Yes/No Question Patterns…

In this latest posting we will use the vocabulary from the High Frequency Thai Vocabulary List to work with Yes/No question patterns.

Please note that there are many many Thai question patterns and as usual we are only going to give examples of a few of the more common ones here. If you have questions on other question patterns that we haven’t covered please drop a comment and we’ll try to answer it.

Yes/No Thai and English Question Patterns Differ…

English Yes/No question patterns usually begin with a “be” verb (Are you …?, Is she …?), or a “do” verb (Does she …?, Did they …?), or a sentence followed by a tag question (She …, doesn’t she?, We …, didn’t we?).

Sometimes we simply raise the tone of our voice at the end of a sentence. This causes even a simple English sentence to become a question. “He’s here.” Becomes “He’s here?” when the final word gets what in Thai would be a rising tone (Never say that English doesn’t have tones.)

One reason so many speakers of other languages have difficulty forming Thai Yes/No questions is that they retain the English way of using rising tone endings. Doing this in Thai doesn’t make for question, it simply makes the final word a rising tone, which may change the final word’s meaning and may or may not be comprehensible to the listener.

Question Words…

Thai makes Yes/No questions by ending a sentence with a question word. The two most basic Yes/No question words are:

มั้ย and ใช่มั้ย

[See post to listen to audio]

Most Yes/No questions have basically the same pattern. Yes/No questions can be asked about an activity (verbs) or an attribute (adjectives).

Pattern 1 (Simple Yes/No Questions):

verb + question word
ไป + มั้ย
or
adjective + question word
สวย + มั้ย

[See post to listen to audio]

Pattern 2 (Tag Questions):

verb + tag question words
ไป + ใช่มั้ย
or
adjective + tag question words
สวย + ใช่มั้ย

[See post to listen to audio]

Examples for all Yes/No questions…

The Patterns change depending on the tense we are using.

Present or Past (and sometimes future):

คุณไปมั้ย
Are you going? Did you go?

[See post to listen to audio]

คุณไปใช่มั้ย
You’re going, aren’t you? You went, didn’t you?

[See post to listen to audio]

พวกเขาหิวมั้ย
Are they hungry?

[See post to listen to audio]

พวกเขาหิวใช่มั้ย
They’re hungry, aren’t they?

[See post to listen to audio]

Future:

สมชายจะกินมั้ย
Is Somchai going to eat?

[See post to listen to audio]

สมชายจะกินใช่มั้ย
Somchai’s going to eat, isn’t he?

[See post to listen to audio]

พวกเราจะสนุกมั้ย
Are we going to have fun?

[See post to listen to audio]

พวกเราจะสนุกใช่มั้ย
We’re going to have a good time, aren’t we?

[See post to listen to audio]

Past (grammatically the present perfect tense):

พวกเขาเคยเห็นมั้ย
Have they seen it?

[See post to listen to audio]

พวกเขาเคยเห็นใช่มั้ย
They’ve seen it, haven’t they?

[See post to listen to audio]

แฟนเคยอ้วนมั้ย
Did your girlfriend/boyfriend used to be fat?

[See post to listen to audio]

แฟนเคยอ้วนใช่มั้ย
Your girlfriend/boyfriend used to be fat, right?

[See post to listen to audio]

Answering Thai Yes/No questions…

Sometimes it is almost if the Thai language just wants to make it hard for us. In the case of answers to Thai Yes/No questions we normally never use “Yes” or “No” (with the exception of tag questions).

In English if we ask “Are you going?” We answer “Yes, I am.” or “No, I am not.”; “Is he handsome?” we answer “Yes he is?” or “No, he is not.”

We often hear speakers of other languages answering a Thai Yes/No question with “ใช่” (Yes) or “ไม่ใช่” (No). And most of the time this is incorrect.

Answer Pattern (for simple Yes/No):

Positive answer (yes) – use the verb from the question
Negative answer (no) – use ไม่ + the verb from the question

Question: คุณไปมั้ย
Are you going?

[See post to listen to audio]

Answer: ไป – “Yes, I am (going).” or ไม่ไป – “No, I’m not (going).”

[See post to listen to audio]

Question: พวกเขาหิวมั้ย
Are they hungry?

[See post to listen to audio]

Answer: หิว – “Yes, they are (hungry).” or ไม่หิว – “No, they aren’t (hungry).”

[See post to listen to audio]

Question: แฟนเคยอ้วนมั้ย
Did your girlfriend/boyfriend used to be fat?

[See post to listen to audio]

Answer: เคยอ้วน “Yes, she used to be (fat)” or ไม่เคยอ้วน “No, she has never been (fat).

[See post to listen to audio]

Answer Pattern (for tag questions):

Note: A simple ครับ or คะ is usually sufficient for a “Yes” answer to a Thai tag questions but we have given the other ways to answer them below.

Question: สมชายจะกินใช่มั้ย
Somchai’s going to eat, isn’t he?

[See post to listen to audio]

Answer: ใช่ “Yes he is (going to eat).” or ไม่ใช่ “No he isn’t (going to eat).”

[See post to listen to audio]

Question: พวกเราจะสนุกใช่มั้ย
We’re going to have a good time, aren’t we?

[See post to listen to audio]

Answer: ใช่ “Yes we are (going to have fun).” or ไม่ใช่ “No we aren’t (going to have fun).”

[See post to listen to audio]

Yes/No Exercises (answers below)…

Interpreting question patterns – How would you interpret the following?

คุณสนุกมั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

คุณเคยเห็นเขามั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

เสร็จแล้วใช่มั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

เขาจะเรียนมั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

เธอจะมาที่นี่มั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

เธอสวยใช่มั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

คุณง่วงนอนมั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

เขาเก่งใช่มั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

Creating Complete Thai Questions…

Render the following into Thai.

Is Somchai sleeping?
You’re going to school, aren’t you?
Are the children hungry?
Did she buy the skirt?
They are having a good time, aren’t they?
Have you ever been to Vietnam?
Are you full (satiated)?
They were angry, weren’t they?
Now answer the question you just created.
Challenge Question…
Render the following into Thai and then answer the questions.
She is going to study English, isn’t she?
She isn’t going to study English, is she?

Here are the answers to the questions…

Interpreting question patterns:

Are you having fun?
Have you ever seen him?
It is finished, isn’t it?
Is he going to study?
Is she coming here?
She’s pretty, isn’t she?
Are you sleepy?
He’s smart, isn’t he?

Creating Complete Thai Sentences:

สมชายนอนมั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

คุณจะไปโรงเรียนใช่มั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

เด็กหิวมั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

เธอซื้อกระโปรงมั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

พวกเขาสนุกใช่มั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

คุณเคยไปเวียดนามมั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

คุณอิ่มมั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

พวกเขาโกรธใช่มั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

Answers to the question you created:

สมชายนอนมั้ย – นอน or ไม่นอน
[See post to listen to audio]

คุณจะไปโรงเรียนใช่มั้ย – ใช่ or ไม่ใช่
[See post to listen to audio]

เด็กหิวมั้ย – หิว or ไม่หิว
[See post to listen to audio]

เธอซื้อกระโปรงมั้ย – ซื้อ or ไม่ซื้อ
[See post to listen to audio]

พวกเขาสนุกใช่มั้ย – ใช่ or ไม่ใช่
[See post to listen to audio]

คุณเคยไปเวียดนามมั้ย – เคยไป or ไม่เคยไป
[See post to listen to audio]

คุณอิ่มมั้ย – อิ่ม or ไม่อิ่ม
[See post to listen to audio]

พวกเขาโกรธใช่มั้ย – ใช่ or ไม่ใช่
[See post to listen to audio]

Challenge question…

เธอจะเรียนภาษาอังกฤใช่มั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

เธอจะไม่เรียนภาษาอังกฤใช่มั้ย
[See post to listen to audio]

The term ใช่มั้ย can be used in both “She isn’t …., is she?” and “She is …, isn’t she?”

Answers:

Note the answers using the same words will mean the opposite depending on which question is being answered.

เธอจะเรียนภาษาอังกฤใช่มั้ย

[See post to listen to audio]

ครับ/คะ or ใช่ – Yes I am going to study English.
ไม่ใช่ – No I am not going to study English.

[See post to listen to audio]

เธอจะไม่เรียนภาษาอังกฤใช่มั้ย

[See post to listen to audio]

ครับ/คะ or ใช่ – You are correct. I am not going to study English.
ใช่มั้ย – You are incorrect. I AM going to study English.

[See post to listen to audio]

Vocabulary used…

Verbs:

depart; go: ไป
drink; eat: กิน
look (see): เห็น
learn; study: เรียน
come: มา
purchase (buy): ซื้อ

[See post to listen to audio]

Nouns:

skirt (garment): กระโปรง
school: โรงเรียน
child (young person): เด็ก

[See post to listen to audio]

Adjectives:

angry: โกรธ
hungry: หิว
enjoy: สนุก
corpulent (fat): อ้วน
complete (done, finished): เสร็จ
attractive (beautiful): สวย
dozy (drowsy); sleepy: ง่วงนอน
able (good at); adept (proficient, brave); clever: เก่ง
full (from eating): อิ่ม

[See post to listen to audio]

Others:

already: แล้ว
used to: เคย

[See post to listen to audio]

High Frequency Thai Vocabulary downloads…

High Frequency Thai Vocabulary: download
Yes/No Question Patterns Audio: download

Hugh Leong
Retire 2 Thailand
Retire 2 Thailand: Blog
eBooks in Thailand

Loy Krathong: 2013…

If you’ve never experienced Loy Krathong, it’s a must. As far as Thai festivals go Loy Krathong is right up there with Songkran. And if you do it right you’ll have loads of fun. But, right or wrong, you’ll also have to deal with hordes of people. Yeah. And that means traffic.

For Loy Krathong this year I’m in Chiang mai, which is known to get crazy (people and traffic-wise). When chatting with Mia from Learn2SpeakThai she advised:

If you go to the war zone for Loy Krathong festival, be safe!!

I never found out what “be safe!!” meant because I decided to pare down the holiday to a quiet float in a backyard pond instead. No matter. I’ll be in Chiang mai for the dual Yee Ping and Loi Krathong Festivals next year. This year has been too busy, too frantic, too, too… you know.

After reading the Bangkok Post article, Loy Krathong round-up, I dropped by Tescos for a new style of Krathong. One made of bread.

Krathong Creations Then: A krathong is made of a slice of banana trunk decorated with folded banana leaves and fowers. Joss sticks and candles are put in the centre. Men get to show of their manliness by chopping down banana trees.

Krathong Creations Now: We float pre-made krathongs of various materials, tangible and intangible. There are virtual versions on websites and smartphone applications you can float guilt-free.

People release bread krathongs in the hope that fish will eat them. This is two birds with one krathong – paying respect to Phra Mae Khongka and feeding fish for extra merit. If you’re afraid that a fish may get a piece of bread stuck in its throat, there are krathongs made of waffle cones that are probably easier for them to eat.

Even after not being fed for four days, the fish were curious about the bread Krathong but weren’t biting.

Not wanting to make a mess of the pond, I pulled the Krathong back out. Does that still count as paying respect?

Curious about respect and bread Kratongs, I went to Yuki from PickUp Thai:

Wow… that’s a hard question. I would say yes. IMO, it doesn’t matter how long you leave the krathong floating in the river. It’s more the prayer (the appreciation and apology to the river) and your intention to pay respect (expressed by floating the boat onto the river, or in your case, the fishpond) that matter :)

I tried looking for an article about bread floats for you because I don’t know much about it myself. Unfortunately, it turned to be the worst type of krathong possible in terms of damaging the environment. That was a total surprise. I would’ve thought it was one of the best materials to make a krathong out of. You can read about it here: กระทงขนมปัง เหมาะสมจะนำมาใช้ลอย จริงหรือครับ.

