Do You Speak Thai?

[mpdkorat]

[snip]

Once a farang can speak Thai at a good level, they will definately receive respect from the locals. But up untill you reach that level, you face an uphill battle finding any one wanting to speak to a farang who speaks only broken Thai.

Sometimes the locals can really lower your confidence but hang in there, have determination and it will be well worth it in the end.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That has been my experience - that locals do not really give you much of a chance until your thai is very good. My friend went to a stall to buy bananas, and asked for some - the woman just stared at him blankly ... the stall sold only bananas, no other fruit. Actually another guy I met, raised in thailand since age 5, often gets the blank stare in restaurants etc... because he looks farang. He went to Thai school since age 6 !!!

Much of the time locals simply do not accept that you are speaking Thai, even when your pronounciation is correct. And then, if they do cotton on, they go chattering away as if you are fluent.

I guess that in the West we are more accostomed to people speaking broken english and have leart to adjust and simplify.

it does help BTW to say a phrase that is very common and obvious - like - Now I am going to speak thai, or good morning how are you - kind of thing so that the listener has chance to grasp that you can speak the lingo to some degree.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You do have to be very careful when ordering bananas

[Tywais]

You do have to be very careful when ordering bananas

I usually think twice before talking about buffalos.

[jackmuu]

Learned quite quickly and speak Thai all the time at home. Reading is fairly easy too, can write the characters but spelling is a bit of a nightmare, but then I rarely ever have to write more than my name and address anyway.

I also agree that learning 40ish% Thai in 11 months is easily achieved if you have the ability. I have met people that have done it in less time. Like most things, some people have the aptitude for languages and some find it hard.

I still think it is fairly lazy to live / work somewhere and not learn the lingo, and from a survival point of view am stunned by the amount of people I meet here who can't speak Thai.

[kratindaeng]

I speak excellent Thai, but unfortunately for me, most Thai people still check my food order with my GF as if I dont exist, then I pay for the food and the change is passed to her, etc etc. Maybe I should compile a better Thai study system for myself?!

[wilko]

Personally my Thai is quite poor still but I understand enough now to appreciate how some farangs really piss off Thais with an arrogant use of what they think is good Thai....wrong expressions, bad manners, crude language and shouting all lead to resentment. i think many people who learn the language alone could do with spending some time with a pro teacher just to put them straight on a few faux pas.

[chanchao]

Ho hum, another botched poll that mixes two separate questions in a single poll.. Surely the question on 'how well can you read/write' and 'how well can you speak/understand' are entirely different things.

It would in theory even be possible to be really good at reading and pronouncing Thai without knowing what it means. Or the other way around, be totally fluent in speaking, but never bothered to put a single word to paper.

[wolfmanjack]

[snip]

Once a farang can speak Thai at a good level, they will definately receive respect from the locals. But up untill you reach that level, you face an uphill battle finding any one wanting to speak to a farang who speaks only broken Thai.

Sometimes the locals can really lower your confidence but hang in there, have determination and it will be well worth it in the end.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And then, if they do cotton on, they go chattering away as if you are fluent.

I get this by simply saying sawatdee khap. I always have to stop them and say that just because i can say hello does not mean i am fluent in thai.

I have no problems finding locals that want to speak broken thai with me.

My wife says my thai sucks when I am sober but is very good when i am drunk. I always attributed it to be that my thai friends are usually drunk when I am so they make more allowances for my pronunciation. My wife does not drink though so maybe when I am drunk i do not think about it so much and it comes out better than when I actually think about how to say a word.

[jdinasia]

Ho hum, another botched poll that mixes two separate questions in a single poll.. Surely the question on 'how well can you read/write' and 'how well can you speak/understand' are entirely different things.

It would in theory even be possible to be really good at reading and pronouncing Thai without knowing what it means. Or the other way around, be totally fluent in speaking, but never bothered to put a single word to paper.

I can read but not REALLY write ..... (the chances to misspell and all .....) but for the majority of people reading skill and speaking skill will be approx the same

[Juzrelax]

Sawatdee Karp teelak, phood Thai nidnoi, hongnam u t nai? khop kuhn karp

after that it's usually 'Mai Kochai'

hehehe, I was happy with that for 2 weeks effort. I'll learn more when I get back in 2 weeks.

[jackmuu]

I get this by simply saying sawatdee khap. I always have to stop them and say that just because i can say hello does not mean i am fluent in thai.

I had the same problem in China, a few words in Madarin and I just got a torrent of Chinese in return. Quite funny really.

[Nepal4me]

Ho hum, another botched poll that mixes two separate questions in a single poll.. Surely the question on 'how well can you read/write' and 'how well can you speak/understand' are entirely different things.

It would in theory even be possible to be really good at reading and pronouncing Thai without knowing what it means. Or the other way around, be totally fluent in speaking, but never bothered to put a single word to paper.

I can read but not REALLY write ..... (the chances to misspell and all .....) but for the majority of people reading skill and speaking skill will be approx the same

I've been studying Thai for years now and am utterly useless. I can amaze Thais with my ability to read tho. I learned how to read and write when I first came here years ago and studied many many courses. My reading is very good, still can't quite keep up with the subtitles in movies but almost. However, I can't understand a god dam thing. I can speak Thai because I've memorized hundreds and hundreds of words but when they speak, it's mai fricken kao jai leuy. I can carry on very simple convo's when I am leading the discussion, i.e. with a Taxi driver and we're talking about how many kids we have etc, but if he adds something out of context like "I would like to learn to drive a train", no way in he11 I'd catch it. Anyway, I'm one of the unusual ones that can really read Thai but just have no idea what the he11 I'm reading. Great party trick tho, everybody knows I can't speak Thai (very well) and then I'll start reading something. Get a lot of "geng maaks" but I know I'm dumb dumb maak maak. I think after maybe 10 more years I'll be better but will be nowhere good enough to understand even simple TV. Ok, thanks for listening. Not sure why I even bothered to type this. I mean, do you really care? Please don't answer that.