Thread: How Long Did It Take You To Learn Thai

I keep trying, but nothing really seems to work. I guess it comes down to attitude and shyness. I've been visiting Thailand for nearly 30 years now and have lived here for a year. Internally, I know a lot of Thai, but putting that to any practical use has proved next to impossible. One problem is that Ms. B is quite fluent in English so I don't have a great incentive to learn Thai.

I guess the other problem is that I'm just plain dumb.

Them tones can feel kinda wierd comin' out at first; get out more and use your thai with the neighborhood shop keepers. I dont use it enough. But when i'm out and about I am getting pretty decent at barkin' orders and makin' small talk. Still not all that confident, but You really gotta use it.
The other day I asked a dude to pass me the 9/16" wrench before I even knew what i was doin.
Where the hell that come from?

Originally Posted by friscofrankie

Them tones can feel kinda wierd comin' out at first; get out more and use your thai with the neighborhood shop keepers. I dont use it enough. But when i'm out and about I am getting pretty decent at barkin' orders and makin' small talk. Still not all that confident, but You really gotta use it.
The other day I asked a dude to pass me the 9/16" wrench before I even knew what i was doin.
Where the hell that come from?

I think tones and vowel lengths are a bit over rated. When you listen to a Thai speak, they speak too quickly to accent a tone or a lengthen a vowel. The problem many of us have when speaking Thai is that we try too hard to accomodate them. Just babble quickly, and the Thais will understand you well enough. Overdo it, and you'll get the infamous "alai wah" in return for your efforts.

You're gonna get thatany way lot of Thais can;t engafe the brain quickly when you come off in Thai if they're expectin' English. Confuses the shit out of 'em. Don;t let that phase you. I get folks I've had pefect conversations on one day turn and look at the little woman and ask Arai na? when she present. When she's not all goes good. I know enough to knwo when I'm speaking clearly, finally got he ol' lady trained to defer them to me. hard thing to do when it involves money. I hand them the money they start talkin to ol' lady and invariably hand her the change.
It's a conspiracy

Originally Posted by DrAndy

I wish I could be like an air hostess and just change easily from language to language

Those gals can sure get their tongue round it!!!

Originally Posted by Ice Maiden

And also in the classroom the teacher tends to speak slower Thai and he/she is more careful when speaking Thai with you, you need to socialise with some of the locals mate.

Hey Ice, didn't make it clear in my earlier post the person I was talking to is a teacher freind of mine, not my teacher. I know what you mean about getting out amongst the locals. I went to the Drs the other day and managed the entire 15 min appointment in Thai! But then other situations like ... getting the roof of my house fixed or trying to explain the a problem with a computer in the internet shop fu.ck me over big time.

Sorry about that.

Yes I see what you mean! I can have convos with the family but now and again I'll ask them to please speak slower or repeat that last word. And sometimes I have to ask my brother what certain words mean! But learning a new word eveyday helps me out.

Although I dont fully understand all the words I can understand the main meaning of what the person is trying say.

Did you find getting proper lessons worthwhile ice?

Definatley!

My younger brother didn't take any lessons he just hung with his Thai mates everyday. My brother is fully English but we all call him a Thai kid because he eats like a Thai, speaks Thai and looks Thai. On Christmas day he wanted to sit on the floor outside and eat spicy fish instead of being with us eating farang food!

So he speaks amazing Thai. I would rather have a teacher explaining to me rather than learning the way my brother did, he speaks mostly slang too.

But lessons have certainly helped me.

Thai news and don't have a fucking clue what they are on about.
Anyone else find this?

My ol' lady can;t keep up with 'em most times! They seem to think talkn realfastswthouttakingabreath makes them sound iportant or give urgency to what they say..
Sadly, I am starting to understand the new just a tiny bit now..

Originally Posted by mad_dog

I had a 30 min getting to know you chat with a Thai language teacher (a friend, not my teacher) the other day 100% in Thai and I walked away thinking WOW I am getting somewhere with this.... then I get home and swtich on the Thai news and don't have a fucking clue what they are on about.
Anyone else find this?

Yes. The sad thing is that most Thais don't have anything worth saying, but it would be nice to be able to understand the news. Ironic, eh?

Originally Posted by durianfan

Can any of you write Thai? I might be able to speak it one day, but the written form looks bloody impossible.

Writting Thai is easy. It's not hard like it looks to be. After you learn to write you learn to speak Thai much faster and easier.

Thai for Beginners - Benjawan Poomsan Becker - a great book for learning the language and the writting system.

Thai-English English-Thai Dictionary by the same arthur.

Se-ed's modern eng-thai thai-eng dictionary, desk reference edition

Take childrens stories, or songs, or what ever you like. Translate it from Thai to English looking the words up in Se-ed's dictionary, using the Thai section. Hard at first, however, becomes easy to use, very fast, if you work at it and study the characters at the same time using the above language book.

