The advantage of Thai is that it's character based so at least I can see the difference easily and try to replicate. Pronouncing correctly and hearing correctly is a different kettle of fish all together though. On 16/02/2017, Nick Downing wrote: > I don't think Westerners are actually tone deaf as such. It's > basically that we didn't exercise our ability to tell those tones > apart when we were acquiring language, so we more or less lost the > opportunity to learn it when we could. Although it can be learnt > later, something that happens as a very natural process during > language aquisition, becomes a very artificial process involving > MONTHS or YEARS in the lab listening to tapes and testing oneself and > so on. Acquiring tones is somewhat similar to having perfect pitch in > music. There are courses out there that claim to teach you perfect > pitch. And, I believe it CAN be learnt, but it is an extraordinary > amount of work and will probably slide backwards if not maintained. > Anyway, I still find the phenomenon really strange and intriguing. My > wife is Vietnamese and I was at her relatives' house just tonight. I > spoke a little Vietnamese to her aunt and she didn't understand me at > all (as usual). It's because what sounds to us identical, sounds to > her like a completely different word -- so much so, that her brain > doesn't even register any similarity. > cheers, Nick > PS OT sorry. > > On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 8:36 PM, wrote: >> Try Cantonese… 9 tones, or 10, or 12. Nobody agrees on how many which >> makes >> it all the more fun. The more I learn, the more I don’t know it just >> adds >> in more confusion. >> >> >> >> I never realized I was tondeaf until I moved to Hong Kong. >> >> >> >> Sent from Mail for Windows 10 >> >> >> >> From: Rudi Blom >> Sent: Friday, 17 February 2017 3:43 PM >> To: tuhs at minnie.tuhs.org >> Subject: Re: [TUHS] Mushi and Bagu >> >> >> >> Tonal languages are real fun. I'm living and working in Bangkok, >> >> Thailand and slightly tone deaf am still struggling. >> >> >> >> Which reminds me, regarding binary there are 10 types of people, those >> >> who understand and those who don't :-) >> >> >> >> Cheers, >> >> rudi >> >> >