Thais speaking English

[jp1]

Hua Nguu,

 

 

 

that sounds familiar to me. That's the same problem in Japan. Japanese English teachers who cannot speak English at all and even in Japan the Government pays a lot of money to attract native English teachers to come over here and teach English. Maybe this is a problem all over East Asia.

[gene1944]

Jasmine said

 

"My niece who is in Thailand, a 6th grader, told me that one of her English (Thai national) teachers pronounces the alphabet ?h? as ?hach?, ?dog? as ?doc? and would not listen to anyone else, she scolded the children severely if they contradicted her, is there any hope? "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I spell my name which includes an "H", 95% of the time the "H" is repeated back to me as "Hey-ch". That is what the Thai students are taught in school. Would seem to me, to be an easy change in English teaching to make as I know Thai people can pronounce "H" properly.

 

 

 

However I still do not hear the Thai tones all the time when I have my Thai hearing ears on so (I guess) viva la difference, eh?

 

 

[Mentors]

English is too much jaak and mai khaudschai

[trotsky2]

Jasmine,

 

 

 

I don't want to sound arrogant, but when you said your father told you not to say, "I am hot", he said it for good reason. "I am hot", can be interpretted as I am sexy. No father wants his daughter running around saying she is sexy. This is never a problem though because of the context in which it is said. The normal usage of "hot" with the sexual overtone is "He/She is hot". Adios

[bibblies]

It can be interpreted that way, but in 99 cases out of one hundred, it won't be. Unless you've said it in a very unusual, contrived situation, you're safe on this one.

[Guest]

Perhaps the enunciation is based on A&P.. & perhaps why Thai BJs seem so different.

 

 

 

By Francis Markus

 

BBC Shanghai correspondent

 

 

 

More and more people in China are seeking tongue operations to improve their English.

 

Plastic surgeons say that with minor surgery, patients can improve their pronunciation almost overnight.

 

 

 

With China's growing internationalisation, people's determination to become more proficient in English has reached fever pitch.

 

 

 

The operation itself is simple and quick - just a snip of the muscle under the tongue using local anaesthetic - even if it does make you twinge.

 

 

 

 

 

Even after the snip people still need to do exercises

 

 

 

Plastic surgeon Dr Chu Jian is inundated with people begging for the operation because they want their English pronunciation to be clearer, freeing them from that tongue-tied feeling.

 

 

[gummigut]

I can verify this tongue thingy.

 

 

 

When I was a child I am told I was fully bi-lingual. Actually more than bi as I knew 2 chinese dialects and a smatter of mandarin, and of course English.

 

 

 

I could not pronounce English words correctly because my tongue was just not as flexible so I had this operation when I was very very young. If I look under my tongue there is actually a "knot" to show where they cut my tongue. Haven't looked at it in a decade but I bet it's still there.

 

 

 

<<burp>>

[Guest]

interesting that there is a physical differance of the tongue between the races that has possibly effected the evolution of language.

 

So maybe genetics determined language?

 

 

 

I find the Thai / Viet / Chinese pitches to be impossible, cannot hear or say..

 

Have spent maybe 10 minutes working on 1 Thai word.. over over & over.. without success..impossible for this tongue tied farang!!

 

I have been told ( ? ) there is only a pitch between chicken cocunut soup & shit soup ..? Tom Kai Ki vs ?

 

 

 

Fortunately, I do understand the meaning of a Thai BGs tongue in my ear!

 

 

 

I can be understood & understand Korean, no pitches.

 

I was in a Korean owned motel ( US ) reciently & asked the owners wife when were going to have dinner, in Korean.. LOL, she had farang like big round eyes for a second!

 

 

 

I was married to a Chinese & no one ever understood even once, not 1 freekin time, any of my practiced Chinese phrases.

[bibblies]

The original topic was on grammar, rather than pronunciation, but it reminds me, from reading Matt Ridley's excellent book "Genome", that there is, apparently, a genetically determined component of grammar. Some people are genetically incapable of understanding the grammatical part of a language whilst having no trouble with the rest.

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

>genetically determined component of grammar. <

 

 

 

Was watching the US Congressional hearing on Enron / World Com on CSPAN & came to realize that the "SECs head auditor" was totally un understandable.

 

He was a gentleman of South Asian decent whom spoke with out any accent. His word choice was elegant & his mastry of a huge technical vocabulary was admirable.

 

 

 

But his cadence ( verbal grammer? ) was off.. he was the only person on the panel that senator levin interrupted.. on several occassion Levin would stop him & ask another question..

 

I realized that I understood his words but did not understand what he said & I think Senator levin had the same problem.. beautiful words but un-understandable dialogue.

 

I was feeling cognitively inadequate until I realized that i understood all other speakers but did not have a clue as to what that guy said.

 

Levin abruptly ended this mans dialogue & asked questons of other panel members never to return to the South Asian accountant again.

 

The session was several hours long & that gentleman was never asked another question.

 

 

 

Verbal grammer / cadence? or It could be he grew up in a non English speaking enviroment & spoke English from memorization of text without regard to verbal cadence. ??

 

??