Thanks Yuki! I needed to know about damaging the environment for next year. This year I was only floating the Krathong in a fishpond, but if I hadn’t pulled mine out, there would have been a mushy mess to clean up. A big “Oooops” about the prayer and apologies bit though. Brb…

My appreciation for helping out with this post goes to Thai Skype Teachers Yuki (PickUp Thai) and Mia (Learn2SpeakThai). Happy Loy Krathong!

Need a break from Thai politics? Here a toilet, everywhere a toilet…

The internet is going crazy over protests in Bangkok this week (condolences to Nick Nostitz). But as I’m in Chiang mai and far removed from the action, I thought I’d write about something way different: Squat toilets and bum guns.

Japan was where I first experienced squat toilets, along with a more relaxed attitude towards potty privacy and getting naked. When I was around five years old I witnessed a pantless toddler pooping on the side of the road, right where everyone could see.

My parents were strict on potty training especially so I found the revelation both unexpected and enlightening. The memory stayed all these years, I guess mostly because pooing where I come from is produced behind closed doors.

Now that I’m all grown up (heh) my interest in toilet culture has evolved to taking quick snaps (yeah for the iPhone): Borneo’s squat toilets (where I’ve been tempted to keep the door open to stop from gagging), Italy’s spring-loaded seats (designed to keep the lids up – clearly a man’s world), ancient toilets carved out of wood, squat toilets on trains even, and loads of toilets in between.

Squat toilets and bum guns…

Using squat toilets as a kid is easy because you are close to the ground. But, when you learn (or relearn in my case) to squat as an adult, balancing skills need plenty of practice.

After a long hiatus from squatting I moved to Borneo where squat toilets abounded. To keep my balance, in the beginning I’d lean my head against the wall (if it’d reach), but soon I was pooing like a pro.

And while I’ve always appreciated that squat toilets are good exercise for the legs especially, I never took to the bum gun.

The closet I’ve come to using the gun was on a trip to Cambodia. After touring Siem Reap’s ancient monuments in the baking heat for hours, I was desperate for relief. And there it was. Dangling next to me. The bum gun. Tempting (almost). But there are potty rules against that too.

Guys can be uber religious about their dedication to using the bum gun. Try it sometimes. Mention a preference for toilet paper and even the most well-mannered expat male who’s enamoured with the gun will growl (whereas women tend to keep quiet about the subject).

I’ve always protested that while Thailand’s water purification is supposedly fine, the security of the pipes leading water to my tender parts was in doubt. I mean, we all know what kind of sludge flows along the klongs and drains of Thailand. Right? Just the thought of the stink getting near my bits … yuk.

Thailand Guru: While it has been reported that tap water exceeds world standards for drinking water in many parts of the city, and the Metropolitan Water Works Authority has made a strong effort to exceed World Health Organization standards by 1999, in some places the water that comes out of the tap is still questionable, usually as regards the pipe network that carries the water to some old places.

But in writing this post I had to face facts. It couldn’t possibly be the water I objected to, because to cool off I throw water sans disinfectant soap on my face. And that’s not all. I also wash fruit and veg in water straight from the tap. Oh dear.

So I’ve now decided that my prejudice comes down to a few key facts:

• ONE: Using a high powered gun on my bum while teetering on a slippery porcelain squat toilet with my back to a door (that may or may not be lockable) would clench my bum so tight a decent poo would be almost impossible unless I had help from tainted food.
• TWO: I rarely (ever) use a public toilet for number two so it’s not going to happen anyway (except for the previously mentioned assistance).
• Ok, that doesn’t stop me from using bum guns at home but it doesn’t happen here either, so I’ll add a number THREE: I’m not coordinated enough to use a bum gun without drenching myself along with the floors and walls and anything else within reach. So there you go.

But… the real reason for this post is this bit of news:

Coconuts Bangkok: In recognition of the proud tradition that was yesterday’s “World Toilet Day,” Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health did its duty by dumping data from its research of public toilets in Thailand, which concludes the highest concentration of fecal matter can be found on the ole’ bum gun. Ewwww.

I don’t know how reliable the Ministry of Public Health’s research is but after reading about fecal matter as well as this Reddit post about bum guns, I’m even more convinced to stick with YAAY for squat toilets and EWWW EWWW EWWW for bum guns.

Thai Protests 2013: Who to Follow on Twitter…

Yes, the Thai protests are STILL going on. I was hoping they’d be over by now, but oh no. Seriously? I hope this protest is finished before I complete writing this post! Anyway… similar to Staying Safe in Thailand: Streetwise Advice + Twitter, I wanted to share a bunch of twitter people for you to follow in this latest Thai kerfluffle.

If you only have time for one twitter account it’d have to be Richard Barrow’s.

Richard Barrow: (Travel blogger): @RichardBarrow

And here’s Richard’s Bangkok Dangerous Google Map

This morning Richard made a request: if you are running around Bangkok and see any action, do tweet your photos and news to his account. Please do (the more eyes and ears sharing, the better).

And now to the rest of the twitter peeps…

แก้วมาลา Kaewmala (Thai language, culture & politics): @Thai_Talk
Alessandro Ursic (Freelance journalist): @aleursic
Anasuya (Channel NewsAsia): @Anasuya
Andrew Marshall (Reuters): @Journotopia
Aubrey Belford (Reuters): @AubreyBelford
Bangkok Pundit (Asian Correspondent): @bangkokpundit
Florian Witulski (asia-pacific correspondent): @vaitor
Jason Szep (Reuters): @jasonszep
Jonah Fisher (BBC): @JonahFisher
Jonathan Head (BBC): @pakhead
John Le Fevre (The Establishment Post): @photo_journ
John Sparks (Channel 4 News): @c4sparks
Kate Hodal (The Guardian): @katehodal
Newley Purnell (Journalist): @newley
Nuthatai Chotechuang (Nation Channel): @nuthatai
Patrick Winn (Global Post): @BKKApologist
Saksith Saiyasombut (Siam Voices): @Saksith
Sunai (Human Rights Watch): @sunaibkk
Terry Fredrickson (Bangkok Post): @terryfrd
Thin (Humanitarian): @thinink
Tulsathit Taptim (The Nation): @tulsathit
Waan Chomchuen (Wall Street Journal): @waanspeaking
William Davies (AFP): @WilwithoneL
Zoe Daniel (ABC Australia): @seacorro

Arm MatichonTV: @AMatichon
Asian Correspondent: @AsCorrespondent
Bangkok Post: @BPbreakingnews
Channel NewsAsia: @ChannelNewsAsia
MCOT English News: @MCOTEnglishnews
New Mandala: @newmandala
Siam Voices: @siamvoices
The Nation: @nationnews

CMDThai (Civil Movement for Democracy): @CMDThai
Rajprasong News (Red Shirts): @Rajprasong_News
UDD (Red Shirts): @UDD_English

Abhisit Vejjajiva (former PM): @PM_Abhisit
Yingluck Shinawatra (present PM): @PouYingluck

georgehenton (photojournalist): @georgehenton
Jack Kurtz (photojournalist): @photogjack
L. Suwanrumpha (photojournalist): @TheLilyfish

Thai protests in the news…

If you need to play catch-up, here’s a few articles:

New Mandala: Who’s who in Thailand’s anti-government forces?

BBC: Thailand: Protests continue amid strike call
Straits Times: Bangkok on a knife-edge : Government on the run, but not out
Bangkok Post: Media groups condemn protest threats
Bangkok Post: TOT power cut hits 750,000 users
asiancorrespondent.com: Who is financing the anti-government Suthep rallies in Bangkok?

asiancorrespondent.com (continuously updated page): LIVE: Fresh violence raises tensions in Bangkok

Note: My thanks goes to photographer L. Suwanrumpha (@TheLilyfish) and Asia Editor Jon Russell (@jonrussell) for suggestions on who to add to my previous twitter list for the Thai protests.

And now that I’ve finished this post, I’m off to see if this latest protest is over yet. See you there?

Kreng Jai System and Thai Politics…

After a relatively quiet birthday celebration, followed by a weekend of mostly silence, on Monday morning at 9.39 (exactly?) the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) will make another final push to take down the reigning Thai government. See protest map here.

Bangkok Post: Mr Suthep declared on Friday night that demonstrators would “blow the final whistle” on Monday to seize power from the Yingluck administration.

The former Democrat MP said he would not prolong the protest any longer and that Monday’s outcome would make clear whether the demonstrators “win or lose”.

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t have a horse in this race (how could I). But, I do have an interest in what keeps driving the Thai people from both sides of the political divide to repeatedly take to the streets to maim, burn, and kill their own countrymen and women.

This weekend Christopher G. Moore (author of Heart Talk) put forward his theory about what’s going on in his post, Thai Political Super Storms: Kreng Jai System under Attack.

Christopher: What is driving the political turmoil, in my view, is a breakdown of this ancient kreng jai system that has until now been the bedrock of the political establishment. The patronage system, the pee/nong—older and younger person system and the automatic deference to rank, uniform and position were built from the stone and cement of kreng jai. Even voting has been fenced in by the unwritten rules of deference.

It’s an interesting view (and one I feel has merit).

I found the concept of Kreng Jai (and sometimes Greng Jai) difficult to wrap my head around so spent weeks researching the subject. The results of that exercise can be read at Thai Culture: Understanding Kreng Jai.

That post is chockfull of useful Kreng Jai phrases but the one I say most often is ไม่ต้องเกรงใจ /mâi dtông kreng jai/, which means “no need to kreng jai (me)”. Try it. It saves time and aggro.

Anyway, to read all of Christopher’s post here it is again: Thai Political Super Storms: Kreng Jai System under Attack. I just found out that it’s an essay from Fear and Loathing in Bangkok, an ebook on amazon/kindle. Off to the Kindle store I go…

And if you are interested in the blow-by-blow action promised for Monday, take your pick: Thai Protests 2013: Who to Follow on Twitter.

Keeping Cool (Tempers) in Thailand…

I inherited a flash temper that I’ve mostly grown out of, and I attribute a chunk of the change to living in Thailand. Even so, I’ll stay cool cool cool, but if I butt up against tough conditions too often, I explode. And once my pissy fit is over, the worry that I’ve upset Thai friends begins. Sigh.

If you’ve been watching the news, you’ll notice that Thai politics especially brings out nasty tempers in both Westerners and Thais. It’s a given that with the protests raging all around us, we won’t always act as ใจเย็น /jai yen/ (cool headed) as we’d like.

With a recent AGGGGHHHH episode on my mind (don’t ask) I emailed around for a few Thai words and phrases to use, plus advice on how to keep cool in Thailand. Here are the responses:

Mia Rongsaiw (Thai Skype teacher)
Site: Learn2SpeakThai | YouTube: learn2speakthai | twitter: @learn2speakthai

Thais have tempers too. We have been brought up to not show our feelings, either love or hate. And no matter how Thai people feel, we will coat it with a ”smile”.

“The Thai do not necessarily smile “about” something, but their smiles are not meaningless” Robert Cooper, Cultural Shock Thailand.

In the well-known saying “นับหนึ่งถึงสิบ” /náp nèung tĕung sìp/, we are told to count from 1-10. This trick works really well for me. By the time I count to 10, I only focus on the numbers and forget about whatever was bothering me.

