Ok, ok... I'll admit defeat on this one. Leo showed up yesterday, and I guess has a vrack on the screen of his iPhone now, so I offered to switch phones, since a while back I bought a brand new Samsung A5. Then it dawned on me, I haven't actually tested Siri yet.
We tested it just this morning, and I have to admit, it kicks ass. I was able to do everything -- send Line messages, make Line calls, send e-mails, make calls, etc. Then I haven't looked yet, but I'm sure iPhone must have a screen reader app similar to Google Talkback, so the phone will talk to me. That would vastly improve my life.
Both, Google Now and S-Voice are pretty much totally fucken useless. I can get the time and day, plus search for images of things I need (eg. "ok Google, images of asparagus" while out grocery shopping), and once I was able to send a SMS message via S-Voice, but that's about it. The good thing about Google Now is it understands me nearly 100% of the time, whereas S-Voice understood me about 70% of the time. 13,000 baht phone to use as a clock, and search for shit. Oh, and I guess I can receive calls on it, as I know approximately where the answer button is, so just keep tapping at the screen until the ringing stops then say "hello?".
Ok, looks like I'm buying an iPhone now. Oh good, I was really shoping to spend an extra 20,000 baht this week. Bloody hell...
I've just been talking to my Thai friend on his mobile to discuss a trip we are taking on Teusday. At one point I had no idea what he was on about. Then in an acknowlegement that it's easier to talk face to face and of the importants of gesture he used a phrase I rather liked. "Tomorrow you understand me, I talk with my hands".
cdnmatt (June 25th, 2017)
On the iPhone it's called VoiceOver. To activate it, you just have to tell Siri: "Activate VoiceOver".
VoiceOver is explained in the online user manual under this link:
http://help.apple.com/iphone/10/#/iph3e2e415f
cdnmatt (June 25th, 2017)
Another one in the pronounciation category -- "hard", "hurt", "heart". Have fun getting any Thai person to pronounce all 3 correctly. Again though, same with me... I know a decent amount of Thai, but know I can't pronounce it worth a shit.
BTW.... Thanks tintin. Yeah, I'll make sure to get an iPhone shortly here. That simple 5 minute test was all I needed to let me know Siri is vastly superior to either, Google Now or S-Voice.
Tintin (June 26th, 2017)
Farang to Thai boy before the boy left the house on his motorbike: "Wear your helmet". Thai boy: "It's upstairs".
bobsaigon2: Haha, misunderstandings can be sooo frustrating... but they can be funny as well, as your example clearly shows! You made me laugh out loud
Yooooo bkkguy! Your delicious analility is still there going strong, even after being so for 20+ years on the message boards.
These days the online dictionaries all have built in Synonym Features (as well as Antonym Finders, Thesauruses, Homonym Helpers and my favourite, the wonderful Onomatopoeia Searcher). All in a bundle.
This just FYI.
Regardless of speaking to Thai or Farang, I rarely use phrases that have "fuck", "shit" or "God" in it, that removes a lot of the problems you have.
I still remember from English classes in school, we were supposed to underline all verbs in a text, and someone underlined "morning" (like "I wake up in the morning"), looking only at the ending and thinking it is is a progressive tense.