Torneyboy Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 Talking with my wifes son while was staying with us in Oz for 2 weeks. I asked him to say the months of the year in English. All was well until we got to September. A huge effort on the end of the word..ber....SeptemBER OctobER etc. I find myself having to stop from saying the BER as well now as i hear it so often from the thai people i mix with. Why do they use the BER..rather than ber...one tone.........September etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaad Posted December 16, 2003 Report Share Posted December 16, 2003 I believe Thai teachers tend to put emphasis on the syllable which is usually read incorrectly by the students as in 'hamburGER, compuTER etc... In turn the students do exactly the same instead of reading the word correctly in just one tone. :: Why not ask him? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markle Posted December 16, 2003 Report Share Posted December 16, 2003 Zaad's on the right track but the cause is much deeper than Thai teachers. First of all Thai is a monosyllablic language ( words are one syllabe or treated as such). English is a polysyllablic language (words can have more than one syllable) When we speak English naturally we don't stress all the syllables in a word sometimes we kind a murmur or slur either the beginning, middle or ends of words. Thai speakers stress all syllables because each is a word in it's own right and has meaning, this carries over into speaking English. eg English native speaker comPUter Thai COM PU TER make sense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted December 16, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2003 Hi Zaad i did when he was here...the teacher says BER. I said to him ..no just one flat tone ...ber, He caught on and was perfect when he left. Asked him to teach the teacher :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaad Posted December 16, 2003 Report Share Posted December 16, 2003 Good explanation, Markle. It's hard for them to put emphasis on the correct syllable. More examples: Native - NEWSpaper and LOtus Thai - newsPAper and loTAAT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaad Posted December 16, 2003 Report Share Posted December 16, 2003 Asked him to teach the teacher :: Don't we all learn something new everyday? Not sure the teacher will appreciate it though :: Another thing, Lots of Thais also have difficulties when pronouncing -sts words. (the plural form of words ending with -st) Such as: dentists, fists, guests .... Quite entertaining to see them nearly swallowing their tongue :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasmine Posted December 16, 2003 Report Share Posted December 16, 2003 I believe it is a Thai accent TB. I am going to be in Thailand for 3 months starting in Jan. and my brother and niece have people asking me to teach them English (which I don't know I will) and that will be the first thing I will correct. Also, the Thai teachers, like Zaad mentioned seem to do it and I don't know why. I have learnt English from my father and the native speakers and many good Thai English teachers who know this weakness. Another point worth mentioning is that many Thai English teachers are hard to change even though they know that the pronuciation is wrong, it is a "face" thing. Jasmine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasmine Posted December 16, 2003 Report Share Posted December 16, 2003 [color:"red"] Thai speakers stress all syllables because each is a word in it's own right and has meaning, this carries over into speaking English. [/color] Very good point and I must admit that I never thought of that before. Now I think, I may know a better way to explain to the Thais if I am forced to teach English. What I find confusing is when the Thais use English words in a Thai conversation but people who know English well, especially me, cannot undersand and I think it is the way the English is pronounced. A Thai guy told me once that English is very confusing, for example the words "to, do" are prononced as "too/doo" then "go" is NOT "goo"! This same man also told me that he applied for a job at a hamburger place once and asked for a "manager" and pronounced as "na-na-ker"!!! :: Jasmine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasmine Posted December 16, 2003 Report Share Posted December 16, 2003 [color:"red"] Quite entertaining to see them nearly swallowing their tongue [/color] Keep that smile discreet Zaad I think the tongue was swallowed quite often by me too. Jasmine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaad Posted December 16, 2003 Report Share Posted December 16, 2003 What I find confusing is when the Thais use English words in a Thai conversation Very confusing indeed. I'm sure you know the Thai singer 'Buchba' (sp?) also known as Nicole. In one of her songs she sings Tei kae thu (?) I knew 'thu' = 'you'. After hearing it for too many times I noticed that what she was singing is actually a nice mixture of English and Thai: 'Take care thu' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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