Most important study guide is my wife(thai). I have been in Bangkok almost 2 years. I can read most anything and understand a lot. However, I never practice so I will never learn to speak beyond hello, how are you, etc.

If you really want to have fun, go to your keyboard in Thai - it's just plain wild.

Mmmmmm, been chiseling away for around the last 1 and half years...very slowly...but that is the best way for me to learn...

picked up the alphabet reasonalbly quickly...reading and writing...

Practicing saying the words with correct tones has helped me to improve my spelling...and so, my writing also...

my problem has been limited access to another speaking Thai and so, my comprehension skills are less developed...I live in London and am seeing a Thai national every saturday to improve my listening, comprehension and speaking....


I have been using the Benjawan Beginners Book...just taking my time...I will begin the Intermediate Book in a couple of months...

I only seem to learn after I work at it...dunno...

To use a trite analogy "If you want to bend it like Beckham...you will need at least as much choice in girls as Beckham has in helping him to bend it."

or work at bending it on your own...

Insideleft

I have been trying to learn a bit, for 6 months. I haave a bunch of words, but have a hell of a time understanding when someone says even the simplest thing. being in the states, I do not have anyone to practice with, and have to depend on books and tapes. I want to spend a few months in LOS later this year, I hope to improve then......Thai text????Hahaha looks like greek to me.

i just started learning thai. i think i got one big clue: if you learn to read and write u understand what the language is about. i mean the logic and the principles. if you only think in romanised transcriptions u wont get it done, because all of them dont come to the point. but i just started....

First time I have said shit on this thread. This is the rule at the hillbilly home. Engkish M-F. Thai on the weekends.

Holidays are always confusing as my daughter likes to play with the dates.

Okay, I can speak conversational Thai. However, not going to talk about nuclear war.

Speaking about Thai culture, forget it...

I moved to Thailand in early 1991 after over 10 years of regular visits (3-4 times per year - I worked for an airline - cheap flights) and having decided to live there for the rest of my life (that has now changed courtesy of my four-year-old son) I made a concerted effort to learn Thai. Never had lessons but taught myself to read and write. I originally learnt shitloads of vocabulary prior to moving to Thailand, but found my pronunciation mostly incomprehensible to the Thais. Threw it all out and started from scratch, listening to the way the Thais spoke. It took a couple of years to be able to discern and feel confident using the different tones.
Stringing sentences together is very easy once you understand the (very simple) Thai grammar and sentence structure.
Vocabulary is the hardest part as you must learn and REMEMBER it and there are often several different Thai words for one English word.
After 16 years of using (and still learning) Thai almost every day, I can (and often do) hold intelligent(??) conversations in most situations.
Being able to read Thai is handy at times (no English menus!!) and it's nice to read the Thai newspapers occasionally albeit slowly and sometimes having to skip a few words (bloody vocabulary!!), but the only times I've actually written Thai in sixteen years was to show pronunciation of English words !!
I found that after about 8 (or 9 or 10) years I reached a 'plateau' in my ability and enthusiasm in learning Thai. Basically, sheer bloody laziness!! I could get by well enough and that was good enough for me. This is the barrier you must break through !
Having said that, I would thoroughly recommend any person planning a long stay in Thailand to learn (and continue to learn) Thai. It opens up a whole new world (especially upcountry) if you can sit down and chat with the locals.

I'm way too shy to ever learn to speak Thai. I barely speak English to anyone. That said, my reading ability continues to improve daily. I like that. Now, if I could just get rid of all the people and just read stuff I'd be fine....

14 years here and can speak passable Thai, I have manage Thai tradespeople for over 10 years and that has helped.
Just started to learn to read and write, and is does help youunderstand the tones better, but a nightmare to learn when you are over 50.
Was shamed into it by my 6 y.o. daughter.
After about 3 months I can read number plates and short phrases, get a kick out of it actually.
I agree with a few posts here, better to learn using the Thai script then a phonetic (spelling?) one.

Originally Posted by hillbilly

First time I have said shit on this thread. This is the rule at the hillbilly home. Engkish M-F. Thai on the weekends.

Holidays are always confusing as my daughter likes to play with the dates.

Okay, I can speak conversational Thai. However, not going to talk about nuclear war.

Speaking about Thai culture, forget it...

^

I've lived here about 10 years. In that time I have learnt two things: (1) you'll speak pretty good Thai if you join the monks; and (2) less than 1% of foreigners' speak even close to pass-able Thai.

I'm neither, so I just let the cab driver know where home is...

Thai's always tell me that I speak Thai 'Geng Mak!', but I really don't think I do. I can communicate the basics without any problem, but when Thai's have a regular conversation with each other I'm lost!

For instance, if I heard a Thai say the above sentences, this is what I would understand:

Thai's **** tell me *** I speak Thai 'Geng Mak!', but I really *** think I ***. I can ****** the **** without any *****, but when Thai's have a regular ******* with **** other I'm ***

So, you can see that even understanding up to 50% of the words isn't enough to really understand what people are talking about.