Any Success Story To Inspire Me?

[sidjameson]

I am a reasonalbly fast language learner, but when I spoke french, the locals used to laugh and say I sound like I am speaking made up english words. lol

I just met a girl where we spent 20 minutes getting me to say her name; Yiu, which I always said as "you"

Anybody here thought they really sucked at the tones to begin with but then actually got some unexpected success?

Part of me just doesnt think I can ever do it.

[troysantos]

Can't say that I've had much difficulty at all in picking up this language. Has gone pretty quickly and easily. But I remember studying Japanese and wondering how in hell I'd ever remember the verb conjugations. Well, eventually I did get it down pretty well.

As far as having had a hard time pronouncing the girl's name, just consider that many learners have a hard time pronouncing this or that sound, and this could very well be one that is going to trip you up.

But, why let anything stop you? Getting discouraged is part of life, right? But that doesn't stop you from doing this or that, right? If you want to learn the language, then you can make the determination to learn it as well as you want to, and realize that all setbacks are temporary. (Isn't EVERYTHING temporary?) Keep the attitude that you can learn the language as well as you want to.

You can also consider that the girl who helped you for 20 minutes was an angel. Imagine that ... okay, maybe that 20 minutes just SEEMED like 20 minutes. But, even if it were only 10 minutes, imagine someone trying for that long to get you to pronounce her name correctly! Wow. She's your teacher! Even if you never see her again, let her be an inspiration ... motivation.

ใจเย็น Jai yen (patience)

[sidjameson]

very wise words. Hmm maybe it just felt like 20 minutes.

[makescents]

I have a very hard time pronouncing งอ งู correctly, especially if in the word เงิน when it's alone.

As part of a sentence such as ไม่มีเงิน I'm understood.

I seen Rikker's post here:

http://rikker.blogspot.com/2007/11/improve-your-accent-how-to-pronounce.html

And Stu Jay's video here:

Still not quite getting it though, I'm practicing everyday at this point. Learning every word in the dictionary that starts with this consonant.

I find that I am at a disadvantage due to my heavy regional accent (I'm from Liverpool).

Although my confidence took another knock when I found out that I had been coming to Thailand the same amount of time as Adam Bradshaw and am nowhere near as fluent as him.

[dean999]

Try not to feel disheartened, even though most of the time I feel that way too. But I just keep going.

My wife is teaching me and I sat there for two hours trying to pronounce the Snake letter in the alphabet. Went to bed (fed up), tried the next day and bingo, I could pronounce it. Now i can say it all the time.

I just couldn't get the sound out of my mouth. Because you see the N at the begining, thats how i kept starting it. In the end I found I get a closer sound if I push my tongue into my teeth and try to say it and also squash your mouth together as if your going to go OOOO. Basically your stopping your mouth producing the N. If you watch the vid, watch his tongue, it doesn't move. It stays flat in his mouth. When you say N, you will notice your tongue touches the roof of your mouth. This is what he is trying to teach in his vid.

I'm not the best at explaining things, but I hope this helps. Also, when you do start to get things right, you will feel really satisfied. I do. I went from saying," I will never be able to learn the language," to " I can do it". Just keep trying, you will get there in the end.:jap:

Edited July 18, 2011 by dean999

[kokesaat]

I'd say it's all in the teacher......find one who can work one-on-one with you and has the patience to speak slowly/clearly. Like English speakers, most Thais don't think about how the sounds are made, they just do it. My teacher (actually a pharmacist who traded English lessons for Thai) has a mom who is a primary school Thai teacher.......so she was schooled (at home by mom) in speaking clearly/distinctly.

There are a variety of websites that can give you hints about how to form the sounds......where the tongue meets the palate, for example.

I have a military disability, tinnitus and hearing loss.......never thought I'd be able to crack the code on Thai, but with a good teacher, I'm convinced most anyone can do it.

[kokesaat]

Divorcing the ng from sing worked for me. Try this: say 'sing', say 'fern'. Now say the last part of sing 'ng' and add the 'ern' (from 'fern'). Make it one syllable and you have เงิน.

As for the problem with the girl's name: if her nickname was อิ๋ว, she might spell it in English as 'You', but you'd have to say it with the proper tone to get it right. If you were to say it without the proper tone, as we'd normally say 'you', it wouldn't be correct. To me, the word อิ๋ว comes out as more of a two-syllable word than one, although the purists would probably disagree.

Don't be discouraged ------ I spent many a time in a Bangkok taxi asking to go to Rama See (Rama 4 Rd) and the driver had no idea what I was saying. Only after I started studying Thai did I learn that the name is pra-ram see (พระราม สี่ or พระรามที่ สี่)....why the street signs all say 'Rama 4' I don't know!