Thais who pretend to not understand when you speak in farangland?

**5150** · 12-03-2012, 05:02 PM

Originally Posted by buriramboy

maybe you just ain't a handsome man in farangland as you are in Thailand and they are ignoring your sexual advances.

haha, a good one

**EriccirE** · 29-05-2012, 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by buriramboy

maybe you just ain't a handsome man in farangland as you are in Thailand and they are ignoring your sexual advances.

This is what I believe is the reason.

**EriccirE** · 29-05-2012, 11:24 AM

Originally Posted by Lorenzo

no need to talk to thais in the states

in the states they are useless

You have very high thoughts about thai people, have you ever said it directly to their face?

**Noknoi** · 30-11-2012, 08:43 AM

Originally Posted by heythere

Hey. I'm not saying that I've mastered the thai language but I do speak a lil ....and this is not just thank you and good morning. What I've found is that in Thailand even when your tonal pronouciation is bad...afterall very difficult...they at least understand you. I know this because we are talking about same subject wheather being bit by a dog and rabie shots. however here in the states when talking with Thais, they pretend not to understand you. It differs depending on what degree of education of course. I somehow get the idea that they are doing this for a reason...not to understand me. Just my 2 cents. chok dii heythere In this establishement, there a lady that always understnds me and another have no idea or always trying to teach me how to say it correctly.

Hi Heythere,

If you think positively, maybe they wanted you to pronounce the words properly. I, too, want my husband to pronounce it properly. I am trying to teach him different sounds, tones, how to move his lips etc... He doesn't speak much Thai but his proounciation is quite good.

" Chok ", in fact sounds shorter than what it should be if you say " Choke " then problems are solved.

I am not good at guessing what people try to tell me verbally, so I would probably ask you to repeat with some sort of explanation of what you were trying to say.

**Cujo** · 30-11-2012, 09:13 AM

Hey Nok, does your husband post on here?

**Noknoi** · 30-11-2012, 09:25 AM

Originally Posted by Koojo

Hey Nok, does your husband post on here?

No, Why Koojo?

**Rural Surin** · 30-11-2012, 09:26 AM

Originally Posted by Koojo

Hey Nok, does your husband post on here?

I believe she has hemmed and hawed about such an inquiry on her principle thread....

**Noknoi** · 30-11-2012, 09:37 AM

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

Originally Posted by Koojo

Hey Nok, does your husband post on here?

I believe she has hemmed and hawed about such an inquiry on her principle thread....

Hi Rural Surin,

Did you mean that I am avoiding saying things? This idiom of yours is new to me.

**taxexile** · 30-11-2012, 10:26 AM

new to me too.

should be "uhmmed and aaahd"

**baldrick** · 30-11-2012, 11:40 AM

Originally Posted by Noknoi

Did you mean that I am avoiding saying things?

and so you should.

tell him to mind his own business

**CVD** · 04-12-2012, 03:33 AM

Why is it that when a Thai speaks English they absolutely butcher the language but you know what they are trying to say?

**Latindancer** · 04-12-2012, 03:45 AM

post deleted

**PorYai** · 04-12-2012, 04:19 AM

Originally Posted by CVD

Why is it that when a Thai speaks English they absolutely butcher the language but you know what they are trying to say?

Probably because you're used to foreigners from all over the world butchering the English language.

Thais don't have that "advantage". Most of them have only heard other native speakers their entire life.

**toddaniels** · 04-12-2012, 09:47 AM

While it's true most thais have only heard native speakers, there are clearly defined regional accents when speakin' Central Thai. It only takes a few sentences exchanged between two Thais for them to know where the other grew up just by their accent in Central Thai.

Actually the reason native English speakers can understand butchered and mangled engrish is we use "predictive comprehension". That's where we use the words in the sentence as a whole to work out what's being said instead of concentrating on the errors in the way it's said.

The reason Thais seem unable to do this is few Thais will listen to the entire sentence as a whole and make the leaps in logic in understanding what you're saying. They stopped listening at the first mispronounced word and totally missed the rest of the sentence. This is mostly because the foreigner is speaking Thai in an "un-thai way" or using a sentence structure the Thai never heard before. If you listen to how Thais talk, listen to how they structure the things they say, and then mimic that, your average thai-on-the-street's comprehension of your foreign accented Thai goes WAY up. It's because they've heard it said that way all their lives and their brain fills in the wrong tones and vowels for the correct ones.

It's my experience that once a Thai becomes accustomed to your foreign accented version of Thai, they have no problem interacting with you in Thai.

As far as Thais abroad pretending they can't understand you, I couldn't comment, but when I go back to the US this comin' year, I'll give it a try in the thai areas of Phoenix and Denver to see if they put me on "ignore" too...