One of my Thai proverbs is น้ำขุ่นอยู่ใน น้ำใสอยู่นอก /nám kùn yòo nai · nám săi yòo nôk/. You can see it on my website here: Bite Your Tongue

Every time this proverb comes to mind, I hear the voice of my mother saying it to me. It works for her as well.
 
The phrase ใจเย็นๆ /jai yen jai yen/ (cool heart) we also use often.

Jai yen doesn’t work well for some westerners because of cultural differences. For Thais, ใจร้อน /jai ron/ (hot heart) is not so good, but ใจเย็น /jai yen/ (cool heart) is a lot better. Europeans and Americans like a warm heart and the worst thing you can say about someone is that they are “cold hearted”.  So ใจเย็น /jai yen yen/ can sound a little strange at first.

My husband says: “As an expat, I have learned to manage my feelings from the outside in. When in public, I always speak softly, smile all the time, and try to notice any signals. I have asked my Thai family to let me know when I am speaking too loudly, and someone will say: บางเบา  /baang bao/ (softly) or just เบา /bao/ (soft). I smile and nod my head and speak softly. If I smile and think gentle thoughts and look at others to see what they are feeling, and lower my head,  – even if I am angry inside, I will soon be calm again.”

When you say things out of anger, พูดเล่น /pood làyn/ can cool down the situation. It’s like what you said was a joke.

ขอโทษ /kŏr tôht/ is the classic way to say “I’m sorry for losing my temper”. Just don’t wai when you apologise to friends or a younger person.

Generally, if someone is acting out (being temperamental), it doesn’t matter what culture it is, you will be revealed as spoiled and low class. The same is true in the Thai culture.

Ironically, when a leading actress in a Thai soap shows her anger, temper and negative emotion, most of the time she’s spoiled and comes from a HI-SO family. This gives a bad example. It’s as if it’s somewhat acceptable for those who are rich or better off to show off that type of emotion.

Yuki Tachaya (Thai Skype teacher)
Site: Pick up Thai | twitter: @PickupThai | YouTube: pickupthai

My thought on the topic is that Thai people’s lifestyle of สบายๆ (sabaai sabaai) or as we would say in colloquial Thai “ชิลล์ๆ” (chill chill) is what makes the Thai culture charming as it allows everyone to take time and enjoy lives. Also, I believe that it shapes Thai people’s personalities of generous, understanding and forgiving.

The expression “ไม่เป็นไร” (maipenrai) you use to say “It’s OK” or “That’s alright!” is certainly a reflection of this culture. However, the downside of it is that people tend to take appointment times less seriously and often get late as they expect that the people who are waiting for them would be flexible, lenient and forgiving as well. And sometimes, it is just important to be strict. Whereas Western people’s hectic lifestyles tend to give them less time to breathe and relax, they tend to be seen as more responsible and organized than the Thai people.

I think the most important thing is to embrace both cultures and know when you should let go or when you should be more strict with yourself. That way, things in your life can go well while you can be happy with it at the same time :)

Christopher G Moore (prolific author)
Site: Christopher G Moore | Vincent Calvino | twitter: @cgmooreauthor | Heart Talk

The Thai expression น้อมใจ /nOOm jai/ is a verb to describe the action of reaching out to resolve an impasse. Humility, compromise and reconciliation are required. Have we passed the stage where the sentiment in this jai phrase can be rescued from the fires of hate? I hope we haven’t crossed that line.

Below is the Thai vocabulary from this post. I’m on holiday so the audio files will be added after my return. But, if you don’t want to wait, follow these instructions: Does Your Computer Speak Thai?

count: นับ /náp/
one: หนึ่ง /nèung/
to: ถึง /tĕung/
ten: สิบ /sìp/
muddy water: น้ำขุ่น /nám kùn/
in: ใน /nai/
clear water: น้ำใส /nám-săi/
be at, location: อยู่ /yòo/
outside: นอก /nôk/
cool heart: ใจเย็นๆ /jai yen/
hot heart: ใจร้อน /jai ron/
joking, kidding: พูดเล่น /pood làyn/
apologies: ขอโทษ /kŏr tôht/
be well, happy: สบาย /sabaai/
be well, happy (loanword): ชิลล์ /chill/
no problem: ไม่เป็นไร /mai-pen-rai/
reaching out to resolve an impasse: น้อมใจ /nóm jai/

A thanks from me goes to Mia, Yuki and Christopher for their Thai words, phrases, and suggestions on keeping cool in Thailand.

One can never have enough jai words. For more read Heart Talk by Christopher G Moore (the post includes audio), and/or buy his book Heart Talk.

Ho ho ho everyone! And apologies for the crappy photo. Photographing interesting pics of ice in Thailand isn’t easy (but from the weather reports, that’s due to change soon).

The Study Music Project: Christmas Edition…

In Music for studying foreign languages I introduced you to Dennis Kuo’s Study Music Project. For those of you cramming for finals or in need of decent Xmas music, the talented Dennis has created four songs for your enjoyment. All free.

Study Music Project: Noel
Study Music Project: Three Kings
Study Music Project: Save My Christmas
Study Music Project: Hark! the Herald Angel Sing

Dennis Kuo: I just want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season! Thank you all for listening to my music. It is the best present I can ask for. Whether it be school or jobs, hope the Study Music Project can get us through our work as break approaches!

Once again, throughout now until the end of the season, the videos will be available on this channel! However, on January 2014, all the Christmas Study Music Project will BE REMOVED AND DISAPPEAR into thin air…so enjoy these tunes while they last!

For those of you who love the Christmas music, and is sad to see them go away when the season ends, come back to the Study Music Project channel on Christmas Day for a link to the *FREE* “CHRISTMAS MUSIC ALBUM” from Study Music Project! This is my way of saying Thank You for those who have been supporting me and my music.

Where to find Dennis Kuo:

Website: Study Music Project
YouTube: StudyMusicProject
Facebook: StudyMusicProject
Facebook: Dennis Kuo Music
Twitter: @denniskuo

Thanks Dennis! And a cheerful ho ho ho to one and all.

Thai Words for This Time of Political Unrest…

Things in Thailand have warmed up once again (not talking about the weather this time) and a lot is being said by both sides. It might help to add to our Thai vocabularies some words frequently used as of late. For this post I perused the local Thai and English newspapers and listened to the news on TV to glean words that you might hear.

Words for what they are doing…

Protest: ประท้วง /bprà~​túang/. This is the verb “to protest”. A protest “demonstration” of which we are seeing a great deal lately is usually referred to as การประท้วง /gaan-​bprà~​túang/, the การ simply changes the verb to a noun.

Rally: ชุมนุม /chum-​num/. This verb normally means to gather or assemble but we are seeing it often now when referring to the large gatherings on the Bangkok streets. When we want to talk about “a rally” we can use ชุมนุมกัน /chum-​num-​gan/. The กัน suffix meaning “together”

March: เดินขบวน /dern-​kà~​buan/. This word is made up of two Thai words. เดิน /dern/ meaning “to walk” and ขบวน /kà~​buan/ meaning a “parade”, “procession”, and is also use with cars as in “motorcade” and with (a line of ) train cars.

Invade: บุก /bùk/. This word is usually used as in a military movement but lately we see it when a group of people rush into a government building

Words for who they are…

Leader: ผู้นำ /pôo-​nam/. The word นำ is “to lead” or “to guide”. The ผู้ makes it “the person who…”. Also heard in this context is หัวหน้า /hǔa-​nâa/ or “the head” (of a movement). หัว means head”; หน้า can mean “in front”.

Prime Minister: นายกรัฐมนตรี /naa-​yók-​rát-​tà~​mon-​dtree/ or usually shortened to /naa-​yók/. The นาย is often used in front of a person’s name to mean “the boss”. The word รัฐมนตรี /rát-​tà~​mon-​dtree/ is used for a government “minister”. So the prime minister is the “boss of the ministers”.

Former (prime minister): อดีตนายก /à~​dèet naa-​yók/. We are hearing this word lots lately of course. The word อดีต means “the past” or in this case “former”.

Cabinet: คณะรัฐมนตรี /ká~​ná-​rát-​tà~​mon-​dtree/. The prefix คณะ means “a group of”, the “cabinet” being a group of ministers.

Parliament: รัฐสภา /rát-​tà~​sà~​paa/ or often shortened to just สภา /sà~​paa/. รัฐ normally means “state” but when used as a prefix like it is here usually refers to “government”, รัฐบาล /rát-​tà~​baan/.

Military: ทหาร /tá~​hǎan/. And if used as an adjective ทางทหาร /taang-​tá~​hǎan/.

Caretaker (government): ผู้ดูแล /pôo-​doo-​lae/. ดูแล meaning “to care for”.

Words for what they’ve done…

To support (a particular side): สนับสนุน /sà~​nàp-​sà~​nǔn/. You can สนับสนุนเสื้อขาว /sà~​nàp-​sà~​nǔn sêua kǎao/ “support the white shirts” or any color shirt you want.

Call for (as in “change”): เรียกร้อง /rîak-​róng/. เรียก is “to call” and ร้อง is “to cry out”. So เรียกร้องการเปลี่ยนแปลง /rîak-​róng gaan-​bplìan-​bplaeng/ is to call for change (เปลี่ยนแปลง /​bplìan-​bplaeng/ is “to change”).

Ultimatum: คำขาด /kam-​kàat/. คำ is “word” and ขาด is “to run out of”.

Resign: การลาออก /gaan-​laa-​òk/. ลา is to “leave” and ออก is to “go out (away)”.

Dissolve parliament: ยุบสภา /yúp-​sà~​paa/. The word ยุบ yúp means to disband (dissolve).

Corruption (as in bribery): การทุจริต /gaan-​tút-​jà~​rìt/. ทุจริต by itself can mean “to cheat” or to be “dishonest”. Also used is การกินสินบน /gaan-​gin-​sǐn-​bon/. This word is made of กิน “to eat” and สินบน “bribe”. Sometimes you will see simply กิน “to eat”.

Words for what they might do…

Election: การเลือกตั้ง /gaan-​lêuak-​dtâng/. This has the word เลือก in it which means “to choose”. ตั้ง can mean “to set up” or “to establish”.

Commission (as in “election”): คณะกรรมการ /ká~​ná-​gam-​má~​gaan/. คณะ again meaning “group” and กรรมการ /gam-​má~​gaan/ is “judge”. This word can also be used to mean “committee”. The word กรรมการ /gam-​má~​gaan/ is also used in sports to mean “umpire” or “referee”.

Run for Election: เข้าสมัครรับเลือกตั้ง /kâo-​sà~​màk-​ráp-​lêuak-​dtâng/. Of course the Thai word for election is here. The word สมัคร is “to apply for”, รับ is received. The more common word for “to run for election” is หาเสียง /hǎa-​sǐang/ or หา “to look for” and เสียง meaning “sound” or “noise”. The word มีชื่อเสียง /mee-​chêu-​sǐang/ literally means “noisy name” but is used to mean “famous”. So “to run for election” can be translated as “to look to become famous”.

Negotiate: การเจรจา /gaan-​jay-​rá~​jaa/. The one thing that could help is if everyone decide to เจรจา /​jay-​rá~​jaa/

Reform: ปฏิรูป /bpà~​dtì-​rôop/. And everyone seems to want this.

Solve problems: แก้ปัญหา /gâe-​bpan-​hǎa/. And this too. แก้ means “to solve” or “to repair” and ปัญหา is “problem”.

