There are 4 Laotian in my University. Suddenly, there is one beautiful thai girl passed by and joined the group. 3 of my Lao friends started to show off their Thai language skill like they are thai. For me, I am not good at Thai language so i continued using Lao language with her. I tried to speak slowly and clearly and it seemed to me that even she is Thai, but she can understand Lao language without asking me to speak in Thai.
It is very interesting to hear this information. I think you are the right man. We have an own language (lao).Our Thai friends have to accept our lao language and have to understand it ,as we can understand their thai language. Sometimes I think some lao friends are stupid, they want show their talent,eventhough they are not able to speak thai.
My request : Please help our Lao friends ,how to keep our lao language and culture. ( Thank you ).
It's too sad that our people don't like to speak in our own language when they meet with Thai people, although Thai people also can understand Lao language. Sometimes, even the Thai person looks down Lao culture, they seem to agree with the Thai person. It is not much different with Thai Esan. It is quite common case with our Lao people.
On the contrary, if there are 4 Lao people and one foreigner, you may hear mostly Lao language, because they try to translate to each other.
I don't know about this instance. I wasn't there. Most Lao from anywhere with a TV can speak pretty good Thai, they hear it on TV all the time. Often Thai can't understand Lao much at all. Often it's not an instance of looking down on any one or their culture, just trying to communicate.
Why you make such a fuss about Thai? Man, if she was such a beautiful girl i would learn any language to flirt her. Not everything is a nationalist conspiracy, you should actually be proud that you can speak both lao and thai. There is no problem here, you are making an issue out of nothing.
There is a Thai exchange student here at my school and well I try to speak Thai to him, but considering I live in America and I don't have as much exposure to Thai as if I was living in Laos, I don't get very far. He actually says things in Lao too.
But he's here in America to experience American things, so I speak English to him a lot, and his English is very good.
Knowing foreign language is really good for all of us. That would include Thai language. If I know Thai language well, I would not mind either to talk in Thai with Thai people when I go to Thailand. It's kind of respecting to the host people. I think, it's normal. However, if you don't know how to speak Thai well, you better talk in Lao language. Otherwise, you will make their language dirty. Normally, you will make mistake in some pronounciations and some words. And some words you may use Lao words but pronounce in Thai style. That is very funny, and in this case they will look down you, unfortunately. Yes, I think, we can talk in Lao language with them and see if they really don't understand us in some words, if we know that word in Thai, then we can translate to them. That would make us more respectful. Here in Singapore I talk with Thai people in English. But lastime when I was in Thailand I talked in Lao language since I don't know Thai language well. It seemed OKay, the Thai people understood me quite well, I assumed. Also when attended the seminar in Bangkok, some Thai professors even tried to speak Lao with me.
if that's a basic rule that we should respect other country's langauge, why Thai people who visit Laos don't even try to speak Lao. I feel they sometimes pretend they do not understand Lao, and Lao people don't like to force them to understand. That's why all of our people turns their voice and tunes to speak in Thai. Believe me, Lao is much easier for them to understand rather than English. Don't you think so
Yes, you are right. It's depending on kind of people. There is no such a rule, I suppose. Imagine, when foreigners come to Laos and they speak with us just only "Sabaidee" or other word " Kob Chai" , we are glad to hear and we think they are really keen to learn our language. Is it right? I also do so when I meet with Chinese people, I say " Ni How" or meet with muslim people I say "Salum Malay koum" and so on.
Yes, some Thai people act like you have mentioned. Even they are Thai Esan, they don't want to speak Lao. Actually, I would say it is their nature. I think let them talk in Thai as long as we can understand them. We also can speak Lao with them. But in some cases when the Thai people try to speak Lao even worse than in the case we Lao people try to speak Thai. It sounds too urgly. Sometimes, we also don't want to hear the way they translate Thai in to Lao. Maybe that is the case they don't want to speak Lao. That's my opinion.
