Why do many expats not bother to learn to read?

[Takiap]

like a shorter Asian tongue that makes pronouncing the letter L difficult.

You sure about that? Thais have no problem producing the letter L. In fact they replace the letter R with L very often. The reason they have difficulty with R is because there is no equivalent sound in Thai. Their R is a rrrrollling R quite unlike the pronunciation we use.

They also have problems with 'th' and 'sh' for the same reason. In the west the French have difficulty with 'th' as it doesn't appear in their vocabulary in the same way.

The fact is that all people are physically capable of producing all language sounds but will find it harder if that sound does not appear in their own language.

We find it strange to start a word with 'ng' but with practice it's no problem.

I hear many Thais pronouncing cold as code, old as ode, etc. To pronounce L you have to be able to touch the inside of your upper teeth, which requires curling the tip of your tongue backwards. Hard to do with a short tongue. Admittedly, I've not measured and Thai tongues.

Sorry mate, I'm not have a go at you.

I have just sat here and said "L" several times and my tongue never touches the inside of my upper teeth, it touches about 1cm away from my teeth, although I can both it both ways.

[handdrummer]

have just sat here and said "L" several times and my tongue never touches the inside of my upper teeth, it touches about 1cm away from my teeth, although I can both it both ways.

Maybe my tongue is longer than normal. My wife has never complained about it.

[Takiap]

have just sat here and said "L" several times and my tongue never touches the inside of my upper teeth, it touches about 1cm away from my teeth, although I can both it both ways.

Maybe my tongue is longer than normal. My wife has never complained about it.

[Jack_Batty]

I agree with the concept that some people seem to have an easier time "mastering" the Thai language. But I don't think one has to "master" the language to get a tremendous benefit while living in Thailand. Simply developing a low to mid-level of proficiency has really enhanced my experience living in Thailand. There are 4 distinct aspects or dimensions of learning a language (listening comprehension, speaking, reading and writing). During the course of learning a language it is normal for a person's skill / proficiency level to be different in each of these dimensions at any given point of time. I realize that most things are easier in retrospect, but I'm convinced by my own studies that reading and writing Thai are fairly easy skills to acquire and actually lend themselves quite nicely to self-study (without formal instruction) using books and materials readily available at most bookstores. Having said that, I highly recommend enrolling in a formal course of study, in a classroom setting with a teacher, as this makes the experience faster and more enjoyable. After 3.5 years of formal classes at Sirada I would rate my skills on a scale of 1 - 10 as follows (listening comprehension - 4 or 5, speaking - 6, reading - 8 or 9 and writing - 7). I'm pretty proud of what I've learned so far and look forward to continuing my studies in the future as it's inexpensive, rewarding, not time consuming, a bit of a social activity and enhances my living in Thailand on a daily basis. The one thing I would change if I could do it all over again would be to insist on studying reading and writing first, instead of spending 3 months in the beginning speaking classes. It's much better to learn a new word and be able to mentally visualize it in the Thai script instead of in transliterated English alphabet because if you can "see" it in Thai then you know how to speak it using the correct tones, once you learn the tone rules. I can't say enough good things about the teachers, staff, facilities and course of study at Sirada, highly recommended ! Now that I think about it I realize there is a 5th dimension to language study, acquisition / expansion of vocabulary. This is probably harder to rate on a scale as I think it's a never ending thing.

How did you like Sirida? I am in the process of obtaining a year-long ED visa through them. I've only heard good things, but the things I did hear were limited.

[oakdale160]

Traditionally schools started teaching languages in secondary schools starting at about 11 yrs. Now in many countries they are starting at much earlier ages, in some school districts even in kindergarden when young minds are much more receptive to a second language.

[Ratsima]

While we always go on about how difficult it is to learn Thai, we should also sometimes have sympathy for Thais who say the same thing about English, which is probably the most difficult language in the world to learn from scratch.

I disagree. I think that from a psychological viewpoint English is a relatively easy language to learn because most English speakers are incredibly forgiving when it comes to how the language is spoken.

