Thread: Learning useful language

First guys let me say this is not a rant just an observation:

Let’s learn the language; first we find the school something that as little as four years ago was almost impossible. Then if we are lucky we get a good teacher and I have been blessed with that, Miss Chuan included. I would say the first year I was just goofing around with it. But Chuan inspired me I spent a year with her as she was trying to learn to teach. Her patience and understanding always amazed me. I was spending two hours in calls four days a week. Six hours of study six days a week. Buddy I was serious. On my way to reading and writing.

Anyone seen the Picture of Chuan she is female and so were my other teachers. I learned to ask for noodles 18 different ways, I don’t like noodles.

Man I can go to the market and buy pineapples all day long. I’m married I don’t go to the market. My wife does, she prepares a meal gives it to me and I eat it. End of story

I can find the bus depot; I’ve never ridden a bus in Thailand.

Now the airport that does come in handy if I need to pick up a friend. But that might happen once a year and that is done in English.

Yes I can say I want to buy a short, even what color I want, I can bargain the price of that shirt. What really happens we go downtown by some cloth the housekeeper takes that to the village and I have tailor made shirt for about the same price as off the rack.

You live In Thailand you should speak Thai, only if you live in Bangkok or you’re going to spend a lot of time speaking to the elite. It’s been over three years since I have been to Bangkok.

You see in this area they don’t really speak Thai they speak Issan an inferior language in the eyes of the elite.

I have a friend who has lived here for twenty years, co owner of the longest existing English school in Udon. Certified translator by the Thai and US governments. He has really very little problem here or in Bangkok. But get him in the villages around here and even he has problems having a general conversation, in the villages.

What is my hobby Bike touring, that would get pretty boring if I stayed in Udon all the time.

Anyone remember the government complaining that students couldn’t speak Thai properly. Why slang every society has it.

So after two years I’m really prepared to be a tourist. But generally those things that are in my real life are not offered in class. So I’m really not prepared to live in Issan.

I think Chuan I offering a class in Issan seem like I read that somewhere. Ok I go and learn how to buy pineapple in Issan... Am I any further ahead?

No I need to know how to buy nuts bolts, hardware. I need to able to tell a guy I want a ground wire on an outlet. I need to tell a mechanic to adjust my brakes, change the brake pads. Change the oil, I want new tires.

Don’t get me wrong learning something is darn site better then nothing. The problem I see I’m not learning the local language, nor the things that I will use. You don’t use it, you lose it.

A year of hard studying and not being able to advance beyond basic Thai to an intermediate class. The end result of this is I want to speak to the locals, simply because they are my neighbors and for the most part very nice people.

I’m now at a point where I am very hesitant of returning to school, because I don’t think I can accomplish what I need to live here. I may become a very good tourist but

Originally Posted by ray23

Six hours of study six days a week

Jaysus !!!!

Originally Posted by ray23

pineapple in Issan

You mean buck-nut ??

Maybe should should brush up on your English first?

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Maybe should should brush up on your English first?

I'd agree. You get your point across, but you use a very confusing style.

Well guys this is how it works, did the spell and garmmer check it was happy, good enough I'm not English LOL Now can we talk about the Issan Language

I'm not English either . . . or Anglo . . . but I can't discuss the Isaan language . . . zero clue.

Sorry to interrupt your thread.

Originally Posted by ray23

I'm not English LOL

In which case you write extremely well and have every right to tell the english twats that are both too arrogant and incapable of learning even a few phrases of another lingo, to 'go fukk themselves'.

Not a problem with my writing style I get paid exactly what it's worth, nothing. Just trying to get it back on track. Really a problem unique to Issan.

Koi boh khau chai.

Wow Lao baw dai.

Koi cha ha laikan dai yoo sai?

Pom Ow putt Pasa Issan Geng Mak Mai Dai

Bon pom Uti Udon

I think dropping the pronouns always helps.

you rarely hear a Thai saying Phom or khun when obvious from context.

think you should use yak instead of ao/ow too.

Good points thats what I mean by use it or lose it.

Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon

I think dropping the pronouns always helps. you rarely hear a Thai saying Phom or khun when obvious from context. think you should use yak instead of ao/ow too.

Agreed. Funny, considering I'm an English twat with no language skills...

^ Can someone please translate that?

Geeze sounds like you have a mouth full of marbles.

It's not a crime to move your tongue or lips. Oh yeah, the letter "r" has a sound. Honest.

I here. You here too. We all here.

Originally Posted by Texpat

Oh yeah, the letter "r" has a sound.

Bullshit! You'll be telling me the letter "t" has too, next!

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon

I think dropping the pronouns always helps. you rarely hear a Thai saying Phom or khun when obvious from context. think you should use yak instead of ao/ow too.

Agreed. Funny, considering I'm an English twat with no language skills...

I disagree, possibly drop the personal pronoun 'phom' when refering to yourself with people you are close to, why drop 'khun' though? Also saying 'drop the personal pronouns (which are more or less in this context simply politening particals) but then change 'aow' for 'yaak'?

Perhaps a better way would be to include 'jaa' before 'yaak' as you are taking about something in the future anyway, why be encouraged to speak pidgin Thai when you can just as easy speak correctly?

Originally Posted by English Noodles

why be encouraged to speak pidgin Thai when you can just as easy speak correctly?

Maybe it's best not to show the natives up.

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Maybe it's best not to show the natives up.

Actualy there is certainly some truth in that.

The key term in the OP is useful.
Thai and Isaan are sometimes similar. Sometimes not.
Learning Thai doesn't automatically mean you'll be understood in the hinterland where the majority of language is a series of grunts, snorts and squeals.

I know what you're talking about Ray. You don't know this -- but you and I were classmates about a year and a half ago.

Originally Posted by ray23

No I need to know how to buy nuts bolts, hardware. I need to able to tell a guy I want a ground wire on an outlet. I need to tell a mechanic to adjust my brakes, change the brake pads. Change the oil, I want new tires.

If you have learnt basic sentance stucture then this is easy for you, to be fluent in a language does not mean learning every word, it simply means learning the basic syntax of a language, you can then simply find a word or two from a dictionary that you don't know and basicly converse about anything you wish.

Originally Posted by Texpat

Thai and Isaan are sometimes similar. Sometimes not. Learning Thai doesn't automatically mean you'll be understood in the hinterland where the majority of language is a series of grunts, snorts and squeals.

I would agree, though I'm sure the majority of people can at least understand the central dialect and with a little effort you could be understood to a point.

That's how we feel about you, too.

Originally Posted by Texpat

^ Right. Other times I feel like Jane Goodall in the Congo with the chimps, tapping my forehead and pointing at the sky while hoopin' and hollerin'

Yep, never lived in that neck of the woods so have no great experience conversing with the natives, I'm sure it would get frustrating having put the effort in to leaning 'the language' only to find it not realy useful.

In Bangkok I have the same frustration but in reverse, I find people want to try to show off their English 'skills' and prefer to speak to me in very bad English which gives me a headache trying to understand, then again, who knows, maybe they feel the same about my Thai.