And the word heard much too often in Thai history…

Coup (as in d’état): รัฐประหาร /rát-​tà~​bprà~​hǎan/. The prefix for “government” is here coupled with the word ประหาร which usually means “to execute (as in death penalty)”. This is the official word but the one that will be broadcast on the TV after hours of martial and patriotic music will most likely be ปฏิวัติ /bpà-​dtì-​wát/ which also means “revolution”.

Here is wishing that this word will not be used again soon and that the good people of Thailand will solve this current crisis (วิกฤต /​wí-​grìt/) in a peaceful and positive manner.

Hugh Leong
Retire 2 Thailand
Retire 2 Thailand: Blog
eBooks in Thailand

Thai Politics on Facebook: Manee Has a Chair…

Monday (tomorrow) is the big kickoff for #BangkokShutdown, also hashed as #BKKshutdown and #ปิดกรุงเทพ on twitter. Starting early, the anti-government protesters have already shut down Bangkok. Oh joy.

If you are interested in the Thai protests and would like to learn how to read Thai at the same time, there’s a Facebook page that you ‘might’ fancy: Manee Has Chair (มานีมีเเชร์).

Old Thai schoolbook illustrations revived in satirical cartoons: “Manee. Manee has eyes.” These are the first simple words most Thai children in the 1970s and 80s (and possibly every foreign student learning Thai) read in school.

Created by the Ministry of Education and published in 1977, the books – plainly titled “Thai Lesson Book” – aimed at primary school students became a recognizable childhood item for introducing them to reading Thai and also a stable of characters such as the young girl Manee (มานี), her older brother Mana (มานะ) and also a dog called Toh (โต).

Just like the Manee series, the words used are short and sweet. To understand what’s going on in the cartoons, of course you’ll need to follow what’s happening in Thai politics and perhaps dig around some. Oh. And your Thai will get a real workout if you also read the comments below each drawing.

You can see the complete set of artwork here: Maneehaschair Photo Stream

More about Manee…

Download 12 FREE Manee Books
Learn2SpeakThai: Learn Thai with Manee
Manee on Thai Text Reader

More about (present) Thai politics…

Thai Language Thai Culture: Thai Words for This Time of Political Unrest
Keeping Cool (Tempers) in Thailand
Christopher G. Moore: The Kreng Jai System and Thai Politics
Thai Protests 2013: Who to Follow on Twitter

Stay safe everyone.

Cracking Thai Fundamentals: Thai Challenge 2014…

I’ve reviewed scads of learning Thai projects since starting WLT and Polyglot Stu Jay Raj’s Cracking Thai Fundamentals Thai Challenge is one of the most exciting ever.

To give you a bit of background: Stu’s original Cracking Thai Fundamentals started in Bangkok in 2000. Wanting to learn about the Thai language, I attended a CTF course shortly after arriving in Thailand. Like other students I met in class, I loved it so much that I signed up for second round.

If you are interested in what people are saying about CTF, below are several Cracking Thai Fundamentals interviews:

Stu Jay Raj is Back in Bangkok with Cracking Thai Fundamentals
Cracking Thai Fundamentals: Interview with Claudio Sennhauser
Cracking Thai Fundamentals: Interview with Scott Eddy
Cracking Thai Fundamentals: Interview with Peter Lo

In order to reach more students, six months ago Stu started working his butt off to create an online learning experience: Jcademy. That’s right. You no longer have to physically attend one of Stu’s courses to reap the benefits.

To add to the thrill, this week he launched the Jcademy Cracking Thai Fundamentals Challenge.

I’ll say it again. Stu’s CTF Challenge is one the most promising projects I’ve come across. And to help make it even more powerful, please do join in!

For the next few months you can follow Polyglot Stuart Jay Raj as he guides two expats through the CTF course. To do that, Stu created four ways to experience the challenge:

1. Watch the sessions live via Jcademy’s CTF Challenge section.
2. Afterwards ask questions of Stu, Andrew, and Richard on Google Hangouts.
3. Watch the session videos on Jcademy and Stu’s YouTube channel stujaystujay.
4. Join the CTF Challenge (how can you resist?)

Note: The first CTF Challenge Google Hangout starts at 4pm, Wednesday, January 22.

Be sure to keep up with Jcademy news via:

Web: Jcademy
Facebook: Jcademy
YouTube: stujaystujay
Twitter: @JcademyOnline

And a reminder. This is not a paid ad – I don’t do those – the opinions in this post are unencumbered by personal gain.

New Facebook Group: Farang Can Learn Thai…

Farang Can Learn Thai is an exciting Facebook group created in November of last year by language enthusiast Richard Jensen. Two months later (almost to the day), membership is already at 1766. I put the group’s popularity down to Richard’s kind nature guiding the generous spirit of its members.

Too often it has been said that farang (foreigners) either can’t or won’t learn the Thai language. This group has been created to help those who wish to learn Thai. It exists in order that we may help each other by sharing ideas, posting videos or web sites that will aid us in the quest to master the Thai language.

Everyone is encouraged to share experiences related to Thai language learning and anything about Thailand you feel will be beneficial to all. Please feel free to add files by clicking on the Files tab at the top. Invite anyone, farang or Thai. let’s have some fun and learn Thai.

Farang Can Learn Thai is a relaxed, social group. Scanning through the members there’s a good balance of Thais, Asians, and Westerners amongst the mix.

Questions about the Thai language get asked. Thais, Thai teachers, and the more advanced Thai students take turns to answer. And (my passion) learning Thai resources appear round the clock. Richard especially keeps finding great stuff I never knew existed!

Due to the international membership, moderators from different time zones keep watch for spam, so please don’t join the group to sell sunglasses or other unnecessary doodads (your posts will be deleted and you’ll be banned).

Thai teachers, bloggers, developers, and more…

As the word about the Farang Can Learn Thai Facebook group got out, many from the learning Thai community stopped by to share their knowledge. In alphabetical order, here’s a list along with details:

Ann Norman
thailandqa.com: 100 Carabao Songs in English

Benjawan Becker
Site: Paiboon Publishing
Blog: Benjawan Poomsan Becker
Facebook: Paiboon Publishing
YouTube: paiboonpublishing

WLT: Interview: Benjawan Poomsan Becker
WLT: Teaser: The Interpreter’s Journal: How it Started
WLT: Teaser: The Interpreter’s Journal: Mistakes and Misinterpretations
WLT: Teaser: The Interpreter’s Journal: Studying Foreign Languages

Jan Badertscher
sites.google.com: Thai Learning Resources

Josh Sager
Blog: Learning Thai My Story
Twitter: @learningThai

Mia Rongsaiw
Site: Learn 2 Speak Thai
Facebook: Learn2speakThai
YouTube: learn2speakthai
Podcast: Thai Girl Talk Podcast
Twitter: @learn2speakthai

WLT: Questions… Questions… Lani and Mia from Thai Girl Talk

Mod
Blog: Learn Thai with Mod
Facebook: Learn Thai with Mod
YouTube: ThaiwithMod
Twitter: @ThaiwithMod

WLT: Learn Thai With Mod

Parisa Koknoi
Blog: Speak Thai with Noi Naa
Facebook: Speak Thai with Noinaa
YouTube: SpeakThaiWithNoiNaa

Ryan Zander
Site: Nagaraja Rivers
Blog: Nagaraja Rivers
Facebook: Nagaraja Rivers
Twitter:@nagarajarivers
iTunes: Ryan Zander

WLT: Successful Thai Language Learner: Ryan Zander

Stuart Cox
Twitter: @stuartcox (Learning Thai Daily)

Stuart G Towns
Site: Its4Thai
Twitter: @ITS4Thai and @sgtowns

WLT: ITS4Thai DRAW + iPhone and iPad Review

Stu Jay Raj
Site: Jcademy Cracking Thai Fundamentals
Blog: Language and Mind Mastery
Facebook: Jcademy.com by Stuart Jay Raj
YouTube: Stuart Jay Raj
Twitter: @jcademy and @stu_jay

WLT: Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj: Interview Part One
WLT: Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj: Interview Part Two

Yuki Tachaya
Site: Pick up Thai
Facebook: Pick up Thai by Yuki Tachaya
YouTube: Yuki Tachaya
Twitter: @PickupThai

WLT: PickUpThai: Colloquial Thai Terms and Expressions
WLT: PickUpThai: Colloquial Thai Compound Words

Steve Kaufmann from Linqq is in lurk-mode for now.

Please join us to talk about the Thai language at Farang Can Learn Thai. You are sure to be warmly welcomed if you do.

Cracking Thai Fundamentals: Thai Bites…

In January Stu Jay Raj launched Jcademy’s CTF Challenge. Shortly after his wonderful Thai Bites started rolling out.

Thai Bites are small ‘bite sized’ lessons in Thai that are based on Stuart Jay Raj’s Cracking Thai Fundamentals programme.

Thai Bites are available as a monthly subscription package where subscribers will be sent regular ‘Thai Bites’ to their email each day.

Once a week a free bite will be released to the public at Stu’s Thai Bites playlist at YouTube.

But to get the full program, subscribe to Thai Bites at Jcademy.

Cracking Thai Fundamentals: Jcademy CTF Challenge…

Reminder: The next Jcademy CTF Challenge progress meeting will be on Friday, 7 February, 4.00 (Bangkok time).

YouTube polyglot Luca Lampariello…

Back in 2009 YouTube polyglots were becoming all the rage. Poking around to see what all the excitement was about, Luca Lampariello’s Channel stood out for me. What really impressed me was Luca’s method for learning languages. And the array of languages he spoke wasn’t too shabby either: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, and Portuguese.

After Luca and I’d been chatting for awhile, he agreed to explain his method in more detail in order for me to share it here. With much patience on his side (thanks Luca) together we created what became two top draws on WLT. And by the end, Luca and I became friends.

If you haven’t read them yet, they are absolutely worth your while: An Easy Way to Learn Foreign Languages: Part One and An Easy Way to Learn Foreign Languages: Part Two.

Over the years Luca has continued to dedicate his time to the language learning community. Definitely past time for an interview!

Interview: Luca Lampariello on Learning Languages…

Hi Luca, how are you? Long time no see! During our first collaboration you spoke nine languages. How many languages do you speak now?

Hi Catherine. I am great thanks! Well, it depends on the definition of “speaking a language”. I like thinking of a language as a network that we build with time. In my opinion, being able to speak a language means being able to assemble words together to form sentences, as well as being able to interact with native speakers in daily life. It is a bit like playing with Legos. When we have 100 Lego pieces in front of us, the very first thing that comes to mind is not the quantity but the question “how am I going to assemble them together?” One can know an incredible amount of words without even being able to string a sentence together. Also, communication between two human beings is always bidirectional, so when somebody asks me such a question, I always think about speaking as well as understanding what people say. That’s another capacity that we develop by way of practice and exposure, and it is an integral part of using a language.

How do you choose which language to learn and why do you decide to study a particular one?

I have to say that in this regard languages are like girls. We have the illusion that we choose them, but in the end, they choose us. If I think about it, it is the languages that have chosen me along my path, and every single one has a different story.

How long does it take for you to learn a new language to fluency?

Once again, one should clearly define the term fluency. Unfortunately it is a very vague term, and everybody has their own definition. Having said that, and having given my own definition, I would say that the amount of time it takes to reach fluency depends on your mother tongue and the target language. In my case, it took me less than a year to become fluent in Spanish, and more than two years to become fluent in Chinese. So in general, it takes six months to two years to become “fluent”, depending on the language. In this regard, I would also distinguish between “conversational fluency” and “advanced fluency”. One thing is to be able to speak and understand natives, another is to enjoy a language in all its aspects: books, movies, cultural jokes, etc. That takes a much longer time.

