Pood thai mai krab?

[Jasonkoh82]

It might be a secret thing; I've got told by Thai girl who with foreigner that the reason not to teach Thai for my husband is don't want him to know too much. But sorry I break the rule! I need to teach him Thai because I don't want anybody take advantage on my husband while I'm not with him.

For myself I believe the fundamental is the trust and believe in each other. I mean there's no harm right and it won't hurts unless there is a secret that could not be told of..

[czynet]

(I'm Thai)
I think ..
1). They don't want you to know much about what they say.
2). from 1). you might misunderstand because culture, and it might be so difficult to make it clear.
3). They feel that most of Thai people wanna learn English, what's Thai language for ??,
4). from 3). Someone Thais might feel better to know English as much as you while don't know Thai at all.

[Tod-Daniels]

Sorry in advance for the long post!!

I can’t see any reason for a foreigner here involved in a relationship with a Thai national NOT to learn speak and understand at least day-2-day conversational Thai. There’s no down side to learning it at all, none, zero, zilch! With that being said, I’d suggest a foreigner stick to Central Thai which is understood thru-out the entire country, not just a particular regional dialect.

Face it, at last count there’s close to 67 million native Thai speakers here. If they can all learn to speak/understand Thai almost any foreigner out there who really tries can as well. Plus knowing how to speak and understand day-2-day conversational Thai can be a life saver for foreigners when you make forays alone out and about. You can’t always rely on a Thai (even your significant other) to accurately translate in engrish what someone said to you in Thai. Thais are famous for taking far more than ‘creative license’ when back translating Thai to engrish.

I’ve experienced this more times than I can count with Thais who were acting as my translator in situations. (FWIW: I can speak, read, and understand almost anything said around me in Thai without a problem, but often play the ‘dumb foreigner’ to gauge the exact situation, before answering myself). You’d be quite surprised what Thais say while standing around foreigners they think can’t understand spoken Thai. You’d be just as surprised just how much a Thai ‘translator’ leaves out when back translating Thai into engrish.

I’d be highly suspect of ANY significant other who even remotely plays down the importance of learning Thai to her foreign partner especially if you live in Thailand. That just doesn’t seem quite right to me at all and would raise all sorts of red flags in my book.

Even if a foreigner worked thru Benjawan Becker’s books Thai for Beginners and Thai for Intermediates, it’d give them an adequate grasp of most situational Thai spoken around them.

I discount totally out of hand the ‘excuse’ that Thais don’t want foreigners to understand Thai due to possible misunderstandings because of ‘cultural’ differences. Understanding the cultural ‘rules’ Thais seem brain-washed from birth to follow has nothing to do with a foreigner speaking or understanding the Thai being spoken around them. There is ONLY reason a Thai wouldn't want you to know what they or other Thais are saying; because they don't want you to know...

Believe me I’m most definitely NOT “Thai-bashing” in this post!! After 6+ years here continually living in and amongst the Thais, I’ve genuinely grown quite fond of them and their behavioral quirks. I just choose not to adopt that mind-set solely because I live here. I most definitely ain’t Thai, I’m American. I want the Thais I deal with to know that’s my 'cultural identity' (after all, if I can accept their cultural identity they can most certainly accept mine). I speak Thai super blunt, very straight. Often in a way no Thai would ever speak it as it could be perceived as rude, but in reality is just right to the point. I don’t couch my Thai in polite hypothetical phrases; no is no and yes is yes. Nothing is ever äÁèà»ç¹äà because to me everything matters.

It is exactly because I choose to live my life around Thais 24/7 that gave me the motivation to learn to read, speak and write Thai. I didn’t want to rely on the often suspect skills of a go-between to facilitate conversations which come up time and again here. I knew once I got my head around this language I’d be perfectly capable of interacting with the Thais on my own.

I have also found that just because someone is a native Thai speaker it does NOT qualify them to teach Thai teacher to a foreigner. It takes a particular Thai mindset to teach Thai to a foreigner. This is why many Thai significant others quickly run out of patience. As a foreigner learning Thai you're gonna have problems with two critical things first; vowel length and toning of words. You can frustrate even the most understanding Thai significant other by repeating what you think you are hearing them say only to have them tell you it's wrong.

Remember Thais learned Thai when they were kids, by rote, by having it pounded into their heads word by word by their teacher. Plus they could already speak Thai BEFORE they attended school the first day. Adult foreigners who already speak another language just don’t seem to absorb the language from this methodology. It doesn’t yield any ‘bang-4-the-baht’ in terms of time versus effort. I’ve seen far better results by foreigners who’ve self study with books and the accompanying C/D’s and even better results from attending a language school designed specifically to teach Thai to non-native speakers.