**mickey** · 04-12-2012, 02:55 PM

Russians do the same here, and my ex, a Russian who lives in the States does the same.

**Seekingasylum** · 23-12-2012, 10:58 AM

Why is it when I ask for a Coke in a bar where the staff have patently worked for yonks they still hesitate and ask me to repeat the order?

The whole world and its wife would immediately know what I wanted but here they react as if I had asked for a mermaid juice blitzer.

**Marmite the Dog** · 27-12-2012, 12:47 PM

Originally Posted by thegent

Why is it when I ask for a Coke in a bar where the staff have patently worked for yonks they still hesitate and ask me to repeat the order?

Because in Thai the 'o' sound is different to that of proper English. You need to ask for a 'cock'.

Jing, jing!

**sunsetter** · 30-12-2012, 09:10 PM

please someone post that thread about how to speak thai please

you know the one, with all the, erm, easy to say thai greetings and stuff, forget who posted it

**chassamui** · 30-12-2012, 10:33 PM

The appalling standard of English taught in rural Thai schools is to blame. When a Thai goes to live abroad and learns that they have been duped by their own system, someone has to lose face to pay for it. It will not be the Thai abroad that's for sure.

**Rural Surin** · 30-12-2012, 10:41 PM

Originally Posted by sunsetter

please someone post that thread about how to speak thai please

you know the one, with all the, erm, easy to say thai greetings and stuff, forget who posted it

This might help, Setter...
thai-language.com

**DrAndy** · 01-01-2013, 08:42 AM

Originally Posted by thegent

Why is it when I ask for a Coke in a bar where the staff have patently worked for yonks they still hesitate and ask me to repeat the order?

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

You need to ask for a 'cock'.

he always goes to the wrong bar

**KevyChase** · 02-01-2013, 03:12 PM

How many languages do you speak ?
Maybe they just fake to understand you? And the ones in your home country really don't understand you? I've found that people who only speaks english have a really hard time speaking Thai.

**sranchito** · 07-01-2013, 12:24 AM

Had an Isaan wife that speaks English. She went everywhere with me. Didn't have to learn anything but how to count, greetings, etc. You know, the easy stuff that you can't not learn.

As for a falang understanding other falangs based upon speech pattern, I find that is not always true. Even in the same state, you might not understand each other. Go from East Texas to West Texas, or vice versa, and there are many times we can't understand each other. Let alone when a Texan heads North or some yankee bastard comes to Texas, or any other southern state.

Had a blast talking to Brits in the UK and Wales. Some had seen Forest Gump and wanted to hear that type accent over and over again. The most famous being, "Life is like a box of chocolates."

**toddaniels** · 07-01-2013, 11:00 AM

I dunnno about "people who only speaks english" having any harder of a time speaking Thai than anyone else, like say, Germans, Swiss, Swedes, Russians, etc (who are usually multiple language speakers).

I also don't particularly think speaking multiple languages is an asset learning Thai (unless one of the previously acquired languages you possess is Pali, Sanskrit, Cambodia, or Lao) seeing as there's just too many dissimilarities between Thai and most European languages.

BTW: I'm curious; "KevyChase", how many languages do you speak or imagine you do?

I agree with "sranchito" insofar as "regional accent" playing a role in understanding. Even as tiny as Thailand is, the regional accents when every one is speaking Central Thai (the government approved version of the language) are really noticeable. While it's not nearly as noticeable as it is in the US (seeing as the US is 450 times bigger than Thailand), it is still noticeable. I'll use your example of Texas (of which Thailand is about the same size), and the plethora regional accents thru out that state.

Still, even here in Thailand, I've had Thais who simply for one reason or another believed that they couldn't understand a foreigner speaking Thai. I've been at a table with some Thai friends, when another friend of theirs showed up. That "new person" directed their questions to me thru their friends, who in turn parroted the same question in Thai to me, which I answered in Thai, only to have the person say, "What did he say?", and them having to repeat exactly what I'd said in Thai, in Thai again.

I finally turned to this person and said in Thai, "You know I'm speaking Thai right?, Are you really stupid or just pretending to be?" Miraculously, the "new person" understood that on the first pass; proving that yes indeed Thais can understand foreigners speaking Thai (especially if you take the piss with one of 'em).

**poorfalang** · 07-01-2013, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Originally Posted by thegent

Why is it when I ask for a Coke in a bar where the staff have patently worked for yonks they still hesitate and ask me to repeat the order?

Because in Thai the 'o' sound is different to that of proper English. You need to ask for a 'cock'.

Jing, jing!

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