Learn Thai and Shut Up

[Neeranam]

It doesn't seem very friendly to call someone a stupid bitch for being overcome with embarrassment, or shy, or frightened of their psychopathically jealous husband, or whatever. Perhaps, despite your best efforts, you were unsuccessful

SC

It's not friendly. She was speaking on her phone and said that she was "scared of farang". I said, "mai dtong glua" which I thought was friendly, appropriate and funny.

I bet when she comes to Thailand and meets me and asks where I come from she expects an honest answer. I mean come on if she were from Aberdeen she wouldn't be scared of farang. - stupid bitch.

[kimamey]

I think first a guy should get to know the difference between Thai and Loas. "sep ee lee" is Loas for delicious not thai but is uised in Thailand by isaan people and others in northeren thailand. Why would someone speak loas and then tell someone to else to learn to speak thai?

Loas???? I presume you mean Laos.....

"Sep ee lee" is Isaan dialect and Isaan dialect is similar to laotian language but by no means totally the same. In Laos they would say "sep lai lai" or "sep lai doeh" and absolutely not "sep ee lee".

And "sep ee lee" is NOT used by Northern thais - in Northern Thailand they will use the expression "lam tee tee"......when talking about delicious food.

(and in Southern Thailand "aroy djang hoo"....)

I think it's Lao actually but the French decided a silent 's' was a cracking idea so we all pronounce it just to get our own back.

I wish my Thai was any good but I have to admit it's laziness.

do remember on my second visit here to Isaan the family were all in now brother in law's pick up and noticed that he said 'kap' instead of 'krap'. Apparently it's because people from Isaan have trouble saying 'krap'. I took a while to get my head around that.

[Trentham]

It doesn't seem very friendly to call someone a stupid bitch for being overcome with embarrassment, or shy, or frightened of their psychopathically jealous husband, or whatever. Perhaps, despite your best efforts, you were unsuccessful

SC

It's not friendly. She was speaking on her phone and said that she was "scared of farang". I said, "mai dtong glua" which I thought was friendly, appropriate and funny.

I bet when she comes to Thailand and meets me and asks where I come from she expects an honest answer. I mean come on if she were from Aberdeen she wouldn't be scared of farang. - stupid bitch.

yeah keep going. You are on your way to 11.000.

[FiftyTwo]

Almost my first Thai sentence.

"Tam Ahan my geng" = literal translation "cook not skilled", meaning "food not so good".

[FiftyTwo]

do remember on my second visit here to Isaan the family were all in now brother in law's pick up and noticed that he said 'kap' instead of 'krap'. Apparently it's because people from Isaan have trouble saying 'krap'. I took a while to get my head around that.

Nah, it's cos "R" after various other letters are not pronounced.

Like Jing Jing is spelt jRing jRing. But J followed by R, you don't pronounce the R.

Let's not even go near why 'TR' is pronounced 'S'.

[FiftyTwo]

I get sick of Thai who can't speak Thai. Klab baan, alloi, tao lai klab, nung loi, loi nung, mai loe klab.

When i speak like that they understand me, if i use the R they don't. They all are to lazy to speak the R instead of the L.

My wife is getting a course about how to do business with farang at work. Now she understands how important everything i taught her is. Also the teacher taught her to never be lazy with english language, like not pronouncing the last letters of a word. I 'm happy she hears it from a Thai teacher this time (who is married with a farang).

Even the Thai on the radio and tv can't speak proper engrit so how should they ever learn it?

My misses just finished high school, her Thai English teacher insists on helping her by sending practice sentences using "Line", trouble is not one sentence is correct. What is the point in learning incorrectly from your teacher then having to relearn it correctly from your husband. Yeah, I did look at her phone, not one correct, yet pet!

Edited March 19, 2014 by FiftyTwo

[namdocmai]

do remember on my second visit here to Isaan the family were all in now brother in law's pick up and noticed that he said 'kap' instead of 'krap'. Apparently it's because people from Isaan have trouble saying 'krap'. I took a while to get my head around that.

Nah, it's cos "R" after various other letters are not pronounced.

Like Jing Jing is spelt jRing jRing. But J followed by R, you don't pronounce the R.

Let's not even go near why 'TR' is pronounced 'S'.

Because TR costs more energy to say, S is much easyier. If it is 40 degree's then things have to be as easy as possible.

They all say kap or klap or klapom. kob kun klap. Yes i l ive in BKK.

[FiftyTwo]

What I was trying to say was that if, for example I am talking about food and I use the word cow with the wrong inflection the majority of Thai's(who I have had dealings with) cannot or will not take the context of the conversation and work out that I mean rice not him, white or hill.

Not to mention, Knee, News, Entrance.

Hint, long 'Ahhh' in the middle of the rice one 'k-ahhhh-w', and don't worry about the tone.

