How to pronounce Hua Hin

[Vital Spark]

Sorry Roel have to disagree with you re. the 100 word vocabulary.

I/we've had discussions about politics, the Royal Family!, the local puu yai baan (village headman) and the people across the road selling drugs, with our landlady. She understands our limitations with Thai (not being fluent) but speaks slowly and clearly. No, we don't understand everything she says, and I'm sure as heck that she doesn't understand all that we say, but she appreciates us trying to communicate - and we have a conversation.

No offence intended here but maybe there's a difference between a farang couple (Mr. Parahandy and I) communicating with our neighbours and a farang married to a Thai lady? Perhaps she doesn't want you to speak Thai because she wants to improve her English? I can't really see that being able to speak the lingo creates some kind of a threat.

When I ask my Thai colleagues, at the university, whether a particular word is high-falling, low-rising, etc., they have to think about it for a while. Eventually, they decide what it is. What I'm getting at is that any word in context can be understood by the listener (if they really want to understand what you're saying). Of course there are some Thais who perhaps don't want to understand what you're saying, in that case you can be 'tone perfect' and it wouldn't make any difference.

I'm with Buksida - most attempts I make are usually greeted with warm smiles and they are genuinely impressed.

VS
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'Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana' -Groucho Marx

[Roel]

First of all let me clear a misunderstand. Sorry for not making myself clear: MY girlfriend does appreciate me speaking Thai and does encourage it. But over the years I heard the same "complaint" as T.I.G.R. brought forward (my wife prefers to keep her language to herself) many times. So I wondered why this is.

I fully agree with you and buksida that overall our attempts to communicate in Thai are greeted with enthousiasm and warm smiles. And of course a Thai person will never ever tell you in your face that your Thai sucks or that he does not like you to speak Thai. So how do I know?
Well now I start thinking about it, I guess this impression I got is mostly because of conversations between Thais that I overhear when they are not aware that you can understand them.

Also recently I visited a friend only to find her house full of visitors (the usual four generations were present). I was met with smiles and got loads of compliments on my Thai. The next day however my friend told me that after I left they had a long discussion about farangs speaking Thai and most thought it was not a good thing. In their eyes it was simply not as it should be.

Now, I do not mean to be all that negative and I am sure that the vast majority of the Thais do appreciate our attempts. I was just wondering if others recognize these observations. Also I cannot see how the ability of speaking the lingo could create a threat, but maybe (some) Thais experience it that way?

Regarding the tones I must disagree. Thai being a tonal language makes an essential difference here. Speaking English with an accent generates phonetical variations only whereas speaking Thai with an accent generates variations on a semantic level. In English the listener can correct the mispronounciations quite easly by interpreting the context. True. But in the Thai language these are not simply mispronounciations: in most cases you will find yourself using other existing words with a completely different meaning.
For Thais the tones are so essential that it is not "natural" for them to auto-correct them. To stick to your own example: when you say you are going to change your shirt and enter the bedroom a Thai person who clearly heard you saying that you were going to change your tiger will definitely be confused and NOT automatically assume a mispronounciation. He will most likely not correct it but keep wondering what the h#ll you are going to do with a tiger in the bedroom?????

Of course in many contexts you WILL be understood but certainly not to the same content as in English.

Another interesting observation is that in Thailand "only my wive understands me" applies. Thai speaking farang are understood by their partners because they get used to the consequent mispronounciations (and stop correcting them because they got the message!!). Like a mother who knows that her child asking for BEENABAH wants peanutbutter. So this is another complication: this farang gets away with his Thai at home but finds himself not understood at the market.
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We are all living in 'the good old days' of the future.

[buksida]

Good point about overhearing when they don't realise you understand however I still think they just generalise and stereotype us all as dumb tourists - we're all guilty of that sometimes!

If there is genuine fear or loathing of the farang that speaks Thai then I think its only limited to the insecure and poorly educated - if it is from someone that you know personally then alarm bells should be ringing. Anyone that has an education will know that the world is bigger than Thailand and foreigners are not an entity to be feared (well some of them are!).
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Luctor et Emergo

[Big Boy]

As a bit of light relief, I'll relate a short story that happened to me several years ago.

I was sat doing nothing (as one does) in my wife's family home in Ban Nong Seng. One of my wife's old friends walked in, and after the usual formalities asked my wife in Thai (Laos?) if my Penis was the same size as my stomach. You can imagine their surprise when I replied in Thai asking if they wanted to check for themselves.
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Who said, "I've dumped PAFC for Eutopia at Liecester?"
Ian Holloway (job seeker extrordanair)