Have you learned to speak Thai?

[phinick]

This may have been brought up before, and if so, I apologize. My question is primarily for those over 50. If you have learned to speak Thai, how did you do it, and what would you recommend? I am in Sisaket.

Thanks

[hotrod4098]

sisaket speaks ..issan...karmer as well as thai... and other

i spoke thai they then spoke as they say,,isssan..and would ignore me

so i learnt issan..they spoke kamer etc...

so in the end i was speaking bits of every thing..

sawadee krup...sabaide boer in issan...

takes a while to get your head around it

[hotrod4098]

where in sisaket are you..i lived in sirratana sisaket...but been to many places there....kantalak and

kantarom are close to where i was

[IMA_FARANG]

I understand more than I can speak.

My Thai friends tell me I have a bad accent when I speak Thai ..... I find it very difficult to get that "tonal" stuff.

But I found out that the street stall owners will respond to even my poor Thai.

I guess that's because I'm buying something and even if I speak bad Thai, the stall owners all speak money.

[robertthebruce]

I am over 50... and must admit , lazy as anything, fortunately my Partner is Thai.. so i just stand like a dummy.. (i am good at that - had years of practice)....

Hopefully one day i can pick up more than what i have now.. but for the time being, happy being a ''Dummy''..

Lazy i know.. but at least i admit it..

[Catweazel]

Well over 50, and started learning Thai 1,5 years ago.... Twice-a-week skype sessions with excellent teacher. The reading and writing helped a lot to speak properly, and the conversations helped my confidence. Of course, my Thai wife is a help as well, but I choose not to bother her with my hard studies. If you really want to learn the Thai language, do learn to read and write it too. Good luck

[phinick]

Thanks for your responses. I guess I will just try to find a local teacher. My wife is almost no help because she just doesn't have the patience. I've tried Rosetta Stone, but it's so repetitive that I can't stay awake when using it. (guess I'm getting too old).haha

Hotrod, I'll be in Huai Thap Tan. Not there yet, but building a house, and it should be ready in about 2 months, and shortly after that will be moving family back to there. Yes, the family all speaks Lao or Khmer, but I guess everyone can understand me if I learn Thai (hopefully)

[NCFC]

Get a big vocab first. Very easy to do. Just point at everything you see and ask what is this in Thai language. The advantage of this is that you can ask just anyone and not bore the same people with your questions. And Thai people are very helpful when it comes to something like this. You'll soon end up knowing a bunch of names of things. Great start. Then add verbs and adjectives so you can start describing those nouns and what you're doing with them.

Once you've hacked a load of everyday nouns, verbs and adjectives - and you don't really need a lot to get going - then you can move into the intermediate stage of learning words to describe emotions and feelings. By this time you'll find your Thai experience has improved exponentially as you can connect to the world around you. Grammar not that important in the early stages.