Is it possible to learn a language in one month or in a relatively short amount of time?

The modern world is obsessed with speed. Language learning is a long road if our objective is to be able to use language in all its aspects. That said, adults already have their own native tongue in place, which is an advantage because we don’t start totally from scratch like kids do. But just to start communicating at a very basic level is certainly possible, especially in languages that are close to our own.

Regarding your study routine, how many hours a day do you spend on learning your languages?

Not that much to tell you the truth. I spend relatively little time deliberately studying a language, 30 minutes, maybe 1 hour a day when I am inspired, but the key factor is consistency: I do it every day. Learning something every day, even at small doses, leads to success in every activity. I call it “the bucket effect”. Look at an empty bucket. A drop falls in it. “Ok”, you might say – “it still looks empty”. Without realizing it though, one drop every five seconds can fill a bucket in a matter of hours. Our brain is like a bucket, and the drops are the bits and pieces of information that flow into it, day by day. After months our brain is full of information and ready to be used in the real world. And when we start doing that, we start learning faster and faster as we get exposed to the language.

People are often in awe of your pronunciation in all the languages that you speak. How can you reach such near-native pronunciation? And how can one reach a near-native pronunciation in a foreign language?

Oh, that’s a tough one (kidding). I think that there are two main factors that really make a difference in this regard:

First, I am interested in sounds, and I do care about having good pronunciation. So I start paying attention to phonetic patters from the very beginning.

Secondly, I am good at impersonating other people. I think that while training is great, I also believe that in order to reach certain results, one has to let go of his personality in one’s native language and “live” another character in another language. If the world is a stage, like Shakespeare writes, then taking on another language is like switching from the character one has always played into a different character within the frame of another story.

Proof of this is that when I speak another language I have a different personality. I do different things, I act differently, my gestures are different. Everything changes, and when I speak, it is as if I had another experience of life. This is the sum of all my experiences, the people I’ve met, the movies I’ve watched in that language. They all breathe and live inside of me when I use the language.

Did it ever happen to you to be taken for a native speaker? What was people’s reaction about that? Do you think it is that important?

Yes, many times. Especially in English, French, Spanish and German. Now it is happening more and more often in Russian. People are always surprised, and it always ends up spawning interesting experiences. Once I was sitting in a square in Rome and I heard a loud burp. I said, in English, “what, that is a loud burp there”. The girl who belched laughed and asked me if I was American. From that little exchange, I got to know someone who became one of my best American friends, and I don’t think it would have happened if I hadn’t replied in that accent. I can tell you countless stories like this. People’s attitude towards you changes considerably, and I found it be a strong motivation in learning other languages.

Speaking like a native doesn’t have to be the main goal of a language learner. It is not an easy goal to reach, and to be totally frank, just a tiny fraction of people achieve it, and for a number of various reasons. Having said that, I think that achieving good pronunciation within everyone’s reach, provided that they start working on it from the very beginning.

Which is the most critical aspect in learning a foreign language: grammar, syntax or vocabulary? Any useful tips or piece of advice to tackle these three aspects?

There is no single aspect more critical than the others. They are all equally important. I think that languages are living, extremely complex entities and we shouldn’t focus too much on the single parts because we run the risk of “getting lost in the maze”. That said, some languages have specific features that pose problems. The characters and tones of Mandarin Chinese, for example. I think that one should find a way to tackle languages in a way that suits their needs and tastes, and that embraces languages as a whole. The method needs to be flexible though, so that one can adapt it to the specific language.

As far as grammar and syntax are concerned, a famous Hungarian polyglot used to say “don’t learn language from the grammar, but grammar from the language”. I completely agree. I think that while some grammar explanations are great at the beginning, one starts figuring out the patterns of the language through exposure. If we try to learn all the rules at the beginning, we end up getting lost and frustrated when we realize we cannot actually use those rules in the real world. The same goes for syntax. I say, get exposed to the language, use it, and the fog of grammar and syntax will lift in the course of time.

As for vocabulary, my first piece of advice is to get a hold of content that you like. Interest causes your brain to retain information more efficiently. Then use spaced-time repetition. We don’t store a word just by looking at it. We need to see it a few times and in different contexts before it “sinks in”.

You are known for using a technique involving translation from and to the target language. Some might find it a hindrance to the development of the capacity to “think” directly in the foreign language. What is your take on that?

It is always a question of how you do it, and my experience is that there is a “right” way to use translation. I use translation as a tool to figure out the patterns of a foreign language while using my own as a crutch. I do this for a few months, after which I start using the language without even thinking about my own. If one translates with the wrong goal in mind and does it poorly, they run the risk of filtering everything through the lens of their own language, and that should obviously be avoided because it creates considerable interference.

What other languages are you planning to learn? Thai, for instance?

Of course I have! Thai is one of the languages that I would really like to learn. I have heard great stories from friends who went to Thailand, and the idea of enjoying such a lovely country and interacting with the locals in their own language is exhilarating.

Do you enjoy traveling? Do you think that it’s important to travel to learn languages? And … any plans to come Thailand?

I love traveling. I was thinking about this recently on the plane back to Rome. Travelling, like language learning, is a journey into new worlds, but it is also an inner journey that we take inside ourselves. All those who have traveled, no matter the distance, have felt that strange, bittersweet feeling of bewilderment, a sudden desire to live more and more intensively. One of my favorite quotes comes from Chris McCandless, a guy whose story inspired “Into the Wild”: “staying is existing, traveling is living”.
Of course I will come to Thailand – did you have doubts about it? (laughing)

How has the ability to speak different languages changed your life?

They dramatically changed it in all its aspects. I work full-time as a language coach on-line, and I use tons of languages every day. I made friends with many many people from all over the world, and when I travel or I live in a foreign country, life is so much easier. If somebody were to ask me for one reason why I learn so many foreign languages, I would simply answer “for all the reasons of the world”

Where are you now in your path? What are your projects for 2014?

I have a ton of projects lining up. The most important one is the book I have been writing for quite some time now. But right now I am working on a huge workshop that is going to take place in Vienna next week. I have been working hard on it. The main goal is to give people the right tools and frame of mind to achieve their dreams. For example, with the internet, I think the focus is shifting from giving language learners the “right” materials (of which there is overabundance) to teaching them first how to find and create their own materials according to their tastes, and above all, how to use them.

Thanks for this interview Luca.

Thank you Catherine!

You can find more about Luca’s workshop here: How to learn a language WITHOUT killing yourself

Luca Lampariello
Web: thepolyglotdream
Facebook: Luca Lampariello
YouTube: poliglotta80

Non-Synonymous Synonyms…

As often happens, a mistake I made in speaking Thai has led me to thinking about things to share with our readers. In this case it’s where a Thai word has a certain English translation in one situation, but another Thai word, often with the same English translation, needs to be used in different situation.

Case in point: The other day while I was out shopping a clerk was quite helpful, so when the bill came to 90 baht I gave her a 100 baht bill and wanted to say, “keep the change”.

Here is what I said: “ไม่ต้องคืนเงิน” /mâi dtông keun ngern/

I wanted to say “no need to return (the change)”. But as soon as I said it, and saw the expression on the clerk’s face, I knew I had made another of my infamous Spoken Thai blunders.

Here is the problem: The Thai word คืน /keun/ means “to return” (in that I am returning money I borrowed from you). So I told the clerk, “you don’t have to return my money.” She was probably wondering when I had lent her any money.

What I should have used was: ทอน /​ton/, which means to “return” (money, as in change – like, I give you 100 baht for a 90 baht bill and the “change” or เงินทอน /ngern ​ton/ is 10 baht).

So, I should have said: ไม่ต้องทอนเงิน” /mâi dtông ton ngern/, which means, “no need to return the change”. Or more loosely translated, “keep the change”.

I know, it’s a little thing but many of the blank expressions we receive come from saying the wrong thing in Thai. Inexperienced learners of Thai think it is because Thais don’t want us to learn Thai, which is ludicrous. Usually, and in my case almost always, it is because I have said something incomprehensible.

Here are more Thai words that can be translated as synonymous but will get us blank expressions if we don’t use them in the correct context.

Steal, Rob, Hold up, Cheat, Break into…

There are lots of words for thievery, or the breaking of the second Buddhist precept. Some of these are interchangeable and some are quite specific in how they are used.

ขโมย /kà~​moi/ – thief (n); to steal (v)

คนขโมยมอเตอร์ไซค์ /kon kà~​moi mor-​dter-​sai/
Someone stole my motorcycle.

คอมโดนขโมย /kom dohn kà~​moi/
The computer was stolen.

เขาเป็นขโมย /kǎo bpen kà~​moi/
He’s a thief.

จี้ /jêe/ – to rob

เขาโดนจี้ที่ถนน /kǎo dohn jêe têe tà~​nǒn/
He was robbed on the street (mugged).

ปล้น /bplôn/ – hold up; plunder

โจรปล้นธนาคาร /john bplôn tá~​naa-​kaan/
The thief held up (robbed) the bank.

โกง /gohng/ – defraud, cheat, swindle

พี่เขยโกงเงินผม /pêe-​kǒie gohng ngern pǒm/
My brother-in-law cheated (swindled) me out of my money.

งัด /ngát/ – break in (force or break open)

บ้านโดนงัด /bâan dohn ngát/
The house was broken into.

Doctor words…

Thai is full of words that are specific to the people we are talking to (peers, elders, juniors, etc.). There are some words we should have at the ready when we are going to talk to a doctor to explain specific symptoms. They may or may not be the same words we use with our drinking buddies.

Head
Common word: หัว /hǔa/; headache – ปวดหัว /bpùat-​hǔa/
Doctor word: ศีรษะ ​/sěe-​sà/; headache – ปวดศีรษะ /bpùat-​sěe-​sà/

Buttocks (bottom, butt)
Common word: ก้น /gôn/; My butt hurts. – ปวดก้น /bpùat gôn/
Doctor word: ตะโพก /dtà~​pôhk/; I have a pain in my bottom. – ปวดตะโพก /bpùat dtà~​pôhk/

Urinate (Note: There are many, many words for this in Thai. The most polite are used here).
Common word: ฉี่ /chèe/; Urin – น้ำฉี่ /náam chèe/; Trouble peeing – มีปัญหาฉี่ /mee bpan-​hǎa chèe/
Doctor word: ปัสสาวะ /bpàt-​sǎa~​wá/; Urin – น้ำปัสสาวะ/náam bpàt-​sǎa~​wá/; Trouble urinating – มีปัญหาปัสสาวะ /mee bpan-​hǎa bpàt-​sǎa~​wá/

Blood
Common word: เลือด /lêuat/; Blood pressure – ความดันเลือด /kwaam-​dan-​lêuat/
Doctor word: โลหิต /loh-​hìt/; Blood pressure – ความดันโลหิต /kwaam-​dan-​loh-​hìt/

To return…

As illustrated above there are lots of words that mean “return”.

กลับคืน /​glàp-​keun/ – to return (turn back, come back)
กลับมา /​glàp-​maa/ – to return (from somewhere)
ผลตอบแทน /pǒn-​dtòp-​taen/ – a return (on an investment); yield
ผลกำไร /pǒn-​gam-​rai/ – profitable return
คืน /keun/ – to return (give something back)
ทอนเงิน /ton ngern/ – to return money (to give change)

Change (exchange)…

And “change” has many Thai translations too.