For example,if my Aussie friend says, "Pahk the cah in the cah pahk", I know that what he really means is: "Park the car in the parking lot". We English speakers hear so many varieties of English in terms of both vocabulary, and pronunciation, not to mention huge variation in gammer, that we need to make creative use of both context and logic to understand the huge variety of English that we hear.

On the other hand, Thai is extremely unforgiving. Make one mistake in a tone or vowel length and you're hosed. Thais just haven't developed the ability to parse badly spoken Thai. (Hence the need for subtitles in Thai dramas when the actors are speaking Lanna or Isaan. Central Thai speakers just can't make the leap.)

Plus, Thai has many word pairs that are different only in one distinctive feature. Consider the classic: ไม้ใหม่ไม่ไหม้. These four words differ only in tone so your brain has exactly one chance to figure out the difference.

On the other hand, almost every near homophone in English differs by at least two distinctive features. For example, take Pat and bat. In Pat the initial consonant is unvoiced but aspirated. In bat the first consonant is voiced but not aspirated. Your brain gets two chances to figure out the difference.

The bottom line is that if you're a beginning learner of English you can make lots of guesses and lots of mistakes and the chances are good that most English speakers are going to be able to figure out what you're trying to say.

Not so with Thai. One mistake and they give up. If I ask for water and say นำ instead of น้ำ they look at me like I asked for a ticket to the moon.

I started trying to learn Thai in 1996. I've lived here since 2005. I have a reasonable ability to read Thai. But, if I listen to a Thai conversation (between my wife and her daughter, say) I don't understand a bit. Not one single word.

[Dannie Boy]

I started trying to learn Thai in 1996. I've lived here since 2005. I have a reasonable ability to read Thai. But, if I listen to a Thai conversation (between my wife and her daughter, say) I don't understand a bit. Not one single word.

Well, you’ve just enforced why I never really tried to learn Thai, other than the normal “get me by phrases”.

[nil]

It’s surprising how many people don’t even bother to learn even the very basic stuff, like numbers, asking how much is this?, where is the bathroom? etc

[Lost]

It’s surprising how many people don’t even bother to learn even the very basic stuff, like numbers, asking how much is this?, where is the bathroom? etc

They are usually the same folk that complain of foreigners coming to their home country and not learning the language.

[handdrummer]

It’s surprising how many people don’t even bother to learn even the very basic stuff, like numbers, asking how much is this?, where is the bathroom? etc

Once you get into "where is," you'll need a much large vocabulary to understand the answer.
You also need to make allowances for people who have a hearing problem that doesn't allow them to distinguish pitch.

[nil]

At least they can point in the general direction. Unless you are asking for road directions where they will never say they don’t know and will just guess! Yes, the tones are really difficult to make out but they generally understand even if you get them wrong.

[Big Boy]

Yes, the tones are really difficult to make out but they generally understand even if you get them wrong.

Unless it is my wife

[oakdale160]

I noticed a huge difference in the business world from China. When in China you are aware that the language is one of the major languages in the world and that being able to speak it will be a huge plus on your CV, not so withThai

[handdrummer]

Yes, the tones are really difficult to make out but they generally understand even if you get them wrong.

Unless it is my wife

If you get them wrong, it can completely change the meaning of the word. As it is, Thais either can't understand foreigners or pretend they can't understand them when they speak Thai.

[Ratsima]

Yes, the tones are really difficult to make out but they generally understand even if you get them wrong.

I don’t think that’s true at all. Thais are horrible at using context and logic to parse poorly pronounced Thai. As I said above:

If I ask for water and say นำ instead of น้ำ they look at me like I asked for a ticket to the moon.

My phone number ends with "9", which I usually mispronounce. So, if I say เกา instead of เก้า they just can’t figure it out. How many numbers are there that sound like เกา. Exactly one which only differs by tone.

Granted, in areas where there are plenty of farang speaking bad Thai, the locals have acquired some skill at understanding that bad Thai. But, elsewhere it’s a crap shoot that you usually lose.