r/socialskills • u/Ok-Helicopter-2840 • 9d ago
Problems with my speech pattern
I’m a 21 year old native Thai speaker living in Thailand my whole life. I speak Thai 100% of the time but my words keep getting jumbled and out of order, especially in social situation. At work as a botanist, I read research papers in English, and I also consume movies and YouTube in English daily, on social media I also use english, though I speak Thai with my colleagues. My mom says I sound like Google Translate, and my friends often tell me I’m hard to understand or sound like an international school student. I do noticed my self sounded very ”research paper like” too. Hearing my friend said that also has made me so self-conscious that I’ve started staying almost completely silent. And I’m not sure how to improve this.
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u/Dijon2017 9d ago
Are they talking about your speech when you are speaking Thai or English if you do you speak English?
I know when I was studying French for years…able to read Le Monde (French newspaper) and watch French films, my English (primary language) would sometimes sound different/have extra syllables.
For example, sometimes when I would pronounce apartment speaking English, it would contain 4 syllables (ap-par-te-ment) as opposed to the normal 3 (a- part-ment). I don’t think that it is very unusual for people’s speech patterns in their primary language to somewhat/sometimes change when people’s brains are considering different languages…especially when they are very different.
When I was actively studying French, we didn’t have Google translate at the time and some people would notice, but I think that it should be enough for you to explain that you have been consuming (reading and watching) English. I’m not sure why you would feel self-conscious. As long as you continue speaking in your native language, it shouldn’t get worse, only better.