Adam Bradshaw

[nam phyyng]

I am getting a lot of enjoyment and also learning a lot, from watching Adam Bradshaw's Videos on Utube. Just Google his user-name "Jadambrad" and that should get you there. I suggest any serious students of Thai would enjoy his videos and find them useful.

Adam is a young American from Texas who has good fluency in spoken Thai. The great thing about his videos (which are mainly from the "I Love Thailand" TV programme) are that he speaks clearly and not too fast and as its a video, you can always pause and re-wind for greater clarity. Adam is very fluent and its amusing to watch his interaction with the Thai host "Andy" as they do things together.

Watching these programmes has lifted me to a new level of comprehending spoken Thai. The written comments under the video are also quite amusing (and sometimes not very polite!) but again it has improved my reading comprehension. By the way, what does เซ็งเป็ด mean? If it means "bored duck" why is that funny (is it some kind of in-joke that only Thais understand?)

[David_Loves_Ubonwan]

It could be a reference to a Thai movie that was released last year?

David

[Nu]

It is a slang meaning 'very bored' but I don't know where or how it is originated so I googled it. In one site, someone said that it is from a legend and here is the link.http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...&ct=clnk&gl=us

[ian71]

This guy Adam is very good, speaking and writing Thai, very impressive, but way to fast and advance for me, and to be honest he made some things to complicated for me, example his 2 top tips are learn correct tone and vowel length!!!!! now for me anyone starting to learn Thai this way will give up before learning anything worth while,way above beginner level, but thanks for the links,

Ive started using the learn Thai pod cast.com lessons, i find these very good and easy to learn both reading and talking Thai.There is lots on you tube to check out free.

[nam phyyng]

This guy Adam is very good, speaking and writing Thai, very impressive, but way to fast and advance for me, and to be honest he made some things to complicated for me, example his 2 top tips are learn correct tone and vowel length!!!!! now for me anyone starting to learn Thai this way will give up before learning anything worth while,way above beginner level, but thanks for the links. Ive started using the learn Thai pod cast.com lessons, i find these very good and easy to learn both reading and talking Thai.There is lots on you tube to check out free.

Yes Ian,
I think its more suitable for intermediate level.
Cheers,
NP

[DPL]

Hey, I heard that the expression เซ็งเป็ด (extremely bored) actually originated from a folklore whereby a farmer's wife so was fed up with her husband's extra-marital affairs that one day, she cut off his member and fed it to the ducks. I don't know whether this is actually true, but it is what i was told by my friend when I posed her the same question about the meaning of this phrase!

[Eric67]

Adam also does (or did?) a show on Thai TV, teaching English to Thai people.

They're on Youtube, about 40 clips right now, under the username 'winkwinkenglish'

If you like his other clips then I'm sure you'll love these as well!

[Tod-Daniels]

Adam Bradshaw is pretty darned good at Thai. Then again, as he's a former missionary, I'd imagine he undertook the learning of Thai before he ever set foot here.

His show "Wink Wink English" is on Monday thru Friday in the afternoon for about 20 minutes. It's a good way for foreigners to learn how things are said in Thai, even though the show is really designed to teach English to Thai people. It can be used it in reverse to learn Thai. Watching the half-Thai guy Christopher Wright's show "Chris Delivery" which is on every Friday nite is helpful too. Both shows are useful for foreigners learning Thai as they have the Thai/English translations on the screens for vocab.

Adam's show "Wink Wink English" is so tightly edited that it'd be great if he posted the out-takes online, as I'm sure there're TONZ of them. I watched some of his learn Thai videos on You Tube. I thought while he's certainly got a grasp of speaking & reading Thai, his skills at teaching Thai to foreigners are a little lacking. He should stick to teaching English to Thai nationals which he does really well. ..

I also caught part of an interview of Adam on a late nite program a while ago. He's not nearly as fluent with 'free style speaking' as he is once he knows what the topic(s) will be.

That's not a negative thing, only that he's way better if he controls the topics than if they're thrown at him. I'd imagine all of us 'non-native' Thai speakers are that way and once a topic veers off course, we're sometimes lacking the vocab to talk about it.

Still he's pretty darned good; I'll give him that.

[ravip]

Bored Duck – seng bpèt - เซ็งเป็ด
I heard another story, which goes like this.

There were 3 good friends - A Pig, a Dog & a Duck (the Duck's 'quack quack' is referred to as 'kub kub' – and sounds like 'come come').

These three friends are always together. However, one day only the Pig & the Dog went for a drink leaving behind the Duck. The barman inquired why they did not bring the Duck. So the Pig replies – 'before I even start to drink, the Duck says 'kub kub'.

So… as the Duck always says 'kub kub' he seems to be always a bored duck!

(A Thai comedy movie seem to have made this saying popular too)

[jadambrad]

How would you know how my freestyle speech and my ability to teach to foreigners are there Grandpa Tod? I've never met you nor have I ever taught you. Thanks for the compliment though.