Laughing Gravy Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 I spoke Thai only for the first 6 years with my wife as she didn't speak English. Then I started speaking English as she was learning and the more time has passed, we speak English. We do revert back to Thai when arguing though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post sipi Posted December 11, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted December 11, 2014 Thai 10%. The other 90% is when I am talking to myself, or to one of my other personallities. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uptheos Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 No......sometimes......it depends....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon43 Posted December 11, 2014 Author Share Posted December 11, 2014 Of course my OP assumed that you had a Thai partner As for not speaking Thai because we are not migrants, (unlike the subjects of the German TV programme in my OP link); whilst most of us are not 'migrants' in the sense of having acquired Thai citizenship, many of us are migrants in all but name, if it is our intention to live permanently in Thailand. I do not have Thai citizenship (can't tick all the application boxes...), but I consider myself a migrant because this is now my permanent home and I have a long-stay visa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnotherOneAmerican Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Not many of you are migrants, why should you speak Thai?Why should migrants speak Thai at home? What's your point? The point is, One could argue a point for migrants to speak the language of their new country. No reason at all for guests (expats) to speak the language of their temporary residence. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnotherOneAmerican Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Of course my OP assumed that you had a Thai partner As for not speaking Thai because we are not migrants, (unlike the subjects of the German TV programme in my OP link); whilst most of us are not 'migrants' in the sense of having acquired Thai citizenship, many of us are migrants in all but name, if it is our intention to live permanently in Thailand. I do not have Thai citizenship (can't tick all the application boxes...), but I consider myself a migrant because this is now my permanent home and I have a long-stay visa. You can't be a migrant in all but name, you either are, have a new passport, and can stay forever, or you aren't. You long stay visa means jack, the Junta will have you out tomorrow, if they feel like it. What you consider (in some delusional universe of your own) means nothing to the government of Thailand. You have a temporary residence in Thailand. And it's gonna get harder for you to stay in it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post CharlieH Posted December 11, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted December 11, 2014 We seem to have developed our own language, where often its a mixture of Thai and English in the same sentence totally confuses Thai people. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alantheembalmer Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 I speak English to everybody. It is a well known fact that if you speak it slowly, clearly and loudly, then everybody in the world can understand you! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnotherOneAmerican Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 We seem to have developed our own language, where often its a mixture of Thai and English in the same sentence totally confuses Thai people. 555 You should hear my 3 year old babble, Central, Lanna and English all mixed together in a sentence. "Noo want nom" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farangdude84 Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Of course my OP assumed that you had a Thai partner As for not speaking Thai because we are not migrants, (unlike the subjects of the German TV programme in my OP link); whilst most of us are not 'migrants' in the sense of having acquired Thai citizenship, many of us are migrants in all but name, if it is our intention to live permanently in Thailand. I do not have Thai citizenship (can't tick all the application boxes...), but I consider myself a migrant because this is now my permanent home and I have a long-stay visa. You can't be a migrant in all but name, you either are, have a new passport, and can stay forever, or you aren't. You long stay visa means jack, the Junta will have you out tomorrow, if they feel like it. What you consider (in some delusional universe of your own) means nothing to the government of Thailand. You have a temporary residence in Thailand. And it's gonna get harder for you to stay in it. Someone's paranoid. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post simon43 Posted December 11, 2014 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 11, 2014 You have a temporary residence in Thailand.And it's gonna get harder for you to stay in it. For me, I think not I understand that 'money talks' in Thailand. So I have an Elite 5-year visa. No-one bothers me now 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MobileContent Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 I speak most of the time Isaan/Thai in our home but to my boy in English. My lassie speaks English or Thai in the home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thailiketoo Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Some days the dog wants to speak Thai and others English. I call the dog first in Thai if she doesn't come I switch to English. The wife speaks rapid fire Thai to the dog which confuses her so I tell my wife to slow down her speech so the dog can understand. The dog is tri lingual; speaking dog and understanding dog, English and Thai. She has about 20 different barks and 4 different cries that I can recognize. The snake and scorpion bark is quite distinctive and easy to recognize. The, "I just bit a Burmese guy climbing over the back wall one is a bit more complex." 