เปลี่ยนแปลง /bplìan-​bplaeng/ – to change (an action, do something differently)
แลกเปลี่ยน /lâek-​bplìan/ – to exchange something (with)
อัตราแลกเปลี่ยน /àt-​dtraa-​lâek-​bplìan/ – exchange rate (foreign exchange)
แบ็งค์ย่อย /báeng-​yôi/ – change (as in small bank notes)
เงินทอน /ngern-​ton/ – change (money returned)

Hugh Leong
Retire 2 Thailand
Retire 2 Thailand: Blog
eBooks in Thailand

Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners…

Name: Luke Bauer
Nationality: USA
Age range: 20-30 (26)
Sex: Male
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Profession: Independent Translator/Interpreter (also currently studying an MA in Southeast Asian Studies)
Web: YouTube: lbb2r: Farang Kii Nok Teaches Thai | The Breakdown

What is your Thai level?

I’d say it is somewhere between advanced and fluent. I speak fluently about everyday topics as well as about such things such as philosophy, politics, history, language, and many more. However, as a translator, I know that my translations into Thai are never more than 90 per cent correct, and they almost always need a little bit of tweaking from a native before they can be officially submitted/published. The question of “when are you truly fluent” is a difficult and interesting one. Maybe in 5 years, with enough practice, I will reach a level of full fluency, but right now I am hesitant to label myself as fully fluent.

Do you speak more street Thai, Issan Thai, or professional Thai?

I only speak KamMeuang (language of Laan Na)!! Haha, kidding, but…… Isaan is a dialect, while the other two seem to be registers of standard Thai or something closely approximating it, so this question seems a bit strangely worded to me :) To answer the question, I live with two central Thais and also have Thai colleagues in both the university and the translation industry. Depending on age, subject matter and situation, I speak either “street Thai” (informal Thai) or “professional Thai”. I have been to Isaan and can understand more than 80 per cent most of the time, and I am currently taking a course on Lao for speakers of Thai which is helping me branch out into many dialects (Lao also helps one understand the northern dialect(s) of KamMeuang). To be quite honest, I usually am sort of in the middle, as I often discuss linguistic or cultural issues with colleagues in an informal tone, but the subject matter often demands a somewhat elevated style.

What were your reasons for learning Thai?

I have a series of three videos on Youtube about “How I came to learn Thai” but as many viewers have complained, I really give no exact reasons for why I learned Thai. If you want the long version, you can check it out here: 1, 2 and 3.

While I often used my desire to better understand Buddhism as a justification for learning Thai, and while this may have been true to some extent, I think the main reason that I kept learning Thai was due to one main thing: the Thai language is so much fun to learn. The pronunciation, the idioms, the way things often “make sense” when a westerner formulates them but still don’t quite “work” in terms of the way Thais express things.

Of course, my many great experiences with Thai people have also been a great motivation for continuing my studies, but the thing that really gave me the drive to continue learning was the pleasure I derived from being able to both understand and produce both the sounds and written symbols necessary for communication in Thai.

Do you live in Thailand? If so, when did you arrive?

I do not, I currently live in Hamburg where I am working on my second Masters (the first was in German Languages and Literatures), this time in Southeast Asian Studies with a focus on Thai Studies (living in Germany helps me keep my German alive) at the University of Hamburg. I have been to Thailand three times: the first time in 2008 (from May to September), the second in 2010 (February to end of April), and the third in late 2012 (the whole month of December). It is regrettable that I have been unable to spend more time in the Kingdom of Thailand, however I am planning to do a one-term study abroad in late 2014, which would put me in Thailand for another 4-5 months.

How long have you been a student of the Thai language?

2007-present.

Did you learn Thai right away, or was it a many-pronged approach?

I made a lot of progress in the first 5 months of learning Thai. I discovered Thai food and made Thai friends who helped me understand the writing system as well as how to engage in basic conversation. Then I went to Thailand in 2008 and applied all of the knowledge I had gathered up until then and gained much more. After returning to the States, I got more serious with my German studies for 2 years and Thai kind of fell by the wayside, but in 2010 I began working as a community interpreter for all three languages and had to bring my Thai up to speed with my German ASAP. So yes on both accounts I’d say right away and many-pronged.

Did you stick to a regular study schedule?

Yes, fortunately I had a job at a dormitory checking students in and out of the building (girls aren’t allowed to be on guys’ floors and vice versa), and I pretty much did nothing but learn vocabulary and write out long sentences. I worked there for 15 months and this was crucial for me in learning the basics of both Thai and German.

What Thai language learning methods did you try?

An onslaught of methods….try everything you can find, at least for a while to see if it works.

Started with Rosetta Stone Version 2 and learningthai.com (features free lessons from Manee Mana, you don’t learn the whole alphabet, but it’s a great start).

Used books from AUA to learn handwriting, as well as Benjawan Poomsan Becker’s Thai series (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, although it is more like A1, A2, B1 in terms of the European Language Framework). The series comes with audio and while it has some drawbacks, I found this series to be great in terms of how it organizes its lesson with a mixture of contextual and linguistics themes (so while you do learn all the words for food in one lesson, you also might learn about many words constructed by ความ (kwaam) and การ (gaan)), as this served as a good memory aid.

In addition, I took one week of classes at AUA on Rachadamri Road in BKK, but I ended up finding it more enjoyable to try and strike up a conversation with the vendor at a nearby food store (raan aahaan) or the motorcycle drivers outside my apartment.

Having a significant other that is Thai definitely doesn´t hurt. There. I said it.

Reading cartoons is also a really good way to learn because 1) the pictures provide context 2) sentences are not so long and 3) there tends to be a decent amount of repetition and predictability.

Did you find learning to read and write Thai difficult?

It found it less difficult then than I do now. Learning to read Thai wasn´t that difficult for me, I had lots of time to write the letters over and over until I got them and had great help from friends, but of course remembering how to write lots of words influenced by Pali and Sanskrit was and is quite challenging, especially since I didn´t have any formal Thai education until now. I would forget how to write easy words all the time. Also, reading and writing Thai names is something that I have only been able to really get the hang of in the last 2 years, and I still definitely stumble across lots of names that I need a couple seconds to process.

Now that I am seeing more Thai names than ever before during my studies, and reading more Thai than ever before, I am realizing how incredibly slow I am when in comes to skimming texts in Thai. I can read aloud pretty comfortably, and if I am reading a story in a leisurely manner, then it´s not so noticeable. But when I am looking for information in an article or something, I feel like I am at least 3 times slower than in my native language and still twice as slow as in German. I have read articles by some Western scholars of Thailand who reference this except problem: some claim to still have trouble with this although they have been doing in for 40 years – but I sense a certain modesty there judging by their 100-source long list of Thai texts in their bibliography :)

Did one method stand out over all others?

Manee and Mana was fun, and so were comic books. Tin Tin has been translated into Thai, and I have a book Airy Fairy or something like that in both langauges (Thai on one page and English on the other). Airy Fairy blew my mind, haha. Seriously, if you are just now starting to grasp the Thai orthography, I can´t more strongly recommend that you try this approach. Putting the two languages side by side, even in a seemingly silly children´s book, proved very insightful for me.

How soon did you tackle reading and writing Thai?

From day one. I think it makes sense since I was not in a hurry to communicate. I took three weeks and just learned words that arose with the teaching of the writing system, so like, you know, learning gaa, kaa, aa, maa, etc. I don´t think I knew stuff like “how old are you” until about 2 months in or so. The first month was almost exclusively writing and reading, but it is not like I didn´t spend plenty of time practicing saying gaa, kaa etc. Like I said, the pronunciation was pretty much my favorite thing about the process.

What was your first ‘ah hah!’ moment?

I have already pointed to a lot of them I think, but I think one that I will never forget was when I learned the words dhukka and kasatriya from Schopenhauer! I know that sounds silly, but there I was reading a text from a colleague in the German department, and there are these words being used in italics, dhukka, kasatriya, and several others. When I realized that dhukka was suffering, i.e. tuk ทุกข์ in Thai, and kasatriya was the Thai word gasat (กษัตริย์), or one of the many words for ‘king’, I went back and looked at my vocabulary lists and figured out why Buddha gets spelled พุทธ in Thai. To tie that to another aha moment, I was learning some basic Cambodian and was seeing all these influences on Thai from Cambodian as well. This was perhaps more of a cultural aha moment, but it was so cool because it shows how the Cambodian influence is not only evident in palace rituals but also in the everyday Thai language as well.

How do you learn languages?

I gather everything I can find and continually try to corroborate what I find one place with what is available elsewhere. For me, languages are about believing to an extent. It is really hard to believe upon first hearing that Thais do not really have an accurate translation for please. The only way to understand this on a deeper level is to either see words like ขอ (kaw) and หน่อย (noi) used by a native speaker or to see it in multiple sources. So I try to never rely on one book, although of course I always tend to favor the ones that let me practice my accent the most, which is why Rosetta Stone was fun, as well as Benjawan Poomsan Becker’s books. Experimentation is great, taking enjoyment in my mistakes, things like that.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Weaknesses – names, writing academic texts (that are not translations but rather my own thoughts), Raachaasap, understanding everyone talking at one time when I am the only non-Thai (especially when it is gossip about someone I do not know, I cannot figure out whether the person is male or female…the worst is when someone whose name I have forgotten is explaining – wait, are they talking about themselves maybe?), pronoun use in general (I am so inconsistent sometimes with people I just meet, unless I know it is culturally correct to use Pom and there is no other one possible in that situation).

Sometimes I talk too fast, doesn’t matter what language. Okay, not sometimes, a lot of the time. That makes me mess up and have to fix myself, which is probably annoying for the listener sometimes if I do it too often. Just slow down, dude!

Strengths – I guess my accent and vocabulary.

What is the biggest misconception for students learning Thai?

I don’t really know, I don’t know too many people learning Thai. I’d say probably that one shouldn’t get too caught up in issues of transliteration, as no one really has agreed exactly how this should be done.

Can you make your way around any other languages? Were you learning another language at the same time as Thai?

Thai- C1/C2
German – C1/C2
Mandarin – B1/B2
Vietnamese – about A2
Russian – A2
Czech – A1
Cambodian – A1
Spanish – hard to say where I am here, took this is high school, but now I have Spanish friends who I ask for help from but never speak Spanish with, and I have been watching TV with Spanish subtitles most of my life haha.

What advice would you give to students of the Thai language?

Find out what kind of learner you are. Make long-term and short-term goals. Figure out what you want to learn. What kind of material do you want to be able to read or talk about? Start with the things that interest you most, do your best to be an independent learner.

Learn the tones slowly and steadily. It is much more rewarding than trying to learn to say as much as you can in one week. Practice saying pom puut paasaa tai dai nit noi REALLY slow first, seeing how the tones change into one another. It is one thing to understand each tone, but it is another to understand the interrelationship between the tones. How do I get to mid from rising or from falling? I made up lots of little games for myself for back to back tones like mai chai wa mai chawp waai nam ……there are 6 falling tones back to back here, even today I have fun saying this slow at first, then faster, then even faster until it sounds as native as possible.

