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Living.A fun guide to language
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Insider’s tips to speaking English in Thailand
MY
very first contact with Thai nationals happened years ago during an internship in the United States. For a year we worked sideby-side on a small international team with three Thais and everyone adored them: they were kind, witty and welcoming people. However, a tiny issue dogged them like a shadow: most of the time no one could comprehend much of what they were saying! Being a linguist with a few languages under my belt, I was nevertheless shocked by my Thai colleagues’ spoken English skills. Though their written expressions were almost perfect, when they opened their mouths their English magically turned into a cryptic language similar to the one made up by J.R.R. Tolkien in his Lord of the Rings trilogy. Two problems arise when talking to Thais in English. One is the accent dilemma, as most locals apply Thai rules when pronouncing English, and the other is a vast difference in grammar and sentence structure. Some of us who’ve settled in Thailand have learned to break into those insights and have adapted accordingly. But I’ve discovered that in order to avoid comical and frustrating scenarios most English-language native speakers could well benefit from a few language tips. As an English-language teacher here for about two years before becoming a writer I quickly identified a couple of problem areas.
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Problem 1 ‘Thaiglish’ pronunciation – when you don’t understand what’s being said: Language tip My English students were all adults, typically placed into one of three groups: Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced. Yet, I quickly learned that pronunciation was a problem of the same intensity at all levels. In fact, I found that it was easier to teach beginners how to speak properly than it was to correct those who were already fairly fluent – old habits die hard… But there was no way around it, so with patience worthy of an army officer, I created entire classes focused on pronunciation practice. Initially dreaded by my students, those classes quickly became rewarding little niches full of fun and laughter – and surprisingly, they turned out as valuable for me in my own study of Thai. You see, in Thai there are sounds that come about by joining consonants we know. Not only there are d’s and t’s but there are also their combinations of /dt/, there are p’s and b’s but also a mix: /bp/ and so on. Furthermore, there is an array of sounds that don’t
get pronounced at the end of words – following a (Thai) rule that makes all t’s, d’s, n’s, and s’s almost silent. When applied to English, as we all know, this creates linguistic chaos. Imagine that what’s in brackets in the words below isn’t pronounced but that those exact words are indeed being referred to: Wi(ne), wi(fe), whi(te), sou(nd), tow(n), smi(le), hou(se), ki(nd) Basically, most of the time, while you don’t quite understand what your smiling waiter is saying, it’s safe to assume he is ‘swallowing’ the second half of words. So in pursuing clarity, slow down and repeat the key one(s) while accentuating their second half (“You mean, how is my wiNe or my wiFe?”). Also, spelling important words out often helps. As I’ve already mentioned, Thais’ pronunciation conceals their knowledge and, unless beginners, they tend to read and write with more understanding than you would assume.
CAT DOG
Little did I know that one day I would end up living in Thailand and that the language I heard widely spoken even had a name – ‘Thaiglish’, or ‘Tinglish’.
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