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Mistakes


Zaad

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I agree that they shouldn't laugh their asses off.

I think it's no problem if they smile a bit and correct you immediately afterwards.

 

And yes, let's not even talk about the Thais.

sa-now, sa-tamp, stawbulee, computuhh.

 

But my favourite is: electricity...many of my Thai friends read it as...'electric city' :D

 

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Most of the times Thais don't laugh at all when you make a mistake is my observation, most of the times they actually don't react at all.

If you make a mistake they just look at you as if you're from outer space, there's no effort to help you out at all. As if they expect you to speak it in a perfect way or no way.

 

se-pagetti, sa-tuart, sa-peedboat, tesco- loTAS, sa-moke ;)

 

Limbo

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Hi,

 

[color:"red"] Thai words for come,dog, horse are all the same in my ears.

[/color]

 

Very true, that is why ones need to add more to make a better context.

 

My daughter whom when she was little, I taught her Thai (she just forgets most of it now). When she was little about 9 yrs. old, I left her with my Thai family for 2 nights. She was very naughty, got into things, so my mother said "yah" (lower second tone) which meant "Don't or Don't do that ". My daughter ignored here completely.

 

I asked later why she din't listen to her "Yai" (grandmother), it turned out that she thought my mother, her yai, was calling for medicine!!! "Yah", that she heard was the one with no tone and it meant medicine.

 

It actually was my fault for I never used that word in that context, I use "Mai Tam" or Mai ou na", for "Don't do it".

 

Cheers!

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reminds me of the very popular excuse for not coming to work in thailand or to be absent from anything: pai phaow ya; go cremate the grandmother or go burn grass. there are no differences in tones and only the different writing indicates what is meant....

 

regarding ma (come, dog, horse): i think one should reallly hear the differences, in particular for dog (rising tone); high (horse) and middle tone (come) is sometimes difficult to differentiate without context

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The classic Thai mistake is when they say Fork. It allways comes out as Fuck. I used to struggle to keep a straight face when I was teaching, specially when it was a bunch of office girls.

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