During the orientation
with my agency, we were given an hour of Thai lessons. Since then I've
been trying to study a little bit on my own. Then a few weeks ago Molly,
Luke, and I started doing lessons with a Thai teacher at our school named Gung.
She teaches us some Thai and we give her some English practice.
Recently the gym teacher, Arm, started to join us, though he speaks less
English than Gung.
The most difficult thing about the Thai language is that it is tonal, like Mandarin and several other languages around the world. What that means is that the same word (for example mai) can be said in five different ways, each of which makes it a completely different word. There's a high tone, a low tone, a rising tone, a falling tone, and a flat tone. Every syllable has a tone to it. EVERY SYLLABLE HAS A DIFFERENT TONE.
With the example of mai...
mai (flat): no, not
mai (low): modern, fresh
mai (rising): when put at the end of a sentence, turns it into a question. Essentially a spoken question mark.
mai (falling): to burn
So, if I misprounce the word "no" I could essentially be threatening to burn someone or something. "Do you want this book?" "I set fire to your book!" "Can I kiss you?" "I will set you on fire!" Not the easiest thing in the world to master.
On the other hand, numbers are the easiest thing ever. To say "thirty" you just say "three ten" or "four ten" for "forty." So "thirty-three" is "three ten three." It seems like that would be confusing, but it means I only have to memorize ten numbers and count to 100.
For reference:
one: nung
two: song
three: sam
four: si
five: haa
six: hok
seven: jed
eight: pad
nine: kao
ten: sib
11-19 start with sib, so sib et, sib song, sib sam, sib si, sib haa, etc.
The only difference is that when it's a one they only say nung for one on it's own, otherwise it's "et." Generally it's really easy, and I can actually understand now when people in restaurants and stores tell me how much something costs. The funny thing about the number five (haa) is that it sounds just like how we write laughter in the West (hahaha). So when Thais write out laughter on Facebook (for example) or text, and they just type 555. Because it’s HaHaHa. Which I find both really useful and really funny. 555
In general, I've been doing a good job learning the key phrases I need to get through day-to-day life. Like for ordering food (and informing people of my allergy because they add tiny shrimps to a lot of things here), directing taxis, talking about my name, age, and where I’m from, etc. The basic phrases are easier for me to remember because I use them with my kids a lot, saying both the English and Thai when I ask a questions to help them understand what the questions mean.
Another interesting thing I've learned is that the days of the week here have colors. Sunday is red, Monday is yellow, Tuesday is purple, Wednesday is green, Thursday is orange, Friday is blue, and Saturday is lavender. If you wear the color on the day, it's supposed to be good luck. For some reason you’re also not supposed to cut things on… I think it’s Wednesday but I’m not 100% sure. So no haircuts, no trimming your nails, etc. It’s bad luck.
The most difficult thing about the Thai language is that it is tonal, like Mandarin and several other languages around the world. What that means is that the same word (for example mai) can be said in five different ways, each of which makes it a completely different word. There's a high tone, a low tone, a rising tone, a falling tone, and a flat tone. Every syllable has a tone to it. EVERY SYLLABLE HAS A DIFFERENT TONE.
With the example of mai...
mai (flat): no, not
mai (low): modern, fresh
mai (rising): when put at the end of a sentence, turns it into a question. Essentially a spoken question mark.
mai (falling): to burn
So, if I misprounce the word "no" I could essentially be threatening to burn someone or something. "Do you want this book?" "I set fire to your book!" "Can I kiss you?" "I will set you on fire!" Not the easiest thing in the world to master.
On the other hand, numbers are the easiest thing ever. To say "thirty" you just say "three ten" or "four ten" for "forty." So "thirty-three" is "three ten three." It seems like that would be confusing, but it means I only have to memorize ten numbers and count to 100.
For reference:
one: nung
two: song
three: sam
four: si
five: haa
six: hok
seven: jed
eight: pad
nine: kao
ten: sib
11-19 start with sib, so sib et, sib song, sib sam, sib si, sib haa, etc.
The only difference is that when it's a one they only say nung for one on it's own, otherwise it's "et." Generally it's really easy, and I can actually understand now when people in restaurants and stores tell me how much something costs. The funny thing about the number five (haa) is that it sounds just like how we write laughter in the West (hahaha). So when Thais write out laughter on Facebook (for example) or text, and they just type 555. Because it’s HaHaHa. Which I find both really useful and really funny. 555
In general, I've been doing a good job learning the key phrases I need to get through day-to-day life. Like for ordering food (and informing people of my allergy because they add tiny shrimps to a lot of things here), directing taxis, talking about my name, age, and where I’m from, etc. The basic phrases are easier for me to remember because I use them with my kids a lot, saying both the English and Thai when I ask a questions to help them understand what the questions mean.
Another interesting thing I've learned is that the days of the week here have colors. Sunday is red, Monday is yellow, Tuesday is purple, Wednesday is green, Thursday is orange, Friday is blue, and Saturday is lavender. If you wear the color on the day, it's supposed to be good luck. For some reason you’re also not supposed to cut things on… I think it’s Wednesday but I’m not 100% sure. So no haircuts, no trimming your nails, etc. It’s bad luck.
I'm still learning more
of the language, but at least the structure is similar. Actually, the structure
is identical to the way Spanish is structured. In Thai you start with
subject, then verb, then object, like in both Spanish and English.
However, unlike in English but as in Spanish, the adjective comes after
the noun. So if I want to say "I eat Thai food," then I say the
words in Thai in the structure "I eat food Thai." The more I
learn specific words, the easier it will be for me to make sentences on my own.
For now I'm really only good with numbers and rote phrases.
That's all for now. I'm hoping to get better with Thai over the coming months, and we'll see if I can actually learn to speak it at all. Sorry this entry was more technical and boring. It's hard to breathe life into syntax and vocabulary.
UPDATE:
A few fun/ interesting words that I've learned over the last few weeks...
For "cat," Thais have completely cut out the middle man, and they just say "meow" which is AWESOME.
The word for disgusting is "ruur" but it's a very gutteral sound, which is actually just about the sound I make when disgusted by something, which makes it kind of perfect.
There are a few others, but as usual when these things occur to me I don't write them down and then when I sit down later, I can't recall them all. Without fail in the next twenty minutes, when I walk into class, I'll remember the other words I learned, but by the end of the lesson they will have once again retreated into their hidey-holes in the cobwebbed back corners of my mind. Scumbag memory.
That's all for now. I'm hoping to get better with Thai over the coming months, and we'll see if I can actually learn to speak it at all. Sorry this entry was more technical and boring. It's hard to breathe life into syntax and vocabulary.
UPDATE:
A few fun/ interesting words that I've learned over the last few weeks...
For "cat," Thais have completely cut out the middle man, and they just say "meow" which is AWESOME.
The word for disgusting is "ruur" but it's a very gutteral sound, which is actually just about the sound I make when disgusted by something, which makes it kind of perfect.
There are a few others, but as usual when these things occur to me I don't write them down and then when I sit down later, I can't recall them all. Without fail in the next twenty minutes, when I walk into class, I'll remember the other words I learned, but by the end of the lesson they will have once again retreated into their hidey-holes in the cobwebbed back corners of my mind. Scumbag memory.
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