#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Teaching In Thailand >  >  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.

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## jizzybloke

> Anyone else have the same opinion ?


no...

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## Zooheekock

> Originally Posted by monty burns
> 
> Anyone else have the same opinion ?
> 
> 
> no...


Me neither

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## Satonic

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

And I'm with JB & Zoo on that.

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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 .

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## 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'?

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## Chairman Mao

I find it funny when Westerners try to say:

ทำ*ง*าน

Or any syllable beginning with ง งู

Man they sound like deaf retards.  :Smile:

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## 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 ).

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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.



.

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## 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.

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## 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

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## 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.

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## kingwilly

> Originally Posted by Chairman Mao
> 
> 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.

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## Little Chuchok

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

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## Marmite the Dog

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

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## DrAndy

what about deaf Thai people?

what do they sound like?

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## Little Chuchok

^Depends if they are mute I suppose...

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## Rural Surin

> what about deaf Thai people?
> 
> what do they sound like?


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

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## 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.

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## 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.

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## 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...

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## pattayardm

It used to be the norm for Thais to sing to each other by way of conversation approximately 100 years ago.

I have always liked the way Thais speak English as it makes our languge sound more musical.

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## aging one

^ what are you talking about? More musical? :Smile:

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## draco888

> ^ what are you talking about? More musical?


Gotta remember there is a VERY wide range of tastes in music!  :Smile:

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## bash street gang

They tend to act like they're deaf.

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## drawp

> ^ what are you talking about? More musical?


i sort of pick up the same from some of the Thais here in the US, at least with the women.  They seem to speak it rhythmically, like an up and down sort of thing.  They will start the sentence off high, then gradually go to a lower tone and then finish with a high tone, sort of like how they will enunciate "ka" when speaking.

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## DrAndy

> But the lack of English spoken TV programs is the main reason.


so nobody could speak English 100 years ago?

the reason people speak different languages with an accent is that they are used to using their mouth for their own language

this involves a whole different set of muscle shapes and lip and tongue positions

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## adzt1

> this involves a whole different set of muscle shapes and lip and tongue positions


oh yeah.  are you sure your posting in the right thread.?   :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):

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## RickThai

I think its the way Thai's hear sounds.  They tend to listen to inflections and tones more than proper enunciation.  

I imagine Thais often wonder why falongs are all tone deaf.

JMO.

RickThai

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## Mister Fixit

> I used to know a tuk  tuk  driver who sounded  Ozzie  with that higher last syllable


The moronic interrogative, a term coined by British comedian Rory McGrath.  Sounds dreadful.

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## toddaniels

Actually the reason most Thais speak English with a Thai accent and muted enunciation is that they first learned English from reading English words written in Thai script. Sort of like the way foreigners learn Thai via karaoke (a mixture of the roman alphabet, and other characters to represent Thai sounds)..  There are also consonant clusters in English which cant be rendered in Thai, so Thais have a tough time wrapping their tongues around them. 

  The down side to learning English when its represented in Thai characters is that ALL the words have to follow Thai pronunciation rules. This gives their English an off sound to it. Its as bad as foreigners saying the word for guava as falong although in Thai its actually written with an r and has a short "a" vowel in it; ฝรั่ง. 

  If we compare the Thai accented English spoken here to the horrifically mangled off-toned Thai foreigners routinely spit out while alleging theyre fluent in Thai, its a no brainer, Thais speak far better English than foreigners speak Thai.

  Dunno what demographic of Thai the O/P listens to but I sure dont hear Marlee Matlin's version of English comin outta these peoples mouths. PLus the totally deaf people who have the shops around my Soi speak like a dolphin.

  While off topic, perhaps of marginal interest;
  Foreigners who say theyre tone deaf are just using it as an excuse NOT to learn Thai. No one speaks English without using tones, (not even Stephen Hawking and his computer generated voice). English speakers routinely use all 5 tones used in the Thai language, we just use them for different reasons. In English we;Use a rising tone on the end of the last word in a question; Right?Use a falling tone to express sympathy; Ohhh.Use a high tone to express shock or surprise; What!Use a low tone to express a noncommittal attitude; SureUse the mid tone for almost everything else.The difference is, we use tones in English to impart emotive value to what were saying and Thais use tones to delineate between different words. Any foreigner, who says they cant hear the tones, just hasnt trained their ears to listen to them for the right reasons.

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## taxexile

another difference that todd fails to mention, and i think is very important is to do with listening.

in english, the important sounds are at the beginning and at the end of the syllable, the middle part of the enunciated sound is not so relevant and so "english ears" are trained/have developed to pick up the start and end of the syllable.

in thai, and maybe other tonal languages too, the important part to listen out for is the middle of the syllable, and "thai ears" are trained/have developed to pick up the middle part more than the start or end.

when thai initially listen to english,  they naturally pick up the middle part in preference to the start or finish, with consequent deficiencies in pronunciation, likewise when english people listen to thai, they naturally miss out on the important middle part.

constant exposure gradually retrains the receptive process.

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## draco888

I thought Thais spoke English with a Thai accent was because they are Thai  :Smile:

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