Living in Thailand without speaking Thai

[tartempion]

I know many, and I mean MANY farangs who live here with their Thai woman and they can't speak ONE word of Thai, certainly not "thank you"( which in Thai are 3 words....) I see them everywhere, paying and getting change back at 7/11's etc. staring blank at cashiers. Makes me shake my head in disguest, but that's life.

 

So don't worry. As said earlier in a few days you can learn some basics. Days, hours, months, counting to 10 million are all fairly easy to achieve. Learning real Thai is something else and I am tone deaf....mai, mai, mai and mai are not the same.

 

Relax and enjoy your stay.

 

And Flash, I have to disagree with your statement

"But even if you butcher the pronunciation, Thais will understand you."

 

I often get blank stares from Thais who don't understand what I am saying because of my butchering. I often guess wrongly that they would understand the context, one wrong pronounced word in a sentence should not make it impossible to understand isn't? Yes it does.

 

I do notice some correct me, which is good, but many don't, a face saving thing again?

 

To the OP: fascinating is to come to grips with Thai culture, which is never because you'll find onion layer upon onion layer, never getting bored, you can get tired of trying to understand tough, but I digress....

[TroyinEwa/Perv]

I know many, and I mean MANY farangs who live here with their Thai woman and they can't speak ONE word of Thai, certainly not "thank you"( which in Thai are 3 words....) I see them everywhere, paying and getting change back at 7/11's etc. staring blank at cashiers. Makes me shake my head in disguest, but that's life.

 

So don't worry. As said earlier in a few days you can learn some basics. Days, hours, months, counting to 10 million are all fairly easy to achieve. Learning real Thai is something else and I am tone deaf....mai, mai, mai and mai are not the same.

 

Relax and enjoy your stay.

 

I'm sure I don't know the same people you're talking about but I find it hard to believe if not impossible that someone living in Thailand hasn't learned even a single word of Thai. It might be more of a case of being an asshole and not speaking it. I'm sure they don't know even basic Thai but to say they don't even know how to say hello or thank you, I just flat out don't believe it.

 

 

[cavanami]

Over the years of living in many different countries I have been able to pick up a bit of the language. Problem is now, that I know so many bits and bobs of various languages that I don't speak any language now

 

Usually, one will learn the numbers (easy in Thai), colors, simple phrases and so on.

Reading and writing Thai will take some effort but not impossible. If Mr. Stupid (me) can learn Japanese/Chinese (spoken and written), anyone can learn a bunch of Thai, IMO.

[Encore]

>I know many, and I mean MANY farangs who live here with their Thai woman and they can't speak ONE word of Thai, certainly not "thank you"( which in Thai are 3 words....) I see them everywhere, paying and getting change back at 7/11's etc. staring blank at cashiers. Makes me shake my head in disgust, but that's life.<

 

I know what you mean. For me it is also a matter of showing respect and courtesy. When I come first here for a two week visit, all I knew was "Hello, thank you and 'pretty c..t'" (a Thai GF back home taught me).

 

For a holiday that's OK. But if the OP wants to spend a year here, it is not too hard to learn more. I find the people I encounter light up and look pleased when I respond in their own language. At the market, the woman selling me the vegetables wants to get into a conversation.

 

At the MP, the girl who does such a wonderful job on my body, gets really engaged and pleased when she can have a conversation, instead of dead silence for an hour with a customer. Simple matters =such as chatting about family, How many children, etc, break the ice.

 

When people find out you've made an effort at learning about their language and culture, they are more likely to respond in a warm manner.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"I'm sure they don't know even basic Thai but to say they don't even know how to say hello or thank you, I just flat out don't believe it."

 

I do. As tartempion mentions there are a LOT of foreigners living here who speak no Thai whatsoever, nor do they seem to have any inclination to learn it.

Hate to say this but more often than not it is native English speakers that are like this. Possibly due to them never really having had the need to learn another language.

 

Sanuk!

 

[TroyinEwa/Perv]

I'm not saying they want to learn it and probably don't know much at all. But if one lives there and hears "khop" or "sawatdee" or even "ka", you MUST know at least one word.

[Flashermac]

It usually is native speakers of English, unfortunately. Yet see how pissed off they will be if foreigners come to their country to live and refuse to learn English!

 

I've heard some fantastic howlers from Farangs though, such as a friend asking a waitress for a KUAY KAFFEE instead of a TUAY KAFFEE. The waitress blushed, then giggled ... but she figured out what he must have wanted.

 

(TUAY = cup; KUAY = penis!)

 

The famous one years ago was the Peace Corps teachers whose class was getting rowdy. She told them QUIET. They made them laugh, so she shouted louder ... QUI-ET! Then they started roaring, so she shouted QUI-ET at the top of her lungs. A Thai teacher came in to give the boys hell. He then gently explained to the American gal that it sounded like she was yelling KWIGH YET = the buffaloes are fucking!

 

[chuckwoww]

Let's face it there are those who have no curiosity about anything except what goes in their stomachs or on the end of their knobs. Well football maybe...as long as it isn't too 'clever'.

[Flashermac]

KS, New Mexico is officially bilingual and we had to study Spanish in school. In California, no foreign language was required - and that is the way it is in the majority of the States. Foreign languages are electives. (I think French is required to some extent in Louisiana.) Also, most immigrants do not pass their langaue on to their children - at least beyong the first American born generation. I've always been amazed to meet children of Thais, Danes, Italians etc who are almost completely ignorant of their children's language. (I began life bilingual, but them my grandmother stopped speaking German very often and it slipped away from me. ) The big bitch about the recent Hispanic immigrants is that they REFUSE to learn Spanish and want everything in their language. That isn't immigration, it is conquest.

 

 

[USVirgin]

I didn't know a whole lot about prostitution in farangland as a teenager, yet this was one of my favorite songs. It's worth a listen in the background, like I'm doing now! :-)

 

 

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