Expats, do you speak Thai at home?

[ebonykap]

I must be old-fashioned. If one decides to reside in a foreign country, I believe they should make the effort to speak some of the local language. I live alone but will speak Thai at every opportunity, despite the laughter and sometimes strange looks and "araina's"?

I also respect and follow the cultures and traditions of the country ie, take off my shoes, wai when appropriate etc.

Born in England, raised in Australia, call Thailand home!

[SoiBiker]

I must be old-fashioned. If one decides to reside in a foreign country, I believe they should make the effort to speak some of the local language.

I do. Just not at home.

[Thai at Heart]

I do with the missus but never with the kids.

They were shocked when they finally twigged I could understabd them.

[azaazo9]

Desire to be naturalized has no bearing on the definition. Your fact has no relation to reality.

Again, you are expats by definition, but not mentally. How can be an expat someone who feel Thaialnd as his home, speak Thai, have Thai realtives, etc?

[azaazo9]

azaazo9:

You're making up your own private dictionary definitions.

It's not abut making definitions, I am just trying to understand the difference between expats and 'expats'/

[jdinasia]

azaazo9:

You're making up your own private dictionary definitions.

It's not abut making definitions, I am just trying to understand the difference between expats and 'expats'/

The difference is only in your mind, and the ''

[Naam]

[un]fortunately none of my family members speak Thai

[ronthai]

EDIT: I LIVE ALONE, my choice after many years (27+) in Thailand.

I speak English and think in English towards myself everyday ...

... and I am Dutch.

I can speak and understand some and MORE basic Thai.

Very nice when in a bar, because the Thais don't know

SSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

don't tell anybody

Edited December 11, 2014 by ronthai

[connda]

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends.

[phuketjock]

I only speak Thai at home when my wife pretends that she doesn't

understand what I am saying in English so needless to say she usually

gets quite pissed off when I speak Thai.

[Neeranam]

I find Thai good for the basics in life but for most kind of intellectual conversations it falls short. Even after many years it has to be a good dose of English to stop me slipping into early Alzheimers ! Although English can be too analytical for many Thais and drive them slowly mental, so you have to strike a balance.

Let me get this straight - you are saying that Thais can't have intellectual conversations because the language doesn't allow it?

Surely you aren't saying this - please confirm.

[Saan]

We usually speak Tinglish. My wife speaks excellent English and my Thai is no where near that standard. We just fell into a form of pidgin. Maybe it was because I have a step-sun who is determined not to speak a word of English. After 10 years of English lessons he can now manage 'I want 200 baht'. He also resisted eating any falang food until I went along with him and banned falang icecream, falang soft drinks and falang sweets. I also suggested riding in foreign cars and using a foreign mobile was a no no. I was then interested to lean that Honda, Toyota, Sony, Apple et al are Thai companies.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

I find Thai good for the basics in life but for most kind of intellectual conversations it falls short. Even after many years it has to be a good dose of English to stop me slipping into early Alzheimers ! Although English can be too analytical for many Thais and drive them slowly mental, so you have to strike a balance.

Let me get this straight - you are saying that Thais can't have intellectual conversations because the language doesn't allow it?

I would have said it was cos most of them were too shallow and poorly educated.

[Neeranam]

I speak pidgin with my wife as that's the way that we've always communicated...I speak in limited thai with the rest of the family, mostly with the MiL and the kids...most of the men pretend to not understand what I'm saying...

and I'm quite sure that my 21 y.o. step daughter understands english but she does't reveal this to anyone...she is a smart cookie and a sneaky little wench and I can't help but love her...

May I ask how long you've been married?

My advice is NEVER speak pidgin English unless you are happy speaking it for ever and don't mind your wife not progressing in life.

One of my pet hates is hearing farang fathers speaking to their kids in pidgin Thai - one guy last week at the bar had his 5 year old kid coming up to the pool table and touching the balls and he say "mai ow, mai ow". Patheti seeing the kid looked more farang than Thai. Some peope just totally lose the plot.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

My advice is NEVER speak pidgin English unless you are happy speaking it for ever and don't mind your wife not progressing in life.

One of my pet hates is hearing farang fathers speaking to their kids in pidgin Thai - one guy last week at the bar had his 5 year old kid coming up to the pool table and touching the balls and he say "mai ow, mai ow". Patheti seeing the kid looked more farang than Thai. Some peope just totally lose the plot.

555, the irony!

[wow64]

English to daughter and wife.... unless the outlaws come over then its thai.

Funny my daughter will go from thai to english and back to thai in 1 sentence.. And gets cranky when they dont understand her.

Sent from my c64

[Farang99]

I speak only Thai with my wife, who speaks very little English. Usually English with my son and his fiancée, but when we are all together we speak only Thai.

[Neeranam]

I find Thai good for the basics in life but for most kind of intellectual conversations it falls short. Even after many years it has to be a good dose of English to stop me slipping into early Alzheimers ! Although English can be too analytical for many Thais and drive them slowly mental, so you have to strike a balance.

Let me get this straight - you are saying that Thais can't have intellectual conversations because the language doesn't allow it?

I would have said it was cos most of them were too shallow and poorly educated.

You being the exception of course? And what about your Thai mother, is she shallow?

Edited December 12, 2014 by Neeranam

[Neeranam]

My advice is NEVER speak pidgin English unless you are happy speaking it for ever and don't mind your wife not progressing in life.

One of my pet hates is hearing farang fathers speaking to their kids in pidgin Thai - one guy last week at the bar had his 5 year old kid coming up to the pool table and touching the balls and he say "mai ow, mai ow". Patheti seeing the kid looked more farang than Thai. Some peope just totally lose the plot.

555, the irony!

Please explain, I can't see any irony in my statement.

