|
 |
Khmer vs Burmese vs Thai vs Vietnamese | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6263 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 17 of 26 13 June 2010 at 1:37am | IP Logged | ||
|
As an aside, the FSI courses seem to be a good starting point but the target language
(not sure about Khmer but Thai, Lao (if you're interested) and Vietnamese in particular) tends to be quite stilted and certainly the tones are almost over- emphasised. For sure the tones are quite clear in everyday Thai (more so than Mandarin) but there's also an element of sentence intonation that seems to be ignored in the FSI courses. The result is that the speech on the tapes sound somewhat robotic. Still a very good starting point but something to look out for when you want to sound more like a serious language learner (which you probably are) rather than a mildly-interested tourist. Thanks for the input. I have listened to some of the FSI Thai and Vietnamese and I totally catch what you mean about the "robot-like" quality of the speakers. Totally different compared to what I hear in web-radio broadcasts and the like. They certainly do stress the tones though.
Wow , that is interesting. I have never met a Burmese speaker up here in the northeast. Khmer and Thai immigrants mostly ( and Somali). Edited by liddytime on 13 June 2010 at 1:40am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| simon43 Newbie Thailand Joined 6243 days ago 3 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Thai, Laotian, Burmese, Arabic (Gulf) | Message 18 of 26 02 June 2012 at 2:24pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Reactivating this old thread :)
Almost all Burmese people can speak the national language of Burmese. The exceptions are likely to be the elderly from isolated villages. Many Burmese people also speak an minority language, such as Karen, Shan or Mon, and prefer to use that language within their family and village circles, (similar to the Issan region of north-east Thailand where Issan-Lao is the primary spoken language, but where everyone is fluent in Thai). So learning a Burmese minority language (as opposed to learning Burmese), is really only useful if you want to interact on a close (and polite) level with those communities - they will surely understand if you only speak Burmese. Learning Thai is also good for the country of Laos, not only because of some close similarities between Thai and Lao, but because most Lao people prefer to watch Thai TV (their own TV channels seem rather boring!). Where-ever I travel in Laos, people will speak to me in Lao (I understand Lao because my wife is Issan-Lao), but I then reply in Thai and I'm fully understood. Simon 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| xees Newbie Joined 5086 days ago 28 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Vietnamese | Message 19 of 26 04 June 2012 at 7:00pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Hey - just wanna add a comment about Vietnamese.
There are 3 main dialects of VN - southern, northern and middle, the northen dialect is the standard dialect but it seems everyone understands each other (with the exception of the middle dialect which everyone finds hard to understand). I've heard of many people from Laos who can understand Vietnamese and many people there speak Vietnamese very well (as the countries are so close to each other). Although Vietnamese doesn't have many resources when it comes to studying outside the country, however, there are plenty of sites filled with Vietnamese managa (if you're up for some easy reading practice) and there are plenty of things on youtube which can help you tune your listening skills. Honestly once you overcome the tones then Vietnamese isn't the hardest language to learn, the grammar can at times cause fustration but once you've been exposed to it for a long time then you'll see a logic which is somewhat difficult to describe. There are certain words that native speakers will tell you don't have meaning because they indicate politeness or friendliness - but all these concepts become apparent after expose to the language. The reality is that there are not many people who speak vietnamese outside of Vietnam (who don't speak another language). So it's probably only useful if you're planning to live here, or have some important people who speak Vietnamese. I hope that in some way, this post has helped, although it feels that i haven't really conveyed very much >.< 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| viedums Hexaglot Senior Member Thailand Joined 4700 days ago 327 posts - 528 votes Speaks: Latvian, English*, German, Mandarin, Thai, French Studies: Vietnamese | Message 20 of 26 12 June 2012 at 3:39pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Just to expand a bit on xees' mention of youtube - there are abundant karaoke videos on youtube for all of these languages. The texts are often easy to follow. Here are a couple of my favorites:
“Saya ma”, a Burmese song about a student who has fallen in love with his teacher: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0hhT1DhtfE “Jong baan prapuan khmai” or “I want a Khmer wife”, a Cambodian song with a country vibe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-cc7U6JLw8 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| js6426 Diglot Senior Member Cambodia Joined 4554 days ago 277 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English*, Khmer Studies: Mandarin | Message 21 of 26 11 July 2012 at 1:15pm | IP Logged | ||
This is a fantastic Khmer song! I saw him do it live at a concert in Cambodia and it was awesome! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6263 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 22 of 26 11 July 2012 at 3:42pm | IP Logged | ||
Great links! Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| viedums Hexaglot Senior Member Thailand Joined 4700 days ago 327 posts - 528 votes Speaks: Latvian, English*, German, Mandarin, Thai, French Studies: Vietnamese | Message 23 of 26 11 July 2012 at 4:08pm | IP Logged | ||
|
[/QUOTE]
This is a fantastic Khmer song! I saw him do it live at a concert in Cambodia and it was awesome![/QUOTE] That's great. Do you know the story of this song? The original version was by a Khmer Surin singer and was called "Jong ban propun barang" - I want a foreign wife! Khemarak Sereymon's version is a response to that. Here it is, I'm not sure about the singer's identity though. By the way, if you know Khmer, Thai isn't difficult at all. Jong ban propun barang 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| js6426 Diglot Senior Member Cambodia Joined 4554 days ago 277 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English*, Khmer Studies: Mandarin | Message 24 of 26 11 July 2012 at 10:51pm | IP Logged | ||
This is a fantastic Khmer song! I saw him do it live at a concert in Cambodia and it was awesome![/QUOTE] That's great. Do you know the story of this song? The original version was by a Khmer Surin singer and was called "Jong ban propun barang" - I want a foreign wife! Khemarak Sereymon's version is a response to that. Here it is, I'm not sure about the singer's identity though. By the way, if you know Khmer, Thai isn't difficult at all. Jong ban propun barang[/QUOTE] I always thought the Khmer Surin singer had ripped off Sereymon with his comedy version of the song, didn't realize it was the other way around! I also don't know the name of the Surin guy, but he's funny. I like his song 'propun hao see bai'! I am thinking about studying Thai in the future. A while back I looked at learning the alphabet and had it learned within a couple of weeks because it was so similar to Khmer, the only thing I found really difficult was the tones because the way that they were written seemed to be really complex and I couldn't find any straight forward explanations of the system. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
