattana Thai Immigrations the other day and had one of the officers who knows me ask if I'd translate for him. Now he speaks engrish FINE, but the person sitting at his desk spoke engrish with terribly thick french accent. The officer even asked me in thai in a whisper, "What language is he speaking?"

OFF-TOPIC:

As far as ting-lish, or even worse that baby-talk-engrish I hear foreigners doing with their significant thai others. I concur with the quoted post, I HATE IT , it makes me cringe , and it's about the only time I actually feel ashamed that I am a foreigner here!

[Caliguy]

I don't like the ones that have a habit of speaking to a fellow native English speaker in Thaiglish. That REALLY grates my nerves.

[DougLee]

Ahhh. We are talking about "Tinglish" here. One of my pet hates.

<SNIPPED>

Sorry, guessed you missed reading the actual original post . Evidently a lot of posters missed it too. It's not about using ting-lish, or a mishmash of engrish thai words together (something that is for your run-o-the-mill thai a tough thing to figure out. You wanna be understood, speak one language; don't feel you hafta throw in your marginal thai vocab to impress anyone. )

As far as the O/P, changing the way words are pronounced to accommodate the way thai ears are used to hearing engrish. Most if not all engrish is taught here using THAI grammar pronunciation rules. That's why you will hear a thai who hasn't had higher level english classes put a short 'a' after engrish words which start with an 's' like; sa-top, sa-lowly, sa-peak, sa-tupid. In thai the letter 's' has a short 'a' which can and does go with it in a lotta thai words.

You'll also almost always hear the second syllable of an engrish word accented or stressed more; wa-TER, po-WER, com-pu-TER, as that's how they're taught engrish. Even uni educated thais will revert to the thai pronunciation of engrish words, as it was pounded into their heads when they first learnt their engrish as a kid in school. About the only thais who don't do this are ones educated abroad.

I don't have any problem morphing my relatively unaccented middle-america engrish into something a thai would understand better if I pronounced it the thai way. Like another poster mentioned, do I wanna spend 20 minutes pronouncing engrish correctly or do I want to have a thai know what I'm on about?

FWIW: I was at Changwattana Thai Immigrations the other day and had one of the officers who knows me ask if I'd translate for him. Now he speaks engrish FINE, but the person sitting at his desk spoke engrish with terribly thick french accent. The officer even asked me in thai in a whisper, "What language is he speaking?"

OFF-TOPIC:

As far as ting-lish, or even worse that baby-talk-engrish I hear foreigners doing with their significant thai others. I concur with the quoted post, I HATE IT , it makes me cringe , and it's about the only time I actually feel ashamed that I am a foreigner here!

You clearly don't know much about thais.. my girlfriend of more than 3 years has never finished any of her word with an over accentuation like pow-ER and she learned most of her english from highschool and from her thai Chinese boyfriend... the only people using bad english pronunciations or grammar are bargirls/those who did not care about learning english and still do not care much about using it(but have to, obviously).

And i doubt ANYONE ever uses tinglish with normal thais, this is reserved for couples made from working girls or guys who are here for this.

I have met a ton of thais who can only speak a little bit of english but have been educated/have decent jobs/are good honest people and none of them using baby talk type english or tinglish. The few words they know, they piece them together the same as they heard them on TV or from an english speaking person.

In fact the only places i have heard people speaking like the guy up there who had to ask his girlfriend, Australia you like? was at supercheap phuket, tesco at onnut or any other redneck event/location. Hell most of the thai women i have met in couples, speak better than me and a lot of them have non-native english speaking boyfriends.

Edited December 29, 2010 by DougLee

[RAZZELL]

Ahhh. We are talking about "Tinglish" here. One of my pet hates.

