Some of you might think since my writing skill is good, I must also speak English very well and probably sound very much like a native English speaker.
Oh well, I wish. The truth of the matter is no…not yet!
I might write like an American most of the time but, in my opinion, my speaking still need to be improved. I am able to speak English well but not as fluent as my Thai, especially when I want to yell at someone. :) Like some of you, I still suffer from Thai accent syndrome and often speak “
Tinglish” instead of English.
This might help you feel better about your English if I tell you I have already been in America for 7 years (3 years of schooling and 4 years of working). I try to improve my speaking skill but it seems to be progressed slowly nowadays. Maybe I am getting old?? My learning curve doesn’t grow as fast as when I first came here. My speaking tends to get worse when I am tired (working too hard, having a stressful day or not having enough sleep). When it happens, my brain starts to have a hard time processing an English vocabulary word. As a result, I start to speak English and Thai together in one sentence without noticing it. My American accent becomes Thai accent. I occasionally forget how to pronounce the simple word, too.
Have you experience the same problem as I have?Also, if I spend a lot of time reading and/or speaking Thai with my friends and family, my English speaking ability will go down hill so quickly. I can’t switch back and forth between Thai and English easily. I can only remember a word in Thai but not in English. For example, instead of thinking of the word “airplane”, I might refer to it as “A big thing that flies in the sky” in English and perhaps point at the sky to give you a clue. Don’t be surprise if you sometimes hear me call “a rice cooker” as “A pot that you can plug into a wall to make rice”.
How about you? How long have you been in America?
Have you had the same problem as I have?
How did you handle it?
What do you do to improve your speaking skill?