Why do Thai people speak English similar to the way a deaf person speaks ?

[monty burns]

I have only spent a few months in Thailand, but what I have noticed is that the way that Thai people speak English sounds very similar, to my ears, to the way that deaf people speak English.

Marlee Matlin would be an example of the way that a deaf person speaks.


Anyone else have the same opinion ? Any explanations or opinions as to why ?

My apologies if this has been discussed before, I did not find a similar thread in my search of the forum.

[jizzybloke]

Anyone else have the same opinion ?

no...

[Zooheekock]

Anyone else have the same opinion ?

no...

Me neither

[Satonic]

Been a member for 5 years and that's your first post?

And I'm with JB & Zoo on that.

[Jools]

An interesting observation but I suppose it has something to do with the fact that Thai is a TONAL language. Never gave it much thought.

[draco888]

Maybe it's a reflection more upon the Thais you choose to associate with. Or maybe it's you that are deaf. Long time since I heard anything so stupid.

[adzt1]

something to do with accent .

thai s don't have the s ss sh in their vocab , plus whatever else ( I ain't looked that deep) and

deaf people also can't hear accents .

[draco888]

something to do with accent .

thai s don't have the s ss sh in their vocab , plus whatever else ( I ain't looked that deep) and

deaf people also can't hear accents .

What has accents got to do with it? Are you implying Thai people can't hear accents 'also'?

[Chairman Mao]

I find it funny when Westerners try to say:

ทำงาน

Or any syllable beginning with ง งู

Man they sound like deaf retards.

[adzt1]

^^ yeah not regional accents but the likes of trying to speak French without the pomp or Spanish without the O or lisp , if you get what I mean.
I've Thai family who speak English but always say because they hear it so little face to face they struggle with pronunciation .
I.e speak like a deaf person who has never heard an accent.

same in Thai . my wife always laughs at my word for snake. I always say rat .
Ngoo and noo ( if that's spelt right ).

[Albert Shagnastier]

hear me out, but I think he has a point. The Thai mouth movements, tongue movements, teeth movements are all very different to English. Watch a Thai kids mouth when they try to speak English words. They struggle at first as they can't make the sounds as those sounds aren't part of they're everyday learnt speech. This manifests in a way similair to the way deaf people mouth words.

[draco888]

hear me out, but I think he has a point. The Thai mouth movements, tongue movements, teeth movements are all very different to English. Watch a Thai kids mouth when they try to speak English words. They struggle at first as they can't make the sounds as those sounds aren't part of they're everyday learnt speech. This manifests in a way similair to the way deaf people mouth words.

Maybe valid if you are talking about teaching Thai kids to speak English. Otherwise I disagree, I don't think Thai people sound like they are deaf.

[monty burns]

I'm the OP.
What I am trying to say is that my observation is that many Thais speak
English in a flat, nasal, monotone.
Very little enunciation, and many consonants dropped.

I spent 5 years in the Philippines, and 5 years in China.
The Chinese have their own way of speaking English, but they do seem to speak English more clearly than the Thais.



.

[somtamslap]

ทำงาน

That's easy because it can be put in context.

Snake - on the other hand. Every fucker thinks I'm running away from a rat.

[adzt1]

thai's surely do pick up on accents though.
sometimes my wife sounds more cockney than me ( poor lass) .
and I used to know a tuk tuk driver who sounded Ozzie with that higher last syllable

[drawp]

i always thought it was due to the way thai was spoken, it is obviously way more tonal than English is and they seem to speak a bit more rhythmically than us English speakers, but I certainly do not think they speak like a deaf person.

[kingwilly]

ทำงาน

That's easy because it can be put in context.

Snake - on the other hand. Every fucker thinks I'm running away from a rat.

Surely you'd be running towards a dinner option, not away. In fact, either could be dinner.

[Little Chuchok]

^Yes, but a rat bite probably doesn't sting as much as a snake one.

[Marmite the Dog]

I always thought Thais sound Scouse when they speak - poor bastids.

[DrAndy]

what about deaf Thai people?

what do they sound like?

[Little Chuchok]

^Depends if they are mute I suppose...

[Rural Surin]

what about deaf Thai people?

what do they sound like?

Would that be deaf from birth or deaf later on in life?

[Lambik]

Thais speak English in their own way, the same the
English do when they speak French or
French when they speak English, and same with nearly everybody not speaking his own language.

[Wizard of Oz]

I think it is because Thai are not used to English like say the Dutch. Everything on TV, movies etc, all synchronized to the Thai language. So what is the chance that Thai hear the correct way of pronouncing a word. Can't learn a language from a book, you have to speak it. most Dutch kids speak English before they go to school, they just pick it up from TV.

Many Thai that do hear English, say bar girls, not only hear English from a native speaker, but all kinds of strange accents trying to speak English like the Dutch, Scandinavian, German, French etc.

But the lack of English spoken TV programs is the main reason. I can still remember from my school, had 1 guy in the class who did not have a TV set at home, he spoke the worst English, shocking accent, because he had no idea how to pronounce it.

French are the same, speak lousy English because same thing, everything on TV is synchronized to French. Movies in theatres have VO (version originale) or VF (version Francais), most French see the VF. Many French I know go to the VF because they say the subtitles go to fast. Thai would have that same problem, me thinks.

[alitongkat]

they speak english as they speak thai... and it doesnt only sound the same, it also looks the same...

its the same as with other people and languages, just that thai "looks" and "sounds" extremely different from the languages we got to "know" (listen to often) so far...