Hugh Leong 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. … Read more
A friend asked me the difference between the two words Thais use to mean “international”. The most familiar Thai word for “international” is นานาชาติ /naa-naa-châat/. All (every): นานา /naa-naa/Nation: ชาติ /châat/ The reason that the word นานาชาติ /naa-naa-châat/ is most familiar to Expats is probably because of the term โรงเรียนนานาชาติ /rohng-rian naa-naa-châat/: international school (โรงเรียน … Read more
How I Taught Myself to Read Thai As many of you know I began reading Thai long after I was speaking it. Even though I had a good vocabulary I had never seen these words written before. After learning the alphabet, I worked on a way that helped me to deconstruct Thai sentences, analyze the … Read more
Written By: Hugh Leong 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 … Read more
Written By: Hugh Leong I have always been active in sports. I’ve played college basketball, was on a championship softball team, ran marathons, climbed mountains and got a black belt in karate. And I have never done anything so difficult as to play golf. The game of golf is difficult enough to play in one … Read more
Written By: Hugh Leong 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 … Read more
Written By: Hugh Leong 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 … Read more
Written By: Hugh Leong 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 of the … Read more
Written By: Hugh Leong One thing I like to do as a vocabulary building exercise is when I come across a word that I find is often used paired up with other words (making compounds) I like to see how many different combinations I can come up with. Of course it would help a lot … Read more
Written By: Hugh Leong What better way to break the ice and start a conversation than to talk about the weather? I know it is a bit cliché-ish but, hey, it works. And in Thailand, the sentence, “The rainy season sure is late this year” is a much better conversation starter than “What’s your sign?” … Read more