[namdocmai]

What I was trying to say was that if, for example I am talking about food and I use the word cow with the wrong inflection the majority of Thai's(who I have had dealings with) cannot or will not take the context of the conversation and work out that I mean rice not him, white or hill.

Not to mention, Knee, News, Entrance.

Hint, long 'Ahhh' in the middle of the rice one 'k-ahhhh-w', and don't worry about the tone.

I have been on a weekendtrip with 10 thais to kanchanaburi, one of them brought his parents. After 3 days we were in a restaurant in their village while the old lady suddenly said (in english for the first time) they are my students, pointing at the cooks at that streetrestaurant. I asked my wife what she meant , wife said they were her students at scool, she had been english teacher all her life! She had never spoken a word english to me during 3 days! Also her son can't even say hello, nothing.

Yes it is frustrating to teach a Thai english because the rest of Thailand tells her she is wrong. But the teachers of my wife at work told her she is the best one so that helps a lot, now she believes me.

It is not that they are really to lazy to pronounce words correctly but it is something in their brains that blocks. They always want to go the easy route and shortcut everything and that doesn't work in english. It also took me loads of years to learn english but at least i did it or i couldn't even live here at all.

I don't correct other Thai in english though because they loose face is what my wife told me. So i let them do, mai ben rai.....just wait untill they go abroad.

[tim armstrong]

I find the English words that have slipped into Thai sometimes hard to understand. I learned a new one yesterday. I knew that some Thais call 2 stroke oil autolube but I was asking my nephew why he couldn't use petrol in a plastic bottle (aka stic) and he said mai dai sy talube lao I finally worked it out. I took me ages to work out that yar para was actually paracetamol because I thought it was being pronounced with an l ie yar pala. I still learn new words nearly every day, trouble is if I don't use them often they go out the back door

I get sick of saying Australia the second time after they always say ahh Austria

I love teaching my wife Oz slang as she has no fear, and will use whatever even in more formal situations. My sons in Oz - are now used to her getting on the phone and saying - 'how they hangin' Jim'. I find that if I speak Thai slowly I'm understood, although its taken a long time to get this far

[LaraC]

i know a few of these book Thai farangs that haven't a clue when to use the language in real life scenarios.

The best / worst one was this guy who would walk into 711 and without anyone saying anything to him, he would announce Krap Pom.

I have no idea who he was talking to.

krap Pom, Chai kap, and na, have to be the most overused words by farangs who are trying to look local or whatever.

Makes me cringe a bit, sorry to have to say.

Good on them for making an effort, but it comes across as a bit silly.

--------

As for learning bargirl thai..i rememeber this farang guy trying to practice thai on a coffee shop owner (lady).

I thought good for him...until that is she said to him in English (as he was struggling) " it good to hear foriegner try speak thai, i am very happy to hear". He replied by laughing and saying "most thai lady say to me, 'farang speak thai no good, now you know too much'. Cringed big time. No educated regular thai woman speaks that sentance (at least not to my knowledge)...would seem only bar girls say this kind of thing. The coffee owner said "oh, why would thai lady say that? really?". Honestly guys, if you are interacting with regular people, leave the bar talk behind..

[tim armstrong]

I've found "oh hoooiiieeee!" fits in every situation in Thai society

Yess !! -That was the first word of Thai and one of the few I've learned from FIL. He usually has a soggy day old smoke in the corner of his mouth and we can 'oh hooiieee' for quite some time between spits,coughs, throat clearing and him playing with his chickens. I haven't a clue what it means, but here in the country I can use it all the time, and everyone seems to understand !? But I find it's best used with an upwards head nod as a kind of acknowledgement. strange ?

[ikbenhet]

Learning Thai is hard, especially with all the dialects and completely alien alphabet.

But Neeranam, your OP, in almost incoherent English, is hypocritical of the headline "Learn Thai or shut up"

The headline isn't "Learn Thai or shut up".

and/or in that sentence conveys the same meaning.

No, and/or in that sentence don not convey the same meaning.

[FiftyTwo]

i know a few of these book Thai farangs that haven't a clue when to use the language in real life scenarios.

The best / worst one was this guy who would walk into 711 and without anyone saying anything to him, he would announce Krap Pom.

I have no idea who he was talking to.

krap Pom, Chai kap, and na, have to be the most overused words by farangs who are trying to look local or whatever.

Makes me cringe a bit, sorry to have to say.

Good on them for making an effort, but it comes across as a bit silly.

--------

As for learning bargirl thai..i rememeber this farang guy trying to practice thai on a coffee shop owner (lady).

