ศาลาชุมนุม

[thainongkhai]

You would NOT believe how much that little bit of isaan-ese can change the outcome on things you're tryin' to do here!

Really true!

[bifftastic]

I wouldn't presume to comment on your level of smartness That would make me a smart *ss, and nobody likes a smart *ss

What's true, in my opinion, is that as there are indeed many variations of Isaan dialects, it would be nigh on impossible to learn all of them to an acceptable level of fluency.

What definitely is possible, is to learn enough to join in the fascinating discussions between Thai people from all of the Isaan provinces about how their particualr version differs from the next person. This possibly excludes the Khmer-influenced versions.

So, given the above, it is still 'worth it' in my opinion, whilst driving along the route to increased knowledge of Central Thai, to occasionally stop off and have a nibble of what has to be the most widely spoken/played with/ experimented with/messed around with/sung etc etc dialect in Thailand, which is Isaan (or Lao Isaan as my next door neighbour calls it). It's great fun.

[tod-daniels]

Even for people speaking isaan at "regular speed" here in bangkok it is pretty easy to get the "broad picture" of what they're talkin' about.

The hard part (for me) is NOT listening to the isaan words I don't know (especially ANY filler or fluff words) and instead picking out the thai words you do know. . That takes quite a lot of doing. .

Now when the thaiz around me switch into "super speed isaan mode" I'm confused as a chicken with broken eyez! งงเป็นไก่ตาแตก

I did meet a young foreigner who lived in isaan for over 10 years. He spoke the isaan version they use in Ubon Ratchathani.. Incredibly he could hardly speak central thai!

He was a great hit amongst the 'rank-n-file' thaiz in bangkok, not so much amongst the "real snobby bangkokianz" though ....

I applaud anyone who undertakes even a little of the various dialects here!

There is a กะเหรี่ยง (karen hilltribe) kid who works on my Soi, he's teaching me some of his more simpler phrases.