<SNIPPED>

Sorry, guessed you missed reading the actual original post . Evidently a lot of posters missed it too. It’s not about using ting-lish, or a mishmash of engrish thai words together (something that is for your run-o-the-mill thai a tough thing to figure out. You wanna be understood, speak one language; don’t feel you hafta throw in your marginal thai vocab to impress anyone. )

As far as the O/P, changing the way words are pronounced to accommodate the way thai ears are used to hearing engrish. Most if not all engrish is taught here using THAI grammar pronunciation rules. That’s why you will hear a thai who hasn’t had higher level english classes put a short ‘a’ after engrish words which start with an ‘s’ like; sa-top, sa-lowly, sa-peak, sa-tupid. In thai the letter ‘s’ has a short ‘a’ which can and does go with it in a lotta thai words.

You’ll also almost always hear the second syllable of an engrish word accented or stressed more; wa-TER, po-WER, com-pu-TER, as that’s how they’re taught engrish. Even uni educated thais will revert to the thai pronunciation of engrish words, as it was pounded into their heads when they first learnt their engrish as a kid in school. About the only thais who don't do this are ones educated abroad.

I don’t have any problem morphing my relatively unaccented middle-america engrish into something a thai would understand better if I pronounced it the thai way. Like another poster mentioned, do I wanna spend 20 minutes pronouncing engrish correctly or do I want to have a thai know what I'm on about?

FWIW: I was at Changwattana Thai Immigrations the other day and had one of the officers who knows me ask if I'd translate for him. Now he speaks engrish FINE, but the person sitting at his desk spoke engrish with terribly thick french accent. The officer even asked me in thai in a whisper, "What language is he speaking?"

OFF-TOPIC:

As far as ting-lish, or even worse that baby-talk-engrish I hear foreigners doing with their significant thai others. I concur with the quoted post, I HATE IT , it makes me cringe , and it's about the only time I actually feel ashamed that I am a foreigner here!

Exactly. Go with the flow and moderate your accent to enable other people to understand you.

As for "Tinglish"...when I met another English guy and he started to talking to me "Tomorrow we go King Palace" etc etc...I just gave him a blank stare.

Retarded is not the word....

RAZZ

Edited December 29, 2010 by RAZZELL

[Chunky1]

well it's totally obvious that when you say "No, I'm sorry this one doesn't quite fit me right either. It's okay around the waist but the legs are too small. I guess it's fitted more for the Thai male physique than a farang. I guess I better try a different brand" that you are going to be looked at with that "Why are you torturing me by talking English to me I just want it to be lunch time so I can get some Som Tum and glance through a gossip rag" facial expression, where they cross their eyes and shake their heads violently.

Which is why you take the time to learn some Thai

Otherwise, you make a stupid, "I sad" facial expression (the type Tuk Tuk drivers make at tourists who try to wave them away) and say "No, I no like. I no like. Leg (TOUCH LEG) small. Me farang leg big. You have more?"

Personally, I'd rather never speak than go around telling people "I no like".

[Ulysses G.]

Another pet peeve - that has already been mentioned - is people who are learning Thai and they start throwing Thai words into every conversation in English with other foreigners.

[gmac]

Another pet peeve - that has already been mentioned - is people who are learning Thai and they start throwing Thai words into every conversation in English with other foreigners.

Not always deliberate on the part of the offender. I live alone, have minimal contact with English speakers and most of my local Thai's have only a few words of English. Any conversations I have with them inevitably consist of a mix of the two languages, as my Thai is similarly lacking, and I know I have on occasion lapsed into this hybrid language when speaking to foreigners.

[StreetCowboy]

When I was seventeen, I learnt that foreign people understood their own accent best, So if you talk to people as if you are sending up their accent, they will understand every word you say. Or give you a kicking, depending on their perception of the British sense of humour. I have no idea how this would work for people of other nationalities, but that has been my experience to date.

Mind, I've got a shocking propensity for absorbing accents. I was hitching home once, and I got a lift from some fellas from the neighbouring town:

"Whair you fi?"

"I just telt ye"

"Ye d'ae sound like a gadji..."

That's an apostropher's nightmair that is...

Luckily, I've found that speaking slowly, clearly, pointing, and accepting a relatively low level of mutual comprehension to be a satisfactory route through most situations.

If God had wanted us to understand foreigners, he'd have made us such as well.

SC