Learning the local language and an "intellectual debate"

[bkkguy]

I didn't isolate myself in a farang ghetto that consists of a 3 block radius.

Actually you inhabit an Anglophone ghetto, you just fail to recognise it as such - it's called the Internet

I thought it was called Canada

BTW... if you want to know, it's "puut pasa Thai mai dai kap" to say "I don't speak Thai".

พูดไม่ได้ ฟังไม่ได้ ไม่เข้าใจเลย always gets a good laugh

bkkguy

[cdnmatt]

I can't read Thai anymore, so no idea what that says. All I get is, "Thai latter b047 Thai ltter b32 Thai letter b18", and so on. Means nothing to me.

[bkkguy]

puut mai dai fung mai dai mai kao jai loey (transiteration systems suck)
can't speak, can't understand when spoken, don't understand at all

it gets a good response when you have just silently been listening to a Thai conversation that they then think you have understood!

bkkguy

[cdnmatt]

That sentence makes no sense at all. Go say it in the streets, and I bet you get a "deer in the headlights" stare.
b

[bkkguy]

there is also a Thai idiom "snake snake fish fish" (ngu ngu, plaa plaa) which literally translates as "a little bit", should also get a good laugh as you seem to know idiomatic Thia, but my "ngu" pronunciation sucks so it usually fails!

bkkguy

[bkkguy]

That sentence makes no sense at all. Go say it in the streets, and I bet you get a "deer in the headlights" stare.
b

I have used it frequently and never got a "deer in the headlights" stare, always a response that I must know Thai

bkkguy

[cdnmatt]

I don't know what the hell "fung" means, but the sentence basically translates into, "I can not speak fund I can not".

Again, I don't know what "fung" is.

[cdnmatt]

Thinking about it, there isn't even a F sounding character in the Thai alphabet, so not sure where you got that sentence from.

[bkkguy]

I don't know what the hell "fung" means, but the sentence basically translates into, "I can not speak fund I can not".

Again, I don't know what "fung" is.

if you don't know what ฟัง (fung or fang or transliterate it as you please) means then you are missing the whole point - while you may give it a "deer in the headlights" stare most Thai people don't and I am usually saying it to Thai people rather than Canadians

bkkguy

[cdnmatt]

Ok, then what does "fung" mean?

You're saying "can not" twice in the same sentence, so at the very least it's a double negative. If people aren't looking like you as an idiot when you say that, then they're just being polite and respectful.