ศาลาชุมนุม

[Vortarulo]

Hi everyone,
I think it's time for me to introduce myself (if anyone cares): I'm André, a student of Linguistics and Chinese studies at the Universität Leipzig in Germany. During a year abroad in Kunming, China, I had so much contact to Thai people, because almost 80% of my fellow students and friends there were either Thai or Lao. Linguistic and personal interest drew me closer to their language and I finally started learning it. That was in November 2010, I think.

My knowledge in Chinese helped me much, because I was familiar with hearing and producing tones and also with the grammatical structure (Thai and Chinese are a bit similar in structure). I started learning the language by eliciting native speakers and finding out the grammar by myself. That was a lot of fun! Now I'm back to Germany, contact to Thai speakers is very limited but this website proves to be extremely useful!
Whenever I learn a new word in Thai, I enter it in ANKI (a vocabulary learning software), which I practice daily, so I can say pretty accurately that my stock of words is about 1250 words at the moment. I can say most things I want, although I speak very slowly and according to some friends write "well, but not too naturally-sounding, even though not grammatically wrong". I guess you know what that means.
I'm better at reading and writing than I am at speaking or listening comprehension.

I love the language and the people (both Thais and Laotians) and would love to go back there someday again. I've only spent 2 weeks so far in Northern and Central Thailand. Who knows, maybe someday I might be doing research there on some minority hill tribe language.

That's me. If anyone has questions, ask me!
— André

P.S.: I don't really have a Thai name, but I was usually called แอนดรู by my friends in Kunming. I kind of got used to that name and I like it.

[claude06thailand]

André,
Welcome to the site and thank you for introducing yourself with interesting details.
I was about to send you a PM to ask you if you are French, because of your name...
I suppose you know that แอนดรู is a famous name in Thailand, thanks to Andrew Biggs ?

Interesting to know that there are many Thais studying in Kungming.

I wish you much fun in learning !
Claude

[Vortarulo]

Thanks, claude!
I think, my parents just liked to give me a French name, although they don't speak any French. I speak a little, because I had learned some French in highschool for 4 years, but forgot most of it. It's been 10 years already! I believe, my Thai is much better than my French ever was, haha.

When I introduced myself to the Thais in the rooms next to mine (in Chinese), in my dormitory, I told them my Chinese name (安德烈 = āndéliè = approximately อั๊นเต๋อเลี่ยะ). They also wanted to know my real name, so I told them it's André, which is difficult to pronounce for Thais, especially in the German way of pronouncing it, so I choose to be called Andrew, and that sounded nice. Actually, when they said it, it always sounded like เอ็นดู, which was cute.
Only after some months, when I was in Thailand for the first time, I saw some books of Andrew Biggs in the bookstores.

- André (which sounds like [ˈʔantʰʁ̥eː] in German)

[陆思倩~~]

Hello ,André!
I'm Amate,a university student in China.And I'm Chinese.


I know you have a few learning time in China,so when i see you talk something about my country,i feel cordial.


Welcome to learning thai-language together,although i'm a new member join the site.


ps:My English writing is poor,So I'm trying to improve it.
Thank you read my poor reply.