A silence in a Thai conversation is not neutral. It hands the floor away, and if you pause while assembling a sentence someone will take the turn, usually kindly, and often in English.
The fix is not to speak faster. It is to fill the pause with Thai. Native speakers do this constantly and it does not read as hesitation, it reads as still speaking.
- คือkʰɯː
so; the thing is
the workhorse. Buys a full second
- แบบbɛ̀ːp
like; sort of
- ก็ก็
well; then
- เออʔɤː
uh; right
French filler is the tell
euh, ben, alors and enfin are extremely audible to a Thai ear, and they mark the sentence as foreign before you have produced a word of Thai in it.
Substituting คือ for euh is one habit, it takes about a week, and it changes how the whole turn is received. It is the highest-value item in this article.
The other half is noise
Thai listeners are audible. ครับ and ค่ะ and เออ come back constantly while the other person is still talking, often doubled.
French listening is comparatively silent: you nod, you hold eye contact, you wait. Read as Thai, that silence means you have not understood, and the other person will slow down, simplify, or switch to English out of consideration. Make the noise. It is not interrupting.
- ครับครับkʰráp kʰráp
mm-hm, go on
- อ่ะʔà
casual acknowledgement