Too many 'magical' Thai spelling mistakes

MY TWO SATANGS

Too many 'magical' Thai spelling mistakes

Published: 6 Oct 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

Thailand is a country of big ambitions, but poor implementation. We have fantastic ideas for transport, Asean integration and tourism but our unfortunate detachment from reality often overshadows the feasibility of these wonderful ideas.

‘Computer’ is one of the 176 English-language loan words that the Royal Institute wanted to change the spelling of. They later dropped the move following a public outcry.

This week there was talk of MMA/muay Thai star Buakaw going toe-to-toe with Manny Pacquiao. The proposal is supposed to be part of an event to honour His Majesty the King, and would no doubt be a huge boost for Thailand.

This article is older than 60 days, which we reserve for our premium members only.You can subscribe to our premium member subscription, here.

Forum

Your comments

nns
Post : 199
Send message

Discussion 30 : 14 Oct 2012 at 00.5730
Post this to my Facebook
@nitnoi D29, Non-Thais have as much problem with the Thai diction (inflection, accent) as Thais have with English words. Additionally, proper English grammar is something most Thais have so much trouble with.
Like dislike 0 people liked / 0 people disliked this comment
nitnoi
Post : 576
Send message

Discussion 29 : 13 Oct 2012 at 19.2329
Post this to my Facebook
dis#28dougo,The first letter--goh gai sounds as letter "G" such as chicken or hen , in Thai its called"Gai", when you call its egg you use the sound of letter "K" its called "Kai", if you want to know who is who you ask "Krai?" this krai when written in Thai the alphabet is different from alphabets used in chicken and egg. the letter is the 4th in Thai alphabet"koh kwai"(ryhme with why)
So when you want to say who sell the chicken's egg. it will be Krai Kai( who sell) written with 2nd alphabet" koh kuaod"
question with four syllables----Krai Kai Kai Gai? all sound like "K" in non-Thai infact all those syllibles are written in 4different alphabets. That is the reason Thai has more letters for the same sound in english but not so in Thai
Like dislike 1 people liked / 0 people disliked this comment
dougo
Post : 117
Send message

Discussion 28 : 13 Oct 2012 at 13.0128
Post this to my Facebook
I've lived in Thailand for 6 years. Originally I bought Benjawan Poomsan Becker's Thai for Beginners in order to learn the language. Fortunately I met a wonderful Thai woman with certainly not perfect but enough knowledge of English to act as my interpreter, thus sparing me the effort. Some day I would like to know why Thais need 5 k's (plus the gaa gai as a final k), 6 t's (plus the daa dek and dtaa dtao as final t's), 4 s's, and 3 ch's. No doubt there are some exquisite differences that only Thais can appreciate.

So having poked fun at the Thai language, I'd be sad if Thais adopted the Roman alphabet. I love the exotic feel of a place with signs in Thai script, even if I don't understand what the shop owners are trying to convey.
Like dislike 0 people liked / 1 people disliked this comment
nitnoi
Post : 576
Send message

Discussion 27 : 12 Oct 2012 at 21.3627
Post this to my Facebook
I am Thai by birth only spending time longer in US than in Thailand ,I also speak Thai fluently included idioms,proverbs.In short I am an old school. I don't understand Thai the new generation speak,I notice that as the Thai cultures you speak slow and soft is polite therefore when sentences are end with Ka in female and Krub in male ,the Thai will drag it into Kaaa&Krubb, if you say it short you will be scolded "pood mai me nam siang" so teaCHER, piZZA are norm for Thai speakers

Ian dis#26, you are European. Many speak multiple languages because of the root of the european languages and alphabets are similar .If you can master Spanish you can pick up the other 2 languages easily. Thai , Chinese,Korean, Japanese each has their own alphabets (Characters). If you can learn Chinese you will be able to learn Thai. Tagalog spoken by Phillipinos all alphabet is english, that is the reason you can pickup tagalog as well. I envy you at 76 you could comunicate in many tongue. I speak only 2 but still have the problems understand them.
Like dislike 0 people liked / 0 people disliked this comment
Ian
Post : 720
Send message

Discussion 26 : 11 Oct 2012 at 16.4326
Post this to my Facebook
When I was at school in England I learnt Latin and Greek, ok not fluent but adequate. Later I acquired French and German, German passable, French competent. Later I picked up a bit of Spanish a bit of Italian, even a bit of Slovenian. Since then with a phrase book I have managed Tagalot and Malaysian. But Thai is a failure, after 10 years I still use mainly sign language. One problem of course is the tones, at my age (76), My high frequency response is none existent (for the technically minded I cut off at about 9 kHz). I suspect judging by the number of times I hear "arai na" elderly Thais have the same problem.
Like dislike 4 people liked / 0 people disliked this comment
wandee
Post : 54
Send message

Discussion 25 : 11 Oct 2012 at 08.2825
Post this to my Facebook
Listen to the afternoon news on channel 3 in English and that will put a stop to grumbling about to spell words correctly. First of all is to learn English before running a commercial enterprise and trying to sell something to the English speaking population in their language. My husband has given up to watch the news on channel 3 listening to the English language because in his opinion they don't speak English.
Like dislike 6 people liked / 0 people disliked this comment
nns
Post : 199
Send message

Discussion 24 : 08 Oct 2012 at 03.1924
Post this to my Facebook
@nitnoi D#23, laziness, carelessness and unwillingness to put out the effort and paying attention to detail contribute greatly to poor pronunciation. Not everyone has the problem but the majority do, unfortunately.
Like dislike 8 people liked / 0 people disliked this comment
nitnoi
Post : 576
Send message

Discussion 23 : 08 Oct 2012 at 00.0123
Post this to my Facebook
Thais speak mostly with lips not tongue, let them say "school" in Thai, many will sound like "Lo-onk Lian" not "Ro-onk Rian". How about order "flied lice" instead of " fried rice" You can go on and on with this problem. I notice the Thai who can speak decent enough english also speak decent Thai as well. There are "L" and "R" which some Thai born still can't differentiate these two letters.
Like dislike 12 people liked / 0 people disliked this comment
jacksprat
Post : 2,453
Send message

Discussion 22 : 07 Oct 2012 at 21.2622
Post this to my Facebook
The problem with pronunciation is the same as with the rest of teaching English. The Ministry of Education decided that all students must study English from anuban to the 12th grade. Unfortunately, they didn't think about where all of those English teachers were going to come from. As a result many teachers who can barely speak simple English have been assigned to teach the subject. Should anyone be surprised at the results?
Like dislike 19 people liked / 1 people disliked this comment
englishbob
Post : 2,342
Send message

Discussion 21 : 07 Oct 2012 at 18.4121
Post this to my Facebook
Disc 20 Nitnoi - I read and write Thai, so I know why 'football' is pronounced 'footbon'.

The point is that foreigners say 'Shinawat' and 'Suwarnapoom' instead of 'Shinawatra' and 'Suvarnabhumi'. We learn the pronunciations of these words (despite the idiosyncrasies of Thai spelling). We even learn to bastardise our own words so Thais can understand us - appen juice, anyone?

But generations of Thais are STILL being taught incorrect pronunciations of even the most basic of English words. It's a terrible thing to hear teenagers after 12 years of studying counting to ten - "Wan, two, tee, forwah, fie, sick, sewen, ake, nie, ten."
Like dislike 22 people liked / 0 people disliked this comment

1 2 3 Next Last

Too many 'magical' Thai spelling mistakes | Bangkok Post: opinion