Thai vs Chinese Tones

[Jan Finster]

 

Came across this thread since I wondered if anyone here learnt Thai and can share how difficult it is to learn Thai tones and language after Chinese (or before)?

 

An unrelated question: do Chinese and Thai people prefer you to use a western nickname of their choosing when you speak to them rather than addressing them by their real name without tones and with improper pronunciation? 

[parasite]

On 3/6/2021 at 10:08 PM, Jan Finster said:

Came across this thread since I wondered if anyone here learnt Thai and can share how difficult it is to learn Thai tones and language after Chinese (or before)?

I'm still in the beginners' immersion class at around 400 hours of study, but I think any boost Chinese will give me will be in the early stages (so the opposite of the boost an English speaker gets learning Spanish where the biggest benefit comes in the technical vocabulary).

 

I would DEFINITELY say Cantonese is at least 5x more helpful than Mandarin. I was already thinking this when some of the teachers told me their Hong Kong students tend to speak way better Thai way faster than Mandarin speakers ~ so now I'm even more convinced. It's subtle and I don't even know if some of the words are really related or just similar in a way that makes them into a sort of "built in mnemonic device". 

 

Yesterday the teacher said the word for quarantine in class. The 1st syllable is just like the 1st character of the word 隔離 in Cantonese, so for the remainder of the class when she repeated the word I didn't have to invest any effort "trying" to remember what it meant. I could just keep recognizing it immediately. 

 

 

On 3/6/2021 at 10:08 PM, Jan Finster said:

 

An unrelated question: do Chinese and Thai people prefer you to use a western nickname of their choosing when you speak to them rather than addressing them by their real name without tones and with improper pronunciation? 

There shouldn't be an 'and' there. Thais have nicknames that they use constantly, Chinese don't as a rule have nicknames. But, some groups will (if they work in the Shanghai office of a Western company, then for sure a bunch will go by alternate names in the office). 

[Takeshi]

On 3/6/2021 at 11:08 PM, Jan Finster said:

An unrelated question: do Chinese and Thai people prefer you to use a western nickname of their choosing when you speak to them rather than addressing them by their real name without tones and with improper pronunciation?

 

People in HK also use English names/nicknames, and generally only use full names when like yelling at people. But it's common for friends to not know each others' full names, and many people will feel uncomfortable called by their real name outside of family situations. Even in family situations, it is common to use a nickname developed from their real name (or more likely, family relation term), rather than their English name or nickname used outside. But of course there are always some people who go by their real Chinese name.