bibblies Posted July 19, 2002 Report Share Posted July 19, 2002 I can see the difficulty one might have with tones. However, there shouldn't be any obstacles to understanding a newspaper once one has a sufficiently large vocabulary. Even though there are no spaces between words, familiar items do start to leap out after a while, in a similar way to other languages. Darn! I clicked on this thread "how to communicate with your g/f" hoping to do a simple "jam yer cock in her mouth" response. But it was too late. The thread was too far gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bibblies Posted July 19, 2002 Report Share Posted July 19, 2002 Fuck me! I'm an old hand! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markle Posted July 19, 2002 Report Share Posted July 19, 2002 With the GF I speak Thai 24/7 and I'm at the "political conversation/ what's on the news " level. Hasn't improved communication that much, in fact I think it might add to problems. I knew a mature Thai lady, widowed, middle class background who had a intimate relationship with a Dutch company executive based here. Her English was broken at best his Thai was no better but they got on like a house on fire. Makes me wonder if language is really the key to the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 19, 2002 Report Share Posted July 19, 2002 markle: "I'm at the "political conversation/ what's on the news " level." How long did it take you to get there? And also, what did it take to get there (osmosis, self-taught, courses, etc.)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 19, 2002 Report Share Posted July 19, 2002 "Tilac, I think we should dump CISCO today; looks like the stock market is taking a dive." MM, ...and unfortunately I don't think you'll ever get to say this! Maybe if you posted this in the fall of 1999! (And that has nothing to do with speaking Thai!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 19, 2002 Report Share Posted July 19, 2002 the "political conversation / fluent reading and writing" wasnt a standard, well just the standard i'd be happy to be at. i think the problem is that there is quite a big difference between written and spoken thai, also there are different "classes" of thai; you would hear virtually a totally different language if you compared a taxi driver to a bangkok bank manager (not just dialect). i think (for most of us) we exposed to the common conversational language which is why its harder to pick up the higher class language. example i find movie subtitles easy to follow (ie can watch with the sound of and still have a clue whats occurring) however i need to concentrate when watching the news and then only get about 60-70% of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 19, 2002 Report Share Posted July 19, 2002 ..time to change and start using your young hand again then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bibblies Posted July 19, 2002 Report Share Posted July 19, 2002 I remember trying to learn Thai by the method of buying two copies of the same movie - one with an English soundtrack and Thai subtitles and the other with just a Thai soundtrack. I often have a problem catching Thai words, so I thought this would be ideal for me. I soon noticed that the subtitles aren't anything like a transcription of the soundtrack version. In fact, the subtitled version often seems to be much simpler. One thing I like to do - this might be the topic for a different thread - is to pause a subtitled movie when there's an interesting (often amusing) piece of English that I want to be able to say in Thai. I'm often disappointed by the results. Sometimes, the subtitlers don't seem to make much of an effort. Occasionally, they'll simplify things so much that you worry about the average intelligence of the Thai audience. The Thai's fun is also reduced by the lazy translation of a whole range of wonderfully inventive English expressions into "Baa jing" or something equally lame. Does anyone else think that Thais are somewhat ill-served by subtitles? Should this be on a separate thread? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted July 19, 2002 Report Share Posted July 19, 2002 Hi, "How did you learn" Almost exclusively by talking / listening (mostly talking though ). "and how long has it taken you to become able to cope with most conversations?" Dunno, 2-3 years? Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 20, 2002 Report Share Posted July 20, 2002 i dont suppose they're allowed to swear on the TV ... imagine if when eddy murphy goes into a f*** you C*** face the translations come up "yet mung nah hee". there may be one or two complaints. you're right about the lazy translators though, half the time it isnt even whats being said. all good reading practice though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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