khunsanuk Posted March 6, 2002 Report Share Posted March 6, 2002 Hi, "I just know when I try to speak I will do something stpid like ask for toilet water instead of orange juice." This actually happened to a friend of mine. He very politely asked for a glass of toilet water. His girlfriend almost pissed herself laughing. Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Des Posted March 6, 2002 Report Share Posted March 6, 2002 JCK said quote: Even more off topic. A Ram Uni student I know says that Farangs speaking Thai sound like gays. My wife (Thai) says that farangs speaking Thai sound like monkeys. Which is why she isn't keen on me learning Thai. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 7, 2002 Report Share Posted March 7, 2002 quote: Originally posted by Guardian: Can anyone give me a tip on how to make sure you have the right tones? - if you don't already, learn to read thai - exaggerate the tones when you are learning to conterbalance the farang tendency to drop them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pescator Posted March 7, 2002 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2002 quote: Originally posted by HongKongBoy: JCK said My wife (Thai) says that farangs speaking Thai sound like monkeys. Which is why she isn't keen on me learning Thai. That is probably just the excuse she uses for not teaching you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pescator Posted March 7, 2002 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2002 quote: Originally posted by Guardian: Interesting post. Hua Nguu I am considered by my Company to be fluent in three languages, but by your standards I am not sure I would pass for being fluent in my mother tongue! Come on Guardian you are just being modest. Suppose a company in a job advertisement would write "Fluency in English". Do you think the company would be satisfied with a candidate who is able to speak fluently but is illiterate? For me being fluent is when you can carry a converstion on any subject with someone with someone, reading and writing are a bonus. As for the accent? Hey, I got more women in Europe because of my accent than anything else! Well, I am scandinavian so I shouldn`t count on getting any woman at all because of my accent. Our accent sounds awful, but mayby I should start working on faking a french aone? I have been taking a Basic Thai course, 2 hours a week for 10 weeks and I can safely say I find Thai to be Very difficult. Can anyone give me a tip on how to make sure you have the right tones? I just know when I try to speak I will do something stpid like ask for toilet water instead of orange juice . 5555 Well, you could risk being served vinegar instead of orange juice as it is the same word. What getting the tones right concerns I would recommend the Linguaphone Thai Course. It has a very good section about tones and their pronounciation on tape. As another poster wrote start overdoing the tones at first in order to get them right. Although composite words may contain several differant tones there is usually only one of these you need to get right. By the time you can say Khaa or Mai without any context in 5 different tones meaning 5 different things consider yourself having served your apprenticeship Hua Nguu [ March 07, 2002: Message edited by: Hua Nguu ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 7, 2002 Report Share Posted March 7, 2002 hi, going back to the fluency in technical/political thai, can anybody recommend any good learning resources either on-line or books? i can hold conversational thai and read and write but would like to get better at the "higher" level of the language and there doesnt seem to be many resources available (apart from going to uni to study). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daeng bireley Posted March 7, 2002 Report Share Posted March 7, 2002 buksida, Ive found advanced readers and learning material very difficult to buy. There are quite a few publications but they seem to print them in very limited numbers. The other day I saw a couple of copies of "The Thai Cultural Reader" put out by Cornell University at Kikokuniya Bookshop in Emporium on Soi 24. This is probably the most advanced book of this type you can get, probably got about 100 stories, very rare I think its a great book even though its over 20 years old, the print is like an old typewriter and its expensive at 1300 baht. There is also a series of books by Thanapol Chadchaidee published by D.K. books with titles Including "Essays on Thailand", "Handbook of News Translators" and "English for Real Estate Agents" etc Well worth looking for.I think you'd only get these in a thai bookshop. daeng Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bibblies Posted March 8, 2002 Report Share Posted March 8, 2002 quote: Originally posted by JCK: Sorry for off-topic post but...Despite Thais telling me all about Andrew Biggs, I've never ever seen him. When is he on TV and what channel please? Even more off topic. A Ram Uni student I know says that Farangs speaking Thai sound like gays. The guy's a baldy often seen on those learning channels, innit? I've always noticed that a lot of farangs tend to speak Thai in a higher tone than their native language and that it does sound effeminate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 8, 2002 Report Share Posted March 8, 2002 daeng, thanks for that, i'll check those out. the way i do it at the moment is to read the newspapers and look up the words i dont know. the only trouble is they are rarely used in everyday conversation so i usually end up forgetting them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daeng bireley Posted March 8, 2002 Report Share Posted March 8, 2002 Ive got the memory problem too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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