Little Thai and no english

[LaaMok]

One of my regulars doesnt speak english, which is what I like, but when i speak thai with her, sometimes she doesnt understand, today I tried to say something complicated and she didnt understand, i found it very frustrating and was scratching my head, its annoying when you are saying something you know that you can say right and the girl dont understand.

 

So she put her friend on the phone, she understood straight away. Last time we were on the phone her friend was telling her english to copy, which i thought was cute.. but this time she was telling her thai!!! I said, why are you copying what your friend say, can you not think for yourself... she admitted she knows little thai and then asked me to learn/speak Isaan, my isaan is nearly non existant... At which point she started singing again, and wont stop until she has finished.. these girls are so cute!!!!

 

I always assume they can all speak BKK Thai, I guess thats why occassionally a girl just doesnt understand at all.

[Gobby]

most of those girls in patt. dont even use/know "hard" thai words imo..

 

i would think education is not so high for them..

 

you know what?.. its actually pretty sad hearing them talk( to each other ) about how they want to go to school so bad but they have no money. so they have to work p4p so they can get money for the education.....

and by that time. they dont even go back to school... sad really.....

Edited July 21, 2008 by PE.GOB

[Mr Wiggy]

Bryan, have you ever considred the fact she might be a un-educated farm girl what is as thick as buffalo shite ? and is only use to grunting at her family members, thats why i married one.

[Dr.Winston]

I know a Thai woman in England who cannot read Thai, and she didn't move to the UK until she was in her mid 30's. Some of the BG's can't speak Thai very well although ones who don't understand it are rarer.

 

I remember once up country giving directions written in Thai to an old tuk tuk driver. He just stared at them. Eventually I realised that he couldn't read it so I read it aloud while pretending we were both reading it together so he didn't lose face.

[chuckrivera]

Don't worry, you'll both be speaking Chinese soon enough.

[Goldfishpie]

I was up in Esaan once and everyone was saying to me "bpy si" . Now I understand Bpy = go and si = left. So was pretty confused as I was wondering around the village and evryone kept saying "go left!!!". Wasn't untill a few days later that I actually found out that "bpy si" in Esaan language means wher are you going. Gave everyone a laugh though. I wander how many other confusions there must be??

[Dr.Winston]

I was up in Esaan once and everyone was saying to me "bpy si" . Now I understand Bpy = go and si = left. So was pretty confused as I was wondering around the village and evryone kept saying "go left!!!". Wasn't untill a few days later that I actually found out that "bpy si" in Esaan language means wher are you going. Gave everyone a laugh though. I wander how many other confusions there must be??

 

A tough one for new learners of Thai is "klai". With a mid tone it means far and with a falling tone it means near. Opposite meanings with just a tone to tell them apart.

[iballooka]

One of my regulars doesnt speak english, which is what I like, but when i speak thai with her, sometimes she doesnt understand, today I tried to say something complicated and she didnt understand, i found it very frustrating and was scratching my head, its annoying when you are saying something you know that you can say right and the girl dont understand.

 

So she put her friend on the phone, she understood straight away. Last time we were on the phone her friend was telling her english to copy, which i thought was cute.. but this time she was telling her thai!!! I said, why are you copying what your friend say, can you not think for yourself... she admitted she knows little thai and then asked me to learn/speak Isaan, my isaan is nearly non existant... At which point she started singing again, and wont stop until she has finished.. these girls are so cute!!!!

 

I always assume they can all speak BKK Thai, I guess thats why occassionally a girl just doesnt understand at all.

 

Quite a lot of the bar girls in Pattaya speak Thai Laos which is hard to pick up and learn, bar girls from Bangkok cannot understand what Pattaya bar girls say as they switch to Thai Laos, hence the resentment....

 

Find a girl who speaks Thai Laos (you will have ask if they can) who can speak English and she might just give you a few key words as identifiers, many do not share the ability to speak Thai Laos, my ex wife spoke it fluently as well Bangkok Thai High Class which took several years at Uni to learn, this I understood most of the time, when she switched to Thai Laos I blanked out but now have limited understanding of and can speak a little...

