shygye Posted July 4, 2002 Report Share Posted July 4, 2002 I wonder if its the same with farang who speak Thai? I've often heard bar girls tell punters trying to speak Thai to talk in English. Never knew if their Thai was bad, boring or the girls just didn't like it. Have you ever met a person that thinks they can speak your native language and goes into a looong conversation with you? It can give you a headache. Their Thai is probably so bad the BGs can not understand what he is saying and is giving them a headache. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 4, 2002 Report Share Posted July 4, 2002 Many thanks for the translations , Roppongi , I`m looking forward to giving them a try , although I`m still a few months away from my next visit,Not sure I`d be successfull though as my language skills aren`t that good - its taken me about four years to be able to have a simple conversation in Thai ,by the time I master Japanese I`ll be an OAP.Looking forward to probing the truth behind those added bra rumours though !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted July 4, 2002 Report Share Posted July 4, 2002 Thais are so used to Farangs butchering their native tongue that at first they rather refuse to note that your Thai is understandable and sometimes of a better dialect than the Thais themselves. ------------------------------------------- hey, that's a french sport, buster. Ahah... When a foreigner speaks accented french with me, in France or elsewhere, i always talk back in english. Not being snobby, just a deeply ingrained reflex that french is our culture, part of us, and accented/good enough foreigner french is not part of that identity, but on the outside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiery Jack Posted July 4, 2002 Report Share Posted July 4, 2002 "Apparently I speak clear and fairly fluent Thai yet... some Thais are so used to Farangs butchering their native tongue that at first they rather refuse to note that your Thai is understandable and sometimes of a better dialect than the Thais themselves... However some Thais never even flinch and cary on in extremely rapid Thai slang l ike you are their own brethern." Japan same-same. (At least outside the big cities.) And your restaurant story happened to me loads of times in Japan. The other "restaurant" sketch which used to bug me was the "Let's deliberately misunderstand the foreigner!" routine i. e. when I was with my Japanese missus and some nervous waitress would sidle over to take the order. I'd order in fluent Japanese (simple stuff, usually, from a written menu of limited items for christ's sake: it wasn't like I was suddenly cracking into philosophical discourse) to be met with a completely blank stare of utter incomprehension. The petrified waitress would then turn desperately to my wife who would repeat exactly what I had said in exactly the same accent and tone and, lo and behold, suddenly the waitress would, as if a magic light had been switched on, understand exactly what we wanted. Boy that used to make my blood boil. j Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soongmak Posted July 4, 2002 Report Share Posted July 4, 2002 >>>just a deeply ingrained reflex that french is our culture, part of us, and accented/good enough foreigner french is not part of that identity, but on the outside.<<< LOL! If that's not snobby I don't know what is! Cheers, soongmak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix Posted July 4, 2002 Report Share Posted July 4, 2002 >I wonder if its the same with farang who speak Thai? I've often heard bar girls tell punters trying to speak Thai to talk in English. Never knew if their Thai was bad, boring or the girls just didn't like it. < >Have you ever met a person that thinks they can speak your native language and goes into a looong conversation with you? It can give you a headache. Their Thai is probably so bad the BGs can not understand what he is saying and is giving them a headache. < Yes, sometimes it may give them a headache. But then again, sometimes, if a girl doesn't have more than 5 words of English, you have no alternatives. I thought, when I lived with Nok for a few months ( who spoke pasable englishfor day to day practicalities, but not enough for a deep conversation) , and was studying thai at language school, that she would encourage and help me. But after a while, when I started to pick up quite a bit of her conversations with her friends and family, I would pick her up on the odd outright lie or inappropriate comment about me. That would drive her wild. "I not like falang speak Thai.!!, STUPID!" That lasted for a month, then slowly she started to see it could be handy, and encouraging me again. Also, she started speaking faster and in local issaan/Lao dialect with her friends and family. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 4, 2002 Report Share Posted July 4, 2002 "If a girl doesn't have more than 5 words of English, you have no alternatives..." Oh, I don't know. I can think of a couple Val Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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