Language Transfer Skills A Little Slow
Trip Start
Feb 25, 2006
1
69
148
Trip End
Jun 24, 2009
After 4 months in China, adjusting back to the Thai language is coming along a bit too slowly for my liking. It's even worse than when I went to China and I would say things like mai ao instead of bu yao, Ni hao krap and Xie xie krap to make things sound a bit more polite (to me). I always thought that the Mandarin language was a bit on the harsh side any way. At least between Cantonese and Mandarin, Cantonese sounds much more pleasing to the ear when spoken. The strange thing is that sung, Mandarin songs sound better than Cantonese songs to me. But now that I'm back in Thailand, I find myself unable to speak almost any Thai at all. Since I look enough like a Thai that everyone speaks to me in Thai, I find myself stuck trying to answer them back in Thai. The problem is that nothing but Mandarin comes out. Then we both sit there looking at each other unsure of why I am speaking to them in Mandarin. It's not that I had progressed anywhere near as far in Thai as I did in Mandarin because you don't really have to speak Thai when you are living in Bangkok. Everyone speaks at least a little English here so I can get away with saying, Duck noodle soup instead of Bha mee Bpet. I'm almost embarrassed to say that after being in and out of Thailand for over a year, I've forgotten more Thai from my first trip to Thailand than I know now and I remember only nit noi. Krap!
