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[cobra]

ukrules, on 2009-11-22 00:16:59, said:

... English is the worldwide trading language ...

Yes, the language of business,  unfortunately it may be Chinese soon enough,  

[thaihome]

cobra, on 2009-11-24 06:34:40, said:

ukrules, on 2009-11-22 00:16:59, said:

... English is the worldwide trading language ...

Yes, the language of business,  unfortunately it may be Chinese soon enough,  

Not likely. Even when a Chinese company does a contract in another country, for instance in Asia or Africa, its in English.

TH

[bonobo]

cobra, on 2009-11-24 06:34:40, said:

ukrules, on 2009-11-22 00:16:59, said:

... English is the worldwide trading language ...

Yes, the language of business, unfortunately it may be Chinese soon enough,

Written Chinese will probably keep it from ever being a universal language for business.  It is just too difficult for most foreigners to learn adequately.

While another phonetically-written language such as German, Spanish, French, even Arabic, Hindi, or Russian could conceivably become a universal language, English does have the advantage of having the most words of any language, and that makes for easier and more exacting contracts, manuals, and the like.

Russian may be a language where emotions are easier to describe than English, and Chinese even has an advantage in poetry, but English is very well suited for business and law.

[ballpoint]

neverdie, on 2009-11-23 19:58:27, said:

Ballpoint......er would you mind re-phrasing that in Australian English, I can't work out what ur on about

Crikey mate, I'm busy as a one armed paperhanger with the hives, and flat out like a lizard drinking, but I'll have a fling at it:  While waltzing Mathilda around Thailand ya can see that heaps of the roadsigns out beyond the black stump are scribbled in Pommylish.  What's more remarkable is they don't have bullet holes in em either.  Seems different types of Pommylish are the language of the world.  Get it?  Good, as I said I'm busy as a blue arsed fly so gotta go.  You really wanna stick to worrying sassanies's bitch and leave the intellectual stuff to us Kiwis mate.  

Interestingly, I was once in a taxi in Sarawak with an Aussie.  We were yakking away for a good 5 minutes when the driver turned around and asked if either of us could speak English.

[neverdie]

^Thanks for that Ballpoint....ur a funny lad .

Anyway, I don't wanna hold you up, I know you have sheep to tend too

[Bluetongue]

Good thread but I wanna argue with Sassenie about his observation that many shops etc have both languages as signs. Come to Soi Dao mate and drive up and down the main street, hundreds of shops no English signs, you actually have to walk or drive very slowly to find out the myriad of things that they've got here. Sorry I forgot Lotus Express and 7/11 and I'm pretty certain about V Mini Mart as well.

My general observation is that Thais learn how to read basic English at school, are reluctant to use/never use, and unless there is a purpose reluctant to speak English ie the kids in my own home are very shy to use English but quite happy to let me do homework.

My other observation about English raod signs is you'll be driving though outer Bangkok from East to West going South eventually, and follow the signs to Samut SongKhran until eventually you come to a huge tollway interchange where the options are Rama 2 Road or Thanon Fuknowswhere. I have several examples of this and I have driven cabs for many years and consider myself to be pretty good at navigating the new style of loop de loop. My Thai navigators are usually asleep or their interpretation of signs is extremely suspect, not to mention the four or five bridges in Bangkok that look pretty much the same to me.

yours sometimes hopelessly lost, gotta go can hear the dingo calling

[neverdie]

Bluetongue, on 2009-11-24 20:48:02, said:

but I wanna argue with Sassenie

Yes, well thats a fairly standard feeling around this place