Living in Thailand without speaking Thai

[gobbledonk]

I've heard quite a few Farang 'impressing' the girls with their Thai, but its pretty clear when someone is able to use a language casually and without pretence vs someone who is trying way too hard. Dickheads are dickheads, regardless of their native tongue and whatever vocab they have picked up elsewhere.

 

I know I am in the minority here, but I remain impressed by how quickly some of the girls pick up English, and I'm not talking about the 'lub you too mutt' stereotype. Ms CP has struggled with English (despite being taught 'Englit' at school ..), but several of her friends have nailed many of the nuances that make English such a challenge for non-native speakers.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"but I remain impressed by how quickly some of the girls pick up English"

 

My wife is actually learning Dutch at the moment and while she had a hard time with English (still speaks very little), she's actually doing a pretty good job of Dutch. I'd say she's picked up a vocab of about 300+ words in a few weeks.

Her pronunciation is often terrible though, but well.. it is Dutch we are talking about, hardly the easiest of languages to pronounce

 

Sanuk!

 

[Flashermac]

Dutch tends to sound like someone gargling.

 

My feeling is that I will always speak Thai to someone whose English is not up to par. But Speaking Thai to someone whose English is as good or better than my Thai is absurd - and might well be viewed as insulting them. (Remember now that many of my colleagues have studied in the US, UK or Oz.)

 

[Flashermac]

There are many advantages to acting the dumb falang. Especially with bar girls.

 

 

I often act the dumb Farang, but it has nothing to do with language.

 

 

[rookie]

I went to Birmingham HS, Van Nuys - and you?

Talk about female distraction - UCSB had almost a 3/1 female-male student ratio!

 

Went to Westchester HS, near LAX and the _beaches_, where all the pretty gals were that weren't attending UCSB.

 

[waerth]

Hi,

 

"but I remain impressed by how quickly some of the girls pick up English"

 

My wife is actually learning Dutch at the moment and while she had a hard time with English (still speaks very little), she's actually doing a pretty good job of Dutch. I'd say she's picked up a vocab of about 300+ words in a few weeks.

Her pronunciation is often terrible though, but well.. it is Dutch we are talking about, hardly the easiest of languages to pronounce

 

Sanuk!

 

Tell her to call me .... I'll teach her:

Vanavond niet schat, ik heb hoofdpijn

 

[Mekong]

My feeling is that I will always speak Thai to someone whose English is not up to par. But Speaking Thai to someone whose English is as good or better than my Thai is absurd - and might well be viewed as insulting them. (Remember now that many of my colleagues have studied in the US, UK or Oz.)

 

Conversley I have met / dealt with Many Thais who studied in US, UK or OZ and their spoken English is so bad I am amazed that they actualy managed to graduate.

 

Of the foreign educated Thais they tend to fall into 3 catagories IMHO.

 

1. Read / Write English no problem but struggle with / are to shy spoken English.

 

2. OK With spoken English with varying degrees of accent, may have to repeat the occasional sentance.

 

3. Fluent in English

 

 

Not that many fall into the Third catagory.

 

 

[Dexi]

I reckon there are quite a few Thaias who can understand English pretty well but are frightened of speaking in case they make even a small error and so have to endure the dreaded " loss of face "...

[Flashermac]

Depends a lot on where they studied. The baby boomers are old folks now and the US universities have far fewer students enrolling these days. In the 1960s and early '70s, it was hard to get into a good university. Only the top 10% of high school grads could get into the University of California, the top 20% into the state colleges. Now the unies visit high schools to recruit prospective students.

 

But the main thing is that every little Podunk college calls itself a university. I've run into Thais with degrees from "universities" I've never heard of. (Thaksin got his MA from Eastern Kentucky ... huh? He got his PhD from Sam Houston State, another real biggie.) My colleagues attend major universities in the States or unies in England such as Nottingham, Durham, Leeds or London - all on goverment scholarships (one of the perks of the job).

 

I've heard educated Thais grumble about the graduates of no-name foreign universities, saying these graduates come back gloating about having studied abroad, when in fact the only reason they did was that they couldn't pass the nationwide entrance exam for admission to a Thai "public universities" (Chula, Thammasat, Mahidol, Kasetsart, Chiang Mai etc).

 

 

 

[Mekong]

Interesting point Flash.

 

In my previously noted three catagories of comprehension, the ones who tend to fall into the third catagory tend to have graduated with a B.A from the likes of Thammasat and Chulua, most probably from the International program where English is the medium of instruction, before completing MBA's in US or UK.

 

As you are aware Mrs M falls into this catagory as do many of her relatives and as such many of the Thais I socilise with tend to be fellow Alumni who can hold an in depth conversation in English on numerous subject matters.

 

Thais I have worked with in Engineering spoke good enough English to carry out their job ie fluent enough with respect to their career, but often struggled when it came to general conversation.