[catman20]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

I live alone and talk to myself in both English and Thai.

and by far the best way, never any arguments and should there be one I ALWAYS WIN

[n210mp]

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.

I dont always get on with AOA.

Sometimes He can be a little terse in his posting but on this occasion his paucity of words is spot on and He is definitely not paranoid.

if you are not entitled to stay here ad infinitum by virtue of non-citizenship then you have no residency rights at all other than temporary ones, which can hardly be described as giving you any security.

Surely you can see the point He is making.

ExPats on temporary Visas or extensions are simply vulnerable to the whims of any of the Cults sects or Military that are vested with power at any given time .

The only thing positive for me in making me feel a little secure long term is that the Issan population and other Thai people maybe would not accept the off loading of the many thousands of ExPats who are married into these groups.

It wouldn't be the HISO of Bangkok who would be worried about banishing those ExPats back to their home countries but all those poorer families who have come to rely on the income of the Farang who has married into them

[tutsiwarrior]

I find Thai good for the basics in life but for most kind of intellectual conversations it falls short. Even after many years it has to be a good dose of English to stop me slipping into early Alzheimers ! Although English can be too analytical for many Thais and drive them slowly mental, so you have to strike a balance.

Let me get this straight - you are saying that Thais can't have intellectual conversations because the language doesn't allow it?

Surely you aren't saying this - please confirm.

Neeranam, lighten up...asian languages cannot express a lot of western sentiments effectively as I think most linguists would agree...

what cmsally is expressing is a common western misconception and lets face it; english is extremely difficult for non-westerners to use effectively, unless you have spent years studying in a western environment and most of our thai neighbors haven't...if you're an asian, your language is suitable for what you want to express to other asians...just like anywhere else...

Edited December 12, 2014 by tutsiwarrior

[Yooyung]

Although I speak fluent Thai, I don't speak Thai to my wife at home or ever with my kids, unless it's a joke or something.

My wife does speak Thai to me most the time and to the kids.

The bilingual language acquisition experts say that the Thai parent should speak Thai to kids and English speaker speak English.

Exactly what I do. My son spent the age of 2 1/2 to about 5 1/2 in Australia while I was studying there. When we came back here he was speaking very, very good Thai within about 3 months...I kid you not. Now he is fluent in Thai and, I would say pretty well fluent in English. He always chooses to watch movies and cartoons in English. I speak to him only really in English unless I am kidding around. His mum mixes it up a bit more and speaks to me in Thai sometimes also. I am very proud and happy with my sons progress. I was a bit worried when we first came back here. Now I can see that he is going to do well ,owing to the fact that he will be able to pick and choose the best from both worlds.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

My advice is NEVER speak pidgin English unless you are happy speaking it for ever and don't mind your wife not progressing in life.

One of my pet hates is hearing farang fathers speaking to their kids in pidgin Thai - one guy last week at the bar had his 5 year old kid coming up to the pool table and touching the balls and he say "mai ow, mai ow". Patheti seeing the kid looked more farang than Thai. Some peope just totally lose the plot.

555, the irony!

Please explain, I can't see any irony in my statement.

'farang' = Thai, mixed into English sentence = pidgin.

'he say' = pidgin.

Not to mention the lack of punctuation, incorrect use of 'and', wrong tense, etc.

Edited December 12, 2014 by AnotherOneAmerican

[tutsiwarrior]

I speak pidgin with my wife as that's the way that we've always communicated...I speak in limited thai with the rest of the family, mostly with the MiL and the kids...most of the men pretend to not understand what I'm saying...

and I'm quite sure that my 21 y.o. step daughter understands english but she does't reveal this to anyone...she is a smart cookie and a sneaky little wench and I can't help but love her...

May I ask how long you've been married?

My advice is NEVER speak pidgin English unless you are happy speaking it for ever and don't mind your wife not progressing in life.

One of my pet hates is hearing farang fathers speaking to their kids in pidgin Thai - one guy last week at the bar had his 5 year old kid coming up to the pool table and touching the balls and he say "mai ow, mai ow". Patheti seeing the kid looked more farang than Thai. Some peope just totally lose the plot.

how long married? about 14 years, not all of them happy, but &lt;deleted&gt; is that to you? and my wife is a capable woman...

man, you need to get back on the drugs...you've got a big attitude problem...

[maidee]

you know the differences between german migrants and those expats in thailand

in germany, the can claim: free housing, free social welfare, free german lessons, unlimited stay & no proof of funds or income, can buy land, can work

in thailand : you know the drill, none of the above

so incentive to learn thai, which is only understood mostly in bangkok as in other places they like to speak their own version of thainess ...

[AnotherOneAmerican]

you know the differences between german migrants and those expats in thailand

German passport and citizenship?

[dsfbrit]

We only speak Thai at home here in Thailand. I like learning languages and when we met 12 years ago she spoke hardly/no English, so as we were going to live in Thailand it seemed sensible that I learnt Thai.

Funnily enough, when we went to the UK for a year to sell my assets before moving out here permanently, my friends met my wife mostly in the pub and thought she was great company, smiled a lot and was a really good listener.

I confessed to one friend that the time he had spent drinking and talking to her while she listened so well, was simply because she could not understand a word he was saying.

There is a moral in this story somewhere

Edited December 12, 2014 by dsfbrit

[Boxclever]

Typical tutsiwarrior morning conversation with wife..."morning teelak, how feel you?". Wifey "me OK, need moneeey pai shopin, give me ok?" tutsiwarrior, thinking like mad how to ask in pidgin what the hell for after shopping 13 days in a row. "Money pocket im lao teelak, where money yesterday gib you?" Wifey "You no lub me mai? you bad man I know!" tutsiwarrior "ok ok..heres another 10k " Wifey "What bout money beer you?"

[Stradavarius37]

In answer to the OP's question - No.