AmericanThaiGuy Ron Weaver on Mastering Thai…and Social Media [S7.E11]

Greg and Ed interview Ron Weaver, aka 'AmericanThaiGuy,' on his
life as an expat in Thailand as well as his excellent Thai
language skills. Ron begins by waxing rhapsodically about his
first visits to Thailand, when he fell in love with the weather,
the food, the nice people, and shockingly, the women. Although he
loved the country, communication was so frustrating that he vowed
to learn the language. But unlike 95% of expats who make that
vow, he actually did. 


The guys trade language learning stories and agree that necessity
is the key motivational factor: if you feel as if you don't HAVE
TO learn the language, you probably won't. Ron was able to put
himself into the mindset that he HAD TO speak Thai if he was
going to survive in Thailand and that allowed him to put in a
good five years of work to get fluent.


Ron discusses various Thai learning strategies and explains his
rise on social media as an explainer of Thai culture and language
to foreigners. An excerpt from Ron's popular Instagram channel
demonstrates his unique teaching style, in which he often role
plays more than one character in humorous situations. In addition
to teaching the quirks of Thai, he also has his own podcast,
unique in the whole country, in which foreigners speak to each
other exclusively in Thai. 


Tune in next week when Ron delves deep into his experiences as an
African-American in a country infamous for its preference for
light skin tones. 


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