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZAKY Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Having a knowlledge of Thai is ok particularly when you live in the country side but no big use when you live in Bangkok where there is a big majority of Thai speaking or understanding english, with the coming Asean may be the 2nd official language of Thailand will be english. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DivinGuy Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 We seem to have developed our own language, where often its a mixture of Thai and English in the same sentence totally confuses Thai people. Exactly! I think this is pretty common among bilingual couples. Long ago I lived in New Mexico, where many people are bilingual in Spanish and English. The local paper had a weekly humor column about it. It confuses some westerners, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deli Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 No, Mia wouldn't understand me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HooHaa Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 i speak thai to the maid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Estrada Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 (edited) My Thai wife, myself and 3 children speak English, Thai, and Khymer. My wife spent two years in the UK and strictly speaking our eldest daughter is an expat who speaks fluent Thai at home and BBC English. Edited December 11, 2014 by Estrada Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadGeordie Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 I speak Khymer to the wife, English to my boy and abosolute boll**ks in the bar 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greensun Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Only using English as I think it's better to have one common language instead of mixture of multiple languages. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudcrab Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Of course my OP assumed that you had a Thai partner As for not speaking Thai because we are not migrants, (unlike the subjects of the German TV programme in my OP link); whilst most of us are not 'migrants' in the sense of having acquired Thai citizenship, many of us are migrants in all but name, if it is our intention to live permanently in Thailand. I do not have Thai citizenship (can't tick all the application boxes...), but I consider myself a migrant because this is now my permanent home and I have a long-stay visa. I understood from previous posts you had spat the dummy and was going to Myanmar? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Estrada Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 I speak Khymer to the wife, English to my boy and abosolute boll**ks in the bar Geordie's English goes something like this: Dee us some scran, hinny, I'm clamming (when hungry) Howay, man, marra, let's gan doon the bar for some beltas scran(When going to the bar). Wife says your "Veil Mook" (Drunk) you say "Mun Deng Tae".(I dee nae understand) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurkster Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 I speak Lao at home, as I live in ISSAN and very few people are good at Central Thai anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudcrab Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 I speak Khymer to the wife, English to my boy and abosolute boll**ks in the bar I'm not fluent in boll**ks in the bar, but have been acknowledged to be quite gifted when using shorthand...and occasionally awesome when I slip into Braille. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sipi Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 We seem to have developed our own language, where often its a mixture of Thai and English in the same sentence totally confuses Thai people. I have a friends wife who speaks Thailish. There are 7 others in the world that speak the same language, and her husband isn't one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrTuner Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 You have to talk at home? I use guttural noises. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recycler Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 With my wife we have been talking Thai from the beginning, she would like to learn more English and Dutch (my native language), but it's hard to switch. With my son of 17 I speak Dutch and he speaks Thai ans some English with my wife, with my stepson of 7 I speak English and some Thai and with our daughter of 2 I speak English and Dutch. My wife speaks Isaan with her family and some friends and I have some colleagues that I speak German with. From a linguistic point of view we are a messy household! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inxuinxu Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 My wife doesn't speak English at all. My English is poor. I already knew the basics of thai language when I met her. And she has learnt my difficult native language slowly. Hence we are still speaking thai at home. We have been married 24 years already. After two years from now we both will have pension and it will be nice for me to stay in Nong Khai while knowing some thai and isaan language. Our adult daughter speaks perfect thai and isaan. Her thai writing is good but not perfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwills Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Mostly Thai only English when asked to translate, I like them to use Thai/English Dictionary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurkster Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 (edited) The word fluency gets thrown around a lot when it shouldn't. for example if you say " i am fluent in Thai but cannot read and write" then by definition you aren't fluent. Fluency can only be attained after becoming fully literate in a language as well as being able to speak.... Edited December 11, 2014 by Smurkster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.png.3b3332cc2256ad0edbc2fe9404feeef0.png)
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now