Old Hippie Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 Thai language skill is really only asgood as the person you are speaking to, and how bad they want/care to understand you. Some will make a serious effort to understand you, others just don't bother. Also, a lot depends on how often the hear farangs buthcer the language. I have a friend who's wife understands his crappy Thai, other people do not, (yet he feels a need to correct my crappy Thai...annoying) hiswife understands his mispronounciation and tones, and doesn't bother to correct him. This was the problem I had when I first astarted learning Thai, the teacher, though nice, sucked, as she never corrected our mistakes, just said "oh very good!" Annoying also. Cent and I were traveling around Surin, Si Saket (sans SSG ) and Buri Ram, most of the people understood my crap Thai, and we got what we needed/wanted. However, one night in Gulliver's, I was pushing up on a friend of Khun Sanuk's wife, and she didn't understand a damned thing I was saying... Other times here, Thais will get annoyed, and just insist on speaking English...making no effort at all to understand you...there was a point to this rant, but I forgot it now...oh yeah, keep trying, maybe you'll learn, and someone will understand you...have fun... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McBif Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 BuBi, Have you checked your PMs lately? Sent you one apropos a few weeks ago. Bif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 Hi, "However, one night in Gulliver's, I was pushing up on a friend of Khun Sanuk's wife, and she didn't understand a damned thing I was saying..." Could have been her hearing, I mean she is 46 after all Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pescator Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 I stated in my post the number of words I was taught from the course when I did it in `94: 4-500. Obviously central thai. Of course this is far from any level of fluency. But I found it to be adequate to deal with most situations I would encounter in areas where little english is spoken. Being immersed in a thai speaking enviroment allows you to add vocabulary and idioms along the way. You do have a good point concerning dialects, somehow the missus "forgot" to mention the fact that people in Isan speaks Lao (their own term). Anyway, most of them also speaks central thai, usually the younger the more fluently. Even when trekking in Phaak Neua among the hill tribes you will find someone who speaks thai. Hua Nguu? Unsavoury? Seems to me to be rather appropriate to this board, if you are familiar with the connotation this expression carries in thai. I seem to recall we even have an esteemed member with the handle: Tao Hua Nguu Lamock. What led to post a reply in this thread in the first place was this: I live in Thailand and have been studying Thai language here for two years.Two years of concentrated, daily, study is just the appetizer to learning the language. That period IME comes down to individual learning skills, unless you are talking about mastering the language to it`s fullest including ratchasap and whatnot. Wouldn`t mind meeting up for a beer, I am just wondering how are we going to establish whether I can, indeed, learn conversational Thai in 5 weeks from a Linguaphone course, when I took this course in back in `94 and have had plenty of exposure to thai since then. cheers hn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pescator Posted July 11, 2006 Report Share Posted July 11, 2006 Hi Bubi did you poor soul ever notice that nobody understands you ? No, I am used to that, I am married you know :: cheers hn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jitagawn Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 There are a few of the boys here that speak Thai REALLY well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buffalo_bill Posted July 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2006 Today is day No. 5 of Khun Bubi's dramatic approach on the Thai language . Report : I feel fairly safe with numbers , weekdays , months and did further learn about 40 words including "maa " which means either horse, dog or come . I always carry my booklet with me from where I constantly repeat the day's 8 words ; although mainly silent because I was told to exercise my speaking lessons elsewhere or I shall be thrown into the sea they said . BuBi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorldFun Posted July 17, 2006 Report Share Posted July 17, 2006 aw sam bia yen si! ok mai? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted July 17, 2006 Report Share Posted July 17, 2006 Hi, Almost "aw bia yen sam khuat si!" Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buffalo_bill Posted July 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2006 Just to impress you expats : I can identify sam = three , further " mai " which indicates a question . " Si " could mean four , but then it should sound siii . Rest so far a mystery . Try again in a week . BuBi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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