thanx shizzle
for your sincere response
fyi
i had a thai/khmer gf in los for a while, lovely girl but sadly illiterate, no education ever, she came from the border area near aran, family lived in a tin shack
i used to call her "srey chcrout" - crazy girl
btw a polite thai word for Lady is "satree"
i heard tell that the special court language used in the palace is in fact high class khmer
from my experience i would ignor any western methods of language learning - which tends to focus on grammar
i'd approach as a child would and just string words together
I would recommend learning the script and not rely on transcription, thai script is fairly easy to learn to read BUT the spelling is fiendish, most thais couldnt use a dictionary. If a word was pronounced to them they wouldnt know how to look it up generally but i gather that khmer is largely phonetic so thats a great help
also lao isaan is largely atonal although theyde have you believe otherwise. The gov around 1949 systematically destroyed any form of written works in isaan so you can only learn from your gf. bangkok thai wont get you far
is khmer pretty standard throughout the country?
Cambodian for Beginners PDF and Audio MP3
I speak much better than my girlfriend who's mother tongue is Thai.shizzle wrote:...
I honestly don't know enough about life in Thailand to make a comparison. Doktor_d would probably be able to comment on this one better. If you speak Thai already, I would assume that you would be able to pick up Khmer easier than someone who grew up studying the romance languages.
...
Thais are notoriously bad at pronouncing english. In 20 years I never came across a thai who could speak english reasonably
Its strange paradox. For example, I helped a friends 6 year old daughter to speak english and it was amazing that she very quickly mastered some of our difficult sounds like "th" as in the and "-ss" as in kiss. After a while she was reciting sentences almost perfectly. Sadly she was sent to a boarding school and I didnt see again for 3 years and by that time she'd lost all ability to imitate pronunciation and didnt want to listen to anything a flang had to say. I backed away from it all pdq, not my ploblem
Contrast that with the khmers (admittedly the few such as I met). Their grasp of english pronunciation was surprisingly good.
Even the little street kids around Poipet can rustle up so almost fluent phrases
OMG Poipet, what a desperate obscene place
Huge casino complexes Las Vegas style (thai owned of course) and on the street outside, throngs of ragged barefoot street kids and tragic amputees living in desperate poverty. The river bed filled with garbage and stench.
my visa runs every 3 months were a depressing affair
Its strange paradox. For example, I helped a friends 6 year old daughter to speak english and it was amazing that she very quickly mastered some of our difficult sounds like "th" as in the and "-ss" as in kiss. After a while she was reciting sentences almost perfectly. Sadly she was sent to a boarding school and I didnt see again for 3 years and by that time she'd lost all ability to imitate pronunciation and didnt want to listen to anything a flang had to say. I backed away from it all pdq, not my ploblem
Contrast that with the khmers (admittedly the few such as I met). Their grasp of english pronunciation was surprisingly good.
Even the little street kids around Poipet can rustle up so almost fluent phrases
OMG Poipet, what a desperate obscene place
Huge casino complexes Las Vegas style (thai owned of course) and on the street outside, throngs of ragged barefoot street kids and tragic amputees living in desperate poverty. The river bed filled with garbage and stench.
my visa runs every 3 months were a depressing affair
Just 'cos you're paranoid, doesn't make you wrong
"Mark' speaks English quite well, sound positively like an old Etonian. Even though he is a rice wog and not a 'Flang'.
If the Thais call you 'Flang', BTW, how do they pronounce it?
If the Thais call you 'Flang', BTW, how do they pronounce it?
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Right. There are a few reasons I made that assumption.SunSan wrote:I speak much better than my girlfriend who's mother tongue is Thai.shizzle wrote:...
I honestly don't know enough about life in Thailand to make a comparison. Doktor_d would probably be able to comment on this one better. If you speak Thai already, I would assume that you would be able to pick up Khmer easier than someone who grew up studying the romance languages.
...
- A Khmer girl I once dated went to university in Thailand. Prior to that, she couldn't speak a word of Thai. I can't remember how long she said it took her to become fluent, but it was within the first year.
- My last Khmer teacher could speak Thai fluently and thought that it would only take me about three months to pick up Thai if I lived over there. He could have been blowing smoke up my ass, but I'm not sure why he'd bother.
- I met an American guy last year who was on a visa run from BKK. He could read/write in Thai and was taking a similar approach to learning Khmer- studying independently using the Extreme Khmer materials. From what I could tell, he was picking it up quite quickly.
I don't think Cambodians pick up Thai fluently within a year and I think it's even more difficult the other way round. They might speak grammatically correct but the pronunciation is completely off. Even I can tell they aren't native speakers.
Even though Khmer has no tones the sounds make it difficult to learn it. In the time I've been here I've only met one foreigner of whom my local colleagues say he speaks perfectly, having spoken with him on the phone before meeting him face to face and being all surprised he was a Barang.
Though I'm not doubting you, Shizz. A local of either country will probably learn the other language with reading and writing. This will allow them to pick up the right pronunciation much more easily than listening to the words by mp3, believe it or not. That's rote learning for you, in certain situations it's the way to go.