Sorry if this post is a little off topic, I didn’t read all 4 of the previous pages, only perused them briefly.

Still, I suggest EVERY foreigner, especially if you live here, learns at least basic conversational Thai. It can be a truly be a life saver.

Plus aren't you the least little bit curious to know what all these people are saying about you?

[Marie]

Sorry in advance for the long post!!

Believe me I’m most definitely NOT “Thai-bashing” in this post!!

I agree, the above is quite a lengthy post. But I'd say an insightful one, too. I hope I don't sound Thai-bashing also in my reply. I have many close Thai friends and to disparage them is the last thing I'd do.

Remember Thais learned Thai when they were kids, by rote, by having it pounded into their heads word by word by their teacher. Plus they could already speak Thai BEFORE they attended school the first day. Adult foreigners who already speak another language just don’t seem to absorb the language from this methodology. It doesn’t yield any ‘bang-4-the-baht’ in terms of time versus effort. I’ve seen far better results by foreigners who’ve self study with books and the accompanying C/D’s and even better results from attending a language school designed specifically to teach Thai to non-native speakers.

I have witnessed situations where non-Thais asked for certain clarifications from native highly- educated Thai speakers about some "why's" or intricacies of the language, but the Thais concerned couldn't give any clear answers. Sometimes it's non-Thai serious students of Thai language who could provide incisive replies!

Could this be attributed to the reason you cited above? I wonder if the Thais could not explain certain aspects of the language because in rote learning you just mostly follow, and you dont really dwell on intricate rules.

Perhaps I could add that foreign adult learners--like the ones we talk about here--are way beyond the stage of effectively learning the language through rote method. But their Thai "informal tutors" may not have anything else in their teaching methodology reservoir to fall back on.

Thus, let me reiterate my earlier point that the best teacher of a language is not necessarily a native speaker.

[David_Loves_Ubonwan]

Face it, at last count there’s close to 67 million native Thai speakers here.

Whilst I believe there are 60 million plus speakers of Thai in the country, there are many who don't speak it, only about 26 million of them can be considered Native speakers. Of those about 20 million speak Central Thai and 6 million Northern Thai, for the rest Thai is a second language.

David

[Tod-Daniels]

Whilst I believe there are 60 million plus speakers of Thai in the country, there are many who don't speak it <SNIPPED>
David

I'd change that to say WON'T speak it.

While off-topic; I think we're splitting hares <sic> err hairs here when talking about the number of "native Thai speakers". Now granted the demographics you mentioned indeed may not speak Bangkok Thai in their homes, in their day to day interactions around the village, or with their friends, etc, BUT..

I'd still bet dollars to donuts that if they ever attended a single day of schooling in Thailand they were spoken to in and taught to speak, read and write Bangkok Thai. Now it may have been spoken a southern, northeastern, northern (or insert your whacky regional Thai accent here) like I've heard during my travels around the country when I’ve compelled Thais to speak Bangkok Thai with me. However they all seem to have a pretty darned good handle on speakin' it just fine; IF they choose to or are compelled to.

Now is it their native language? It's a tough call. I'd say, if they're born here, hold a Thai I/D card, no matter where they are in the "glorious Land 'O Thais"; from Surin to Sonkla, Chiang Rai to Hat Yai, or even Chantaburi to Kanchanaburi, then Bangkok Thai (the ONLY government approved version of Thai in the country) would be classed as their 'native' language so I'd hafta lump 'em all into the “native Thai speaker” pile.

Thailand consistently scores higher than the US, Canada and the UK in world literacy ratings based on population. I’d imagine this is in regards to people speaking and reading Bangkok Thai. Even if you factor in the penchant Thailand has to crazily skew figures to show themselves in a more positive light on the world stage; I doubt the Thai government is basing literacy on less than a third of its total population.

However this topic ain't about that. So that’s all I’m gonna say. ..555+

It's about why someone's Thai significant other wouldn't be keen on their foreign partner learning Thai, which I already addressed; but will state again. There is NO reason you as a foreigner living here in Thailand shouldn't learn it.

If you learn Bangkok Thai to a fair degree, you’ll have a WAY better handle on the language when it comes to learning what ever cutesy Thai dialect the Thais in your neck of the woods are speakin'. Surprisingly this even holds true for learning ANY of the dialects in this country, as they aren't written in Lao, Khmer, Malay or Burmese, but in Thai.