Hugh Leong Talking about the weather is the easiest way into a Thai conversation, and knowing the words for flood, storm and evacuate is the most useful Thai you will learn all rainy season. Here is the vocabulary for both.
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
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 talking with the … Read more
Learn real Thai golf vocabulary: clubs, scoring, caddie terms, plus phrases to book a tee time and talk to your caddie on a Thai course.
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 sound). And someone who … Read more
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 if you have a … Read more