Even though Khmer has no tones the sounds make it difficult to learn it. In the time I've been here I've only met one foreigner of whom my local colleagues say he speaks perfectly, having spoken with him on the phone before meeting him face to face and being all surprised he was a Barang.
Though I'm not doubting you, Shizz. A local of either country will probably learn the other language with reading and writing. This will allow them to pick up the right pronunciation much more easily than listening to the words by mp3, believe it or not. That's rote learning for you, in certain situations it's the way to go.
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Thais can't seem to do "r"s at all, so they come out as "l's, maybe "falang."SunSan wrote:
If the Thais call you 'Flang', BTW, how do they pronounce it?
Who Gives a Fuck?
Ah, that one I have heard before.
Is it kewler to say Flang than Falang or is it just plain laziness on tit's side to add that extra vowel?
Is it kewler to say Flang than Falang or is it just plain laziness on tit's side to add that extra vowel?
Well worth learning khmer.
It is standard throughout the country and the khmers in thailand understand it as well.
Very easy grammar but as son san says the sounds are difficult.
Thais dont like farangs who can speak thai,you know too much.
Khmers really appreciate it.
I am working hard at my khmer at the moment,but at 83 the old memory bank is buggered.
Despite my industrial deafness my ear for the sounds is good.
Dating a young woman who speaks little english and being able to speak even 50% is great.
I know some khmer song lyrics and sayings and I always have a really good time with the girls in the bars -they actually like me and always open the door for my wheel chair.
It is standard throughout the country and the khmers in thailand understand it as well.
Very easy grammar but as son san says the sounds are difficult.
Thais dont like farangs who can speak thai,you know too much.
Khmers really appreciate it.
I am working hard at my khmer at the moment,but at 83 the old memory bank is buggered.
Despite my industrial deafness my ear for the sounds is good.
Dating a young woman who speaks little english and being able to speak even 50% is great.
I know some khmer song lyrics and sayings and I always have a really good time with the girls in the bars -they actually like me and always open the door for my wheel chair.
With utmost contempt Fu - rangSunSan wrote:"Mark' speaks English quite well, sound positively like an old Etonian. Even though he is a rice wog and not a 'Flang'.
Well he spent his uk in privileged uk surroundings, so not surprising
BTW IMHO he is the best thing thats ever happened to LOS and look how he is vilified poor sod
If the Thais call you 'Flang', BTW, how do they pronounce it?
Just 'cos you're paranoid, doesn't make you wrong
Actually its force of habit cos thais are very lazy and tend to reduce every word to a single syllable eg they wont say computer they say "com"SunSan wrote:Ah, that one I have heard before.
Is it kewler to say Flang than Falang or is it just plain laziness on tit's side to add that extra vowel?
So when they start up their insulting banter, I give as good as I get
They call me "flang" and I call them Lao ( worse) they hate being called lao but they then say i speak good lao (another veiled insult). Life is full of ill natured banter when you get that deep down with them.
Just 'cos you're paranoid, doesn't make you wrong
Well stripe me young man - 83ken svay wrote:Well worth learning khmer.
It is standard throughout the country and the khmers in thailand understand it as well.
Very easy grammar but as son san says the sounds are difficult.
Thais dont like farangs who can speak thai,you know too much.
Khmers really appreciate it.
I am working hard at my khmer at the moment,but at 83 the old memory bank is buggered.
Despite my industrial deafness my ear for the sounds is good.
Dating a young woman who speaks little english and being able to speak even 50% is great.
I know some khmer song lyrics and sayings and I always have a really good time with the girls in the bars -they actually like me and always open the door for my wheel chair.
May your wheel chair never squeak
In pattaya old fellas rarely reach 63 after 5 years of drunken whoring takes its toll. In fact 70 is rare usually only in part time visitors
must be something in the water but of course having a nice young friend adds years to your lifestyle
thais used to have an in built respect for old age but thats all gone down the tube last couple of years, in fact its quite the opposite and we dont want to go there.
I daresay i could pick it up with the help of that stuff from Shizzler
Mind you it took me 5 years with Isaan, but there are no books and you can only listen write a word down phonetically.thais dont know how to write down their own language
In fact the best progress i made was with some Charlie chaplin cds which inexplicably were dubbed in Lao
Then i moved on to thai folk songs as per karaoke lounges and got some of those cds and gradually xslated the subtitles and began to piece it all together.
looking back on it - a monumental waste of time and it took me down alleys i should never have gone.
Perhaps you can tell me from your experience
Do people have successful long term relationships with khmer girls
In los its unheard of. In fact the boards are crowded with sob stories of disastrous relationships to common to be of interest. Anyone strutting about with a girl on his arm is a tourist or a soon to be poor fool.
Typically it will start going wrong after 6 months when the guy is in a false sense of security. The girl has sussed out what the flang worth and where he keeps his dosh. Then the scheming startss to get his money and if that doesnt work then she will find ways to squander it so no other bitch can get here hands on it. One way or another the flang ends up stuffed.
Cheers
Just 'cos you're paranoid, doesn't make you wrong
Are you serious?In los its unheard of.
Because that's a load of tripe.
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