Luke Bauer,
Web: YouTube: lbb2r: Farang Kii Nok Teaches Thai | The Breakdown

The Series: Interviewing Successful Thai Language Learners…

My personal thanks for this series goes to: Luke Bauer, Ruedi Seiler, David Fahey, Harlan Wolff, Philip Lattimore, Antonio Graceffo, Mark Kent, Dr. Larry Dinkins, Don Sena, Scott Earle, John Boegehold, Justin Travis Mair, Stephen Thomas, James (Jim) Higbie, Mark Hollow, Marc Spiegel, Daniel B Fraser, Rick Bradford, Adam Bradshaw, Fabian Blandford, Luke Cassady-Dorion, Nils Bastedo, Grace Robinson, Aaron Le Boutillier, Ryan Zander, Joe Cummings, Hamish Chalmers, Andrew Biggs, Ian Fereday, Doug, Gareth Marshall, Martin Clutterbuck, Stuart (Stu) Jay Raj, Herb Purnell, Celia Chessin-Yudin, Stickman, Thomas Lamosse, Vern Lovic, Colin Cotterill, Jonathan Thames, Hardie Karges, Peter Montalbano, Jonas Anderson and Christy Gibson, Paul Garrigan, Marcel Barang, Larry Daks, Chris Baker, Hugh Leong, Terry Fredrickson, Glenn Slayden, Rikker Dockum, David Smyth, Tom Parker, David Long, Aaron Handel, and Chris Pirazzi.

If you are a successful Thai language learner and would like to share your experiences, please contact me. I’d love to hear from you.

First, a bit of a ramble about Union schools…

Preamble: I haven’t written any reviews in quite awhile. Mostly because there are so few schools coming into the “teach Thai to adult foreigners” niche market. In addition, my somewhat skewed opinion about what I call “Union Clone” schools is too well known. Don’t get me wrong, the teaching methodology is solid and the classes are intensive, but nothing much has been done to freshen up their materials. It’s dry to the n-th degree. And for me at least, it teaches foreigners to speak a version of Thai that hasn’t been heard on the streets of Thailand perhaps ever. The materials have an archaic, too formal a version of syrupy sweet over the top Thai. I am of the mind that back in the day, the objective of the original Union material was to teach foreigners to speak Thai so that the would never be identified as near-native speakers of the language. That could just be my paranoia speaking, but I wouldn’t put it past the original developers of the material either.

Now, in defense of the Union material, it is successful and they’ve probably turned out more foreign speakers of coherent Thai than any other methodology out there. This is mostly due to the sheer number of Union type of schools in Bangkok rather than the material. Still, it does work IF a student is willing to buckle down and go the distance with the intensive class structure. It’s so fast paced that if you miss a single three hour lesson, you’ll fall behind the curve and are unlikely to catch up to speed. I’ve met more students who’ve washed out of a Union Clone school than I have students who’ve survived to the end.

Other than a few schools, most are using the original dated Union materials (albeit with their own schools name on the textbooks). This is why, when I went to Duke Language School’s website and saw the format; I surmised it was another Union Clone School in methodology and course structure.

They do have the same module based structure: three hours a day, five days a week, for four weeks. They do also teach via “karaoke Thai” for the first three levels of conversation too. But that’s where ANY and ALL similarity ends as far as a Union Clone school. Quite honestly, I didn’t even want to lump them in with the other Union Clone schools but so far I haven’t come up with a good comparative name other than Union Version 2.0.

And now, with all that off my chest and out of the way, here’s the review:

Thai Language School Review: Duke Thai Language School…

Website: Duke Language School
Address: 10/63, Trendy Building, 3rd floor Sukhumvit Soi 13, Wattana, Bangkok Thailand 10110
Email: info@dukelanguage.com
Tel: Land: 02-168-7274 Mobile: 082-444-1595

Location: It’s an easy walk from either the Nana or Asok BTS station to the Trendy building on Soi 13. Take the escalators up to the third floor and you’re there!

Basic Info: The school is in a brand spanking new building which has only been open about four months, so as you might expect, everything is gleaming! The classrooms are small and what I’d call cozy. All in all it’s a well thought out, well designed modern school. It even has a sitting area for breaks, etc.

The front staff is pleasant and well versed in the programs. Now, like most Union Clone schools, the front staff appears a little light on their English ability but this isn’t unique to schools in Bangkok by any means. I’ve never quite figured this conundrum out, seeing as they’re teaching Thai to non-native adult speakers and most Asians possess at least a basic command of English.

Materials: The materials are possibly some of the best “Union type” I’ve seen in my nine years in this country. They are contemporary, current, and totally re-written! Gone are the endless pages of boring text (like most Union clone schools have). n their place are labeled pictures and nice diagrams. Honestly, I can’t say enough about how fresh and meaningful the material is versus the old Union stuff.

The two co-founders of Duke Language School put a TON of time weeding out the useful teaching material from the dated stuff which was garbage. They re-wrote what was left, organised it in a more logical way, and that included thinning out the artificial sounding constructs. The end result gives the lessons a good flow and real-life feel to them.

Many schools get duped by the printer to run WAY too many text books but Duke did a limited first run. The plan is to weed out any mistakes (it happens), get suggestions, and then make corrections and further tweak the system before the second run. I’ve been to schools where, before they teach a single word, the teacher goes thru the textbooks page by page to tell students about the mistakes. That won’t be the case at Duke Language School.

Method: It is definitely a Union based methodology as they teach speaking before they teach reading and writing Thai. Now that’s not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination so don’t take it as a negative. I’ve met some pretty talented foreign speakers of Thai who learned via karaoke and some still can’t tell a chicken กอ ไก่ from an owl ฮอ นกฮูก (the first and last letters of the Thai alphabet).

Of all the possibly hundreds of Thai students I’ve spoken to, the FIRST thing they want to learn is speaking and understanding Thai. Then way down the list, and I mean WAY down the list, is learning to read and write. Personally, no matter how many people say, “being able to read Thai makes you speak better Thai”, I don’t buy it. Kids can’t read a character, yet they seem to be able to develop competent spoken language skills sans reading. To me speaking and reading are horses of a different color. I doubt that many people if ANY think about how a word is spelled in Thai before they say it out loud. If they do, they must be some pretty slow clunky speakers of Thai. I mean it just don’t happen in the real world. Now is reading Thai useful? Heck yeah it is! But is reading Thai necessary to learn to speak it? Nope, it is abso-tively posi-lutely NOT necessary to learn read before you start to speak coherent Thai.

At Duke Language school students are first taught how their karaoke Thai system works, what the symbols mean, and sounds are made. In looking at it, it’s almost 100% the same as Benjawan Becker’s phonemic transcription method, so transitioning from Duke’s text books to Benjawan’s is almost seamless. This is a huge plus because I’ve been to some schools that have their own “proprietary school specific karaoke” which often bears little resemblance to anyone else’s method so you can’t easily switch between available materials (and we all do).

Face it, there’s no one who has more books in print about learning Thai than Benjawan does, so if a school uses her karaoke there is a plethora of other materials a student can use to supplement their learning. Once the phonetic system at Duke Language School is learned the class starts on the basics with meeting greeting, names, questions, etc. They do the typical 50 minute classes with a 10-15 minute break in between.

Duke is also one of the first schools I’ve been to that uses audio visual and big screens to teach Thai. It’s incorporated into almost every level they teach. And they are constantly developing additional ways to use it in the school’s curriculum. I believe it will become the “gold standard” as far as teaching Thai to foreigners goes. Right now no one else (or should I say, no place else that I’ve ever been to) is doing it. Students watch a short clip or a presentation, then talk about and discuss it. It’s a no-brainer in today’s tech-savvy world, especially with all of the resources available in internet-land.

Duke offers monthly field trips which students, no matter their level of Thai, can participate in. To encourage the students to interact with each other and further their Thai ability, on the field trips they incorporate various activities. This also helps build friendship between students no matter what module or level they’re learning at school. FWIW: these aren’t just those b/s trips to a Soi side street vendor, J/J Market or Pratunam, but decent day trips, which in talking to the students, seem to be well received and attended.

Teachers: Sitting in a trial class I was impressed that the teacher went out of her way to speak clearly. She spoke slow enough so students could comprehend and understand her, but not too slow to make it feel like she was “spoon feeding” the students. Teachers at Duke Language School are competent in the teaching method, are engaging, and no matter how off-toned or poorly pronounced the students are, seriously try to get them to break out of their shell and speak. The teachers are sticklers on getting pronunciation, vowel length and intonation right. But that’s a plus, seeing as it’s the key to being understood in Thai. Sitting outside talking with the front desk staff, I could hear the laughter and animated conversations going on in the rooms. Too many times sitting in class, it’s no fun learning Thai (or any language), but these teachers appear to go out of their way and make it fun. It can and does make learning a lot easier.

Classes: They run four weeks of group classes or terms that are available in the morning, afternoon or evening. They also offer private lessons too.

ED Visa: As this is new school they are still waiting for their Ministry of Education approval, so at this time they don’t offer ED visa or visa assistance. However, once their MOE approval comes in, they will offer ED visa assistance for students who enrol in a specific number of modules.

Bang-4-The-Baht: If, as a student of the Thai language, you want to do intensive courses in Thai (versus milking the current education system by learning Thai four hours a week just to get a visa to stay here) this school is at the top of the pile! Hands down I’d recommend Duke Language School over ANY other school out there that I’ve been to so far (be sure to check the date of this post against the others that went before). No other schools can compete with Duke in terms of quality material, qualified teachers, and an overall good atmosphere to learn the Thai language. They have some of the most competitive pricing for group lessons. Make sure to check their website for promotions, etc.

After going to so many schools, saying the same old B/S spiel, “Hi, I just moved here to Thailand. I love the country, the people and the culture so much that I want to learn Thai”, I’ve become a pretty darned jaded foreigner as far as how Thai is taught. It takes a lot for a school to wow me nowadays, but I can honestly say, with no reservations at Duke Language School I was indeed wowed!

I hope you guys found this review of interest. As I said in the beginning, after a long break I’m a little rusty writing Thai language school reviews. If you’re wanting to learn Thai you should definitely put Duke on your list of schools to scope out. Be sure to sit a trial lesson while you are there.

Good luck, and as always I’m not affiliated with ANY Thai language school, I just want you guys to know what’s what out there in the learn Thai marketplace.

Tod Daniels | toddaniels at gmail dot com
Reviewing Thai Language Schools in Bangkok
(BTW: Tod is NOT affiliated with any Thai language school)

Is Thailand Suing Singapore for Stealing Songkran?…

I don’t know about you but I’m bored bored bored with the political protests in Thailand. Go home already! Just recently Kaewmala started reminiscing about the good ‘ole days when we would poke fun at the hilarious antics of Thailand’s Ministry of Culture instead.

Do you remember when MinCult decided that bare boobs at Songkran were no longer Thai? And then MinCult had to do a mad scramble to replace the lovely Songkran boobs gracing their own website? And wasn’t that fun?

Well, this week Singapore announced that their annual Songkran festival for 2014 will better than ever with the Largest Water Festival Celebration Party in Singapore! Then yesterday TAT (Thai Tourism Authority) said that it welcomed Songkran in Singapore. But today we woke up to a Thai official threatening to sue Singapore over Songkran.

I don’t know what to think about these mixed messages except for GAME ON!

Thailand threatens to sue Singapore for ‘stealing’ Songkran: A senior Culture Ministry official has threatened to sue organisers of a Songkran festival in Singapore next month, saying it will undermine the value of the rival Thai New Year celebration.

Culture Surveillance Bureau director Yupa Taweewattanakijbaworn said Songkran is not just about splashing water for fun, but is aimed at strengthening relationships between family members and communities.

Singapore is using the festival to promote tourism, without acknowledging the value of the traditions behind Songkran, she said. ”This is wrong because the value of the traditional celebration is being distorted,” she said.

Seems she didn’t do her homework, or her Google finger is broken, or both.