I thought good for him...until that is she said to him in English (as he was struggling) " it good to hear foriegner try speak thai, i am very happy to hear". He replied by laughing and saying "most thai lady say to me, 'farang speak thai no good, now you know too much'. Cringed big time. No educated regular thai woman speaks that sentance (at least not to my knowledge)...would seem only bar girls say this kind of thing. The coffee owner said "oh, why would thai lady say that? really?". Honestly guys, if you are interacting with regular people, leave the bar talk behind..

farang, is the most overused Thai word by foreign white people.

Makes me cringe whenever I hear it.

Edited March 19, 2014 by FiftyTwo

[eeeya]

ooh i did a good one tonight.

asking for fish balls I mistakenly asked for fish footballs

everyone had a chuckle/

Just have a go, who cares if you stuff it up

[Costas2008]

 

Ha....try to tell them you come from Greece.

None of them have a clue where this is.

Although, I have to admit, a few know that Greece won the European cup in 2004.

Amazing Thailand.

 

resoundingly beat Thailand in rugby league a few months back, as well, if I recall correctly.

Greece and Thailand have rugby league teams?????!! Oh kayyyyyy.

 

I don't want to be negative or anything but

https://www.google.com.my/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEoQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rugbyleague.gr%2Fepsilonthetanuiotakappaeta-omicronmualphadeltaalpha--national-team.html&ei=J2spU9GWFMuSrgedsoHwDQ&usg=AFQjCNFYwN9DU-qN4-0py6gBq6PjYBkwAQ&sig2=oJInB9wy8NvSFyC4A422GA&bvm=bv.62922401,d.bmk

Am I proud to be Greek

Never heard before we had a rugby team.

And the results........

Amazing Greece.

[BKK Blues Brother]

So how do you say correctly in Thai" would you care for some Aberdeen Angus steak?"

[heybuz]

i hope i can learn enough to get by

[heybuz]

 

Ha....try to tell them you come from Greece.

None of them have a clue where this is.

Although, I have to admit, a few know that Greece won the European cup in 2004.

Amazing Thailand.

 

resoundingly beat Thailand in rugby league a few months back, as well, if I recall correctly.

Greece and Thailand have rugby league teams?????!! Oh kayyyyyy.

 

I don't want to be negative or anything but

https://www.google.com.my/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEoQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rugbyleague.gr%2Fepsilonthetanuiotakappaeta-omicronmualphadeltaalpha--national-team.html&ei=J2spU9GWFMuSrgedsoHwDQ&usg=AFQjCNFYwN9DU-qN4-0py6gBq6PjYBkwAQ&sig2=oJInB9wy8NvSFyC4A422GA&bvm=bv.62922401,d.bmk

Am I proud to be Greek

Never heard before we had a rugby team.

And the results........

Amazing Greece.

their aussie greeks ,culle nicta

[Costas2008]

It take it , you mean, when ever you go somewhere, someone always asks...."where you from"....I got so sick of them trying to pronounce Australia in many different ways, I just reply now...."up the road"...job done

Ha....try to tell them you come from Greece.

None of them have a clue where this is.

Although, I have to admit, a few know that Greece won the European cup in 2004.

Amazing Thailand.

I found they do if you say 'Greek' instead of Greece.

I wonder if country names here in Thailand are different to what English speakers know them as.

In Indonesia, Greece is "Unani", but I never could find out why. Any ideas from our Greek members?

Would Thais understand 'Deutschland' or "Germany"? "England" or Great Britain"

Unani is a Turkish word for Greece.

Don't know where Turkey is but I will google it.

The proper name of Greece is Hellas.

But this will confuse the Thais more.

Already they are confused after they were beaten in rugby.

[wym]

Arabic (therefore Muslim) word for Greeks.

[Ulysses G.]

"the last I saw was some guy speaking English and throwing "chai mai" at the end of every sentence"

I've met a lot of these over the years or the ones who speak pidgin English to other farangs. They throw in a Thai word every now and then and seem convinced that they are speaking Thai.

[bgrassboy]

So how do you say correctly in Thai" would you care for some Aberdeen Angus steak?"

เอาสเต๊กAberdeen Angus ไหม(ครับ/ค่ะ)

[Neeranam]

I can read and write Thai a bit and am constantly amazed at the bad spelling amongst the general Thai population. One Thai friend sends her son to me when he has a question about Thai language and she herself once asked me how to write ษ sor bor rusi. Oddly enough I don't feel my Thai language is very good.

UNbelievable!

Well I suppose you have to write a lot of silly comments to run up a total of more than 10,000 posts.

Keep up the drivel.

Dude, do you really expect anyone to believe you when you say that Thai people ask you about Thai language and how to write? Now that is drivel. I can read and write Thai more than a bit and never have had anyone ask me. My 11 year old daughter overtook my abilities a couple of years ago. A Thai person would NEVER send their children to a farang who can read and write 'a bit' for language related stuff.

