Chiang Mai Thai

Ever wanted to learn Thai, in Chiang Mai? I did just that from November 2010, returning home in October 2011. If you don't want a headache, start HERE, it will explain the preceding posts. I'm Snap, Stray's other half. COOEE is our (other) travel blog.

Showing posts with label thais learning english. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thais learning english. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

When learn language websites behave badly.

“It is normal that American people from the north do not fully understand those from the south. The way of life, climate and everything all impact pronunciation.”

But, rest assured...

“We have example of online English conversation in different situations that you likely to use oftenly.”

Learn how to use tenses and grammar....

“I hit him at the back yesterday.
He was hit by me at the back yesterday.

A pen is under the table.
I have two pens in my pockey.

John is kicked by me
They are cooked by Marry.


Jim is a little nervous when he on the stage yesterday.

Our group have different oppinion on where to go today.

I will have jumped to the water if the bear will come."


And... “if you want to speak english fluently. You can visit our conversation corner...”


“How long do we have to wait? Arond five to ten minutes”

“Can I site here? It's ok for me.”

“Excuse me. Do you mind taking us pictures?”

 "I heard you are going to have an exam tomorrow. Yes, I'm quite worry about it.”

“Shalle we postpone?”

Learn the meanings of popular idioms....

“A hot potato = A hot issue that people are talking about
Eating someone = Disturbing someone
Backup the wrong horse = Support the wrong person, team or side.
Egg on the facel = To be embarrassed
Eata humble pie = Admit on something
Fly a kite = Test reaction of the idea
In black and white = Formal (dress)
Jockey the position = Try to train or someone to be best in their job/position
Jungle out there = Something are dangerous outside
X rate (Rate X) = Too aggressive
Panic stations = Very exciting situation”

Learn by watching movies... “Right, the thing is you don't just watch it but you have to watch by learning purpose to create more useful entertainment.... The steps may annoy your emotion but if you want to learn English you better follow below steps. Otherwise, you may lost your time and effort without nothing.”

“At xxxxxschool, we believe that memory cannot take you any far in English learning journey.” “Listenning skill is one of the most difficult among all other English learning skill because it gives you the least time for your brain to process.”

“Everyone loves playing game so why waste your time with a non-sense online game, if you can play English Game Online with us.”

Try your hand at some multiple choice quizzes...

“Our effort is good to a/an/the environment.
Don't look at a/an/the sun with your bear eyes?
I earn many/much/both money this year.
We are so hungry. There is little/a little/few food left?

“It was my pressure to meet you.” But, for now I’m going back to my “Ivory tower = A perfect, and unreal, place where everyone dream to stay.”

The not so funny thing about this website is that it appears to be mainly a vehicle for advertising, and that people are actually consulting it and its forum. Think I scoured the site for hours looking for errors? Think again...it was hard to stop (copying and pasting) at just the few examples in this post.

Related posts Note to self #2

Cheers!
สเนป

See what else we're up to at Cooee!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Transliteration obliterations

I know I tend to harp on about how I don't like transliteration systems...but they are a necessary evil, unless you have time to learn from the alphabet up, completely in Thai.

The other day I was speaking to 'P', an obviously English speaking Thai friend. She showed me an example in her English Language book and pointed to the word 'impossible' and laughed. "How can I learn this properly when it says 'impossibiN'"?

It was written something like this. อิมพอส'ซะเบิล

This made sense to me, because I'm not that advanced and haven't learnt all of the final consonant rules...where ล says 'L' as an initial and 'N' as a final. No wonder words like Hotel are pronounced Hoten. It's obvious that the book was using initial consonant sounds only, but it must be really hard for a Thai person to throw those rules out the window. Anyway it got me thinking, how does the transliteration system for Thais learning English work...or not work?

I rummaged around and found this website, W3 Dictionary and took a look at how this effected other words and their transliteration...ignoring any cluster rules...of which I only know a few.

Witch - transliterates to วิทชฺ becomes Wit
If - transliterates to อิฟ becomes Ip
Dress - transliterates to เดรส becomes Dret (I peeked, there's no such consonant cluster as ดร)

The hardest sounds in Thai for me are words beginning with ง. If I don't think about it too much I can manage to say it, otherwise it sounds like the back of my tongue is glued to the roof of my mouth for a second or so, before I stuff the remainder of the word up. But, at least it can be written with English letters, as NG. And, the other would be ื, which has been described as the 'oo' in good, but said while smiling. That's not a pretty picture. Clearly no English equivalent for that one.

So, what about sounds and consonant clusters, that don't even exist in Thai?

St - Stop transliterated to สทอพ ...so would that become Satop?
Sh - Ship transliterated to ชิพ becomes Chip
Sk - Skip transliterated to สคิพ becomes Sakip?
V - Villa transliterated to วิล'ละ becomes Willa and would explain this sign.
Z - Zebra transliterated ซี'บระ becoming Seebra, that's with an American accent obviously.

I don't have enough Thai language yet to know if I've analysed this correctly, but it was an interesting exercise none the less...and I've learnt a couple of new rules along the way. I'm glad I'm an English speaker learning Thai and not the other way around...well, right now I am, anyway.

Cheers!

See what else we're up to at Cooee!