Women Learning Thai… and some men too ;-)

The Do-Be-Do-Be-Do system of learning Thai tones… (Apologies to Frank Sinatra) If language were like a song, then the vocabulary and grammar of the language would be the words. The vowels, consonants, syllable stress and sentence intonation in English, and the tones in Thai would be the music. You really have to sing both the [...]

A Sticky Problem… I was reading one of those Thai expat blogs recently when I came across someone discussing the Thai word for “stingy” (seems like his girlfriend uses this word with him often). To add a little humor to his blog he did a direct translation of the Thai word for “stingy”, ขี้เหนียว /kêe-nǐeow/. [...]

The Thai phrases you use most often… Moving to a county with a new foreign language to tackle, I depend on two sure-fire phrases. The first phrase I learn is ‘I don’t understand’. And the second phrase is ‘this does not work’. I also practice my blank stare. Why these three? Ok, I know from [...]

Are you a shy Thai learner?… Back when I was much younger, I’d shrink from meeting new people, and sometimes people I knew. One time, I even burst into tears when a male teacher focused on me too intently in class. But years later, I am no longer what I would consider painfully shy. Now [...]

I’m Not Fine, Thank You… From my years of teaching English I have learned that there is a two-line dialog that is ingrained in every student of English, probably in the world. It goes like this: Hello, how are you? Fine thank you, and you? As native speakers of English, we know that there are [...]

Grokking the writing system by doing things youʼre not supposed to… Iʼve seen a lot of posts on this site about how learning the writing system is essential if you want to pronounce Thai correctly (it is) and how itʼs really not that hard (itʼs not), but what seems to be missing is a good [...]

Rosetta Stone* Methodology… *After the stone and not the expensive software In her interviews of Thai speakers, Catherine likes to ask if we have ever had an “Ah ha” moment in our Thai studies. An “Ah ha” moment is sort of a Zen “satori” experience where we become enlightened, although sometimes only for a short [...]

A Rose (กุหลาบ /gù-làap/) by any other name… I find that place names in Thai are quite difficult to remember. Well, I should say that I find names of any kind difficult to remember and it isn’t just because of the language or my advancing age. You can tell me your name and 2 minutes [...]

Thai Tone Twisters… A lot of Thai learners are familiar with a number of tongue twisters that illustrate how different tones and consonants can make for different meanings of Thai words. One of the most familiar is ใครขายไข่ไก่ /krai kǎai kài gài/ which means, “Who sells the chicken eggs?” Just the other day I was [...]

Old Snake Heads and Butterflies of the Night… The Thai language is as rich in metaphor as any language is. The kinds of metaphors that you will come into contact with will all depend on what level of society you hang out with. It is a good idea to keep the drinking buddies’ metaphors separate [...]

Telling Tails – Thai Ending Particles… It is important to learn how to use Thai ending particles. The most common and well known are ครับ /kráp/ (for males) and คะ /ká/ (for females). They are used as a “politeness tag” at the end of sentences. Ending particles are also known as หางเสียง /hăang sĭang/ (tail [...]

The signs of the Red Shirts… Bangkok is dripping in red: Red shirts, red hats, red clappers, red headbands and more. All are slathered with slogans. Some are for an English audience – hello BBC! – but most are in Thai. So… do you know what the Red Shirts are saying? In Thai? If you [...]

Tip Number 1: Take your time, enjoy your studies… “Why does it have to be sooooooo hard?” “Why does it have to take sooooooo long?” Maybe we need a little attitude adjustment…? Maybe we need to listen more carefully…? Most of us do have nearly excellent hearing skills for normal conversational volume… BUT, most of [...]

Talking Thai on the telephone… It probably took me ten years before I could understand anything anyone said on the telephone here in Thailand. It’s not the language. My wife had the same problem in English when she got to America. It is just really hard dealing with a disembodied voice and not seeing the [...]