Edited March 19, 2014 by Neeranam

[Nautilus05]

It is a tough language and Thai's don't seem to be able to extrapolate what you mean unless you are word and tone perfect.

I could be wrong, but I also think it's based on socio-economic class as well. It seems if you're trying to converse with a poorer Thai, there's a good chance you're going to get a deer-in-the-headlights stare if you don't word and tone everything perfectly. However, speak with someone a little wealthier, they seem to understand me just fine, and constantly compliment me on how well I speak Thai. I guess that's probably because if you're from a wealthier family, you probably have more education, hence more English classes, so it works the same as a tourist area type of thing?

Other thing I don't get is I'm in Issan, same city, two neighborhoods. Previous neighborhood, everyone spoke Laos (neighbors, market vendors, 7/11 clerks, everyone). This neighborhood is a little wealthier, and everyone here speaks Thai. They use R instead of L, it's "mai bpen rai" not "bpoben yang", it's "chai mai" not "meen boi", etc.

I thought it was a regional dialect, but apparently it's more of a class dialect?

Edited March 19, 2014 by Nautilus05

[namdocmai]

I thought it was a regional dialect, but apparently it's more of a class dialect?

The only time when i hear them say kob khun kRRRab is when they have anouncements somewhere. Or when they talk about the King on tv.

Here in BKK it is always klab. Mai pe laai, kapom, sawasdee kab.

Maybe it is not cool to speak properly? Or they don't want to sound hi-so.

[puukao]

Kap Kap kap . Krap. na krap.

I do not understand, the Thais tell me all the time "i speak thai very well" "Khun puut passa thai geng maak". so i must be doing it right.

kap kap kap kap na krap. chai mai?

khun mai kaow jai? tammy? ugggggg....... i am basically fluent. soo close.

[HeavyDrinker]

The worst are the boys who learn to string a few words together, then feel the need to shout their pidgin Thai at every chance,especially in front of any tourist in earshot giving no regard to the fact that those they're trying to impress may have a much better grasp of the lingo than they have.

[wym]

I thought it was a regional dialect, but apparently it's more of a class dialect?

The only time when i hear them say kob khun kRRRab is when they have anouncements somewhere. Or when they talk about the King on tv.

Here in BKK it is always klab. Mai pe laai, kapom, sawasdee kab.

Maybe it is not cool to speak properly? Or they don't want to sound hi-so.

Very few locations in Thailand have a uniform monoculture of residents.

Sixty-something languages and dialects country-wide, often a half-dozen or more first languages in a given area.

The economically and politically dominant central Thai dialect is the official one, most Thai nationals only start to learn it when they attend school, speak their first language at home and among the neighbors.

Obviously those attending better schools for more years - and hence have better central Thai language skills are from wealthier classes.

So speaking with that "standard" accent and higher-level vocabulary becomes a marker of status.

And Thais are all about status (face), often more important than money or life itself in some cases. Of course for those that are lower-class and proud of it, speaking the official dialect precisely would be mocked as "putting on airs".

The whole thing seems to me very similar to what I see among Brits, very class conscious and language used to mark your background when first meeting, working stiffs making fun of a "toffy" accent etc.

We being foreigners are supposed to be automatically higher status.

So for them to see us speaking the "lower" languages is funny to them, as is the fact that most of us don't give a hoot about their status system.

If you do care, then get a tutor that is a native first-language speaker of central Thai, and/or university educated.

Full-time, 25 contact hours per week should be doable for 15-20K per month, design your own curriculum and set the schedule to your own convenience.

You should be up and running within a few months, learn to read and write ASAP being phonetic will help your pronunciation, probably fluent within two years.

Well worth the effort if you're planning on staying here long-term and like to save money and mix with the locals.

Edited March 19, 2014 by wym

[Neeranam]

It is a tough language and Thai's don't seem to be able to extrapolate what you mean unless you are word and tone perfect.

I could be wrong, but I also think it's based on socio-economic class as well. It seems if you're trying to converse with a poorer Thai, there's a good chance you're going to get a deer-in-the-headlights stare if you don't word and tone everything perfectly. However, speak with someone a little wealthier, they seem to understand me just fine, and constantly compliment me on how well I speak Thai. I guess that's probably because if you're from a wealthier family, you probably have more education, hence more English classes, so it works the same as a tourist area type of thing?

Other thing I don't get is I'm in Issan, same city, two neighborhoods. Previous neighborhood, everyone spoke Laos (neighbors, market vendors, 7/11 clerks, everyone). This neighborhood is a little wealthier, and everyone here speaks Thai. They use R instead of L, it's "mai bpen rai" not "bpoben yang", it's "chai mai" not "meen boi", etc.

I thought it was a regional dialect, but apparently it's more of a class dialect?

Correct and also something that's changing with time. Used to be rich kids would pretend they couldn't understand Isarn(this is in Khon Kaen).