 

The village where she came from is Buntharik not far from Laos and not much further from Cambodia Thai laos is a blend of all three languages which becomes a common language shared by all in border areas, you can identify the actual village a person comes from on how they speak it, I am told, in Cambodia Thailand or Laos...

[Gobby]

A tough one for new learners of Thai is "klai". With a mid tone it means far and with a falling tone it means near. Opposite meanings with just a tone to tell them apart.

 

so whats the word for.. burn / no / new / wood ....( mai / mai / mai / mai )?....lol...

[Goldfishpie]

The word money is a hard one as well (gnun) I can't get the "gn" bit in the pronounciation.

Edited July 22, 2008 by Goldfishpie

[LaaMok]

The word money is a hard one as well (gnun) I can't get the "gn" bit in the pronounciation.

 

one day I spent hours with a girl repeating it, til i got it right...

 

then the problem i had, was saying "horny" instead of money.

 

 

I walking into a shop and said "nguun (high tone) mai por"

 

"not horny enough" hahaha, the girl was laughing her head off.

[Mr Wiggy]

Bryan it is nice that you are trying but given my 5 years experience of living in Thailand, i would advise you just to speak English, i think i have only ever met a handfull of guys what could actually speak the proper lingo, PE Gob being one of them, the rest of them just make complete arseholes of themselve's, especially in bars and 7/11's ?

But keep it up mate you never know, once you have learnt the lingo, you will need to move on to Issan, Laos, ETC ETC

[LaaMok]

Bryan it is nice that you are trying but given my 5 years experience of living in Thailand, i would advise you just to speak English, i think i have only ever met a handfull of guys what could actually speak the proper lingo, PE Gob being one of them, the rest of them just make complete arseholes of themselve's, especially in bars and 7/11's ?

But keep it up mate you never know, once you have learnt the lingo, you will need to move on to Issan, Laos, ETC ETC

 

I think i have gone way past the stage of making an arse of myself. Mistakes are still plentiful, but usually sorted after a few attempts. I have been learning none stop for three years. Progress is slow, but it doesnt stop, which is most important.

 

I do have a list of words that i speak very good

 

a list of words that i have never spoken before and have only said a few times... i.e thammai phuut beb nee? Why you speak like that?

 

and some words that i know are spoken bad, but still understandable.

 

It makes alot of difference, if you know you are speaking it bad or not.

 

 

i.e I can call a girl in BKK and pretend to be a real Thai, and i can trick them, but i can only use certain words that i know have been perfected. (run out after a minute or so) Practise was the key, i am doing less practise right now, and more learning, i need to balance between the two.

 

I think because you have spent alot of time in bars and gogos you have met guys that have learnt in the same place. Some guys are cringeworthy.

 

There is one word that i seem to struggle with and its only of the first things you say with Thais and it makes me look bad to start with, the longer i stay with them, the more impressed they get. The word is simple and easy but i struggle with it, for some strange reason. duan = month

[caltexman]

Hey Bryan i think you are doing good mate but for me the only way i can learn any thai is when i'm with my thai lady as i have stacks of trouble getting the sounds right...........lol.

 

But some people are just gifted at this stuff.

 

I knew a chick in bkk she was 23, had left school very young, her father was from lao mother issan and she lived for years now in bkk.

 

This chick was a freelancer and very good mainly working out of singapore, Hong Kong and Macao and making heaps of money, but she spoke thai, issan, lao was an excellent speaker of english and could speak enough of german, french, italian and chinese to be understood and to understand a bit

pretty bloody good for someone with no fucking education hey.

[Dr.Winston]

The word money is a hard one as well (gnun) I can't get the "gn" bit in the pronounciation.

 

There's a way of practicing pronouncing the ng sound that they have at the beginning of some Thai words. Although we have have the sound in English we never have it at the beginning of words so it takes a bit of practice to get it right.

 

Just say "coming on" a few times and then drop the comin so you are just saying "gon". It works. You can also say "singer" and then drop the sin.

Edited July 22, 2008 by Dr.Winston O'Boogie

[gogo dog]

It took me ages to say the "ng" sound. All my snakes were coming out as rats.