Wikipedia: Songkran is a term derived from the Sanskrit saṅkrānti (or, more specifically, meṣa saṅkrānti). It may refer to the traditional New Year celebrated in Thailand and several Southeast Asian countries when the sun transits the constellation of Aries, the first astrological sign in the Zodiac, as reckoned by sidereal astrology.

Songkran can also refer to the traditional New Year celebrated by the Dai people of Yunnan, China, and by the Tai Dam people of Northern Vietnam.

Wikipedia: The Water Festival is the New Year’s celebrations that take place in Southeast Asian countries such as Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand as well as Yunnan, China. It is called the ‘Water Festival’ by Westerners because people splash / pour water at one another as part of the cleansing ritual to welcome the new year.

Traditionally people gently sprinkled water on one another as a sign of respect, but as the new year falls during the hottest month in South East Asia, many people end up dousing strangers and passersby in vehicles in boisterous celebration.

The act of pouring water is also a show of blessings and good wishes. It is believed that on this Water Festival, everything old must be thrown away, or it will bring the owner bad luck.

Now, let’s put aside the fact that Songkran isn’t a Thai only holiday for a minute. The argument is, ”This is wrong because the value of the traditional celebration is being distorted”. But what about all the holidays Thailand has grabbed from other countries? Chinese New Year, New Years, Xmas, Valentine’s day … and more.

After her ill-informed rant I’m seriously thinking about flying down for the Largest Water Festival Celebration Party in Singapore. Are you with me?

Pssssst. Unlike in Thailand, Singapore will at least have beer.

A “G” Rated Look at Thai Sex Words…

Thai, like any other robust language, has lots and lots of words for “sex” and all the stuff associated with it. And in Thailand, for various reasons, discussions of this topic are quite frequently encountered.

But just like with any language, the words used in discussing this topic can run the gamut from the scientific to the vulgar. The vulgar words can be picked up just about anywhere, so I thought that a short lesson on how to discuss this most important of topics at a higher, more well-mannered level might be beneficial.

Sex…

เพศ /pâyt/ – sex

This is a very useful word in that it can refer to the gender of a person or animal. เพศชาย /pâyt-​chaai/ is a “male” (ชาย); and เพศหญิง /pâyt-​yǐng/ is a “female” (หญิง). But เพศ /pâyt/ by itself can also just simply mean “sex”. It gets really interesting especially when it is used along with other words though.

อวัยวะเพศชาย /à~​wai-​yá~​wá-​pâyt-​chaai/ – male sex organ
อวัยวะเพศหญิง /à~​wai-​yá~​wá-​pâyt-​ yǐng/ – female sex organ

อวัยวะ /à~​wai-​yá~​wá/ means “organ” (of the body). Add that along to the word for “male” and “female” and you can safely, and if you want scientifically, talk about the various sex organs of the body. I have also heard these terms used in talking about the reproductive organs of a flower. To each his own, I guess.

The Thai word สัมพันธ์ /sǎm-​pan/ means “connected to” as in “relationship”. So a nice formal and completely polite word is มีเพศสัมพันธ์ /​mee-​pâyt-​sǎm-​pan/ or “to have a sexual relationship” or to be more straight forward, “to have sexual intercourse” (another meaning of the word “intercourse” is communications between individuals, interestingly similar to สัมพันธ์ /sǎm-​pan/). But a simpler way to say the same thing is just มีเพศ – “to have sex”. Since this is a very important activity there are a multitude of words for it. Another polite word is ร่วมเพศ /rûam-​pâyt/. ร่วม /rûam/ means to “share” or to “join together”.

People of the night…

We have an interesting saying in English “the oldest profession” meaning of course, “prostitution”. Thai is no slouch when it comes to euphemisms either. The term การค้าประเวณี /gaan-​káa-​bprà~​way-​nee/ is made up of the words การค้า /gaan-​káa/ – “business”; and ประเวณี /​bprà~​way-​nee/ a word that means “customary” or “traditional”. You probably won’t hear this word about a traditional way of earning a living except maybe at a university lecture. But there are lots of others to describe this particular career path.

The most straight-forward and least euphemistic of these is โสเภณี /sǒh-​pay-​nee/. But this topic is ripe for euphemisms, as in ผู้หญิงหากิน /pôo-​yǐng-​hǎa-​kin/ “a girl looking to eat”; or ผู้หญิงหาเงิน /pôo-​yǐng-​hǎa-​ngern/ “ a girl looking for money”. Of course just to be balanced here, you can substitute ผู้ชาย /pôo-​chaai/ – “boy” instead. Then of course there is the easily understood loan word ผู้หญิงบาร์ /pûu-​yǐng baa/ – “a bar girl”.

Gay and Homosexual…

True homophobia like you find in the west is almost never encountered in Thai society, except maybe from the visiting foreign community, so a lot of the following words will not have the negative connotation that they would in other places.

A caveat: One word that you hear Farangs use often in Thailand is “Lady Boy”. It’s basically self-explanatory although a bit condescending. But it isn’t really a Thai word, and although it might be in the process, it still hasn’t been borrowed into the language. I personally have never heard a Thai use this word unless they are talking with a foreigner. My impression is that the word “lady boy” is an English word used almost exclusively by foreigners to describe a common cultural aspect of life in Thailand.

But Thai has a very rich vocabulary for this topic.

A real loan word is เกย์ /gay/. Straight forward, meaning the same in Thai as in English. A Thai word commonly understood by most foreigners living here is กะเทย /gà~​toie/ – meaning “a gay man”.

But this aspect of Thai culture can sometime be confusing. For example: The other day I was passing a store selling cosmetics. Outside there were two salespeople helping women shoppers by explaining how to use each of the products. One of the sales people was quite beautiful, shapely, with long hair and a tight fitting dress. But when she spoke it was obvious that she had been born a physical male. The other sales person was a man dressed in a nice suit and colorful tie and was acting much more effeminate than his partner.

Because vocabulary arises to describe things in a culture that need describing, there are two different words for these two very different people.

The word often used for the man in the suit and styled hair, speaking with a soft voice when explaining the cosmetics is กะเทย /gà~​toie/, or just เกย์ /gay/.

The other person, visually a stunning woman, is often referred to as ผู้หญิงประเภทสอง /pôo-​yǐng bprà~​pâyt sǒng/ (not a “lady boy” as a foreigner would say). This word explains a lot about the Thai world view. The word ผู้หญิง of course means “woman”, ประเภท means “kind’ or “category”, and สอง means “two” or “second”. Translated this word means “a woman of the second category”. The guy in the suit was a man; his partner, although physically a male, was a woman (albeit of the 2nd kind).

No wonder Thailand can hold and be proud of the yearly Miss Tiffany Universe Pageant.

Here are a few more words (I told you Thai had a rich vocabulary):

คนรักร่วมเพศ /kon-​rák-​rûam-​pâyt/; คน – “a person”; รัก – “love”; ร่วม – “to mix”, “to join together”; เพศ – “sex”. This word, although being ambiguous, is usually used for homosexuals.

ทอม /tom/ – “lesbian” – This is a loan word, probably originating from “tomboy”.
กะเทยแปลงเพศ /gà~​toie-​bplaeng-​pâyt/ – “transsexual” (having had sex change surgery); the word แปลง /bplaeng/ – means “adapt”, “modify”, “convert”.

And just to show that I am an equal opportunity blogger…

Heterosexual…

สนใจเพศตรงข้าม /sǒn-​jai-​pâyt-​dtrong-​kâam/ – heterosexual. สนใจ /sǒn-​jai/ – to be interested in; เพศ /pâyt/ – sex; ตรงข้าม /dtrong-​kâam/ – opposite

Procreation…

And although sex doesn’t always lead up to this, it is often a “side effect”. The simplest word for “pregnant” is ท้อง /tóng/ – literally “stomach”. Also used is มีท้อง /mee-​tóng/ – “to have a stomach”, and then the nice really formal word which you might read but almost never hear มีครรภ์ /mee-​kan/ where ครรภ์ means “womb”.

And as for the words “to give birth” we have ออกลูก /òk-​lôok/ – loosely translated “to put the kid out”, and the formal ให้กำเนิด /hâi-​gam-​nèrt/ – “to cause to be born”. But the one that seems the best to use in most situations is คลอด(ลูก) klôt (lôok).

And for others:
งดเว้น /ngót-​wén/ or ละเว้น /lá-​wén/ – “to abstain from …”

Hugh Leong
Retire 2 Thailand
Retire 2 Thailand: Blog
eBooks in Thailand

Amazing Thailand: ThailandOnly SongkranThailand?…

I don’t know what to think about the Songkran marketing push from TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand): Amazing Thailand: #ThailandOnly #SongkranThailand.

Google+ Community
Official Community from Tourism Authority of Thailand ร่วมแชร์ภาพสงกรานต์ทั่วไทย ด้วย #SongkranThailand #ThailandOnly Official Community from Tourism Authority of Thailand Share Songkran Festival of Thailand to the world with #SongkranThailand #ThailandOnly

After Thailand’s embarrassing pissyfit over Singapore’s Songkran celebration (see Is Thailand Suing Singapore for Stealing Songkran?), turns out Singapore’s Songkran won’t even have water (a crucial ingredient).

So why underline Thailand’s paranoia with the in-your-face marketing slogan, #ThailandOnly #SongkranThailand?

Just like when my elder brother fell for a snipe hunting gag at an important dinner (twice in one night), I’m painfully embarrassed for Thailand.

Amazing Thailand indeed.

UPDATE: The #ThailandOnly hashtag is taking on a life of its own (and not all is good).

Finding the Tone of a Thai Syllable…

Thai children can apply the tone rules long before they can explain them. This is because they learn words in groups with similar characteristics. For instance, the group of words ending in “p” (บ, ป, พ, ภ) and starting with a low class consonant. When they meet a new word, they automatically know the correct group and therefor will know the tones to use.

Knowing Thai tone rules is important if you intend to speak Thai clearly. Sometimes reading through the rules helps, but for others charts make more sense. I’ve included both in this post.

In Thai there are three kinds of consonants:

1. low class: ค,ฅ,ฆ,ง,ช,ซ,ฌ,ญ,ฑ,ฒ,ณ,ท,ธ,น,พ,ฟ,ภ,ม,ย,ร,ล,ว,ฬ,ฮ
2. mid class: ก,จ,ฎ,ฏ,ด,ต,บ,ป,อ
3. high class: ข,ฃ,ฉ,ฐ,ถ,ผ,ฝ,ศ,ษ,ส,ห

You best remember the mid and the high class consonants – the low class are all the rest.

In Thai there are two kinds of vowels:

1. short vowels: -ั, -ิ, -ุ, -ึ and ฤ. And all vowels with ะ or -็ in them.
2. long vowels: all the rest

In Thai there are two kinds of syllables:

1. dead syllable: ends a short vowel or on a p t or k sound.
2. live syllable: all the rest

In Thai there are four tones marks:

1. -่ : normally indicates a low tone
2. -้ : normally indicated a falling tone
3. -๊ : normally indicates a high tone
4. -๋ : normally indicates a rising tone

The Thai tone rules…

If the syllable has a tone mark:

• follow the tone mark
• exception: the first consonant is low class: take the next tone

If the syllable doesn’t have a tone mark:

• and the syllable is a life syllable: mid tone
• exception: the first consonant is high class: rising tone

• and the syllable is dead: low tone
• exception: the first consonant is low class
• and the syllable has a short vowel: high tone
• and the syllable has a long vowel: falling tone

Chart of the Thai tone rules…

Download pdf: Finding the Tone of a Thai Syllable
Download jpg: Thai Tone Chart

Kris Willems