The Bangkok Podcast | Expat Life In Thailand Via Expats From Canada & America

Greg interviews our old pal Stu Jay Raj - linguist, polyglot, and true Renaissance man. As you would expect, the topic is the Thai language and foreigners’ struggle to learn it properly, but with a focus on the trouble you can get into if you don’t understand how tones work.  Stu begins with an important point: the nature of English allows a fair amount of flexibility in pronunciation and accent without sacrificing intelligibility, whereas Thai does not. In short, ‘getting close’ to correct Thai is often not good enough, leading to frustration among foreigners who don’t understand why Thais cannot figure out what they are saying.  Greg gives Stu a few examples of difficulties he has faced, starting with the pronunciation of the popular street “Charoen Krung.” It turns out even something so short and seemingly simple is not so, and even if a foreigner’s tones are correct, a slight mispronunciation of the vowels can confound native speakers. Greg then brings up a common Thai curse word and the shocked reaction