[herds]

gogo, haha yeah, ng sound is ง right?

 

I struggle with that as well. That is a frequent one to use when people ask where you work and you have to say tam ngan

 

thanks for the tips DR, I find that to get it right I have to almost close the airpassage at the back of my mouth, making me look very unpleasant.

[todd2rip]

...I've got a buddy who really enjoys learning thai, and

he now uses note cards with thai on one side and english on the

other for phrases used often, or ones he's trying to use

on a regular basis.

 

Practice makes perfect,

 

I guess I either am lazy or dont care as I tend not to learn

any thai...probably both.

 

hope all goes well.

 

aki

[LaaMok]

Hey Bryan i think you are doing good mate but for me the only way i can learn any thai is when i'm with my thai lady as i have stacks of trouble getting the sounds right...........lol.

 

But some people are just gifted at this stuff.

 

I knew a chick in bkk she was 23, had left school very young, her father was from lao mother issan and she lived for years now in bkk.

 

This chick was a freelancer and very good mainly working out of singapore, Hong Kong and Macao and making heaps of money, but she spoke thai, issan, lao was an excellent speaker of english and could speak enough of german, french, italian and chinese to be understood and to understand a bit

pretty bloody good for someone with no fucking education hey.

 

I would say its isnt about being gifted, it's just about enjoying it, if you enjoy it, then you are willing to spend alot of time and keep on going. Yesterday I was writing a few letters for some gogo girls that i know. (dont shag, just hang with) I did it because i enjoyed it, I struggled on one piece, but the girl said it in a different way, then i knew.

 

She pretty much said the same thing to both guys, the letters werent personalised really, just mostly complaints. If i didnt enjoy doing stuff like this, then my Thai would have stagnated.

[Goldfishpie]

I enjoy translating letters as well. Just nosy really. They all seem to have pretty much the same structure and say the same things. It always makes me laugh.

 

I miss you so much, I think about you every time, I worry you not take care of yourself, Now I only have a little money.

 

It is difficult as well when they say it in different ways. I usually get this when I ask them how to say something and I get 3 different answers.

 

One word I heard the other day was the word "abee" Now I know it's not a good word from the explanation I got, and I know it would cause offence if spoken to someone, but they wanted to know what it translated to in English. I could only think of "horrible" or "nasty". So if anyone knows this word could you help me out.

 

spoken "abee"

[LaaMok]

I enjoy translating letters as well. Just nosy really. They all seem to have pretty much the same structure and say the same things. It always makes me laugh.

 

I miss you so much, I think about you every time, I worry you not take care of yourself, Now I only have a little money.

 

It is difficult as well when they say it in different ways. I usually get this when I ask them how to say something and I get 3 different answers.

 

One word I heard the other day was the word "abee" Now I know it's not a good word from the explanation I got, and I know it would cause offence if spoken to someone, but they wanted to know what it translated to in English. I could only think of "horrible" or "nasty". So if anyone knows this word could you help me out.

 

spoken "abee"

 

never heard of it, is it Isaan?

[Dr.Winston]

I enjoy translating letters as well. Just nosy really. They all seem to have pretty much the same structure and say the same things. It always makes me laugh.

 

I miss you so much, I think about you every time, I worry you not take care of yourself, Now I only have a little money.

 

It is difficult as well when they say it in different ways. I usually get this when I ask them how to say something and I get 3 different answers.

 

One word I heard the other day was the word "abee" Now I know it's not a good word from the explanation I got, and I know it would cause offence if spoken to someone, but they wanted to know what it translated to in English. I could only think of "horrible" or "nasty". So if anyone knows this word could you help me out.

 

spoken "abee"

 

I've never heard that word either. The ones that I hear most often for nasty are ไจคับ jai khap and ไจดำ jai dam.

[Goldfishpie]

Bangkok Thai. It sounds like "agree" which is how the topic came about. I thought he said to this guy "you agree" but he was actually saying "Kun abbee" which was an insult but he meant it jokingly. I've asked loads of people but no one knows. It's doing my head in.

[sonnybernett]

thk